historische Sinnstiftung

07:13 Jan 30, 2014
German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - History / Theory of history
German term or phrase: historische Sinnstiftung
Some do translate this as "historical giving of meaning", but is there something more elegant?
devkara
Germany
Local time: 02:17


Summary of answers provided
3historical sensemaking
Vera Wilson
3attribution of historical meaning
Michael Martin, MA


Discussion entries: 4





  

Answers


12 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
historische sinnstiftung
historical sensemaking


Explanation:
Auszug aus dem Wikipedia-Artikel:
Sensemaking (engl.) bzw. Sinnstiftung[1][2][3] beschreibt den Prozess, mit dem Menschen den über die Sinne ungegliedert aufgenommenen Erlebnisstrom in sinnvolle Einheiten einordnen. Je nach Einordnung der Erfahrung kann sich ein unterschiedlicher Sinn und damit eine andere Erklärung für die aufgenommenen Erlebnisse ergeben.


    Reference: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensemaking
Vera Wilson
France
Local time: 02:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman
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51 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
attribution of historical meaning


Explanation:
See below:

"In the boundless whole of the past, historians delineated a field amenable to the attribution of historical meaning. This significant past became the referent of historiography, and was defined as history."
http://books.google.com/books?id=vHzLgcqHzQcC&pg=PA431&lpg=P...


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Note added at 21 hrs (2014-01-31 04:54:40 GMT)
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I second Jim, there's definitely room for improvement here but I am not sure we can substitute "significance" for "meaning".. Instead, I am thinking more along the lines of "determining the meaning of history" or "instilling/reading meaning into history." Compare with source below:
http://philonew.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/beating-a-dead-hors...

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 20:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 74

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Horst Huber (X): One person's go at what may be one of those "untranslatable words" we used to hear about?
8 hrs
  -> Yes. I like a challenge. But some of them are not as untranslatable as they're cracked up to be :-)

neutral  Jim Tucker (X): If that quote isn't a translation from German, I'll eat my headgear. // well "endowing [something] with historical significance" is closer to the mark; "meaning" in any case is too weak, and attribution probably also.
13 hrs
  -> Quite possible. But you have to work with what you find. If you can come up with an expression that hasn’t been tainted by that, be sure to let us know//Agree, sounds more forceful/natural. One concern: "hist. sign." seems more narrow than the German, no?
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