Verification of Word Meaning and Search for Parallel Texts

Since a language can become a full-fledged language, it must have undergone centuries of accumulation and evolution. In this process, it inevitably develops its own inherent and unique modes of expression and habits of speech. Just as there are idioms and proverbs in Chinese, foreign languages also contain words with deep meanings. When translating, if we directly translate these words into Chinese, it often leads to awkward sentences or difficulties in understanding the meaning. In such cases, we need to search for relevant parallel texts related to the article to accurately verify the meaning of the words, and then read through the entire article to grasp the meaning of the terms in the actual context by linking them to the surrounding text, thereby allowing for flexible expression in the translation.

First is the verification of word meanings. For me, when translating from French to Chinese, if I encounter vocabulary whose meanings I am unsure about, the first thing I do is consult a French-French dictionary. Usually, a French-French dictionary can help solve more than half of our problems because the definitions it provides are more aligned with the French context. Sometimes it includes example sentences, and at times it explains the historical references behind the vocabulary. Of course, we can also use search engines to further verify fixed collocations and usage methods of the words, checking whether authoritative and professional websites provide similar usage examples. At this point, we need to search for parallel texts on related topics. Articles on the same theme often feature keywords with similar or identical meanings, which can better aid our understanding of rare words. 

For example, consider a passage I encountered during my practice:

“Une parenthèse de l’histoire économique vient de se refermer : elle aura duré presque trente ans. Tout commence au début des années 1980, lorsque Ronald Reagan à Washington et Margaret Thatcher à Londres lancent leur croisade libérale : moins d’État, plus de marche.”

The two expressions in dark text, “Une parenthèse se refermer” and “croisade,” would be difficult to understand if translated literally into Chinese. Let’s examine them respectively. First, “Une parenthèse se refermer” means “to close a parenthesis,” indicating that a matter has completely come to an end, with no further developments. The literal translation of this phrase would be “an economic era has just closed its parentheses.” There is a corresponding expression in Chinese that conveys the same meaning, but instead of “closing a parenthesis,” it uses “drawing a conclusion.” Thus, we can flexibly translate it into a more easily understood Chinese saying: "一个经济时代刚刚画上了句号" (An economic era has just drawn to a close).

As for the second word “croisade,” we can find in the French-French dictionary that it has two main meanings: one refers to the Crusades waged by Christians against Islam, and the other is “a movement to rally and mobilize the masses against a certain issue.” By examining the context, we can infer that it leans more towards the second meaning here. However, determining how to phrase it in Chinese remains challenging. At this point, we can utilize search engines to look up parallel texts. By entering “*croisade site:francetvinfo.fr” into Google, we can find several news articles containing “croisade.” After reading them comprehensively, we find that its meaning primarily revolves around “struggle” and “reform.” Therefore, we can translate it as "Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher launched liberalization reforms in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively."

The translation of the entire passage would thus be:

“一个经济时代刚刚画上了句号，这个时代持续了大概三十年，它开始于20世纪80年代初，当时罗纳德·里根和玛格丽特·撒切尔分别在美国和英国展开了自由化改革，希望少一些国家干预，多一些市场调节。”

◀️：On the Method of Sentence Division in Translating English Long Sentences into Chinese

▶️：Searching and Verifying in Translation