中式英语之鉴 读书笔记

Dilnar

The Structural and Cultural Roots of Chinglish

Chapter 3 of The Translator’s Guide to Chinglish provides a penetrating analysis of how linguistic and cognitive differences between Chinese and English lead to characteristic errors in translation. Unlike English, which relies on explicit grammatical connections (hypotaxis), Chinese often expresses ideas through implicit logical flow (parataxis). This fundamental distinction manifests in recurring patterns of Chinglish that require careful attention to correct.  

One major source of error lies in vocabulary. Chinese terms frequently carry cultural or political connotations that lack direct English equivalents. For instance, translating "宣传" as "propaganda" introduces unintended negative implications, where "publicity" would be more neutral. Similarly,"黄色电影"becomes misleading as "yellow movie" instead of the accurate "pornographic film." Beyond individual words, Chinese favors serial verb constructions, whereas English demands clear syntactic hierarchy. A phrase like "提高人民生活水平" cannot be translated literally but must be restructured as "improve living standards" to sound natural.  
Ultimately, overcoming Chinglish requires more than vocabulary substitution—it demands an understanding of how English constructs meaning through grammar, logic, and cultural context. By recognizing these structural differences, translators can move beyond word-for-word conversion to produce genuinely idiomatic English.