November 27, 2019 In Steven Pinker's "The stuff of thought" there is a part with a title reminiscent of Eric Berne: Games People Play. It contains an important clue to such a feature of human speech as ambivalence: "When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role-playing, side-step, shilly-shally, and engage in other forms of vagueness and innuendo. We all do this, and we expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for plain speaking, for people to get to the point and say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal" [Pinker, 2007: 374].

November 23, 2019 Recent research by political scientists at Vanderbilt University and other institutions has found both Republicans and Democrats distressingly willing to dehumanize members of the opposite party. “Partisans are willing to explicitly state that members of the opposing party are like animals, that they lack essential human traits,” the researchers found. The president encourages and exploits such fears. This is a dangerous line to cross. As the researchers write, “Dehumanization may loosen the moral restraints that would normally prevent us from harming another human being.” Outright political violence remains considerably rarer than in other periods of partisan divide, including the late 1960s. But overheated rhetoric has helped radicalize some individuals. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/how-america-ends/600757/

партийные активисты и сторонники партий готовы прямо заявить??? https://inosmi.ru/politic/20191123/246296868.html

A ridiculous piece of translation involves verbosity and tautology: партийные активисты = сторонники партий

November 21, 2019 Nuland then set about determining who would be Ukraine’s next prime minister, namely Arseniy Yatsenyuk. “Yats is our guy,” she declared to U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. When Pyatt warned that many EU countries were uncomfortable with a Ukrainian coup, she shot back, “Fuck the EU.” She then got her man Yats into the prime minister position, demonstrating the influence that enables U.S. meddling in foreign countries.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/impeaching-trump-and-demonizing-russia-birds-of-a-feather/
Затем Нуланд начала выбирать, кто станет следующим премьер-министром Украины, остановившись в конечном счете на Арсении Яценюке. «Яценюк — наш человек», — сказала она послу США на Украине Джеффри Пьятту (Geoffrey Pyatt). Когда Пьятт заговорил о том, что многим странам Евросоюза не нравится государственный переворот на Украине, она резко ответила: «К черту Евросоюз!» Потом она добилась того, что Яценюк занял должность премьер-министра, продемонстрировав масштабы влияния, которое позволяет США вмешиваться в дела иностранных государств.
https://inosmi.ru/politic/20191119/246265816.html
Nuland was far more expressive than the translation shows!

November 17, 2019 Mr Trump has boasted that his conduct while in office - blunt language and shoot-from-the-hip tweeting - is "modern-day presidential". If so, welcome to a modern-day presidential impeachment hearing. Just over an hour into Marie Yovanovitch's testimony, Mr Trump launched the kind of Twitter fusillade that has become a regular part of his political repertoire. He questioned the ambassador's competence, noted that the Ukrainian president spoke unfavourably about her and pointed out that he has the right to fire diplomats at will.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50428537

November 13, 2019 It's not often that we hear the voice of reason:

American schoolchildren were fed a one-sided view of World War II, capped by the conclusion that our superlative industry and unsurpassed genius were the deciding factors in defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. What would the Cold War have been like if, during history class, American kids learned that the world forever owed a debt of gratitude to Soviet forces and Soviet citizens? Their remarkable resilience saved democracy as much as did George Patton and Iwo Jima.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/9-reasons-to-thank-the-ussr-how-we-got-the-cold-war-wrong?ref=scroll

November 11, 2019 I have never thought those defenders of French in Quebec could be so absofuckinglutely stupid! Canada's Quebec province has denied immigrant status to a French citizen because she was unable to demonstrate adequate French-language proficiency. Quebec rejected Emilie Dubois' application apparently because part of her university thesis was in English.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50241254

November 7, 2019 Translators can never dump interpretation though some take notice of changes in the market of interpretations: “Thirty years ago, it was not uncommon for critics and directors to confidently assert that their job was to provide an interpretation that would accurately reflect the playwright’s intention. Today, many critics and directors not only assume that there is no sense in talking about the author’s intention, but also believe there should be no limitation at all on interpretation.” [Geoffrey Borny. Interpreting Chekhov 2006: 1]

November 3, 2019 Preferring unsustainable to unacceptable is an example of hedging – the rhetorical strategy so admired by politicians:

Boris Johnson has ruled out granting permission for a second vote on Scottish independence while he is prime minister.

Mr Johnson said his government would not give the go-ahead for another legally-binding referendum.

The Tory leader claimed the issue had been settled in a "once-in-a-generation" vote in 2014.

Nicola Sturgeon described the position of blocking another independence referendum as "unsustainable".

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-50280817

November 1, 2019 "Communication in language is based, as in the Sapir - Whorf model, on the idea that everyone agrees to use the same words to mean the same thing" [David Machin and Andrea Mayr. Critical Discourse Analysis]. The authors of the book manage to give a breath-taking journey into this puzzle that astonishes and flabbergusts the linguists for centuries.