Translation: what it is and how it works.

Find out what underlies translation

In the early 20th century, Ferdinand de Saussure, the famous Swiss philologist and thinker, studied the linguistic sign. In his posthumous work Cours de linguistique général (1916), he claimed that every sign consists of two elements: the signifier and the signified. The signifier is a mental representation of the sequence of phonemes (or sound pattern) that constitutes the sign. On the other hand, the signified (more popularly referred to as meaning) is the mental representation of a concept based on the interpretation of reality.

The linguistic sign, as proposed by Saussure, is composed by mentally associating both facets:

• A sequence of phonemes, also known as an accoustic image. 🔊

• A concept. 💡

Every group of people understands, conceives and organises their immediate environment through their language, based on what their culture deems most relevant. Then each language constructs each side of the sign in a unique manner. For instance: regarding the signifier, every language randomly divides the vowel continuum into several segments by creating distinct vowels. Consequently, Italian, Valencian and the Galician language have seven vowels; however, Greek, Castilian Spanish, Basque and, interestingly enough, Japanese have five. English and Portuguese, on the other hand, feature a full set of twelve vowels, while Arabic has only three.

Standing up for the tourist industry.

Tourism, as a mass phenomenon, emerged throughout the 20th century. Until that time, there were emigrants, discoverers, pilgrims, and even medieval students who traveled from one university to another throughout the kingdoms of Christendom without being awarded an Erasmus scholarship. However, the modern concept of a tourist, as we understand it today, did not emerge until centuries later.

There are two main types of travelers: the tourist, who stays overnight at the destination, and the tripper or hiker, who does not spend the night at the destination. Both invest part of their economic resources in holiday experiences. They are the result of labour movements and the improvement of working conditions throughout the 20th century: those who have a good job, a stable source of income, and, especially, paid vacations and a decent pension can spend their leisure time traveling around the world.