David Vaughn Mar 12, 2014:

@Patrick "Suggested" was the intentionally soft word I used to reflect the idea that you were not strongly asserting something. Excuse me if that was inadequate in conveying my thoughts. Otherwise, please feel free to post in French.

patrickfor Mar 12, 2014:

David may I gently remind you of my original statement?
"J'oserai "mise en perspective" qui se traduit aussi bien en anglais non ?"
Anybody with a decent grap of the french language would notice this is asking more questions than giving answers...
Besides I noticed very few english speakers are writing discussions entries in french... that would sometimes help the discussion I think ...
For example: "se traduit aussi bien en anglais non ?" is a question, and the "non" is inviting for others to answer it (= I am not sure what do you think).
"se traduit bien" means translates well/easily but I am not saying this "easy" translation fits the context...
I have not made any suggestion myself.
I am only trying to help by giving some explanations on the french text to help the translation, and I am not sure my french (forgive it :-) is always perfectly understood...

David Vaughn Mar 12, 2014:

@Patrick You suggested that mise en perspective "se traduit aussi bien en anglais". I commented that it doesn't work in English. Did I misunderstand your statement?
I agree that the French term mise en perspective may not be far from part of the author's intention. I also agree that "remise" and "mise" are different words.
But I have observed that, possibly based on the model of "mise en scène", French artistic texts have for decades used the "mise en" formula, often to express suitably vague ideas. English has no equivalence for this model. Similarly, French has an often-used meaning for "situation" which has no normal cognate in English.
In my eyes, the translation problem with these sorts of - sometimes invented - terminology is that they are intentionally vague and mysterious (both very useful writing tools), and they depend more on creating an image of depth for the reader than in conceptual clarity.
The job of the translator MAY be one more of creating this same idea of depth, rather than dealing with "meaning". The medium is the message.

patrickfor Mar 12, 2014:

thanks asker that slightly changes my point! .... still "remise" en situation is not "mise en situation".
Please keep in mind my remarks here are just comments as I don't know what a proper english should be... I might have an idea or two on what it shouldn't be, but nothing more really...

mill2 (asker) Mar 12, 2014:

@patrickfor Just to clarify: the term is not in quotation marks in the original, I starred it to highlight it as the term I'm seeking help for.

patrickfor Mar 12, 2014:

Agree with what you wrote... however please note it is not "une mise en situation" (something you rightly defined in your previous post) but
- a "REmise en situation"
- BETWEEN quotes IN FRENCH

This is clearly telling it is not the usual meaning that is expected and it is even not using the same words (mise/remise)....
This is why I think -in french- mettre en perspective fits the bill... IMHO

David Vaughn Mar 12, 2014:

"mise en perspective" No, the phrase means nothing to an average educated English speaker, and would likely imply "perspective" in the technical drawing sense.

But even more, "mise en perspective" and "mise en situation" would seldom seem to have the same meaning in French, ie, one cannot replace the other in most sentences without additional explanation.

patrickfor Mar 12, 2014:

J'oserai "mise en perspective" qui se traduit aussi bien en anglais non ?
l'installation permet une mise en perspective du travail et de son cadre...

David Vaughn Mar 11, 2014:

"situation" Mettre en situation is used in French education to refer to learning by doing or learning by experience, and the terminology is especially prevalent in arts education, for obvious reasons. Other uses of "remettre en situation" refer to the same idea of experience, as in the reconstruction of a crime.