中式英语之鉴Part Two(1)

人生不过三万天

Content: 1. The noun plague: Plain English is based on verb while Chinglish is based on nouns.
2.Perils of using abstract nouns: Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.
3.Sentences based on abstract nouns
4.Combating the plague: i. Replacing the nouns with a verb ii. Replacing the noun with a gerund iii. Replacing the noun with an adjective or adverb iv. Spelling it out
5.A special form of the plague: i. Using a single noun as an adjective ii. Using two nouns as adjectives iii. Using three or more nouns as adjectives
6.Avoiding the use of nouns as adjectives: i. If there are two or more nouns together, one of them can be converted into another part of speech ii. Providing a preposition is introduced to show the connection between them iii. Using a hyphen

Evaluation: Pinkham's analysis of Chinese-to-English translation's over-reliance on nouns provides valuable insight into a fundamental stylistic difference between the languages. Her identification of "the noun plague" effectively captures how abstract noun constructions create unnecessarily convoluted English prose. The categorization of solutions - verb conversion, gerund use, and prepositional clarification - offers practical remedies for this common issue. The section on multi-noun adjectives is particularly astute, highlighting a distinctive feature of Chinglish that often produces confusing phrases like "quality education project implementation plan." However, the analysis could benefit from more examples demonstrating how to reconstruct such phrases naturally in English. While the strategies are theoretically sound, some real-world applications remain challenging, especially in technical or formal writing where noun clusters are conventionally accepted.

Reflection: This chapter resonated deeply with my translation experience. I frequently encounter source texts filled with abstract noun constructions like "the enhancement of the implementation of policies," which I now confidently convert to "enhancing how policies are implemented." Pinkham's verb-focused approach has significantly improved the readability of my translations. However, I've found that completely avoiding noun chains isn't always practical, especially in specialized fields where terms like "machine learning algorithm optimization" are standard. In these cases, I apply Pinkham's hyphenation and preposition suggestions to improve clarity while maintaining technical precision. This nuanced approach has helped me strike a balance between natural English and field-specific terminology.