1-3周读书笔记

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Three Scalpels for Trimming Linguistic Fat
I. Redundant Nouns: Hidden Fat in Prepositional Phrases
The book's dissection of the "noun plague" struck a nerve in my writing habits. For instance, in the phrase "accelerate the pace of economic reform," the word "pace" is a redundant noun parasitizing the verb "accelerate"—speeding up reform inherently implies "increasing pace." This "verb + noun" structure is like a bulky overcoat, obscuring the sharpness of the action itself. When I revised "the implementation of innovative teaching methods" in my paper to "implement innovative teaching methods," the sentence became 30% shorter, and the agency of the subject—people—suddenly came to life.

The most startling revelation was the trap of nouns like "situation." In the book's example, "the situation in northeast China was still one where...," the word "situation" not only adds no value but also drags in the convoluted structure "one where." This reminded me of how I once translated "the phenomenon of students being late" when simply saying "students are often late" would have been far more concise.

II. Weak Verbs + Nouns: A Breeding Ground for Mental Laziness
The book's exposure of the "make/conduct/carry out + noun" structure hit home, as it is a chronic issue in my writing. When "conduct a discussion" is streamlined to "discuss," what's saved is not just three words but also a mental crutch. This structure essentially uses "universal weak verbs" to avoid thinking about precise actions, akin to saying "proceed to eat" instead of "eat." While revising a course report, I changed "we must make efforts to solve this problem" to "we must solve this problem." Removing "make efforts to" unexpectedly amplified the sentence's urgency and determination.

Redundancy in passive voice is even more insidious. The book's example of simplifying "grain rationing was implemented" to "grain was rationed" made me realize how bureaucratic verbs like "implement" dilute the directness of action. This inspired me to revise "the policy has been fully implemented" in a government document translation to "the policy is fully enforced," significantly enhancing the verb's impact.

III. Redundant Twins: Self-Defeating Emphasis
Phrases like "each and every" and "first and foremost," which I once considered sophisticated, actually reveal a lack of confidence in the core meaning of words. The book's critique of "end result" was particularly eye-opening—"result" already implies finality, and adding "end" undermines its authority. This prompted me to revisit my translation assignments: rendering "彻底消除" as "completely eliminate" is redundant because "eliminate" inherently means "to remove completely."

Practical Reflections and Next Steps
Build a Personal "Linguistic Fat" Case Library: Record structures like "conduct research" and "carry out analysis" in my writing and force myself to replace them with single verbs.

Verb Strength Grading Exercise: Categorize common weak verbs (make/conduct/implement) into three levels of action intensity and create a substitution database.

Chinese-English Cognitive Contrast: Analyze redundant nouns (e.g., "工作") that must be retained in government document translations and develop context-specific solutions.

These three chapters act like a prism, refracting the thought patterns behind Chinglish—using noun piles to evade action responsibility and complex structures to mask expressive timidity. When I revised "there has been a significant enhancement in student engagement" in my paper to "students engage more actively," I finally grasped the backbone of English: verbs are the spine of a sentence.

z-GUAI-z

你捕捉到了《中式英语之鉴》的批判核心，即本书以“语言脂肪”为喻，将冗余名词、弱动词结构等抽象概念转化为可操作的诊断工具（譬如“实施→implement→enforce”的动词强度进化）。可贵之处在于，你不仅解剖文本，更转向自身写作实践，通过“政策文件翻译”等真实案例验证理论，应用至“动词强度分级数据库”等训练中。建议下一步可将“中英认知对比”部分拓展为跨文化修辞学研究，升维至思维塑形。加油！！！