chapter8910

抹茶圆子

Chapter 8 focuses on the use of pronouns and antecedents in English. It emphasizes that pronouns must logically refer to a specific noun to avoid ambiguity or "dangling" references. The chapter stresses that pronouns like "it," "they," and "which" must clearly link to their nouns, whether in simple sentences or complex structures. Pinkham advises checking that pronouns match their antecedents in number, gender, and context. She warns against vague uses of "this" or "that" without clear noun references, as in "This is important," where "this" lacks a specified noun. Practical examples show how misplaced pronouns confuse meaning, such as "While visiting the factory, the manager greeted us," where "visiting" illogically modifies "manager." Correcting such errors requires rephrasing to clarify the subject, e.g., "While we were visiting the factory, the manager greeted us." Overall, the chapter highlights that precise pronoun-antecedent agreement is vital for clarity, urging writers to ensure every pronoun has a clear, logical noun reference to avoid reader confusion.

Chapter 9 addresses how the order of phrases and clauses affects clarity and emphasis in English. Pinkham notes that English relies on word order to signal logical relationships, unlike Chinese, where meaning often relies on context.
For instance, misplacing a phrase like "in 1949" in "Mao wrote an article in 1949 celebrating the revolution" can mistakenly link "1949" to "revolution" instead of "wrote." The chapter emphasizes placing key ideas at the end of sentences for emphasis, as readers naturally focus on final clauses.
For example, "We must act now to prevent disaster" is stronger than "To prevent disaster, we must act now," though both are grammatically correct. Pinkham also warns against "dangling modifiers," such as "Looking across the valley, the village seemed peaceful," where "looking" illogically modifies "village." Correcting this requires rephrasing: "When we looked across the valley, the village seemed peaceful." Overall, the chapter teaches that intentional placement of phrases and clauses ensures logical flow and directs reader attention to the most important ideas, avoiding ambiguity and enhancing clarity.

Chapter 10 tackles "unnecessary verbs and modifiers." It identifies and corrects verb redundancy, where Chinese uses "universal verbs" (such as make, conduct, carry out) with nouns to express actions, while English tends to use strong verbs directly.
For example: "make an improvement" --> "improve"; "conduct an investigation" --> "investigate". Weak verbs such as make, give, tend to mask the core action and need to be simplified to enhance the power of the sentence. The chapter also discusses unnecessary modifiers. Chinese modifiers are commonly used to emphasize degree or scope, while many nouns in English have implicit meanings.
For example: "mutual cooperation" to "cooperation" (the cooperation itself is mutual). "serious natural disaster" to "natural disaster" (the disaster itself is serious). Time adverbs (such as now, previously) are often repeated with the verb tense and need to be deleted to simplify the expression. Reflections: Verb redundancy and the misuse of modifiers stem from the Chinese characteristic of "emphasizing meaning," where words are often piled up to reinforce semantics.
For example, in the phrase "加快经济改革步伐," the literal translation "accelerate the pace of economic reform" with "pace of" is redundant, as "accelerator" already implies "加快步伐." When translating, it is necessary to strip away this redundancy and return to the English expression logic of "simplifying complexity."