Comment by detaro

Comment by detaro 11 hours ago

2 replies

a) the title of the regulation is not equivalent to the law (unsurprisingly), onestay42's translation is clunky but a lot closer

b) the official title of the law was "Gesetz zur Übertragung der Aufgaben für die Überwachung der Rinderkennzeichnung und Rindfleischetikettierung", so how again is it that English "gets to use a sentence" and German doesn't? German has the choice depending on context, sometimes having one word is convenient.

arkensaw 11 hours ago

I'm not a German speaker. Why would someone use such a long word as a convenience?

  • 1718627440 9 hours ago

    I am. It is a semantic difference. Single entities get referred to by a single word. If you use a word group to describe it, it means you don't consider it a single "thing", but a "system" described by the relations of single "things".

    The composed word also has a specific meaning that the same words with space between doesn't. For example "das rote Kraut" – "red herb" and "das Rotkraut" – "red cabbage". Also suppose "red cabbage" was grown in abnormal conditions, so it doesn't have the color pigments, it is still "red cabbage", but not "red" "cabbage". This is awkward to state in English, but no problem in German.