中式英语之鉴读书笔记

zwt

In the "The Noun Plague" chapter, the author analyzes the phenomenon of overusing nouns in Chinglish, which provides profound inspiration for our English learning.

In Chinglish, the abuse of nouns often makes expressions redundant and complex. For example, when translating "我们必须促进两国之间的贸易" as "We must promote the trade between the two countries.", the use of "the" is a bit unnecessary. It is more concise to say "We must promote trade between the two countries." directly. This phenomenon is partly due to Chinese language habits. In Chinese, modifiers are usually added directly before nouns. Influenced by this, it is easy to have unnecessary noun piles in Chinglish. For example, "进行……的讨论" is often translated as "carry out a discussion of...", but in fact, "discuss..." is enough.

Looking at it from a deeper level, the abuse of nouns can cover up the core meaning of a sentence and make the information less direct and efficient to convey. For example, in business English writing, sentences with a large number of piled-up nouns make it difficult for readers to quickly grasp the key content, reducing communication efficiency. This reflects the difference in thinking patterns behind languages. English tends to be concise and direct, while Chinese expressions are relatively implicit and euphemistic. This difference is reflected in language structures, resulting in an excessive number of nouns in Chinglish.

From the study of this chapter, we have learned that in translation practice, we should develop a keen language perception ability, learn to identify and delete unnecessary nouns. Usually, we can read more English original works and foreign periodicals to deeply understand English expression habits. At the same time, when writing, we should actively change our thinking, start from the reader's perspective, and think about how to convey information accurately with the simplest language. Only by continuous accumulation and practice can we avoid the abuse of nouns and make our English expressions more native and natural.