chapter 2

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Reflection on Chapter Two of The Translator's Guide to Chinglish: Exploring the Essence of Concise English Expression

After reading Chapter Two of The Translator's Guide to Chinglish, I have gained a much deeper understanding of the importance of conciseness in English expressions. This chapter focuses on the unnecessary modifiers in Chinglish, revealing effective ways to make English expressions clearer and more natural through a wealth of examples and detailed analyses.

Redundant Modifiers: Hindrances to Concise Expressions

In Chinglish, redundant modifiers are a common problem. For instance, in the phrase "a serious natural disaster", the word "disaster" already implies seriousness, so "serious" is redundant here. Another example is "successfully accomplish"; "accomplish" itself means to complete successfully, and "successfully" is redundant. These redundant modifiers not only make sentences lengthy but also weaken the force of the expressions. In our daily writing and translation, we are often influenced by Chinese expression habits and unconsciously add such modifiers. However, English prefers simplicity and directness. Only by removing the redundancy can we make sentences more concise and powerful.

Time Words: Information Conveyed in Tenses

In Chinese, time words are frequently used. However, in English, tenses already contain time information, and in many cases, there is no need to use time words repeatedly. For example, in the sentence "Last year, he completed the project", the simple past tense of "completed" already indicates that the action took place in the past. Although "last year" is grammatically correct, it seems a bit redundant. In an English context, we should make full use of tenses to convey time concepts and avoid overusing time words, making the expressions more concise and fluent.

Self-evident Modifiers: Meaning Repetition and Cumbersome Expressions

There is another type of modifier whose meaning is not completely repetitive, but adding it makes the sentence cumbersome. For example, in the sentence "We need to appropriately adjust the policy", "adjust" already implies making adjustments reasonably and appropriately, so "appropriately" can be deleted. Such self-evident modifiers are quite common in Chinglish. They make sentences cumbersome and deviate from the concise and clear expression habits of English. When writing, we need to carefully consider the necessity of modifiers and avoid these redundant elements.

Chapter Two has brought me a lot of thinking and inspiration. In my future English learning and application, I will always pay attention to these issues, strive to overcome the expression habits of Chinglish, and pursue concise, accurate, and natural English expressions. This book provides me with valuable learning resources and also makes me realize that language learning is a continuous process of refinement and the pursuit of excellence.