Pīnyīn-English Expressions

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The English translations follow these principles:

• As far as is practical, the meaning of each individual Mandarin morpheme (smallest unit of language sound with meaning) is translated literally according to how it is used in the context in which it appears. (In Mandarin, morphemes usually correspond with syllables, but some syllables are sound-only and thus not morphemes, and some morphemes have more than one syllable.)
• Interpuncts (·) are used to separate sections of meaning.
  • E.g., in lái·zì (comes · from) ,
    • “lái” corresponds with “ (comes) ”, and
    • “zì” corresponds with “ (from) ”.
• If a set of English words is surrounded by curly brackets, or braces, i.e. { }, then that set of English words conveys the literal meaning of the Mandarin morpheme(s) it corresponds to.
• When a single English word or a set of English words surrounded by curly brackets corresponds to two or more Mandarin morphemes, that means that it conveys the literal meaning of each of those Mandarin morphemes.
  • E.g., in bāngzhù (help , “ (help ” is the literal meaning of both “bāng” and “zhù”.
• When literal translations do not make sense, or are not understandable enough, then the effective meanings are used instead, surrounded by square brackets, i.e. [ ].
• When literal translations may not be understandable enough on their own, but can still be useful to know, the literal translations may be shown, followed by their effective meanings.
  • E.g., with yí·dìng ({[with] one} · {setting fixedly})   (→ [definitely]) , it can be seen that with “yí·dìng”, the literal translations “ ({[with] one} · {setting fixedly}) ” lead to an effective meaning of “ ([definitely]) ”.
• English words corresponding to Mandarin syllables that are selected for their sound and not their meaning, such as those used to represent non-Mandarin names, are not surrounded by square brackets. (In such cases, the sound of those Mandarin syllables practically is their meaning.) However, sets of such corresponding English words are surrounded by curly brackets.

This approach to translating can sometimes result in English translations that don’t follow traditional English usage patterns. However, the purpose of the material is not necessarily to move the hearts of English-speaking publishers through the use of their mother tongue. Rather, the purpose of the material is to help publishers to understand and speak Mandarin better, so that they can ultimately better move the hearts of Mandarin-speaking Bible students through the use of their mother tongue.