A brief Study on Chinglish

Abstract : Chinglish is a kind of English which in grammar and terminology is basically wrong and obviously arises from the Chinese national English. The meaning may be clear， but it is non-normative for native speakers. In this paper，we will make a brief study on it through its definition and cause.

Key words : brief study chinglish

1. Introduction

Because of the differences between Chinese and Western culture and traditional thinking patterns， Chinese people always find a common phenomenon which is called negative transfer during the English language learning process. Negative transfer means that something you have learned in one context easily interferes to your study of your second language learning.

And therefore， in a certain stage of the acquisition of English， it is common for English learners to use English expression with some Chinese features， named Chinglish. Chinglish， which is combined from the words CHIN-ESE and EN-GLISH， is just that， Chinese English， a form of Pidgin English spoken and written by native Chinese speakers. In a word， Chinglish is a kind of non-standard English.

Language is the dress of thought. Chinglish is the misuse of Standard English， and it is contrary to English rules and cultures in English speaking countries. The Chinese adopt a thinking pattern of their own culture while the Englishmen adopt another， which makes a profound impact on each language. With the quickly development of foreign trade， this problem will influence the effective cross-cultural communication. So it is necessary for us to do some research about this problem in order to find some ways to solve it.

2. Literature review

2.1 The definition of Chinglish

Here are some definitions from language experts:

Chinglish is non-normative English for English learners in China. They are influenced by their native language and tend to ignore the basic grammatical structure of English.

-------Professor Liwenzhong (Chinglish and Chinese English， 1993 (4) 241)

Language is as a tool for a person to think and communicate. Each language contains a special value. The finish of language acquisition is a symbol of a Formation way of thinking. Thus， once a person first learned Chinese， he would inevitably avoided thinking in Chinese and made some Chinglish in translation.

--------German linguist Hongtebal (商務印書館， 1997)

2.2 Some examples of Chinglish

夏天要多喝白開水。

誤: You should drink more white boiled water in summer.

正: You should drink more plain boiled water in summer.

注:“白開水”不是指“水的顏色是白色”， 而是指“水中沒有添加其他的東西”。而plain 正是指“沒摻雜其他東西的， 單純的”， 所以能確切表達原文的含義。

Here are some humorous examples in our daily life， from these examples we could understand why it is important to tell the difference between Standard English and Chinglish.

（1）How are you? How old are you? 怎么是你？怎么老是你？

（2）You me you me. 彼此彼此

（3）You Give Me Stop! 你給我站住！

（4）Good good study， day day up! 好好學習，天天向上！

（5）I will give you some color to see see. 我要給你點顏色看看

（6）People mountain people sea 人山人海

(From http://www.hjbook.net/product/1106/)

3. Causes of Chinglish in different th－inking patterns

It is well known that Chinese and English are poles apart. However， Chinese students lack a \"real\" English environment when they learn English， so they easily tend to ignore the differences between the two languages， especially in the case of writing. The main cause of Chinglish is， apparently， linguistic interference， but to get rid of the negative influence of the mother tongue， on the other hand， remains of paramount importance for teachers of English translation in China， we have to know the differences between Chinese and western thinking patterns.

Thinking pattern is a communication bridge of culture and language. On one hand， thinking pattern is closely related with the cultural psychology of the characteristics of culture， and at the same time embodies the psychological elements. Thus， thinking pattern is one of the important reasons for the cultural differences. On the other hand， thinking pattern is also closely related with language. It is the deep mechanism of language. And language plays a great important role in the formation and development of thinking patterns. Language is the main tool and brief element of thinking patterns.

3.1 Ignoring the hypotactic and paratactic

Hypotactic is mainly on the language grammar itself and Paratactic is rely on the logic of language. Chinese people pay more attention to paratactic while English people are on the contrast. In English， the subject and predicate in constituency is very prominent. The predicate in the sentence is as a soul that other elements in the sentence attach to it according to a logical relation. However， there are always many compound sentences in Chinese. No matter whether to the relationship of sentences or to the structure of sentences， the most important difference between the two languages is that English belongs to hypotactic while Chinese to paratactic.

E.g. 她在夏威夷出席(1) 一個學術會議，會議結束(2) 后順便去看望(3) 那里的朋友，享受熱帶怡人的風光，前天才乘飛機回來(4)。

譯文: She flew back(4) just the day before yesterday from Hawaii where she had visited (3)her friends enjoying the beautiful tropical sightseeing after the completion(2) of the academic conference she had attended(1) there.

We could see that when the Chinese sentence is translated into English， the order of (1) (2) (3) (4) is replaced by (4) (3) (2) (1)， and only in this way that the westerners believe it is an authentic English expression. On the contrary， it is possible for English learners to translate the sentence into Chinglish as follow:

She had attended an academic conference in Hawaii， and after she completed it， she went to visit her friends there enjoying the beautiful tropical sightseeing， and flew back just the day before yesterday.

However， this sentence is basically correct from the point of grammar， but it has clear Chinese thinking characteristics. And the westerners will find it hard to understand because the structure is too scattered. Therefore， we should pay attention to the requirements of hypotactic in doing Chinese English translation， that is， pay more attention to the structure and organization.

3.2 Ignoring the whole and the individual

Chinese people always think about something on the whole while western thinking always starts from individual. For one thing， this could be reflected by the meanings of words. Chinese culture emphasizes on the groups and this could be reflected by the words “we” as the core of language characteristics， while western culture emphasizes on individual， and it could also be reflected by the words \"I\" as the core of language features. As we all know， Chinese always has a general meaning but English is more specific.

E.g. 中國人如果問“你吃飯了沒有?”， “飯”可指早飯、中飯或晚飯， 人們往往無需細說， 根據問話的時間便明白問話人的所指。若將此句譯成英語， 則需將早餐(breakfast) 、午餐(lunch) 和晚餐(super) 分得清清楚楚。

By Chinese thinking， Man is always the default for sentence subject， but English people pay more attention to the influence of objective and phenomena and usually use inanimate nouns as the subject of sentences. Therefore， it will be very easy for us to write \"Chinese style\" English sentences without considering the difference of the two types of thinking patterns.

3.3 Ignoring the differences between the Spiral thinking pattern and the Straight thinking pattern

Westerners like to express their ideas straightly， so they always put the main important elements at the beginning of a sentence， but Chinese people tend to make some foreshadowing or explanations first. And we call it an implicit expression. English sentence structure presents the signal of ZhengSanJiao (△) while Chinese is the (∨) triangular. That is， English is used to coming straight to the point， and then gives the specific explanation of the whole things， and Chinese is accustomed to giving the part information first and finally points out the center and purpose of the whole things， which gives the readers an \"enlightened\" feeling.

Overall， westerners have a straight thinking pattern while Chinese people have a spiral thinking pattern. This is a typical difference between East and West. If we failed to realize this， we will make some Chinglish sentences.

Here are some other examples:

(1) Whether he could come is uncertain. (Chinglish)

It is uncertain whether he could come. (Normative English)

(2) Autumn， no matter where it is， is always pleasant. (Chinglish)

Autumn is always pleasant no matter where it is. (Normative English)

Therefore， Chinese thinking pattern tends to give some related implication of topic development first and finally points out the purpose while western thinking pattern often has the deductive reasoning， which puts forward an overview (a topic sentence) at first， and then gives more details to support the topic sentence.

3.4 Ignoring the perceptual Thinking and rational Thinking

With the development of thinking pattern， Chinese tradition has got a perceptual thinking. And compared with this， English words are more objective， logical and rational. This is because Chinese traditional thinking pattern pays more attention to experience and relies on the aid of the intuition. This kind of intuition thought focuses on perceptual knowledge， inspiration， and sudden enlightenment.

As a result， in order to pursuit rhyme and meter， Chinese doesn’t avoid repetition. On the contrast， English sentences avoid repetition so as to get rid of wordiness. What’s more， English tries to express objectively without using personification. So we shouldn’t translate some Chinese sentences which use personification into English freely.

E.g. (1) Our cause has won victories one after another. (Chinglish)

We have won one victory after another for our course. (Normative English)

(2) Chinese Characters have made indelible contributions in history. (Chinglish)

The system of Chinese characters has played an invaluable role in our history. (Normative English)

Our Party has evolved from one that led the people in the fight for seizing the power nationwide to one that has led the people in exercising the State power and to a party in power for a long period of time. (Normative English)

3.5 Ignoring the figurative thinking and abstract thinking

Chinese translators usually have troubles in the usage of simile or metaphor. Among the following examples， the images (the picture conjured up by the simile or metaphor) of simile or metaphor in Chinese should be expressed in another way in Chinese-English translations. The image of simile or metaphor could be a word， a phrase or a sentence.

上梁不正下梁歪。

A: If the upper beam is crooked， the one below is necessarily so. (Chinglish)

B: Fish begins to stink at the head. (Normative English)

(The whole sentence is the image of metaphor. It is also an idiomatic expression. By word to word translation， the translator of version A did not accommodate Chinese image into English image. Because the cultural backgrounds are different between English and Chinese， the symbols of metaphor are different from each other.)

4. Conclusion

Of course， what has been discussed is not comprehensive， but at least this could help us to understand much clearer about the differences of Chinese and English. To sum up， language has a close relationship with thinking patterns and we have to exclude the influence of mother tongue in English learning， especially to avoid the thinking pattern of Chinese to be transplanted to English writing， which makes us write some compositions with Chinglish. Therefore， a translator must constantly be looking for the receptor language expressions which will accurately represent the meaning of the source text and present it in a clear natural way.

Some advice to solve this problem

Here are some methods to help us:

（1）Try our best to understand the characteristics of English thinking pattern. Know more about English culture could help us to achieve it.

（2）Pay attention to imitation. Imitation is a very effective way to improve our English level. As long as we insist on learning to recite and imitate in order to cultivate our language sense， we could improve our ability of use native English， and this is called \"practice makes perfect\".

（3）Try our best to think in English ways， watch some English programs， read English magazines and newspapers， and so on.

（4）As learning environment is very important for English learners， try to learn from native speakers on different occasions as much as possible.

Bibliography

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（作者單位：陜西榆林學院）