FAULTY ENGLISH : Common Mistakes in Japanese English-language Journals

(1)

NII-Electronic Library Service

.MEMoms op SAGAMI

INsTrTuT- oF T]cHNoLoay

Vel.as,No. 1,1989

Common

FAULTY

ENGUSH

Mistakes

in

Japanese

English･language

_Journals

YokoKIsER

Iintroducedsome 40 mistakes picked up irom the English-languagedailypapers issuedin

Japan

at a study meeting of The Japan Associatlonof PracticalEnglishheldon March 19,1988

at Waseda University.

Inthis short paper an attempt was made to sort out the mistakes and to analyze them to-gether with the ones which have appeared since then. Theyare grouped into five.

OThe

errors

derivedfrom the structural differences between the Japanese language and the English language.

Mistakesinconcerd-especially of the be-verbs en which the awareness of the Japaneseisweak.

@Mistakes

inpronouns as their use in

Japanese

isnot as rigid as inEnglish.

@Some

words that

have always been used incorrectly, Problems of redunclance.

@Other

_grammatical mistakes,

@

New word formation etc.

SinceJapanesenewspapers written inEnglishare educational as well as informative,

publica-tions shou!d be the leaders in setting a _good example inthe careful use of the English language,

Ibelieve,

Japan

publishes quite a

few

English

peri-odicals, such as 1)he

Daily

Ybmiuri,

The

joPan

Times,

Mainichi

Daily

IVews,

Asahi Evening

Nbws,

and others.

I

have

a subscription to

some of these and

have

noticed the same

errors that repeatedly appear

in

English-language

_journals

as well as the misusage

seen once

in

one _particular_paper.

I

introduced

some of these errors at a

study meeting of

The

Japan

Association

of

Practical

English

_(JAPE)

held on

March

19,

1988 at

Waseda

University.

A

staff writer

from

The

Daily

Ybmiuri

was

in

the audience

and reported my talk

in

that paperi},which

occasioned sorne reaction

from

its

readers.

One

American,

who teaches

English

in

Sendai,

raised a _question about the purpose of such

scrutiny

by

saying that we

Japanese

are too

rnuch afraid of making mistakes

in

speaking

English.

According

to

_him

this

_is

one of the

factors

that prevent us

from

becoming

fluent

speakers and _good writers. He concluded

*#aseeE _asem

w$a 63

ei9A

30 Heett

his

argument

by

_pointing out thateven _great

writers of the _past made _grammatical

mistakes.

I

believe

his

opinion to

be

erroneous

be-¢ause

it

is

a

discussiQn

on a

different

level.

I

am talking about the

English

written

by

professional news reporters, not the English

spoken or written

by

the students who are

working

for

perfection.

I

arn not talking

about great world literature,either.

In

the

recent

history

of the

Japanese

language,

Council

of National

Language

issued

its

opinion on proper usage of the

Japanese

language

after world war

II,

and

later

another correction was made, and these

be-come

law.

This

usage was

immediately

fol-lowed

by

all

Japanese

newspapers.

They

use the most orthodox strokes in hanji and

ekurigana and so

forth.

We

readers

have

much reliance on the

_Japanese

that we read

in

the _papers, and newspaper

Japanese

is

regarded to be at leastcorrect, up-to-date, if

not

fancy,

model

Japanese.

As

we go to

Japanese

newspapers for a model language,

it

is

only natural

for

the learners of the

(2)

iHff=meJ(\rees

English

language

to expect that

in

English

journals

they are

being

exposed to model

English.

Some

of the examples of errors

I

will use

here may

dup]icate

the ones

I

introduced _at

the

March

meeting of

JAPE.

The

errors are

the ones that

have

been

found

by

chance

by

an individual reader and naturally they are

limited and biased. Do we see in the

.mment

newspapers and

_journals

in

the

United

States

the sarne

kinds

of errors that we see

in

English

language

publications

issued

in

Japan?

I

do

not think we

do.

Ibelieve

Americans

have

much

_pride

in

their writing

and their

English.

The

whole _purpose _of _this_paper _is_to _point

out some of the common mistakes

I

have

come _across

in

English

journals

_printed

_in

Japan

in

the

last

couple of _years _and _to

analyze them _and see their common trend.

If

my

little

researeh can arouse more

atten-tionand

if

it

helps

improve

the _qualityof

English

used inEnglish-language newspapers

in

Japan,

I

shall

be

happy.

I

notice that the most comrnon mistakes

are the ones that are made because _of _the

structural

differences

between the

English

and

Japanese

languages.

Since

_the

journals

are

issued

here

in

Japan,

the chances of

thern being written

by

Japanese

are very

high. So sornetimes maybe

it

cannot be

helped

that their English

is

influenced

by

theirmother tongue.

It

isvery

interesting

to compare _the

Japanese

version with the

English version of the same newspaper.

******************

First,

I

would like to

deal

with

S+V+C

pattern English sentences and the

Japanese

sentences which _parallel them.

Here

I

_will

use only the verb "to

_be"

and complement

adjectives only.

My

dog

is

bla

¢

k

and white.

These

dolls

are

big.

Those

boys

are very

lazy.

eg

23#

as

2e

The

above are very easy sentences, but

in

Japanese

translationwe

feel

thatthe be-verbs

are not necessary.

In

other words, they have

no functional meaning. Because

Japanese

has

Noun

(pronoun)+Adjective

construction, there are no verbs here.

I

believe

thiscomes

from

the fact that

_Japanese

adjectives

(both

leeiyoshiand

keiyo-doshi)

are _endowed _with

efEective _aspects and end a statement.

That

an adjective

has

an _effective _aspect means

it

conjugates. An English adjective never

.

Jugates, but

it

needs a

linking-verb

or a

copula to make a cornplete sentence.

In

the

chapter _of

English

Structure

and

Japanese

in

Niztv

Way

of

Looking

at and Learning English

Grammar,

the authors say that this "Noun

(Pronoun)+Adjective"

structure

is

latent

in

the

Japanese

language.2)

An

English

be-yerb works not only as a

copula

but

also as a

function

word that

pletesa sentence.

The

above mentioned is

apparent

in

the _point that a

be-verb

is

_about

the only

English

word that still carries the

function

of number _and tense.

In

English

_a

sentence

does

not

function

as a sentence

without a verb, while

in

Japanese

noun+

adjective construction

does

exist.

Therefore

our awareness of a copula, or a

be-verb,

is

weak.

As

a result,

Japanese

_combine _a

ject

and a compliment with a

be-verb

rather

loosely. We do not realize that

in

English

S

and

C

have

to

be

exactly equal

in

content.

Here

are some typical mistakes seen in

Japanese

English-language

newspapers.

Example

1. Class

is

more

important

than

race, than ethnicity, than nationality.

Class.

The

poor,

'the

rich, and the

dle

class. The

_Poor

_are _getting

larger

and

larger

agnin3>.

Example

2.

In 1985, the

homicide

rate

in

.laPan was

1780

cases, while there were

18,976

rnurdered

in

the

U.S.`)

In

Example

1,this sounds as though they

had a very nutritious

diet.

What

is

_meant

here

though

is

that "there _are _rnore _and more

62"

NII-ElectronicMbrary

]

(3)

lhuttyEnglishCommon Mistakes in

poor people" or "the _number _of _the

poor

is

getting

larger

and

larger."

The

poor are not

large.

The

number of the poor

is

large.

In

Example

2

the rate

does

not equal cases.

The

writer must always make the content

of the compliment equal the content of the

subject. "Rate"

_implies

_the _measurement _of

a _part to a whole.

Therefore

here,

"the

number of

homicides

was 1780" should

have

been

used.

Japanese

students often make such mistakes as

in

"My

father's

_salary

is

_yery _cheap." "Low"

_is

_the _word _to

_deseribe

_a _salary _or

wages, "Cheap"

is

used to

describe

prices of

things.

But

in

Japanese

we

have

only one

word "yasui"

for

both

prices and wages.

So

without thinking of the meaning of the

words, we are

likely

to combine words.

This

1oose connection of subjeet and

com-pliment causes another typeof error-mistakes

in

concord.

In

the sarne artlcle used

in

Ex-ample 4,we read: "Problems of racism and

prejudice, which still _persist, torments the

history

of

American

society."5)

The

subject

is

plural and thisrequires the use of a plural

verb, "torrnent".

Here are other examples:

Mother

spotbill duck with

her

ducklings

Tuesday rnorning at the pond at

Mitsui

& Co. are _popular for

her

annual

moving"

from

the _pond to the

Imperial

Pala¢e moat in

Tokyo.6)

African

sculptures

from

the

Maconde

high-lands:

The

Macondes,

who

live

in

the

Maconde

highlands

has

a long tradition of

tural art.T)

The long modifying clause

between

the

sub-ject

"Macondes" _and _the _verb "has"

probably

led to this error.

The

plural "have" _had

JbPanese

Engtish-lang"age

lburnals

better be used.

******************

Second,

I

would

like

to

discuss

English

and

Japanese

pronouns.

We

are notorious

for

not

being

able to use

English

articles properly

because there are no such things as articles

in

the

_Japanese

language.

The

same thing

ean be said about our use of

English

_pronouns.

We

do

have

pronouns

but

we

do

not use

them, especially as subjects or _objects, as

frequently

as

Engllsh

speaking people

do;

much 1esstheir possessive cases.

A Ubeiversity

Grammar

of

EnglishS>

dis-cusses the possessive case of a _personal

pro-noun that

in

English

is

used when referring

to a physical part of _person or a

person's

property and the

like.

He

stood at the

door

with

his

hat

in

his

hand.

Don't

lose

your balance.

They

have

changed

their

mind.

In

the

Japanese

translationof these sentences

it

sounds more natural without a _personal

pronoun.

We

do

not use any such cases.

In

other words, when

Japanese

make simple

sentences

like

the above, we are _prone to

omit a _personal

_pronoun

or to use a wrong

one,

because

the _grammatical concept of a

personal pronoun

is

one of the most

diMcult

ideas

for

us

to

grasp.

But

in English the

repetition of pronouns

is

inevitable.

Here

isan example:

In

describing

the

fea-tures of a new sports shoe, under a _picture

of a

huge

model.

Model

"Tension"

has

_so-called "bone" under itssole which allows a rotation of the

shoe around

its

own ankle.9)

What

is

meant

here

is

the rotation of the

shoearound"itswearer'sankle."

Whi!eshoes

rnay

have

"soles" and "tongues," they

do

not

have

"ankles." _{Wheneverapronoun}

is

_used 63

(4)

rencr\Jk\rept

in

English,

it

usually refers tosomething that

has appeared before

it.

In

the

Reader's

Forum

of the

Mainichi

Dtzily

IVlaws

we read:

Japanese

are not really racist

because

they

don't

discriminate

against most all

Outsiders.io)

This

should

be

corrected to "most

outsiders."

"`Most" _comes _before _any _ordinary _noun,

but

in

front of _pronouns, _prQper nouns and words

with _possessive cases of

pronouns,

`"most of"

should

be

used.ii)

Japanese

seem to

have

dithculty

in

the use of pronouns,

but

Ame-ricans make rnistakes

in

their usage, too.

In

"Elaf:Per's

Bazaar,

October,

1986,

Susan

Dooley

writes,

I've

always been sports-oriented.

It

was

the only way

I

could

find

friends.

There

were almost all

boys

in

the

hood.i2)

This

should read, "There _were _mostly _boys."

Another

example of the same kind of mistake:

Three

out of

four

passengers

died

and

one was seriously

injured...thur

of

them were not wearing seat

belts.i3)

In

fact

there were

four

passengers and they

were not wearing seat belts.

The

use of

"four

of them"

is

odd.

Instead,

"None of

them were wearing seat belts," should

be

used.

They

also

_gave

three

_pills

containing the

antihangover

drug

to each

of

haif

the

grouP

and the same number of _placebos

to the rest of the students.i4)

In

the _quotation aboye the meaning

is

not

clear.

It

sounds as though the professor

had

divided

the students

into

three _groups and

given the

drug

to

two

groups which are the

zz

23# as 2e

sarne

in

number and the placebos to the

third group.

But

here

the meaning

is

most

likely

that

each student of the

first

_group

was _given the antihangover

drug

and each

of the second _group the _placebos.

It

fore

should read, "...antihangover

drug

_to

each student of the

first

group..."

******************

I

have discussed some aspects of the

ferences

between

the

English

language

and

the

Japanese

language, and the errors whose

causes are rooted

in

these

differences.

Here

I

would

like

to

go.

on to some _of the words

that are repeatedly used

incorrectly.

The

word `"strangle"

appears on the

local

crime

page.

There

are several articles

in

which

"strangle"

has

been

followed

by

"to

death",

whieh

is

redundant since "strangle" means

"to kill."

...she strangled the sister to death with

a

jump

rope at

her

hometli).

(AP)...The

victim reportedly was

stranglad to

death

with a

_piece

of

String...ie)

Then,

there was the victim who miraculously

came

back

from

the

dead:

...was

injured

early

Friday

when a

customer strangled

her

during

an

tempted robbery...

: :

Kato

recovered, however, and fiedfrom

the

bar.u)

In

Osaka,

Ebisubashi

is

a night spot

pop-ular with youths.

The

writer covered the

area at

2

a.m. and wound up

his

"Midnight

Delights"

story with:

They

made

headlines

on

Aug.

19 by

lynching

to

death

a

16-year-old

mernber,

64

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l

(5)

FZi"ltyEnglish Common Mistaleesin

joPanese

Engtish-lang"age

fournals

Kumi

Okamoto.iS)

well. Iwill

list

some of them

here.

The

words

in

the _parentheses are the required

This

sounds

like

a

direct

translation

from

ones.

Japanese

where "lynch"

has

more of the

meaning "beaV' or "torture."

In

English,

The

trend

is

to_grow _your _storeor fail.22)

`flynch" _means "death," _which

_is

usually

(enlarge

or expand)

preceded

by

torture.

Therefore

"to

death"

isredundant. Anotherexarnpleof redundancy _Members _of _the _Narita _{anti-establishment}

is

this: _group are

dismantled

fromatower

by

riot police

in...23)

The

propane

fiame

is

also adjustable and

_(removed,

_taken

_down)

can even shoot sparks

of

fire

into

the

air.le)

A

masked man

holding

an emPly can

of

Petrel

(empty

petrol can)

This

is

a sentence

from

a news

item

abOut _runs _away

_from

_the

_fiaming

_lorry

_which

the use of _propane _gas torches

instead

Of

_he

_reportedly

_hijacked

_and _set _a

_fire

natural

burning

ones

in

the

Tenjin

Festival･

_Tuesday.20

But

as "sparks" are

bits

of

fire,

it

is

redun-dant

to say "of fire."

He

now reads much more

books

than

Another

exarnple of the misusage of an

,,

before.Eti)

(many)

English

word

is

C`ernigrants.

Hara's

wife

Akiko,

40, suffered slight

Japanese

are not only unsure of outside

burns on

her

face when she

tried

to

strangers,

but

_many

fear

that

_any

iCant

number of emigrants wouldn't con. eSCape･･.26)

(during

her

escape)

form

to

Japanese

ways.2o)

"Try"

connotes either an attempt at

ing

or a

failed

atternpt.

It

is

obvious

in

this

:,e.O?1,e.C.Ol,;".g.,,i.",,tO,?,C.O.",n,tr,Y,,grO.M..,;biiO.aS

_{ga.six.th.a,t,fih.e,.w.o,Igln,8`s,u,c.c,e.ed.e,d.l\.e,S,Ca.Pan,g.'g'}

this word appears

in

_papers,

it

is

wrongly

in

"Correct the Errors" type of _questions

in

used.

If

the verb, "irnmigrate" refers to

Japanese

college entrance exams.

stination,

it

is

followed

by

"to."

_So

quota-tion 21

below

should

be

"Elliman, who

******************

migrated to the

United

States

from

Ireland."

Instead

Of:

of

eourse a language

is

a living thing. Sorne incorrect words or usages come to be

Elliman,

who emigrated to the

United

_recognized _as _good _English _after _being _used

States

from

Ireland

as a

_young

boy

and _so _many _times.

_This

_new _word

_formation

_is

now liyes in Detroit.2i} _always _taking

place.

For

example, a

logism,

using "waitress" _as

a verb, seems to

Or,

it

could read, "Elliman,

who emigrated

have

captured the

imagination

of a wide

from

Ireland

to the..." range of writers:

******************

Marie

went to nlght school to earn high

school credits and

during

the

day

Besides

such mistakes, we see some others ed.2T)

in

usage and simple mistakes

in

_gramrnar as

(6)

Nec=XJSc\rept

For women who are short on money and

unconventional,

hooking

has

become

like

waitressing-a means of

_getting

by.28)

Hwang

started waitressing

in

a

Chinese

restaurant

in

April.2D)

Revised

editions of

dictionaries

will

include

this "new"

verb.

"Data"

is

another example of thistype.

In

this world, there

is

certain

data

which

cannot

be

verified

by

scientific methods.

All

the unverifiab]e

data

is

not

false

or

tales.ao)

As

to

"data,"

_Time,

_November

_2, ₁₉₈₇

in-troduced a new dictionary,

The

Random

Hbuse

Dictionary

_of

the English Langutzge:

Second

Mition,

U)tabridged, and said:

As

for the _{plural-singular}

identity

crises

suffered by words like data and media,

stand

by;

they ceuld _go either way.ei) ******************

Because

of _poor proofreading or other

rea-sons errors crop up

in

many

_{publications.}

It

is

recognized that English,

like

all other

living

languages,

is

changing.

Words

are

taking on

different

meanings; neologisms are

coming in; and, _grammar

is

changing.

Tel-evision and radio are the two mediums with

the _greatest

influence

upon the changing of

Eng]ish

_(and

other

languages,

too).

Many

people are too _quick to adopt some catchy

word or

_phrase

with a resultant

deterioration

in

English.

To

counteract this trend towards

linguistic

anarchy,

I

believe

that since

Japa-nese newspapers written in English are

edu-as23ig eg2e

cational as well as

informative,

_publications

should be the leaders

in

setting a good

ex-ample

in

the careful use of

English,

Netes

1) The Daily Ybmiuri, March 31,1988.

2) IVlewVVlay

of

Looking atand Learning English

Grammar, Yasuo Kurokawa, etc. Tokyo,

Sanyusha, 1981.

3) 11heDaily Ybmiuri, April 4,1987.

4) Mdinichi Daily2Vlews,November 9,1986.

5) lbid.

6) The DailyYbmiuri,May 21, t986.

7} The Daily Ybntiuri,August 16,1988.

8) A U);iversityGrammar

of

Englishby S.

baum et aJ., Tokyo, Kinokuniya, 1977,_pp. 158-59.

9) The DaiC),Ybmiuri, August 31, 1988. 10) Mdenichi Daily IVlews,Noyember 9,1986.

11) lel Cbmman M}stakes of

1dePanese

Students

_of

English by James H.M. Webb, Tokyo, The

Japan Times, 1988,

12} HkirPer'sBazaar, October,1986. 13) 711laeDaily Ybmiuri, January23, 1987. 14) The Daily Ybmiuri, March 7,1988. 15) The Daily Ybmiuri,

June

12, 1986. 16) The Daily Ybmi"ri, Novernber10, 1987. 17) The Dady Ybmiuri, May 24, 1986.

18) Asahi EveningIVlews,September 13,1988.

19) The Daily Ybmiuri,July25, 1988.

20) MlainichiDaily IVizws,November 9,1986

(Letter

tothe editor from aforeignreader inOkayama).

21) MbinichiDaily 2Vlews,

July

7,1986. 22) The Daily YOmiuri,

June

6,1986. 23) The DailyYbmi"ri, April18,1987.

24) The Daily Ybmiuri,April 9,1987.

25) The Dady Ybmiuri,December 3,1986.

26) avieDailyYbmiuri,November 13,1986.

27) The Daily 1'btniuri,January8,1987.

28) CesmqPolitan,January,1987.

29) Asahi Evening IVlews,May 20,1986.

30) MbiniehiDailyNlews,March 29, 1987.

31) Time, November 2, 1987.

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