Misinterpreting Words Literally in English and Chinese Translation.doc

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1、Misinterpreting Words Literally in English and Chinese TranslationThe so-called “misinterpreting words too literally”, that is do not understand the correct meaning of a word, just literally to the laws. As a result, it makes the wrong interpretation. In the English translation of words, if you do n

2、ot understand the correct meaning of a word, you would literally attached to improper inference, which makes that mistake during the translation. The style of “misinterpreting words literally in English and Chinese translation” is a common word translation phenomenon among students.This causes stude

3、nts to produce English translations of the words too literally causes are diverse, including The Negative factors, some students do not understand the difference between Chinese and British cultural factors. But the big factor is the expression of student views on the English vocabulary ex little un

4、derstood. Colorado linguist once said: If the mother tongue in the form of a language is only one component. And there are several forms of the target language, then this component is not easy to learn. An important feature of English words polysemy, Such as the word “make”, the students have only t

5、he main Chinese language: It means the corresponding case be made or do , but they do not understand it and produce different words with different meanings. Please look at these following sentences: 1、Mother helps us make the beds in the evening. 2、I cant make out the meaning of the passage.In the f

6、irst sentence, the word “make” means arrange the bed up, and in the second sentence, it means understand. These kinds of examples are too much.All in all, five areas are broadly summarized as follows: First, the grammatical structure to understand himself: Improper understanding of the translator on

7、 the grammatical structure, such as distinguish parts of speech, to refer to relationships and patterns, etc., will be the direct result of misinterpretation. Second, the semantic understanding of himself: Polysemy in English vocabulary is very much the case, such as “knowledge is still second” it w

8、ill cause misunderstanding. Ground investigation and fine the dictionary (including the use of oral English of English-English dictionary) to avoid; the so-called investigation is a multi-ground search several dictionaries, search the so-called thin access is from beginning to end, take the trouble

9、to expand our horizons, and find the right meaning.Third, the lack of background knowledge: If the translator did not understand the contents, such as the background, it also causes the words too literally. Fourth, the lack of professional knowledge: Translation often involves many aspects, a variet

10、y of professional, in order to improve the quality of translation, the translator must not only master the two languages English and Chinese, but also should have some knowledge of literacy. Every profession has its own set of terms; Five, force of habit effects and the negligence.After analyzing th

11、e reasons of this phenomenon, lets find some ways to avoid it. At first, I think understanding and grasping the English grammar is the key way to avoid this condition. To overcome the misinterpreting words literally in English and Chinese translation, in addition to master the correct meaning of Eng

12、lish vocabulary, paying attention to some other factors related to English grammar is also very necessary. The more complex English grammar, including the syntax and morphology, is the difficulty of English learning. However, if the students can not grasp the English grammar well, they will not corr

13、ectly understand the meaning of English sentences. For example, with a different word order and meaning of English sentences have a major impact changes.A、 Arrange the word in the same order, the meaning can be different. Look at these two sentences: (1) He looks like his mother; (2) He writes well,

14、 just like his mother. In these two sentences, the word “write” is arranged in different place, which makes the whole sentence different. In the first, it emphasizes that the mother and kid have the same appearance; but in the second, it emphasizes that they have the same job.B、 Arrange the word ord

15、er different, the meaning can be different.Lets see the two phrases: the snow is white; the white snow. We all know that the first one describes the color of the snow and the other is a famous character of the fairy tales.C、 Different collocations have the different meaning.Some English verbs, nouns

16、, adjectives, etc. often can take different after the preposition or adverb to mean different things. Some of them have the same meanings, such as the adjective phrase “be concerned about” and “be concerned over”. Some describe the similar meanings, such as verb phrases “agree with” and “agree to”,

17、only requires a different connection object. Some means exactly the opposite: verb phrases such as “turn on” and “turn off”. The different collocations also mean different things. Therefore, to correctly understand the meaning of English sentences, we must first understand these words with different

18、 meaning to avoid misunderstanding.D、 Same collocations have the different meaningSome words in English, though Collocation the same, but the meaning is not identical. To see the adjective phrase “pick up” as an example, we look at the following example: (1) I will pick you up at 4:00pm; (2) Please

19、pick the book up. The first means bringing you home at 4:00; the second means take the book from the ground. To analysis the context meaning in English is to prevent generating Translation for the basic guarantee of the words too literally. Some English sentences and vocabulary, in different context

20、s, have different meanings. They can be used for a variety of explanations out of context. Therefore, students who are required to translation from English, must carefully analyze the context of English sentences and the meaning of words, choosing the correct meaning. For example: George passed. As

21、a separate sentence, it can be used for a variety of understanding. If George passed from the classroom door, we can be understood as “George had”; If George was in play, it can be understood as “George passed the ball”, and if George was playing cards, they can be understood as “George did not bid”

22、; if George took the exam, it also can be understood as “George passed the examination”. Now, let me show you a brief analysis from three special aspects to remind students not only pay attention to the structure of language rules (including pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, etc.), but also to

23、learn about the social and cultural background knowledge such as social etiquette, habits, values and culture in English-speaking countries. After you do these well, you will not be “embarrassed” in cross-cultural communication and speak the correct and decent English loudly.First of all, the surfac

24、e of the word is certain but in reality it is not. Look at the example: (1) I can do anything but tell lies. Most people regard this sentence as I can do many things on the basis of telling lies; actually, the right answer is I would never tell lies. Obviously, the different understanding of the “bu

25、t” makes misconception. “But” is a preposition, means “unless”; “anything but” meaning “never”. There are some similar phrases like far from (far and did not); free from (do not free and influence). (2) “This is the last thing I will do”. The wrong translation is that I will do this thing at last; I

26、n fact, we should translate it as I would never be willing to do this thing. The word “last” means “rarely possible” or “the least suitable”. Downgrade means to make use of language mildly, does not seem too explicit, blunt and rude. Downgrade is a language art. British and American people speak oft

27、en used low-key, sometimes not so straight, in particular, may lead to direct that the others unhappiness. In other words, to translate good, cannot just look at the literal meaning, but also understand the true meaning of the speaker, that is why the speaker said the words, the so-called pragmatic

28、meaningThen, during our translation, this condition that the surface of the word is not but in reality it is certain often appears. Here are some cases.(1) I couldnt feel better. This sentence means that I am fine. But in literally, it shows that I am not OK. “Negative words plus comparative” someti

29、mes does not mean negative but affirmed. Another example: no less than (as no less), none the less (still), nothing than (exclusively) and other structures reflect the same meaning.(2) We cant be too careful! The best understanding is that more careful, things can be better. If we just see it with w

30、ords, it can be understand like we were not careful. “Cant be too” means “no matter what . . not too much”. It is actually expressed “the more, the better”. A similar sentence as well: “not too . to + verb prototype”; “never too . to + verb prototype (not . . to . .)”; “none to + adjective or adverb

31、”. Affirmed the above structure is significant.(3) He cannot choose but do it by himself. We can know as he even does not choose to do it himself. Better, we should think that he has to do it himself. “Cannot choose (help) but + verb prototype does not mean negative but affirmed, which means have to

32、 , “inevitable”. A similar phrase also like “cannot but + verb prototype”, “cannot help + v-ing forms” and so on.Besides that, the sentence turns up the negative words, but the whole does not mean deny all, it just negatives part of it. For instance: “All the answers are not right”. It means that so

33、me answers are right, some are wrong. If a sentence shows the following words: “allnot，everynot” (when “all”, “every” expressed the overall concept of words , they are followed by not shows negative components); “notand” (When connecting two words or phrases, as part of its meaning, it is more negat

34、ive. When using “not. . . and. . . ”, the front part of “and” is positive, denied later), we should pay more attention to them and judge the modal of the whole sentence.In addition, we also need to focus on the lexical meaning of the extended extension. “Die also” means weak or disappeared, die slow

35、ly means die hard. Therefore hope dies slowly translated as always hopeful. At last, lets talk about the idiom, the commonly used words and phrases. (1) “Not for ones health” is a widely used American idioms, it is the same as “not for nothing”, or “with a definite object”, meaning a certain purpose

36、. The sentence “Im not here for any health” can be translated as “I come here for some targets”.(2) “Potato” is a favorite food of the West, so the English phrases or idioms containing potato also followed, and the number of them. Such as: to tell thatto potatoes (do not believe); a hot potato (diff

37、icult issues or difficult people); a small potato (small figure) and so on. “Buy it” is a slang, which used when answering questions or quizzes, which means “give up” And it also related idioms: You said it. (Yes, it is so); Catch it. (Subject to duties, be punished); It cant be helped. (There is no

38、 way). (3) British love tea is a world-known thing. But the tea were tastes not all the same when people have different feelings, some people like to drink Chinese tea, some people like to drink Ceylon tea, some love milk tea. Thus, each person has their own favorite tea. Ones cup of tea is an idiom

39、, refers to a persons taste in art, or that a persons preferences and interests.(4) “Sell” as well as “marketing, publicity”, it is also known as “preaching him to me”, “stop selling me to him” can say as “do not speak highly of me when facing me”.(5) “Merely” means just and therefore it cannot be m

40、isunderstood as “not only. . but. . .” “not only . . and . .” “They were not merely a bunch of casual letters，but were biographical ones” should be known as they are not just some letters, they are very valuable.(6) “Cross” can see as a verb (cross, across, through), it can also be used as a noun (t

41、he cross, filing fold hybrid, etc). Constitute the idiom, there has been a wide range of translation, compare the following translation: “a cross in life” means burden, the burden of the equivalent of (a burden in life). Look at this sentence: He has a cross in life, the main reason for the translat

42、ion error was that it see “cross” as “cross the mouth”, here it should be regarded as an idiomatic expression: “a heavy burden”.We all know that if you want to be a good translator, you must read more and learn more. In terms of that, here is another thing to concentrate on: Guess the sentences mean

43、ing by the use of clues of the definition of style. In order to have a better expression of their ideas, the author uses definition on some important concepts, terms and other difficult terms or explanations in the article. The information provided by these explanations have a clear target, it is ea

44、sier to use them to guess the meaning. For example: Kinetic energy is the energy of moving particles. Kinetic enegry words may be, by definition of breeding is to describe the nature of the subject content. So kinetic energy is “the energy of moving particles” Another example “Typhoons are cyclones,

45、 storms with strong winds rotating around a low-pressure center”. If the cyclones are words, clues to infer is the meaning behind. It is the interpretation of “low-pressure center formed around the storm” which means we know that cyclones “low pressure center formed around the storm”. Defined in thi

46、s interpretation, mostly verb sentence are just like: be, mean, deal with, be considered, to be, refer to, be called, be known as, define, represent, signify, constitute and so on. At the end of the article, we can make a conclusion. There are five sides to be cared:A、Do not be single-mindedness. Ch

47、inese are concise and comprehensive, containing many flexible sentences. It is often seen that a word in Chinese corresponds to many English vocabularies. Sometimes it is specific to the meaning of the sentence which should be used that in that term. We should be sure to grasp the essence of the wor

48、d.B、Caution: “do not match the soil and water”, used with misconduct. This is indeed a major problem degree of difficulty, which requires both high Chinese translator training and high attainments in English. If you have little knowledge, you will often “roll-over” in this part.C、Do not ignore the s

49、ubject. Subject is the soul of a sentence, the subject of long term resident asked a move is critical. Fixed partial subject, the whole sentence will seem loose fatigue, or even misleading.D、Do not only use a single structure or match. The English structure is different and so is the way of expression. “Hard translation” is not only read awkward, but also easy to make funny mistakes. This requires the tra