请教美国同仁关于医疗器械翻译(Please help with a translation question about medical instrument)

Shaunna wrote:
“是不是不是中国话” 是不是很差劲的中国话？

Hanyi Magnusson wrote:

It was me who brought a similar question in another thread, I am glad to find the right place to discuss this question.

It seems colleagues here inclineｄ to the intepretation of "on physician's order" (遵医嘱） for "on the order of a physician"；only Angus Woo and MNY mentioned another possibility.

I don't know the ultimate right answer, my sample sentence is slightly different from LU Zhou, it is not 'sale by', but 'use by', and it is about surgical appliances.

ST:Ｆｅｄｅｒａｌ　Ｌａｗ　ｒｅｓｔｒｉｃｔｓ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｄｅｖｉｃｅｓ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ　ｂｙ，ｏｒ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｏｒｄｅｒ　ｏｆ　ａ　ｐｈｙｓｉｃｉａｎ．

I have three　ｖｅｒｓｉｏｎs　ｏｆ　ｔｒａｎｓｌａｔｉｏｎ：

１．联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或在医师指导下使用。
２．联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或与医师同类的专业人员使用。
3. 联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或遵照医嘱使用。

My initial translation was version 1, but during my own review, I felt slightly uncomfortable since 'on the order of a physician' does not quite refer to 'under the supervision of a physician'. Then I checked the phrase 'on the order of', found out it is an idiom and meant 'Of a kind or fashion similar to; like' and 'Approximately; about' http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/o/o0110300.html

I realize there could be an ambiguous situation here, since at a glance, 'on the order of' is very similar to 'on order', or 'to order' or 'ones order', there is, however, a possibility that it is actually specifically chose for the context. As MNY suggested, it might be worth while to have the manutacture verify the exact meaning of the sentence. Otherwise, all three versions in my opinion are all suitable, but could totally deviate from what it intended to serve.

http://www.answers.com/topic/on-the-order-of

on the order of

Idioms

1. Approximately, as in We need on the order of three cases of wine for the reception.
2. Like, of a kind similar to, as in Their house is on the order of a colonial saltbox. [c. 1900]

Shaunna wrote:
"是不是不是"这话说起来不觉得有什么，写下来回头一看真别扭。

David Shen wrote:

1. 理解
起先为了怕理解有误，我还真的为了此“病”专门去看了医生。 我将此句打印下来然后趁年度体检时拿到 Dr.Franklin的诊所请他和他的护士助手三个人看过，并叫他们将句子重新写过，请他们不要用 "on order"这个词。 结果Dr.Franklin用 “prescription only by a doctor" 来作答。 并象开药方似的将句子写下来，签了名给我。 至此，我的“疑心病”算是看好了。

David Shen wrote:

看来碰到这类英文“绕口令”，用中文说还是会“结结吧吧”。 STEVE兄重提此句，也许我们再来一番争论，能将讨论提高到另一个层次，即： 认识到中文本身的局限性。大家知道在北京当教授的南方人的尴尬吗？

wherestip wrote:

I hope this convinces you a bit more.



[Edited at 2007-08-11 18:09]

wherestip wrote:
"due diligence".

David Shen wrote:



STEVE，

很“巴家”是吗？这是我们杭嘉湖一带的土话，也有讲成“巴结”的，指“勤劳”，是褒义。可到了北方或写成文字就成了贬义了，你说要不要命？

难怪南方人到了北方想拍人家马屁也要特别小心，本来想称赞人家媳妇“巴结”（勤劳），让人家丈夫听了还以为你是要“巴结”他媳妇，或她有意“巴结”过你......
你这小子不怀好意，甭来这儿转悠，看我不把你一脚踹出去。

Hanyi Magnusson wrote:

ST:Ｆｅｄｅｒａｌ　Ｌａｗ　ｒｅｓｔｒｉｃｔｓ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｄｅｖｉｃｅｓ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ　ｂｙ，ｏｒ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｏｒｄｅｒ　ｏｆ　ａ　ｐｈｙｓｉｃｉａｎ．

I have three　ｖｅｒｓｉｏｎs　ｏｆ　ｔｒａｎｓｌａｔｉｏｎ：

１．联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或在医师指导下使用。
２．联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或与医师同类的专业人员使用。
3. 联邦法规定该器械只能由医师或遵照医嘱使用。

Shaunna wrote:

Hanyi,

In US some instruments do require prescriptions and doctors do prescribe instruments. I know a colleague of mine bought her hearing instrument with her doctor's prescription, and another one needed a doctor's prescription for her asthma mask too.

Yongmei Liu wrote:

To make scenario 2 work, the sentence, in its expanded form, would look something like this:
Federal law restricts this device to use by a physician or someone [a professional] on the order of a physician.

From this you cannot get to:
Federal law restricts this device to use by, or on the order of a physician.

Hanyi Magnusson wrote:

Thanks, Shaunna! I suppose I have to accept the facts, even though I need to get my head around to the idea of using an electronic scissor with doctor's prescription. Maybe 'under the instruction of a doctor' is better...