《中式英语之鉴》Part Two

十九

1. The Noun Plague
This chapter critiques the overuse of nominalizations in Chinglish, a phenomenon the authors term "The Noun Plague." Chinglish is a language based on vague, general, abstract nouns. It’s complicated, long-winded, ponderous, and obscure.
1. Abstract Noun Overload:
Chinese often replaces verbs with abstract nouns, while English prefers dynamic verbs for clarity and conciseness.
Example: The realization of mechanization and electrification of agriculture → The mechanization and electrification of agriculture.
2. Nominalized Verbs:
Using weak verb-noun pairs like “conduct an investigation” instead of strong and direct verbs like “investigate”.
Example: We should make an improvement in our work. → We should improve our work.
3. Redundant Noun Phrases:
Adding unnecessary nouns that English omits.
Example: Our troops used the method of slow advance. → Our troops advanced slowly.

2.Pronouns and Antecedents
This chapter delves into the problems arising from pronoun usage in Chinglish, with a particular focus on unclear antecedents and incorrect pronoun choices. The authors stress that for effective communication, pronouns must have clear antecedents and be correctly selected. When antecedents are ambiguous, readers may struggle to comprehend the intended meaning. When using pronouns, it is essential to ensure that their antecedents are clear, definite, and grammatically consistent to prevent ambiguity. For example, "the company needs funds. The funds are available" can be rewritten as "the company needs funds, which are available". By using the relative pronoun "which", it clarifies that "the funds" are exactly what the "company" needs, avoiding confusion.

3.The Placement of Phrases and Clauses
In Chinglish, improper placement of phrases and clauses is a prevalent problem. The positions of these elements within a sentence are of great significance as they can either clarify or obscure the sentence's meaning and logical relationships.
Key issues include:
1.Misplaced Modifiers:
Phrases or clauses placed too far from the words they modify.
Example: We met a man walking down the street with a dog. → We met a man with a dog walking down the street.
2.Dangling Modifiers:
Phrases or clauses that do not logically modify any word in the sentence.
Example: "After finishing my homework, the TV was turned on." → "After finishing my homework, I turned on the TV."
3.Ambiguous Structure: Phrases or clauses that can be interpreted in more than one way.
Example: "He saw the man with the telescope." → "He saw the man who had the telescope."

4.Dangling Modifiers
The article highlights dangling modifiers as a critical issue in Chinglish, arising from the structural flexibility of Chinese and the lack of explicit subject-verb relationships in participial phrases. A dangling modifier occurs when a participial phrase like "After finishing the report" or an infinitive phrase like "To improve efficiency" lacks a clear logical subject in the main clause. For example, the sentence "After working for hours, the project was finally completed" implies the project itself worked, which is illogical. Such errors stem from direct translation of Chinese sentences where the subject is often omitted.
To rectify this, we can use three strategies:
1.Adjust the main clause's subject to match the modifier: After working for hours, we finally completed the project.
2.Convert the modifier into a dependent clause with an explicit subject:After we worked for hours, the project was completed.
3.Rewrite the sentence structure to eliminate ambiguity:The project was completed after hours of work.

5.Parallel Structure
The article highlights parallel structure as a critical grammatical principle frequently violated in Chinese English due to the influence of Chinese syntactic flexibility. The chapter emphasizes that parallelism requires elements linked by coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but or correlative conjunctions such as not only...but also to share identical grammatical forms like nouns with nouns, verbs with verbs, and clauses with clauses.
Common Errors in Chinglish:
1.Mismatched Verb Forms:
She enjoys swimming, hiking, and to ride a bike.
Correction: She enjoys swimming, hiking, and riding a bike.
2.Imbalanced Prepositional Phrases:
The project aims to improve efficiency and reducing costs.
Correction: The project aims to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
To solve the problem, we need to identify parallel markers, check grammatical consistency and avoid overlapping categories.

6.Logical Connectives
The article examines issues with logical connectives in Chinglish, where their misuse or absence can cause confusion.
This chapter highlights three primary issues:
1.Omission of Connectives: Chinese often relies on context to convey logical relationships, leading learners to omit essential connectives in English. For example, "He was tired, he continued working" lacks a conjunction like "but".
2.Redundant Connectives: Direct translation of Chinese correlative pairs results in redundant usage. For example, because he was ill, so he stayed home. This sentence is grammatically incorrect in English.
3.Misplacement: However, he left early the meeting was important. This sentence has an incorrect placement of connective.
To solve the problem, we need to explicit logical markers, avoid correlative redundancy, and adjust sentence structure. Lgical connectives are not mere stylistic choices but structural necessities in English to ensure coherence and avoid misinterpretation.