Idioms, Additions and Script: Marking Five Translation Items
You are marking the Tarjuma section: five items, one mark each, no half marks. Two items are idiomatic - «us ke haath-paon phool gaye» and «aag babula hona». One item runs from Kannada into Urdu; the rest are Urdu into English. Three scripts raise questions. S writes «His hands and feet swelled» for the first idiom, translating the rest of the sentence correctly. T renders «woh ghar chala gaya» as «He went home, relieved to be leaving at last». U, a Kannada-medium candidate, writes the Kannada-to-Urdu answer in Kannada script; the Urdu content is accurate but cannot be assessed for Urdu grammar as written. The section is 5 marks of a 100-mark paper, results are due in the morning, and you also have to tell the class what standard was applied.
1. How do you mark S's literal rendering of the idiom, and what goes on the script?
Read the worked answer
Award 0, with the intended sense written in the margin.
- The item tests whether the candidate recognises a fixed expression. A word-for-word rendering shows the idiom was not recognised, even though each individual word is translated correctly.
- Credit any English that conveys the effect: «he froze», «he was paralysed with fear», «he went numb».
- Do not award a half mark for «his hands and feet became swollen with fear». It is closer, but it still makes the English reader perform the figurative work the translator was supposed to do.
- Proportionate view: one mark out of five in a 5-mark section, and 5 marks in a 100-mark paper. Losing it is not catastrophic, which is why a clean rule is better than case-by-case leniency.
- Write the intended sense on the script so the class learns the idiom, not just the mark.
2. T's sentence reads well but contains information not in the original. What mark, and what principle?
Read the worked answer
Award 0 under a no-half-marks rule; the accuracy component has failed.
- Split the translation judgement into sense and expression. «Relieved to be leaving at last» is an addition that the Urdu does not contain; a translation that supplies meaning is not a translation, however fluent.
- The principle to announce to the class: fluency cannot compensate for added meaning, and accuracy cannot excuse broken English. Both are tested; only one may fail at a time.
- Note in the margin exactly which words were added, so the script shows the reason rather than a bare cross.
- If a later item has a minor stylistic choice, such as «house» for «ghar» instead of «home», do not treat it as an addition - the test is whether new sense has entered, not whether the wording differs from yours. Record this distinction in the key.
3. U writes the Kannada-to-Urdu item in Kannada script. How do you mark it, and what do you check before zeroing it?
Read the worked answer
Award 0 for that item, with a one-line explanation.
The item asks for Urdu, and an answer in Kannada script does not display the Urdu morphology and syntax being tested. This is not a judgement about language politics: Kannada-medium candidates routinely produce Urdu in Urdu script, and the answer script itself is in Urdu.
Before finalising:
- Check the rest of U's paper. If only this item is in Kannada script, treat it as a slip and keep the zero to one mark.
- If the whole Urdu section is in Kannada script, do not zero five items on your own authority - refer to the chief examiner, since a different rule (transcription before marking) may apply.
- In feedback, ask U to transcribe the sentence into Urdu script as practice; the grammar was evidently known and only the script failed.
Record the decision so that no other marker credits the same script differently.