another thought

This comes from Cameron, who is more at home in French than I am:

“The bit about French translations of English originals being longer than the originals doesn’t surprise me at all. Aside from word-economical idioms being difficult to map between languages, the rhetorical style of French academic prose tends toward a less direct approach than you typically find in English.”

I would have thought the opposite, but maybe he’s right. At least one native French-speaking friend of mine was also surprised, however.