B.

A English for Professional Purposes

(Third Year- Second Semester)
Translation and Interpretation II
Tutorial
Time Allowed - ! min.
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I. Translate the following passage into '(anmar.
The sentence which best summarises Elias's theory is as follows: 'Courtoisie, civilite, and
civilisation mark the three stages of social development. They indicate which society is
speaking and being addressed at a given time.' In the case of courtoisie, it is feudal society
speaking, that is to say, the court circles surrounding the great feudal lords. The word asserts
the existence of good manners, which are 'how people behave at court', as opposed to the bad
and coarse manners of peasants. There are many medieval textbooks of courtesy, 'table
disciplines' and compendiums for young noblemen, and their precepts centre upon table
manners not drinking direct from the dish, not spitting across the table, not blowing your
nose with the same hand as you use to hold the meat, not cleaning your teeth on the
tablecloth, etc. The succeeding stage or standard was civilite. It is the standard of the
absolutist court, consisting of politeness, good form and restrained behaviour, not speaking
your mind or mentioning what must be hidden, avoiding all vulgar expressions or over
specific terms. This standard was given embodiment in !rench classical tragedy, which
'shows courtly people as they would like to be and, at the same time, as the absolutist prince
wants to see them.' "et us now proceeed to the third and final stage, that of 'civilisation'. The
!rench term civilisation is, apparently, first found in the writings of the elder #irabeau, and
in its original usage it signified an active process $i.e. 'civilising', or making civilised% rather
than a condition. It was the rallying cry of the &hysiocrats and of the opposition generally,
and it conveyed the sense that civilite $ancien regime politeness and all that% was no longer
enough. Civilite represented a false civilisation, against which should be asserted a 'true' one
'the civilising of the state, the constitution, education, and therefore of broader sections of the
population, the liberation from all that was still barbaric or irrational in existing conditions.'
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