Why do English-Chinese translation need unit conversion?

People think that English and Chinese belong to different language families, and they use different words, phrases and sentences, so English-Chinese translation needs unit conversion.

The concept of "transformation" was originally defined by Catford as "deviation from formal correspondence in the process from source language to target language".

Transformation is the most basic method in translation practice, and the word "translation" itself refers to the process of transforming one language into another.

Five methods of English translation

1, literal translation-that is, direct translation according to the literal meaning of the text.

2. Synonymous idiom borrowing method-Some synonymous idioms in the two languages are consistent in content, form and color. They not only have the same meaning or implied meaning, but also have the same or very similar images or metaphors.

3. Free translation-Some idioms can't be translated directly, and synonyms can't be borrowed, so we have to deal with them by free translation.

4. Ellipsis-There is a situation in Chinese that there are some ambiguous word pairs in idioms, and the meanings are repeated before and after.

5. Addition method-In order to express the original intention more clearly, some explanations are sometimes added to the translation according to the needs of the context.

6. reduction method-some idioms are derived from foreign languages and can be reduced when translated.