Put sth. in perspective 是甚麼意思？

每當翻譯時碰到 put something in perspective 這個片語，腦袋都會卡住，所以把這個片語的相關資料整理一下，方便日後參考。

「天地無用」部落格有一篇文章解釋得挺清楚，摘錄如下：

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英文單字 “perspective” 最重要的意思就是「透視法」。

perspective = the art of drawing solid objects on a flat surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth and position in relation to each other

因此，「透視法」就是考量物體彼此的對應關係，在二維圖面上畫出物體適當的大小、寬高以及深淺。

請網友注意版主用綠色強調的地方，英美人士沿用這種觀念之後，便產生出本篇討論的片語 (in perspective)。英文的解釋如下：

If you get something in perspective or into perspective, you judge its real importance by considering it in relation to everything else. 

所以，學習這類片語時要先理解觀念，才不會拘泥於文字表面的意思。字典的中譯常常無法完整呈現英文的真正意思。

(英文例句)

There has always been a shorthand for American disaster: Three Mile Island. Oklahoma City. Pearl Harbor.

Now the nation appears to be settling on ”9-11” — pronounced ”nine-eleven,” not ”nine-one-one” — for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

”9-11 is easy to say,” English professor Wayne Glowka says. ”It means the date, but it means a whole complex of things — how we think, how we act, how we feel. There’s a whole 9-11 attitude.”

Language experts say the term offers clues to how the country is coping with the disaster.

Placing a sort of slang on the destruction wrought by the hijackers is one way of putting the tragedy in perspective and moving on, says Geoffrey Nunberg, a Stanford University linguist.

”There’s a need to package things, to label them, to get a handle on them,” he says.

source: http://www.yaelf.com/911.shtml

好了，看完例句之後應該能真正瞭解英文意思，傷腦筋的就只剩下如何將英文譯成中文。

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我碰過的句子：

We'll start with what software metrics are and why we need them, which should help put them in perspective.

To put this in perspective, it is unfortunate but true that sometimes a well-designed product has quality issues.

可能的譯法：

• 建立正確的觀念
• 從正確的角度來看待／思考某件事物
• 正確地說....