一、冗余的词汇—修饰词

● 修饰词冗余

意思明显重复的修饰词：

因为汉语中动词没有时态、名词没有复数而产生的多余修饰词 "a series of," "all sorts of," and "various kinds of"

Self-evident 不言而喻的表达，像下面这句说“要逐步做出适当的调整”，但在英语里就默认调整即是适当的，做出调整就是调整。

错误: departments of scientific research should take steps to make a proper readjustment of...

正确: departments of scientific research should readjust...

[We can take it for granted that the readjustment should be"proper."

错误:imports of foreign automobiles have declined sharply this year

正确: imports of automobiles have declined sharply this year

[You cannot import a domestic product.]

Intensifiers 强调语

一般是指表示程度、加强语气的形容词和副词。英文写作不推荐一味强调“很、非常”，而应该使用能够准确清晰表达程度或状态的词。举例，如果你说"extremely important," 反倒会显得很弱，而如果说"essential," "imperative," "vital," "indispensable," or "crucial" ，读者就知道你可以灵活地表达自己的意思。Instead of "they absolutely wanted to," the translator might choose "they were determined to," "had resolved to," "were bent on," or "insisted upon."

还有一些词，本身程度已经很强了，如果再用其他词来修饰，就显得多余了。举例如下：

错误: these practices should be totally abolished.

正确: these practices should be abolished.

["Abolish"already contains the idea of "totally" ; you can't abolish something partially. The same is true of such expressions as "thoroughly eliminated," "completely smashed," and "totally destroyed.”]

其他常见的冗余强调语包括：

*active/actively

*effective/effectively

*successful/successfully

*actual (true, real)/ actually (truly, really)

Qualifiers 限定语

一般是指表示程度、减弱语气的形容词和副词，例如quite，rather，relatively。偶尔用一下这类词汇缓和语气没有问题，但是如果是该强调的地方用了这些词，表达的意思就会不清楚，让读者觉得作者没有明确的意志。这也跟我们的语言习惯和文化传统有关，中国人说话办事要留余地，表达观点时中立一点会显得更全面，但这个习惯在英语里会引起歧义。举例如下：

错误: “[artist] Zhao's images are somewhat primitively aggressive, forcing themselves on the viewer as if they, together with the strong feelings they convey, must never be ignored and overlooked," critic Geng Jian comments on his art.

正确: "Zhao's images are primitively aggressive,"says critic Geng Jian, "forcing themselves on the viewer as if they, and the strong feelings they convey, were not to be ignored."

[Here the qualifier is at war with the meaning: if the images were only "somewhat" aggressive, they could not "force themselves" upon us.

-(Note that in this context, "overlooked" simply duplicates the sense of "ignored.")]

另一组例子： "perhaps," "maybe,""possibly"，一般可以用may或might来代替。

错误:perhaps it will take a decade to accomplish this.

正确: it may take a decade to accomplish this.

错误: twelve to thirteen percent of China's people, or more than 100 million of the total, live in cities, and may be the figure will go up in coming years.

正确: twelve to thirteen percent of our people, or more than 100 million, live in cities, and that figure may go up in years to come.

Clichés

这里的一些例子跟前面提到的点有重合，以下是一些经常会出现的修饰词的冗余。看看你有没有犯过这样的错误。作者写道：Too much emphasis means very little emphasis. 重点太多就是没有重点。