Translation and Applied Language Skills
Translation and Applied Language Skills
Anuvada (translation) and the applied items test control rather than vocabulary size. The paper gives Kannada or English sentences to render into Tulu, or Tulu into the other language, and adds practical tasks: dialogue, notice, headline, picture description and summary.
Translation rules
- Translate meaning, not words: find the Tulu clause that would actually be spoken in that situation.
- Keep proper nouns but attach the Tulu case ending - dative -g/-k for 'to'.
- Carry the politeness level across; an honorific plural in the source must stay plural.
- Keep tense and number consistent with the source throughout.
- Idioms take an equivalent idiom; if none exists, give the sense in one clause.
- Never add information that is not in the source, even to make it read better.
Applied tasks
- Dialogue: short turns, one idea per turn, register matching the speakers.
- Notice: date, purpose, audience and signature block - nothing else.
- Headline: present tense, active voice, no full stop.
- Summary: about one-third of the original, in your own words, keeping the source order.
Worked example
Source: 'He said he would come tomorrow.' Step 1 - the reporting verb keeps past time. Step 2 - the future-in-the-past becomes a future form in Tulu. Step 3 - 'tomorrow' stays a time word. Step 4 - the subject is masculine singular, so third-person singular agreement applies, not honorific plural. Working in this order makes errors visible before you commit to a sentence.
Traps that cost marks
- Leaving Kannada words untranslated where a Tulu equivalent exists.
- Flattening honorifics into singular verbs.
- Translating a proverb literally.
- Headlines written in past tense or ending with a full stop.
- Summaries that add comment or opinion.