Chapter9-11

木榕

Reader:陶迎转
Reading Time:4.13-4.18
Reading Task:chapter 9-11
Chapter Nine: The Placement of Phrases and Clauses
Content summary
This chapter focuses on analyzing the influence of the position of modifiers (phrases or clauses) in a sentence on semantic clarity. The book points out through a large number of examples that a common mistake in Chinglish is wrongly keeping modifiers away from the objects they modify, resulting in ambiguity. For example:
Error example: "She saw a dog in the park that was wearing a sweater." (The modifier "that was wearing a sweater" should be immediately followed by "dog", otherwise it might be misunderstood as "wearing a sweater in the park.") Correction suggestions: Adjust the word order to "In the park, she saw a dog that was wearing a sweater."
The book particularly emphasizes the differences in thinking between Chinese and English: Chinese relies on word order and context to imply logical relationships, while English needs to clarify semantics through strict modifier positions.
Evaluation:
Extremely practical: By comparing the incorrect sentences with the corrected ones, it visually demonstrates the importance of the position of modifiers. Clear targeting: Directly addressing the core contradictions of the differences between Chinese and English, such as the contrast between the "cause and effect" structure in Chinese and the "clear distinction between primary and secondary" structure in English. Special feature: It emphasizes the necessity of the "proximity principle" in English and points out that Chinese learners tend to overlook this point due to their native language habits.
Reflection:
Writing inspiration: In English writing, it is necessary to deliberately check the position of modifiers to avoid "taking things for granted" word order shifts. For example, "I met a friend who was wearing a hat Yesterday in the park" in Chinese should be adjusted to "yesterday in the park, I met a friend who was wearing a hat."
Chapter 10: Dangling Modifiers
Content summary
This chapter analyzes the causes and correction methods of suspended modifiers (participles/prepositional phrases where the logical subject does not match the subject of the sentence). For example:
Error example: "Running down the street, the tree caught my attention." (The logical subject of the participle "Running "should be" I ", not "tree") Correction suggestion: "While I was running down the street, the tree caught my attention."
The book points out that in Chinese, structures are often omitted through implicit subjects (such as "When I was running, that tree caught my attention"), but in English, logical subjects need to be explicitly completed.
Comment:
Logical rigor: Through the dual perspectives of grammatical rules and semantic logic, it reveals the deep-rooted issues of "no-master modification" in Chinglish. Rich in typical cases: Such as "Looking out the window, the mountains are beautiful." (hanging) and "Looking out the window, "I saw the beautiful mountains." The special feature: It emphasizes the strict requirement of "subject-predicate agreement" in English, while Chinese allows for more flexible subject omissions.
Reflection:
The difference in thinking between Chinese and English: The "semantic coherence" feature of Chinese leads learners to easily overlook the "form coherence" rules of English, and it is necessary to strengthen the training of grammar awareness.
Review on the independent nominative structure: This chapter reminds me of the independent nominative structure I learned before:
It is an independent grammatical structure that functions as an adverbial in a sentence, modifying the entire sentence rather than a specific word.
It is usually composed of a noun or pronoun and a non-finite verb (present participle, past participle) or a prepositional phrase, and there is a logical subject-predicate relationship between the noun or pronoun and the non-finite verb.
For example: "Weather permitting, we will go hiking tomorrow" Here, "Weather.
"permitting" is an independent nominative structure that modifies the entire sentence. The suspended structure is a grammatical error and refers to a modifier
(Usually participle phrases or prepositional phrases) do not explicitly modify a certain component in the sentence, resulting in unclear meaning or ambiguity of the sentence.
For example: "Running down the street, the house looked beautiful" Here, "Running down the street" is a dangling structure because" running" has no definite subject and logically cannot modify "the house".
Chapter Eleven: Parallel Structure
Content summary
This chapter systematically explains the importance of parallel structures in English, that is, the content at the same grammatical level needs to maintain a consistent form. Typical mistakes are listed in the book:
Wrong example: "She likes hiking, swimming, and to ride a bike." (Mix gerund and infinitive) Correction suggestion: "She likes hiking, swimming, and riding a bike."
The book particularly points out that the "parallel structure" in Chinese has relatively low requirements for formal consistency (such as "I like reading, sports and traveling"), while English must strictly follow the unity of part of speech, tense and voice.
Comment:
Structural clarity: By comparing incorrect and correct expressions through tables, the rules of parallel structures (such as consistent verb forms and prepositional collocations) are strengthened. Cultural contrast perspective: An in-depth analysis of the differences in parallel expression habits between Chinese and English, such as Chinese emphasizing "semantic parallelism" and English emphasizing "formal symmetry". Reflection:
Language application: In applications such as the "Skill Description" in an English resume, parallel structures (such as "Designing websites, managing projects, and analyzing data") must be strictly used.