Just to it. The Amazing Story of the Just Do It Expression

No wonder I put this question in the subcategory "Linguistics", because it directly concerns the translation from of English language.

The fact is that translating from another language is generally a thankless task. I myself study English, and I had to read a lot, that it is impossible to translate everything in the literal sense of the word. Even two related languages, such as Russian and Ukrainian, differ radically. Once I was asked to translate a poem into Ukrainian. A tricky one, I tell you! If translated literally, then all meaning of the verse will be lost.

Also, as a beginner, I managed to translate the well-known hit from English into Ukrainian The beatles"Yesterday". Translating this song, I was once again convinced that it is impossible to translate the verse literally. You always have to look for words that are similar in meaning. I can imagine what a mess it would be if I took it into my head to translate everything literally. It is difficult to translate prose, but it is even more difficult to translate poetry, because it is necessary not only to choose words, but also to choose them in such a way that a rhyme is obtained.

Now, as for the expression "Just do it".

The word “just” itself is translated as “simple”, that is, it can also be in the context, for example, “just come here”, or simply, in the sense that everything is very simple, uncomplicated, it means. To denote the expression "simple", that is, a simple example, or a simple conclusion, you can use the expression "Idle time".

Although, individually, these words from the expression mean "waiting" and "time".

So, "just do it" can be translated as "it's easy to do", you can also "it's easy to do".

Throughout the history of mankind, many different winged expressions have been coined. Some of them became a symbol of some event, others united people to achieve some goal. Usually such expressions are short and clear, so that it is easier to remember and distinguish between concepts. Some of the expressions led people to war, while others died in the war. Lately, the real fight has been between competing companies, each looking to outdo their opponent. Everyone knows the slogan - Just do it. This article will tell the unusual fate of this slogan.

Just do it translation

To understand this formulation, it is enough to translate the expression verbatim. Just - simple, do - do / do, it - this. There is another version of the phrase in a different tense: Just did it. Translation - "Just did it."

Nike

At the end of the last century, the fashion for sneakers and sports style came. In those days, Nike and Reebok were the leaders in the sports shoe market. In 1987, Reebok overtook its rival in sales thanks to ads that featured sports greats. Nike, on the other hand, opted to support light runs.

Nike executives decided they needed a completely different approach to advertising their product. Then they realized that effective sales a special slogan is required, and contacted advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy with this order. Unfortunately, the employees of this agency did not immediately manage to achieve the desired result. On the last day before the presentation of the order, Dan Wyden came up with 5 slogans, but he realized that all these invented expressions would not cause jubilation from customers. Nevertheless, at the last moment, he came up with the sixth and main slogan: Just do it. At the conference, Nike executives approved it, and the slogan became the main symbol famous company. After this acquisition, Nike took the sports industry by storm.

Let's do it

Dan Wyden, who came up with the slogan for Nike products, was inspired by the story of one American criminal. Gary Gilmour, a native of Waco, committed two murders after being jailed for 20 years. Then he was punished for a series of robberies and murders. At 35, he was sentenced to death after the massacre of a gas station worker and a hotel receptionist. On the day of execution (January 17, 1977), before his death, the criminal surprised everyone present with his statement, instead of asking for pardon or repentance, he said his last words: Let "s do it!" ("Let's do it!").

Advertiser Dan just had to change the first word. No one could have imagined that the slogan for the sports giant would be based on the saying of a criminal leader. Therefore, the Nike slogan fit well into the sports industry.

I would like to give Gilmour respect for his words if I could, but I shouldn't have to.

Since then, Nike has been a serious competitor to its opponents and emerged victorious with a turnover of up to $9 billion. A year ago, without a well-known slogan, sales reached 876 million.

Shia LaBeouf

In 2015, a video appeared on the Web in which a Hollywood actor motivates people to change with the phrase Just do it. In Russian - "Just do it."

The actor was originally filmed for a student project, where he reflects, rests and meditates on a green background for 30 minutes. This project is designed to enable students to use his sayings before defending their graduation theses. Soon the video was published on the Vimeo portal.

A month later, user Mike Mohamed uploaded a one-minute snippet to YouTube titled "Shia LaBeouf delivers the most powerful motivational of all time!". The video quickly gained 27 million views before being deleted.

Users social networks turned roller in years past. Since the actor was filmed on chromakey, he could easily be inserted into any background, video, advertising. Most often it is used in humorous videos in which people can not decide on some act.

Shia LaBeouf, with his Just do it excerpt, managed to achieve great success on the Internet. Craftsmen mount his video into clips with songs, in which the actor suggests not to give up and not give up. Some insert it into famous movie scenes. The most popular of these passages: Shia supports Skywalker, prepares the inhabitants of the Earth to confront the aliens, motivates the avengers.

No wonder I put this question in the subcategory "Linguistics", because it directly concerns the translation from English.

The fact is that translating from another language is generally a thankless task. I myself study English, and I had to read a lot, that it is impossible to translate everything in the literal sense of the word. Even two related languages, such as Russian and Ukrainian, differ radically. Once I was asked to translate a poem into Ukrainian. A tricky one, I tell you! If translated literally, then all meaning of the verse will be lost.

Also, as a beginner, I managed to translate from English into Ukrainian the well-known hit of The beatles “Yesterday”. Translating this song, I was once again convinced that it is impossible to translate the verse literally. You always have to look for words that are similar in meaning. I can imagine what a mess it would be if I took it into my head to translate everything literally. It is difficult to translate prose, but it is even more difficult to translate poetry, because it is necessary not only to choose words, but also to choose them in such a way that a rhyme is obtained.

Now, as for the expression "Just do it".

The word “just” itself is translated as “simple”, that is, it can also be in the context, for example, “just come here”, or simply, in the sense that everything is very simple, uncomplicated, it means. To denote the expression "simple", that is, a simple example, or a simple conclusion, you can use the expression "Idle time".

Although, individually, these words from the expression mean "waiting" and "time".

So, "just do it" can be translated as "it's easy to do", you can also "it's easy to do".

In modern language, the particle just performs many different functions, and the difficulties of its translation are often associated with the problem of correct identification of the function. Traditionally, there are three functions just as particles - excretory, restrictive and emphatic, however, as analysis shows, there are other, although less common functions; in addition, within the framework of these three, quite interesting variations can be found, which are also interesting from the point of view of translation.
Particularly visually diverse possibilities just seen in the example emphatic (amplifying) function, which we would like to dwell on in more detail. Consider the following examples:

"I see your point, but people here just can"t afford that sort of luxury..." ( DL : 65)

"I understand what you mean, but people are here simply can't afford that luxury."

"I"m sorry Siegfried, I just have nothing to say." ( DL : 95)

"Excuse me, Siegfried, I simply nothing to say."

"It"s just too early." DT : 265)

"Just it's too early now."

As can be seen from the examples, just reinforces (intensifies) the meaning of the semantic block that follows it, which is often a structure with negation, both explicit (the first two examples) and implicit (the last example). The Russian particle proposed by us as an equivalent simply can be used as such in most cases, although other means are sometimes possible:

"Didn't tell you he was taking you out. Didn" t he?... And just happened to leave his wallet at home." ( DT : 66)

"He told you he was taking you to a restaurant. So?... And perfectly (pure/simple) I accidentally forgot my wallet at home."

Of particular interest to us are cases where, when translating just in the emphatic function, a restructuring of the entire sentence structure is required. Consider next example:

"Wasn"t that just typical?..." ( DL : 131)

"How All this was familiar!"

In the English text we are dealing with an emphatic interrogative-negative sentence, which, as was shown in our work on the translation of Russian particles, quite often corresponds to Russian sentences with same. Additional intensification of meaning is carried out by means of an exclamatory sentence with an intensifier how. From the point of view of the norms of the Russian language, the use simply in this structure is hardly possible.
In addition to the general cases of amplifying meaning with the help of just, quite often one can observe the intensification of specific logical values, which is of interest from the point of view of translation due to the difference in equivalents. First, we can distinguish the intensification (emphasis) of the insignificance of the distance or time interval:

"We were sitting towards the rear of the aircraft, just behind the wing." ( DL : 68)

"We sat closer to the tail of the plane, straightaway behind the roof."

"This was the woman who just a few hours before had said she would do anything for them." ( DL : 76)

"And it was the same woman who Total a few hours earlier she had promised to do anything for them."

"It"s by a British friend of mine.... He gave it to me just yesterday." ( DL : 119)

As you can see, the Russian equivalent is highly dependent on compatibility.
When just acts as an intensification of sufficiency, its equivalents are often structures with the adjective one or the previously mentioned particle simply:

I felt nauseated just to breathe them. ( DT : 531)

I was sick of one their scent.

It made you smile just to look at him. ( DL : 115)

The mere sight of him made me smile.

don't worry, just do exactly as I do." ( DL : 180)

"Don't worry, simply repeat after me exactly."

In conjunction with like particle just acts as a comparison intensification function:

"Lovely girl. I"ve always said so. looks just like a statue of Diana in my father"s club." ( DT : 61)

"Lovely girl. I always said that. Looks exactly the same like the statue of Diana in my father's club."

Finally, it is worth mentioning that in combination with modal verbs may, might, could the parsed particle emphasizes the improbability:

I said I was rather tied up at the school over most weekends; though the half-term holiday was the week-end after the next and I might just be in Athens then - but I couldn't be sure. ( F : 162)

I wrote that I was pretty busy at school most of the weekend, although the schoolchildren would have a short vacation through the weekend, and I might succeed come to Athens but I can't nothing promise.

In our opinion, the communicative meaning of the English particle allows us to convey lexical means Russian language, in particular the addition of the word succeed usually emphasizes a great dependence on circumstances, which is further strengthened by the pronoun nothing with a verb promise.
Particular attention should be paid to those cases where the particle just is used to reinforce interrogative and relative pronouns and at the same time often implicitly expresses various emotions. Consider the following example:

I didn't answer. I was wondering just how we had reached this stage. ( JB : 53)

I didn't answer. I was thinking how same we have reached such a degree of intimacy.

From the context it is clear that the hero cannot explain what happened to himself, it causes him great surprise, which is emphasized by the introduction of the particle just. In our opinion, such an emotion in Russian is well conveyed by the particle same, which is also evident in the other example:

"Just what is all this nonsense?" KA : 74)

"How same understand all this?"

However, other translations are also possible. just in this function:

I knew just what happened to people who were sacked from the local government. ( JB : 200)

I wonderful knew what happened to people dismissed from local government.

Let us now turn to the consideration of the particle just in function identification. Its translation into Russian usually does not cause much difficulty here, since in Russian there are quite a few particles used in this function; as an equivalent just particles can usually be used just and exactly, which can be seen from the following examples:

"Oh thank you, James, it"s just what I want." KA : 89)

"Oh thanks, James, that's exactly / just that's what I need."

And I am fairly sure he would have done just that if only I had made it in to see him. ( DT : 77)

And I'm pretty sure that exactly he would and did if I could only see him.

I nearly hung up...but just then the operator came back on. ( DT : 160)

I almost hung up the phone... but just at that moment I heard the operator's voice again.

The expression of simultaneity can be recognized as a special case of identification, although in this case the English particle is usually translated using Russian just:

He ran lightly up the stairs. Ronnie was just emerging from Gerald Wade's room. ( AC1 : 24)

He quickly ran up the steps. Ronnie just leaving Gerald Wade's room.

As already noted, another common function of the particle just is restrictive function, and here its equivalents in Russian are usually such words as only, only, only, simply:

I convinced myself that it was just superstition. ( DL : 76)

I convinced myself that this only / simply superstition.

It's just a rumour, actually. ( DL : 120)

Actually this only hearing.

"No, Howard, you said it was the way out, I just agreed." ( DL : 117)

"No, Howard, it was you who said that this was the way out, I only / simply agreed."

And it wasn't just a question of having kept my mouth shut. ( DT : 550)

And it was not only that I kept my mouth shut.

Particular attention should be paid to the case when just in the restrictive function is close in value to the Russian barely. Consider the following example:

Absolute peace. High and very far to the north I could just hear an airplane. ( F : 113)

Complete silence. Somewhere high and very far in the north was barely aircraft noise is heard.

The example is interesting primarily from the point of view of defining the function of the English particle. This is mainly helped by the first sentence, because, since the hero says that there was complete silence, he could not hear anything or almost nothing, which means that the particle limits verb semantics hear. Otherwise, it would be a logical contradiction.
Importance correct definition functions just becomes especially obvious when referring to the next, although not very frequent, pragmatic meaning of this particle. Let's analyze the following example:

"It's terrible," said Charles. "Really, I can just see him. Standing out in a yard wearing some kind of stupid apron." ( DT : 112)

The difficulty in defining the function here is that just is used in the same syntactic position as in the previous example, in combination with a modal verb can (could) and the verb of perception. Therefore, only a general context can help us, the expressive nature of which (the expression it's terrible, particle really), as well as the immediately preceding sentence, with a high degree of probability exclude the restrictive function and, moreover, leads us to the idea that the particle is used rather in the expressive function and approaches the adverb in its pragmatic meaning easily, as a result, the translation of this example may look like this:

"It's terrible," said Charles. "Hell, can imagine it (By God, I so alive I imagine it.) How he stands in the yard, wearing some kind of stupid apron.

Last function just, which we would like to talk about, is an expression of politeness. In fact, we are dealing with a kind of emphatic function, since just here it is always used in statements that are a polite request, and the particle often only enhances the degree of politeness:

"I don't seem to have my information handy right now, maybe you could just prompt me." ( DT : 159)

From the point of view of naturalness, it should be noted that the use of particles before the verb in a polite request is not very typical for the Russian language, therefore, in our opinion, the translation of just the most polite request is quite appropriate:

"I'm afraid I don't have the information I need right now; could you help me?"

On the other hand, in Russian it is possible to strengthen politeness in other ways, in particular:

... if you don't mind, Tell me please.

In any case, we think that final decision on the need and possibility of translation just in this function is very dependent on the immediate context, both verbal and non-verbal. We would only like to emphasize that in this case its translation is not an end in itself and that when it comes to such a pragmatic function as strengthening the degree of politeness, one should first of all focus on the norms of the target language and the traditions of the host culture.