Book Review

    The most practical part of the book lies in its systematic analysis of various persistent problems in Chinglish. First, there is an overuse of redundant nouns and empty words. Learners tend to employ unnecessary abstract nouns and formulaic modifiers. For instance, translating"realize modernization drive" with the superfluous word "construction", or adding the meaningless phrase "carry out" to "conduct in-depth research", makes English sentences wordy and clumy, departing from the concise feature of authentic English. Second, literal translation leads to semantic deviation. Chinese favors vague and general expressions, and rigid word-for-word translation easily results in redundant wording and logical confusion. Though seemingly faithful to the original text, it runs counter to genuine English usage. Third, rigid and cumbersome sentence structures. Influenced by loose Chinese sentence patterns, learners tend to pile up clauses and meanings excessively, ignoring the English rule of clear hierarchy and logical progression, which ends up with messy sentences with unclear focuses.