What Goes Wrong when we Translate the Words

It makes intuitive sense that a translation should preserve the meaning of each word. But in this case, our intuition leads us astray, which is why I’m not a fan of so-called “literal,” “essentially literal,” or “formal equivalence” translations. Here’s an example that will make clear what goes wrong. There’s a German verb blaumachen. Though…
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April 22, 2011 13