There are two more situation we should notice during translation:
4. Misunderstanding of the idiom
There are a lot of idioms in English, which enhanced language skills. Most of them can be literally translated, or can be apply Chinese idioms correspondingly.
For example: the open door policy开放政策,the cold war 冷战,to fish in troubled waters 混水摸鱼,strike while the iron is hot 趁热打铁,at sixes and sevens 乱七八糟。
But there are some idioms which must be paraphrased to express the correct meaning, such as:
She was born with a siver spoon in her mouth.
她长生在富贵之家。
You’re talking through your had again.
你又在胡说八道了。
You should keep your nose out of here.
你别管闲事。
Good to begin well, better to end well.
要善始善终。
5. Vocabulary Translation errors
Some vocabularies will have a new meaning in some cases, if literally translated, which would distort the original intent. So we should to determine the specific meaning according to language environment. Development and vary of semantic English is very common.
He is the last its roses and thorns.
他最不配干这件事。
Every life has its roses and thorns.
人生有苦有甜。
The wedding, which Heyward still remembered with pride ,was attended by a who’s who of Boston Society.
赫华德仍然记得,参加婚礼的人中有波士顿的一位社会名流,这使他感到十分得意。
It can be seen from the above sentences, some words have special meaning in certain occasions or structures, such as: the last, who’s who. Some words have its figurative meaning. Like roses and thorns ,Some words have reversal meaning in some special occasions,like “yes” and “no”,Some words meaning have extension or development later. In summary, the specific meaning of a word should according to their occasions, conditions, awareness and sentence structures. It cannot be based on hearsay evidence, metaphrase and paraphrase, both methods have its advantage. We should combine the two methods to achieve a desired result.