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French to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - History
French term or phrase:second XXe siècle
I'm translating a sociological study of business plans. The title of the article is 'Business plans (États-Unis, second XXe siècle)'. The following explanation of the time span of the article implies that, in this article, 'second XXe siècle' = approx. 1945-1975.
This convention for discussing periods of time is used again later: 'dans le premier XIXe siècle'.
My question is: I don't think English uses the same convention, does it, to refer to a section of a time period (eg, 'le premier XIXe siècle' might refer to 1805-1840)? I'm thinking of translating these terms in the following way - any suggestions?:
second XXe siècle = from the Second Half of the 20th Century premier XIXe siècle = early 19th century
Thanks everyone. I agree that it's important to specify the period in question in the English. But post-war could work well. I do not believe the text is simply missing the word 'moitié' owing to the repeated use and with varying terms - second/premier - and uses elsewhere.
When you Google this expression in French it seems to mean different things, depending on the author. Thus there are examples of it meaning, 1939 -2000 (obviously including WW2 so not exactly 2nd half or 2nd part), or just the period from the 1960s or various other possibilities. I think you are best just stating the time frame in English and maybe just saying the 20th century period from....to... . Anything else is not accurate.
Something similar is the English-speaking historians' concept of short and long centuries, e.g. the short 20th century (1914-1991) or the long 19th century (1789-1914). But IMO "second 20th century"/"first 19th century" isn't current usage in English. 1945-1975 or thereabouts is widely referred to as "the post-World War II decades", and longer post-war periods would tend towards Francois' "second half of the 20th century".
Hello It's almost like a pre and post era and the event is tacitly known (like the Second World War) or quickly given in the text that follows. You can even get hits for other periods written this way "La France du second XVIIe siècle (1661-1715) " which is quickly explained as referring to "La mutation de l'Etat, douloureusement réalisée entre 1630 et 1653, a permis à la génération de Colbert de mettre en place une " monarchie administrative ".
have glanced at just one of those articles, but the text is about Memory, and the "Second Twentieth Century" in question actually relates to a part of the 21st century that appears to be replicating the previous century (Déja-vu??). A bit like, e.g., a second Renaissance or a second coming. So I don't feel that that particular text will be so helpful after all...
Thank you @Carol Gullidge. I actually missed out the French text that sets out the time span of the article (for context): " L’objet n’apparaît qu’au début des années 1970, et le chapitre en décrit l’émergence progressive dans les trois décennies qui précèdent cela, puis les grandes évolutions jusqu’à aujourd’hui. "
are "seconde moitié" or "seconde partie", which would be self explanatory. But your source text doesn't make sense in that the periods in question are all of unequal lengths (45 yrs, 30 yrs and 25 yrs), probably thereby ruling out any sort of "convention"
But thank you for explaining your question so clearly (makes it sooo much easier for the rest of us!) and I'd say that your proposed solutions are probably about as good as you could get in the circumstances
They're not used consistently - I found one instance of "second" defined as 1939 to 1995 - but generally they mean first and second half. If that's not the case in your article, you should say 1945-1975 and put a translator's note explaining why.
I've worked on historical, museum and sociology texts in English and never heard such a convention, and it really doesn't make any kind of sense grammatically either. So I'd approach it like you are (without the capitals for "Second Half": "from the second half of the 20th century"... and so on.
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Answers
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): -4
second mid-century
Explanation: English people use this expression. For instance a second mid-century dresser.
Isabel Moreira Portugal Local time: 23:49 Native speaker of: Portuguese