John,
It is true that in RDA "government" and "jurisdiction" are used almost interchangeably in the sense of Gebietskoerperschaft, but perhaps with subtle differences. That paragraph in 11.2.2.5.4 gives an idea of what is meant by government, but it uses "jurisdiction" in another sense, which the German translation gives as "Justizhoheit." (Might "Rechtshoheit" be an equally good or better term?)
I had noticed that "jurisdiction" in 11.2.2.5.4 ( "The conventional name of a government is the name of the area over which the government exercises jurisdiction") has a different meaning than in, say, the beginning of 11.7.1.5 ("For a government, record the type of jurisdiction ..."). But I think that the German "Justizhoheit" doesn't really fit here, as this term is restricted to the administration of justice only. I've found it translated into English as "judicial sovereignty". And it sounds downright wrong when it appears together with "Regierung", which in German is a term belonging to the executive sphere only. When I first read that bit in the German translation, I said to myself (tongue in cheek): "Oh dear, now RDA's even abolishing the separation of powers..."
When I'm puzzled by questions of translation, I often turn to the German translation of AACR2, published in 2002. This was prepared by a bilingual team, who did excellent work. They used "vollziehende Gewalt" for "jurisdiction" in 24.3.E1: "Der gewoehnlich gebrauchte Name einer Gebietskoerperschaft ist der geographische Name des Gebietes (z.B. Staat, Provinz, Gliedstaat, regionale oder lokale Verwaltungseinheit), in dem die betreffende Gebietskoerperschaft die vollziehende Gewalt ausuebt." Note that they also used "Gebietskoerperschaft" for "government".
Perhaps the question was discussed by the AACR2 translation team as well. If so, perhaps Charles Croissant, who was a member of the team, could add some details here (if he's following this thread)?
In the last paragraph of 11.7.1.5, I think the use of "government" is closer to "Regierung" in the phrase "If two or more governments claim jurisdiction over the same area (e.g., as with occupying powers and insurgent governments) ..."
I agree, although I think even here there is some ambivalence. If we look at the examples in 11.7.1.6, they sometimes seem to refer to a specific administration (e.g., British military government), and sometimes rather to the government(s) in the wider sense (e.g., Territory under Allied occupation).
This is all very difficult, and it seems that every instance of "government" and "jurisdiction" must be closely examined in order to come to a satisfactory translation.
IFLA's Statement of International Cataloguing Principles (http://www.ifla.org/publications/statement-of-international-cataloguing-principles) uses the phrase "jurisdiction or territorial authority." (Official German translation: "Jurisdiktion [!] oder einer Gebietskoerperschaft")
I must admit that I hadn't even known that "Jurisdiktion" exists as a German word. I checked, and it does indeed exist, but its meaning is equivalent to the administration of justice. So I think that the translation of the ICP needs to be corrected as well.
I don't know for sure, but I suspect "territorial authority" was added for clarity. It means about the same as jurisdiction.
That sounds very plausible. And then, of course the problem was finding two different German words with roughly the same meaning. But I think there really is only one which is suitable here, namely "Gebietskoerperschaft". So perhaps it is simply not possible for a German translation to copy the structure of this English sentence exactly.
I wonder if the English text might be improved in this respect. Would "territorial authority" be an unambiguous and clear word for the thing which in RDA is sometimes called "government" and sometimes "jurisdiction"? Then a way out of this muddle might be to use only "territorial authority" in these cases (with a suitable definition in the glossary), and restrict the use of "government" and "jurisdiction" to the other meanings of the words.
Admittedly, this would be a considerable interference with the English text, and probably would not sit well with many native speakers, who are used to the present terminology. But it certainly would make it a lot easier to use RDA outside the Anglo-American world.
Heidrun -- --------------------- Prof. Heidrun Wiesenmueller M.A. Stuttgart Media University Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany www.hdm-stuttgart.de/bi
