This message was originally submitted by Michael Medley
>([log in to unmask] to ATEG)
>
>Wendell wrote:
>
>> Two points. First, what "macho" has come to mean in English is entirely
>> different from what "macho" means in Spanish (especially mexican
>> spanish)--and this suggestion that the word be translated in accordance
with
>> an English-language misinterpretation of it  (i.e., masculine" is closer in
>> meaning to "macho" than "male" is) is a terrific example of the cultural
and
>> linguistic hegemony practiced by English-only speakers.
>
>     You made a big leap here, Wendell.  Why do you suppose that I am
>a monolingual English-speaker?  And even if I were, it seems to me
>that Alan was asking the opinions of native English-speakers to get
>an idea of how we would interpret the particular wording that he
>suggested.  What the meaning is of "macho" in Mexican Spanish has
>little if any bearning on what it means to English speakers in the
>United States (especially monolingual ones, which is all too
>unfortunately the norm).   If Alan receives a variety of answers, he
>might get a feel for what the tendencies in interpretation are.  He
>might avoid a one-word translation and use a hypenated modifier of
>some kind.    I think he is going about this task in the right way,
>getting some sense of what people's linguistic senses are in real
>situations of interpretations or production--not
>relying on certain people's brash pontifications of what should
>be the case.
>
>
>
>
>**********************************************************************
>R. Michael Medley       VPH 211                Ph: (712) 737-7047
>Assistant Professor     Northwestern College
>Department of English   Orange City, IA  51041
>**********************************************************************
>
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