Schuldzuweisungen durch den Täter

19:24 Aug 10, 2016 

The victim was a child when the abuse occurred. Now she is an adult and is suffering from PTSD. The therapist is trying to get her to stop internalizing blame (thinking that she is the one to blame, because she didn't tell anyone that her stepfather was abusing her). So she is not making any accusations against anyone or blaming anyone except herself. That's the core of what brought her into therapy.

18:13 Aug 10, 2016 

A accuses B of...
B blames A for...
Michael, how about "blame for accusations by the victim"?

18:07 Aug 10, 2016 

accuse and blame are synonyms

18:04 Aug 10, 2016 

A accused B of a sexual assault
B blamed A for leading him on.
A then accused B of falsely blaming her.
So who is actually making the "accusation of blame" (sic) here?

15:27 Aug 10, 2016 

As a long-term expat, it is still sometimes difficult for me to decode some German structures. However, I understand just about everything (and have a native speaking German husband/teacher for the real knots). Embellishments are one thing, but getting the author's intent across in FLUENT English is my top priority. For me, that's called translating, and sometimes involves making a nebulous structure clear (for native-speaking English audiences).

15:17 Aug 10, 2016 

Michael: "unless the translation sounds ... odder than the source text to a German audience" - As a native speaker of English who has not lived in Germany for more than a few months, it is virtually impossible for me to tell what sounds odd to a German audience. Therefore my approach is different: I try to figure out what the author wants to say, and then put it in English. That may very well involve "improving" the source text. I think that's fine as long as you do not distort the author's intention.

15:06 Aug 10, 2016 

I do agree with you. I would actually prefer 'counteract, recondition (because that is what is really is - reconditioning onseself to give blame where blame is due), rescind, override, abolish.........

14:57 Aug 10, 2016 

That still stands. Translators should make an effort to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the original. But you don’t need to go overboard with this. If the translation sounds weirder in English as a result of your trying to be meticulous, you may have to adjust your translation to accommodate target language users and accept that you cannot preserve all of the angles or nuances of the original. Same with accusations of blame. The choice of ‘accusations’ makes it a little more specific than Schuldzuweisung because I couldn’t think of a term that is as abstract as the original and still sounds like English. My takeaway is, don’t add or change anything unless the translation sounds odd otherwise (or odder than the source text to a German audience). If the German audience is also confused about the meaning of the source text, then it’s a judgment call to what extent that should be cleared up in the translation.

14:02 Aug 10, 2016 

You said:
"challenge the victim's dysfunctional beliefs, e.g., that she is to blame for the fact that she was sexually abused"

As I understand it: While the perpetrator blames the victim, you as a therapist need to show that (part of) the blame is misplaced.

In short, part of the blame would be: It takes two to tango.
Blame entirely misplaced: When you say "no," the other one has to stop.

I'm in a rush trying to decide on where to go for grocery shopping, so I may not have been able to provide you with a precise enough translation. But I can say with some certainty that "put into perspective" in such cases is too neutral of a statement for "relativieren." The part about diminish or weaken (if not an outright offset) needs to factor in somehow, in my opinion.

13:55 Aug 10, 2016 

Anytime. And thanks for broadening my understanding here. An example the other way around would be when German use "for" instead of "of" or "to." Unfortunately, I cannot think of any grammar rule that would explain why one preposition is favored over another. There probably isn't any.

"The translations given at dict.cc and leo.org"
- I suppose Ramey would agree with me here (we've had this discussion before) that while you can turn to these forums (they're not really dictionaries for various reasons) for inspiration, you'd have to look up the word in monolingual dictionaries to be absolutely sure. The Duden or the DWS (http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/ ) are still the best sources to do that.

Here's another nice explanation of the term:
http://thomas-sz.com/meine_schriften/woerterbuch_politik/rel...

It all goes back to Einstein's quote: "Alles ist relativ."

A lot of times, "relativieren" is used in the sense of "verharmlosen." That doesn't work here, so it's "abschwächen/aufwiegen."

13:24 Aug 10, 2016 

Thanks Björn, for your detailed explanation, which was very helpful. I do struggle with some German prepositions ("über" is another one)! In the case of "durch," I tend to think in terms of the semi-cognate "through" (etymology for "through": Old English from prehistoric West Germanic "thurkh," which led to the German "durch" and the Dutch "door," acc. to my etymological dictionary). It was hard for me here to make the leap to "by." And thanks for clarifying "relativieren." The translations given at dict.cc and leo.org are quite different: to relativize, qualify, put into perspective (http://www.dict.cc/?s=relativieren).

12:48 Aug 10, 2016 

"accusations" = "Vorwürfe" as in "Schuldvorwürfe"
This one should be off the list, as - and I quote - "It is never a translator’s job to 'improve' the source text."

"maybe 'the phenomena [...]"
- "phenomena" is a social sciences term with distinct implications (was part of one of my essays in sociology); I recommend that you avoid it here entirely.

"relativieren"
- I'll agree with your answer, Ramey, but this one's not "gain perspective."
"zu etwas anderem in Beziehung setzen und dadurch in seinem Wert o. Ä. einschränken"
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/relativieren

The gist: Perp blames victim. Now you gather and present evidence and see whether it corroborates or discredits his side of the story. For example, you have a rape victim and the perpetrator is blaming her or him by saying it was the other person who suggested they should get intimate in the first place and that this person actually wanted it. You need to counter ("relativieren") such a deflection of blame by showing that what happened is not the victim's fault.

relativieren = counter, weaken, offset, balance out, restrict, or similar

12:21 Aug 10, 2016 

You've got me bamboozled. Without any intention of sounding negative: Have I not been sufficiently aware of the struggles ENS may have with certain German prepositions?

"It COULD mean that"
- Actually, no. It DOES mean that. So your answer IS the only correct one.

I'll explain why and you can tell me whether my explanation helped you in some way:

"Schuldzuweisung" is, of course, a German compound noun. The second noun is always more important than the first: It determines the gender of the definite article (e.g., die Tanne/der Baum, but der Tannenbaum) and the preposition that may follow.

Thus, forget about "Schuld" for a minute, please.
"Zuweisung" = assign, allocate, reference

The preposition describing who assigns, allocates, etc. is "durch" in German:
"Zuweisung durch das Gericht"
"Zuweisung durch den Arzt"
"Zuweisung durch die Abteilung"

You say "Zuweisung von" if you intend to describe what is being assigned, allocated, etc. For example: "Zuweisung von Ressourcen."

Instead of "von," you may use a compound noun if possible: "Schuldzuweisung durch" is the same as "Zuweisung von Schuld durch" = blame assigned by

In police terms: perp blames victim

17:09 Aug 9, 2016 

...to give some perspective on the issue of perpetrators laying the burden of guilt on their victims.

17:00 Aug 9, 2016 

es auch so wie Ramey - also "by the perpetrator" ...

16:48 Aug 9, 2016 

can the victim trust the evidence of the perpetrator when he/she blames the victim? Obviously not, but that take some convincing, particularly when the victim is/was a child.

16:46 Aug 9, 2016 

It COULD mean that victims of sexual abuse are often given the blame BY the perpetrator. I know of several concrete cases where the perpetrator blamed the child/woman for alluring them into sexual abuse. Sick, yes; uncommon, unfortunately not.