Chapter 11: Parallel Structures and Logical Connectives

辣白菜味辣条

1.Importance of parallel structure:
the parallel components should maintain the grammatical and semantic consistency. For example: "To be, or not to be" (Shakespeare's classic parallel structure).
Error example: "She likes reading, hiking, and to swim" should be changed to "She likes reading, hiking, and swimming".
2.Precise use of logical conjunctions: Chinese often omits logical conjunctions (such as虽然……但是), while English requires the explicit use of conjunctions (such as although, however) to avoid ambiguity.
The characteristic of "meaning coherence" in Chinese leads to implicit logical relationships, whereas English relies on "formal coherence" structures. For example, the parallel clause in Chinese, "我们取得了成就，问题仍然存在," if directly translated as "We have made achievements, problems still exist," would sound abrupt due to the lack of connecting words, and it needs to be supplemented with logical words such as "We have made achievements; however, problems still exist." It is necessary to compare classic sentence patterns in both Chinese and English to master the technique of making logic explicit.