Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Chinese term or phrase:
有害的
English translation:
harmful, hazardous, damaging
Added to glossary by
Roddy Stegemann
Aug 11, 2006 14:48
18 yrs ago
Chinese term
United States
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Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, Japanese to English, French to English, and 3 more.
有害的 (1/2)
Non-PRO
Chinese to English
Social Sciences
Education / Pedagogy
Grammatikalische Analyse (Grammatical Analysis)
Sentence: 你知道那地方發生了甚麼事嗎？原來有人發現那裏的水是有害的。
1st Attempt: You know what happened over there? They discovered that the water is polluted.
Question One: Is polluted a fair rendering of 有害的?
Question Two: Consider the sentence part 那地方發生了甚麼事嗎. It would appear that the subject of this sentence part is 甚麼事. It also appears that 那地方 is used as an adverb telling us where 甚麼事 occurred. Nevertheless, the subject is placed at the end of the sentence, and there is nothing to indicate that 那地方 is either an adverb or prepositional phrase. Can anyone offer a good explanation for what is going on here? Is this good written Chinese?
You are welcome to comment on other parts of my translation as well.
Reference: http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html#p...
Warning: In order to provide ProZ.com users with the best glossary entries possible, more than one question for the same entry will be asked from time to time. Please keep in mind when responding that you will be graded on your responses to ALL questions asked.
1st Attempt: You know what happened over there? They discovered that the water is polluted.
Question One: Is polluted a fair rendering of 有害的?
Question Two: Consider the sentence part 那地方發生了甚麼事嗎. It would appear that the subject of this sentence part is 甚麼事. It also appears that 那地方 is used as an adverb telling us where 甚麼事 occurred. Nevertheless, the subject is placed at the end of the sentence, and there is nothing to indicate that 那地方 is either an adverb or prepositional phrase. Can anyone offer a good explanation for what is going on here? Is this good written Chinese?
You are welcome to comment on other parts of my translation as well.
Reference: http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/contents.html#p...
Warning: In order to provide ProZ.com users with the best glossary entries possible, more than one question for the same entry will be asked from time to time. Please keep in mind when responding that you will be graded on your responses to ALL questions asked.
Proposed translations
+1
3 hrs
Selected
TRY
1. harmful, hazardous, having adverse effects. It might or might not have been caused by polution.
2. Believe ot not, this is the structure of the sentence:
那地方(subject) + 發生了(verb) +甚麼事 (object) 嗎
2. Believe ot not, this is the structure of the sentence:
那地方(subject) + 發生了(verb) +甚麼事 (object) 嗎
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Final Rendering: Do you know what happened there? It was eventually discovered that the water was harmful.
Acknowledgement: My thanks jyuan_us for his very helpful answer with regard to the meaning of 有害的. I do find it very difficult to agree with his grammatical interpretation of the phrasing 那地方發生了甚麼事. I have discussed the issue somewhat thoroughly on the Tsong Kit webpage.
Thanks to yuzouren for his confirmatory support.
Discussion: Please see http://homepage.mac.com/moogoonghwa/tsongkit/part3/III-1b-g.html#s15 for further discussion regarding the context of this question.
My very best from the land of no mountains surrounded by sea on many sides."
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