【正文】 gry and spoke out “order” to let them be quiet, but the students misunderstood the meaning of “order” intentionally, which is a humorous effect, and answered that: “we want beer.”(2) A man sits down at a table in a restaurant and asks, “Do you serve crabs here?” The waiter says, “Sure, sit down, we serve anybody.” ——一個(gè)人在餐館桌前坐下問(wèn)道，“你們這兒serve crabs (注)嗎？”服務(wù)員說(shuō)：“是的， 請(qǐng)坐，我們招待各種人?！弊ⅲ簊erve crabs可理解為“供應(yīng)螃蟹”，也可理解為“接待脾氣乖戾的人”，所以服務(wù)員答非所問(wèn)。Note: “Serve crabs” can be understood by “serving a sea animal with a broad flat shell and five pairs of legs” as well as “serving the people with cantankerous temper”. Therefore, the waitress gave an irrelevant answer. (Yuan Chuandao, 2007)In the two examples above, “order”, “serve” and “crabs” are ambiguous. The translator used the method of keeping English words and adding notes to translate the original well. This method can not only help the translators keep the original style and translate it correctly but also help the readers to understand the translation well. Other methods of translating English ambiguous wordsExcept the methods discussed above, to translate ambiguous words, the means of speech sounds or the use of extralinguistic situation also can be used to translate ambiguous words. Using speech sounds is to use the intonation, stress and pause to help to translate English ambiguous words used in interpretation.(1) She is an English teacher.a. 她是一名英語(yǔ)老師。(She is a teacher who teaches English.)b. 她是一名英國(guó)來(lái)的老師。(She is a teacher from England.) (An Yan, Li Shaofeng, 1995)Which translation is the correct one? In this case, it is good to pay attention to the stress. If the stress falls on the word “English”, the sentence means “she is a teacher who teaches English language”。 if on the word “teacher”, the phrase means “she is a teacher from England”. Another example (2) cited in part “They eat what they can, and can what they cannot.” If the verb “can” is stressed, it means “裝罐頭” (to preserve food by putting it in a can)，if it is not stressed, it is a modal verb, means “能” (it is possible for somebody or something to do something or for something to happen).Using extralinguistic situation in translation is to choose the proper meaning of the ambiguous words according to the time, place, participants, topic of munication and social culture. For example, (1) He is an ambitious man.a. 他是一個(gè)有野心的人。(He is a man who is thirsty for power.)b. 他是一個(gè)有抱負(fù)的人。(He is a man with aspirations.) (Qiu Shude, 2003:97)(2) He is an aggressive man.a. 他是個(gè)積極進(jìn)取的人。(He is a man with enterprising spirit.)b. 他是個(gè)好斗的人。(He is a militant.) (Qiu Shude, 2003:97)The two examples both has two different translations, which one to choose is decided by the topic of munication. Take the first one for example: if the munication is about Hitler, it is the first translation should be chose. Also, English in England and America are different because of different culture. Therefore, the participants of munication should be considered while translating or interpreting. For example:(3) We will table the motion.a. 我們是要把這項(xiàng)議案列入日程的。（英）(We will put the motion on the schedule.)b. 我們是要把這項(xiàng)議案擱置起來(lái)的。（美）(We will shelve the motion.) (Qiu Shude, 2003: 109)No matter the writer or speaker use ambiguous words intentionally or unintentionally, using context to help to understand the original is the foundation of accurate translation because the choosing of word meaning depends on the specific context. Each word when used in a new context is a new word.4. ConclusionA correct understanding of the original is the fundament of translation and it is important to understand the word’s meaning in order to have right prehension of the original. Therefore, it is very important to choose proper meaning of a word on the basis of accurate prehension of the original. However, there are a large number of vocabularies, concluding a lot of homonyms and polysemic words in English which always cause wrong translations and interpretations. From the above discussion, it is clear that the translators or interpreters should know the causes of English ambiguous words and then use proper methods while translating the original containing such words. Actually, there isn’t ambiguity in words。 it is people who speak, write or understand the word that make them ambiguous. Therefore, it is important to distinguish the real purpose of speakers or writers. If it is the speakers or writers who use these words intentionally in order to gets the effect of humor, the ambiguity need not to remove when translated。 if the ambiguous words are used unintentionally, the ambiguity should be removed for the correct translation. Context is the foundation of translating ambiguous words because the meaning of a word depends on context and a word or phrase is isolated in the dictionary, but if it is put into a specific context, it is a part of the context structure and form the organic coding system with the other words and phrases. Therefore, it is wise for translators or interpreters to use context in their translation work. Only if the translators or interpreters have good prehension of English ambiguous words and then choose proper method to translate them could they give a correct and clear translation to the readers. ReferencesAn Yan, Li Shaofeng. “A Breif Analysis of English Ambiguity.” China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House 1995:5358.Bussmann, Hadumod. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. (Gregory P. Trauth and kerstin Kazzazi Trans.) Beijing: Foreign Language teaching and research Press, 2000.Lyons John. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. 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