Barend van Zadelhoff Jan 28, 2010:

thanks! Thanks, Jarry, for confirming my observation that "opspelen", although there's an element of occurring in it, means something completely different from, "opkomen, optreden, opduiken, naar voren komen" and the like. And this difference should, of course, find its expression in the translation.

As I pointed out "blijven opspelen" means "een probleem blijven vormen". Although your translation might be a little bit more exact than mine (but we can't be sure), it was me who first noticed this significant difference in meaning ....

Jennifer Barnett Jan 28, 2010:

Is it not possible that 'opspelen' in NL use does not have the very informal conversational tone that 'pop up' has in Eng? In English, 'pop up' is totally out of place in an academic paper context, unless of course it is a quotation. As a last resort, ask the author?

Ron Willems Jan 28, 2010:

Maagzuur My first association when reading the source sentence was 'brandend maagzuur' as well, like in the example presented by Jarry. That's why I think that 'opspelen' in this case is a playful use of the Dutch language, referring to some kind of recurring health issue that (in this case quite literally) 'pops up' repeatedly.

With regard to 'register': surely the register in the translation should conform to the register used in the source text, not to the generally preferred register for similar texts (i.e. academic papers in this case).

jarry (X) Jan 28, 2010:

Opspelen is much more than just 'come up' Bij elke onderhandeling zal dollarkoers Fokker opspelen als brandend maagzuur. Betalen in dollars biedt slechts tijdelijk soelaas.
See: http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief_gratis/article657454.ece/Bi...

From the example sentences given below I would say that 'continues to be (pop up as) an issue' (is a recurrent problem: see Barends' contribution)) comes pretty close to what the Dutch implies in the context given.

L.J.Wessel van Leeuwen Jan 28, 2010:

Nederlands ... Barend, Barend... een blessure is een "wond". Een woord wat ik dikwijls hoor is "moment". Het Nl woord hiervoor is ogenblik! Beste wensen voor 2010!

Barend van Zadelhoff Jan 28, 2010:

authentic Dutch? the next question that needs to be answered is whether the combination of "vraag" and "opspelen" is authentic Dutch. I think it is, but each of us would decide for themselves. I'll just give you some examples from the Internet and you yourselves can look for more:

De overeenstemming binnen het panel van De Vries ten spijt blijft de vraag opspelen of het uiteindelijk toch niet van tweeën één is.

Door het hele verhaal blijft juist die vraag opspelen.

Hoewel er in de berichtgeving niets fout gaat, blijft de vraag opspelen of de conclusie niet te kort door de bocht is.

Well, and so on.

Barend van Zadelhoff Jan 27, 2010:

confused with I strongly disagree that "opspelen" has been used wrongly and I invite all participants to have a look at the examples below.

Blauwalg blijft opspelen bij stranden.

Fusie hoger onderwijs A'dam blijft opspelen. De onlangs aangekondigde bestuurswisseling bij de Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) en de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) heeft grote onrust veroorzaakt tussen de twee gefuseerde instellingen, en vooral binnen de HvA.

Hielblessure blijft opspelen.

Millenniumvirussen blijven opspelen

De vraag hoe 'letterlijk' we bijbelgedeelten vandaag moeten nemen, zal in de kerkgeschiedenis blijven opspelen.

"opspelen" occurs in all cases with "blijven" and in all cases it is about a recurrent problem, just as the sentence to be translated is dealing with a recurrent problem

"blijven opspelen" betekent "een probleem blijven vormen"

In my opinion "opspelen" is being confused with "opkomen, opduiken, optreden, naar voren komen", and the like.

"opspelen" means something completely different: "last geven" - mijn blessure speelt (weer) op

MoiraB Jan 27, 2010:

am I the only one... ...who would translate opspelen differently, depending on whether it meant question, issue, topic, problem...? Some of the answers given are feasible for more than one of these, but I'd still prefer a bit more info.

MoiraB Jan 27, 2010:

more context, please depends what 'die vraag' refers to.