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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

bloquer d’autres solutions éventuelles

English translation:

to leave the path clear for other solutions / so as not to get in the way of other solutions

Added to glossary by Lara Barnett
Dec 2, 2020 20:25
3 yrs ago
43 viewers *
French term

bloquer d’autres solutions éventuelles

Non-PRO French to English Bus/Financial General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters EEIG Internal Regulations
I am unsure on the best way to word this, or would a literal translation work?

Context:

Chaque offre ou proposition doit connaître une réponse rapide – positive ou négative, mais motivée, pour ne pas bloquer d’autres solutions éventuelles
Proposed translations (English)
4 +4 to leave the path clear for other solutions / so as not to get in the way of other solutions
4 +5 block other possible solutions
3 +1 impede (prevent) any other solutions
4 -3 To avoid the pre-emption of any other pathway to a viable solution
Change log

Dec 2, 2020 23:04: Rachel Fell changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Jennifer White, Rob Grayson, Rachel Fell

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Discussion

Tony M Dec 4, 2020:
@ Lisa Leaving aside your other points, the opening of your suggestion is simply not right; to start with, 'know of...' is absolutely out of style and register in this document, and with its general meaning of 'have awareness of', doesn't fit either in your suggested wording, nor still less as the meaning intended in the source text.
Lisa Rosengard Dec 4, 2020:
An action which is preempted becomes either pointless or impossible.
"Each offer or proposition must know of a rapid response in order to allow for eventual solutions without blocks or impediments." (pre-emptions?). In law a pre-emption is connected with a purchase. An organization may decide to intervene during the process of a purchase.
Germaine Dec 3, 2020:
Lara, Je ne comprends pas pourquoi il faudrait davantage de contexte, ni pourquoi répondre rapidement empêcherait de motiver cette réponse.
Décision motivée = reasoned decision.
Réponse rapide mais motivée = an answer must be given as soon as possible, stating the reasons therefore.
Tony M Dec 3, 2020:
@ Asker Sorry, but I don't think that's terribly appropriate either: again, it implies almost some kind of 'qualitative' judgement that is out of place within the tone of this text.
Lara Barnett (asker) Dec 3, 2020:
@ Tony I have put "well-reasoned" anyway.
Tony M Dec 3, 2020:
@ Asker You're right, my bad, it is of course the 'réponse' that must be 'motivée'!
I hesitate to use 'justified', since in EN that is ambiguous: it can mean 'justification is provided' (correct here), but it can also imply 'warranted, fair' which would be quite wrong here.
I think you need to use something that conveys the idea 'and a reason for it must be given'.
Lara Barnett (asker) Dec 3, 2020:
@ Tony I was under the impression that "motivee" was qualifying "response". Would "justified" or "well-reasoned" be better?
Tony M Dec 3, 2020:
@ Asker Although we don't have enough context to be very sure of anything, I am far from convinced that 'substantiated' is lexically appropriate in this context: one usually substantiates a claim, allegation, etc., but it's not normally a term used in idiomatic EN by a native-speaker to refer to an offer, proposal, etc.
Lara Barnett (asker) Dec 3, 2020:
Motive I was going to use substantiated.
Tony M Dec 3, 2020:
@ Mpoma I think the idea is that the answers to the offers/proposals must be given fairly quickly, but need to be explained, in order not to leave it too late for other ideas to be implemented instead if necessary; and 'motivé' doesn't necessarily mean 'studied at length in depth' — simply just 'not vaguely, of the top of my head, on a whim'.
Mpoma Dec 3, 2020:
More context? I'm amazed no-one else has asked for more context. I'm struggling to understand how this situation works: it's actually ambiguous from the ST we see whether the fact of the answer not being quick or the fact of it not being motivée is the thing which might "block" these "other solutions".

The fact of answers having to be being motivée is ostensibly in contradiction with the idea of them having to be quick, I'd have thought.

Proposed translations

+4
3 mins
Selected

to leave the path clear for other solutions / so as not to get in the way of other solutions

I believe the sense here is that whenever a proposition is made, a decision must be made quickly as to whether or not to accept it so that whoever is doing the deciding can then move on to the next possibility.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 mins (2020-12-02 20:43:04 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I would understand "motivé" to mean "clear-cut", a clear decision- the "quickly" comes from the "réponse rapide" earlier in the sentence.
Reference:

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/bloquer/9912

Note from asker:
Are you saying that "motive" is used in the sense of quickly here?
Peer comment(s):
agree Barbara Cochran, MFA : Although I might have said "open" in place of "clear".
10 mins
Thanks- yes, "open" may be slightly more common.
neutral writeaway : any other solutions to get across the idea of 'eventuelles'
1 hr
agree AllegroTrans
3 hrs
Thanks!
agree ormiston : Agree, with the addition of 'any'
13 hrs
Thanks!
agree Daryo
17 hrs
Thanks!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you."
+5
1 min

block other possible solutions

literal translation
Peer comment(s):
agree chris collister : Or "to avoid obstructing other solutions"
1 hr
Thank you.
agree writeaway : it's simple enough for literal to work just fine
1 hr
Thank you.
agree Tony M : And agree with W/A's point about needing 'any'
2 hrs
Thank you.
agree AllegroTrans
3 hrs
Thank you.
agree Michele Fauble
19 hrs
Thank you.
Something went wrong...
+1
15 hrs

impede (prevent) any other solutions

"Block" is a bit slangy so this is an alternative if the asker is worried about the literal translation.
Peer comment(s):
agree Michele Fauble
4 hrs
Thanks Michele
Something went wrong...
-3
16 hrs

To avoid the pre-emption of any other pathway to a viable solution

In the sense 'in order to facilitate the flow of ideas to solve the problem or issue at hand'
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : 1) "...the pre-emption of..." is a frightfully FR turn of phrase; in EN it would be more natural to say simply "...pre-empting..." 2) "Pre-empting" actually slightly over-translates IMHO — it's quite different from 'bloquer' — more like 'devancer'
5 mins
disagree AllegroTrans : I also see this as over-translation
42 mins
disagree Germaine : Back-translation: pour éviter la préemption de toute autre voie vers une solution viable. See any ressemblance? - and pre-emption makes no sense here.
5 hrs
Something went wrong...
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