It’s not easy to truly master the techniques of Chinese document translation since translators will meet various difficulties in Chinese document translation. Firstly, all English learners share the same view: it’s difficult to have a grasp of the English language due to the difference in history, culture and customs. The English sentences which are regarded as logical by people from England and America are illogical and intermittent in Chinese. Secondly, there is a difference in Chinese expression: translators may get dizzy looking for an equivalent word just like looking for a key anxiously to open a box with no result. In addition, it demands a high level of cultural knowledge since the article we translate may relate to a wide range of fields, most of which are unfamiliar to us. If we have no corresponding cultural knowledge, errors or mistranslation is inevitable. Because of all those difficulties, we need to have a contrast and summary of the features of the two languages to find a general expressive law, thus avoiding errors in translation. All those expressive laws are the translation skills we have mentioned.
We need to be skilled at identifying the meanings of the key words in the original sentence after having a grasp of the structure of the original sentence in Certified Chinese translation, in order to have a smoothly translated text . We may adapt the following two methods to identify the lexical meanings:
I. Determining the meaning of a word according to the parts of speech in the sentence
They are like two peas in a pod.他們相似極了。（Adjective）
He likes mathematics more than physics.他喜歡數學甚於喜歡物理。（Verb）
Wheat， oat， and the like are cereals.小麥、燕麥等等皆屬穀類。（Noun）
II. Determining the word meaning based on the context and collocation of the word in the sentence
He is the last man to arrive .他是最後來的。
He is the last person for such a job .他最不配做這個工作。
He should be the last man to blame.怎麼也不該怪他。
This is the last place where I expected to meet you .我怎麼也沒料到會在這個地方見到你。
Meaning implication is one of the skills we often adopt in Chinese document translation. During the translation process, we sometimes cannot find a proper word in the English dictionary. The translated text will be obscure so that the exact expression of the original text can not be achieved or even cause misunderstanding if carrying out arbitrary translation or word-to-word translation. In such cases, we can extend the meaning of a word from its basic meaning in accordance with the context and the logical relations. The following three aspects can be considered in meaning extension.
I. Semantic translation: we can have an extended translation according to the context and the logical relations when encountering words or phrases difficult or inappropriate to literally translate.
The energy of the sun comes to the earth mainly as light and heat .太陽能主要以光和熱的形式傳到地球。
II. Specifying the word meaning: Some relatively general words will be converted into specific words according to the Chinese convention.
The last stage went higher and took the Apollo into orbit around the earth.最後一級火箭升得更高，把“阿波羅號”送進圍繞地球運行的軌道。
III. Abstraction of the word meaning: Some concrete words will be converted into relatively abstract words or the relatively vivid words are converted into general words according to the Chinese convention
Every life has its roses and thorns .每個人的生活都有甜有苦。
Next time we will show you more about the Chinese document translation.