Abstract
The debate on how to understand such expressions of multiplication entailing “times” as “n times more than” and “increase (by) n times” has been on and off in China since the 1980s. A review of literature seems to suggest that despite early-stage divergence in understanding, there is a general consensus among the Chinese academia at present that the English word “times” entails the base number, and therefore expressions of multiplication like “n times more than” and “increase (by) n times” are equivalent to the expression “n times as much/many as”. This paper intends to find out whether this consensus is reflected in Chinese EFL learners’ understanding of those expressions. Altogether 16 English majors from one of the key universities in the northern part of China were tested on their understanding and translation of two passages with embedded arithmetic comparisons using “n times more than” and “increase n times” respectively. It is found that a sizable proportion of them (62.5% for the former and 56.25% for the latter) gave inaccurate translation and that their rendering manifests not only their misunderstanding but also indiscretion in the translating process. Such factors as students’ indiscriminate use of information from the Internet, ambiguity and errors in popular grammar books, the presumed disjunction between EFL research and EFL teaching, and the untimely updating of English competence on the part of Chinese EFL teachers in China are proposed as possible reasons.
Highlights
Pennington (2002) defines grammar as “nothing more or less than the organizing principles of a linguistic or communicational system, without which, there is no system”
Joe Trotta (2010), citing several examples of non-standard English like unusual usages (“like” used as a conjuncture, e.g.), neologisms and catchphrases from Popular Culture, asserts that those usages labeled as non-standard are regarded as “a reflection of bad character and poor education”, which Joe considers as harmful because it inhibits a better understanding of the evolution of the English language
Since the participants represent upper-immediate or even advanced level of English competence, their performance seems to be sending a piece of evidence that the cultivation of specialists in English does not live up to expectations, which has become vocal criticism in Chinese academia in recent years
Summary
Pennington (2002) defines grammar as “nothing more or less than the organizing principles of a linguistic or (broader) communicational system, without which, there is no system”. The English language has not been without grammatical controversies. The expression “n times more than” have aroused a similar response in English-speaking countries. People are divided either in the validity or in the understanding of this expression. Not a few people disapprove of this expression. Garner (2016) in Garner’s Modern English Usage puts “times more than” in the entry on “illogic” to explain the unacceptability of an illogical phrase in the English language. A simple search in Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA) shows that the combination “times more than” is used 521 times, “times as much as” 338 times, and “times as many as” 124 times. It is unrealistic to turn a blind eye to the prevalent use of this expression
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