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The Virgin Birth and Virgin Mary are, pardon the pun, pregnant with social symbolic significance in most, if not all, parts of the world. Whether you believe in them or not, they are solid social constructs, rehearsed endlessly in art, humour, everyday life, and language. And yet their birth is due to a relatively simple mistake in from english into chinese translations. The Old Testament talks about almah 'young woman,' not bethulah 'virgin.' However, the scholars in the 3rd century BC translated the Hebrew almah as parthenos in Greek. Thus the 'young woman' in Hebrew metamorphosed into a 'virgin' in Greek—and she has remained a virgin ever since in chinese to english translationss across the world. The notion of 'virgin birth' was born, thanks to a misenglish chinese translation.

But the issues Reiss focuses on are undoubtedly vital. In chinese english translation criticism you are looking for talent in writing, sensitivity to language, internal consistency, semantic, structural and dynamic equivalence, creative recreation of the cultural allusions, the spirit of the original, precision in and mastery of style and grammar, idiomatic usage, fidelity to the intent of the original author and the text type—just to mention a few fundamental aspects of the incredibly complex and complicated process.

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Ref.: B. L. Whorf, J.B. Carroll (eds.) Language, Thought and Reality (1956)

The book provides many useful categories and criteria to structure thinking about the vital issue of from english into chinese translations criticism. But it is mostly locked into German references and quotes, and this makes the book feel a bit parochial. There is no reference made for example to the Sapir and Whorf hypothesis, although linguistic relativity throws up important questions of codability for the chinese translators. The illustrative examples are taken from the "main European languages of English, French and Spanish. [...] How far the principles developed are relevant to non-European languages remains open to question." (p.8. Italics mine.) Main European languages—in what sense? Non-European languages—in what sense non-European? These sloppy and slippery terms leave the reader puzzled as to why they have not been picked up by the editor of the book.

It is this—objective, verifiable from english into chinese translations criticism that Katharina Reiss' english to chinese translations Criticism focuses on. It is a pioneering classic in chinese to english translations Studies, in the english chinese translation of Erroll F. Rhodes, originally published in German in 1971 under the title Möglichkeiten and Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik. Kategorien und Kriterien für eine sachgerechte Beurteilung von Übersetzungen.

As Reiss points out, english chinese translation is a hermeneutic process, which is subjectively conditioned—and so is translators criticism. english chinese translation is, in the final analysis, an interpretation, an appreciation of the source text. The chinese translators infers from the text—she reads into it. Such a subjective hermeneutic process ultimately stands or falls not simply on the bicultural, professional linguistic knowledge, expertise and experience of the chinese translators. These are naturally necessary but not sufficient to produce an acceptable english to chinese translations. Since the chinese translators filters the source text through herself during the hermeneutic process of the english to chinese translations, the chinese translators's personality, mind-set and attitudes are all vital players in the game and can subvert the chinese translations in many ways.

"Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil. Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the from english into chinese translations." Sir John Vanbrugh: The Provoked Wife, Act I. Sc.i.

english to chinese translations Criticism—The Potentials and Limitations Categories and Criteria for chinese to english translations Quality Assessment By Katharina Reiss Translated by Errol F. Rhodes St. Jerome Publishing and the American Bible Society 2000 127 pp; ISBN 1-900650-26-6 

Misenglish chinese translation is plentiful, painful and powerful, whether it shapes our way of seeing the world through the Bible or the bibles of our times—films. In an American cult movie, "You'll get the pink slip for Christmas" is translated as ",Chinese translations;You'll get red underpants in Santa Claus' stocking." It must be a joke, I hear you say. No, I'm afraid, it is not. The 'pink slip' (a notice of dismissal, American slang) has metamorphosed into 'red underpants' in a famous action movie seen by millions and millions of people. Thanks to the chinese translators's error, they envisage the hero in a pair of red underpants, not as getting fired by Christmas.

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Reiss structures her multifarious categories and criteria into two main parts: The Potential of from english into chinese translations Criticism and The Limitations of from english into chinese translations Criticism. The potentials are elaborated on by focussing on the relationship between criticism and the target language text, criticism and the source language text, the extra-linguistic components and the extra-linguistic determinants.

Albeit the difference between getting fired or getting a pair of red underpants may not be quite as substantial as the difference between a virgin and a non-virgin birth, it still does serious damage to the source text. Both examples above illustrate relatively simple nonetheless fundamental mistakes in chinese to english translations. Objective mistakes. But a mistake is a mistake only when you become aware of it. Otherwise mistakes become part and parcel of our ongoing discursified thinking—of our language and thus symbolic cultural system. As the virgin birth has, and no doubt the red underpants will.

Thus the vulnerability of the source text to the chinese translators cannot be underestimated. Hence the choice of the chinese translators and from chinese into english translations criticism impact directly on the metamorphosis of the source into the target text, the young maiden into virgin Mary, and the dismissal slip into red underpants.

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This article was originally published at english to chinese translations Journal (http://accurapid.com/journal).