<p>It's hard to read not because there are many 的 but because of its word order and lack of sentence breaking. They translated it like this probably because they tried to keep the grammatical structure and individual words of the original text, lest there be misunderstanding due to translation.</p>
<p>If we don't keep the grammatical structure but twist the words around a bit we could get, say</p>
<blockquote>
<p>纯粹私有制占统治的社会，其生活条件和冲突，在罗马法中有十分经典的表现。</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>罗马法十分经典地表现了，纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There's almost no change in the number of 的/地, but the sentences read much better to me.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T09:40:44.777Z
Is it OK to replace the 的 behind社会 with 中 or 里?
NanningYouth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T14:05:12.577Z
No. You can say 中的, 里的, or 下的, but not having 的 is ungrammatical.
user2249675
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T16:11:33.987Z
There is a limit to the number of 的 in a sentence: 2. If you use more than 2 的 you must go and live in 黑龙江省 for an entire winter! (大约8个月)
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-06T13:35:53.273Z
@Pedroski I don't get your point. Do you mean it is so cold that their teeth stutter?
NanningYouth
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T02:27:37.660Z
2023-11-05T02:27:37.660Z
user2249675
<p>There is no limit on the number of 的 in one sentence</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>我的妹妹的丈夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效 (My sister's husband's co-worker's mother said this medicine is very effective)</p>
<p>Only the first 的 can be omitted --&gt; 我妹妹的丈夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效 and at most, simplify 妹妹的丈夫 to 妹夫 --&gt; 我妹夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效</p>
<p>Although it is a run-on sentence, it is intentionally done. To highlight how remote the source is from the final message (probably not that trustworthy)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>罗马法是纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突的十分经典性的法律表现</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a more serious run-on sentence, Although It hasn't broken any grammar rule, it is clumsy and unreadable. It should be written in a more clear structure 「罗马法」是「纯粹私有制占统治的社会」內的「生活条件和冲突」的经典性法律表现</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-06T03:22:00.497Z
Your example shows that having many 的 tend to make a sentence hard to read and understand. 的 denotes pocession. Therefore, a Chinese sentence with many 的 is a bit like an English sentence with many 's. Something like "My brother's friend's former college roomate's girlfriend's mother's ex-husband's next door neighbor's pet dog."
fat penguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-06T03:29:38.027Z
In short, It is a stranger's dog
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T22:39:35.433Z
2023-11-05T22:39:35.433Z
Tang Ho
<p>Is there a limit on the number of 的 in a sentence?</p>
<p>I do not mind very much about this specific example, but your question is very important.</p>
<p>Modern Chinese, in contrast to classical Chinese, is a very young language, which has only about 100 years of history. Yes, 100 years. It was promoted by those scholars who mostly had an educational background in a Western country or in Japan. That is why modern Chinese has many words from Japan, and its sentence structures are similar to English.</p>
<p>But modern Chinese could not just &quot;copy&quot; everything from English. For example, when translating an English sentence that has a clause, (Hey this is a clause!) Chinese usually breaks it into two sentences, separated by a comma. (That is why the comma punctuation is heavily used in Chinese.)</p>
<p>For shorter clauses and phrases, Chinese sentences can denote them with &quot;de-de-de&quot; (的, 得, 地).</p>
<p>In a Chinese sentence, there are no solid rules for how and when you must have or not have them. Because (1) Chinese allows noun-noun structure, even adjective-noun structure without 的. (2) In reading, &quot;de-de-de&quot; can bring in a brief stop. Therefore using too many of them would make the readers feel uncomfortable. For Example:</p>
<p>我家的房顶上有一只红色的小鸟.</p>
<p>我的家的房子的顶的上边有一只红的颜色的小的鸟. - 可能只有早期从日本留学回来的留学生会这样说话. :-)</p>
<p>Hope this answer can help you a little bit.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-06T03:09:53.807Z
That's incorrect. There is no break between "modern" Chinese and "classic" Chinese. Many works, say from the Qing dynasty and the Ming dynasty, are very close to "modern" Chines. For example, 水滸傳.
fat penguin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-06T03:20:45.107Z
1920年，在陈独秀、胡适等人的支持下，在上海经营一家小出版社的汪原，对《水浒传》进行标点、分段并进行出版，这是中国第一次使用标点符号出版古典书籍。https://www.zhihu.com/question/19731478
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T19:57:38.437Z
2023-11-05T20:07:00.573Z
2023-11-05T20:07:00.573Z
PdotWang
<p>In the official translation of Friedrich Engels's 论封建制度的瓦解和民族国家的产生, there is a sentence 罗马法是纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突的十分经典性的法律表现.</p>
<p>With so many 的 crowded in a short sentence, the reading is placed under high pressure, with no real and final understanding achieved without tracing each and every word with your index finger. I hear there is a government-funded agency in China, the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, specializing in translating the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin from their native languages into Chinese, and the above must be one of their crystals of efforts, yet it is so hard to comprehend. Could there be a restructured or simplified version?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-05T17:12:26.957Z
A classical example of word-to-word translation without understanding the real meaning.
r13
<translation><grammar>
Is there a limit on the number of 的 in a sentence?
# Is there a limit on the number of 的 in a sentence?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-11-05)

In the official translation of Friedrich Engels's 论封建制度的瓦解和民族国家的产生, there is a sentence 罗马法是纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突的十分经典性的法律表现.

With so many 的 crowded in a short sentence, the reading is placed under high pressure, with no real and final understanding achieved without tracing each and every word with your index finger. I hear there is a government-funded agency in China, the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, specializing in translating the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin from their native languages into Chinese, and the above must be one of their crystals of efforts, yet it is so hard to comprehend. Could there be a restructured or simplified version?

**Tags:** translation, grammar

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: A classical example of word-to-word translation without understanding the real meaning.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-11-05. Score: 2

It's hard to read not because there are many 的 but because of its word order and lack of sentence breaking. They translated it like this probably because they tried to keep the grammatical structure and individual words of the original text, lest there be misunderstanding due to translation.

If we don't keep the grammatical structure but twist the words around a bit we could get, say

> 纯粹私有制占统治的社会，其生活条件和冲突，在罗马法中有十分经典的表现。

> 罗马法十分经典地表现了，纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突。

There's almost no change in the number of 的/地, but the sentences read much better to me.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Is it OK to replace the 的 behind社会 with 中 or 里?  
> **username_2**: No. You can say 中的, 里的, or 下的, but not having 的 is ungrammatical.  
> **username_3**: There is a limit to the number of 的 in a sentence: 2. If you use more than 2 的 you must go and live in 黑龙江省 for an entire winter! (大约8个月)  
> **username_0**: @username_3 I don't get your point. Do you mean it is so cold that their teeth stutter?  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-11-05. Score: 1

There is no limit on the number of 的 in one sentence

Example:

我的妹妹的丈夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效 (My sister's husband's co-worker's mother said this medicine is very effective)

Only the first 的 can be omitted --> 我妹妹的丈夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效 and at most, simplify 妹妹的丈夫 to 妹夫 --> 我妹夫的同事的母親說這藥很有效

Although it is a run-on sentence, it is intentionally done. To highlight how remote the source is from the final message (probably not that trustworthy)

> 罗马法是纯粹私有制占统治的社会的生活条件和冲突的十分经典性的法律表现

It is a more serious run-on sentence, Although It hasn't broken any grammar rule, it is clumsy and unreadable. It should be written in a more clear structure 「罗马法」是「纯粹私有制占统治的社会」內的「生活条件和冲突」的经典性法律表现

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Your example shows that having many 的 tend to make a sentence hard to read and understand. 的 denotes pocession. Therefore, a Chinese sentence with many 的 is a bit like an English sentence with many 's. Something like "My brother's friend's former college roomate's girlfriend's mother's ex-husband's next door neighbor's pet dog."  
> **username_4**: In short, It is a stranger's dog  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2023-11-05. Score: 1

Is there a limit on the number of 的 in a sentence?

I do not mind very much about this specific example, but your question is very important.

Modern Chinese, in contrast to classical Chinese, is a very young language, which has only about 100 years of history. Yes, 100 years. It was promoted by those scholars who mostly had an educational background in a Western country or in Japan. That is why modern Chinese has many words from Japan, and its sentence structures are similar to English.

But modern Chinese could not just "copy" everything from English. For example, when translating an English sentence that has a clause, (Hey this is a clause!) Chinese usually breaks it into two sentences, separated by a comma. (That is why the comma punctuation is heavily used in Chinese.)

For shorter clauses and phrases, Chinese sentences can denote them with "de-de-de" (的, 得, 地).

In a Chinese sentence, there are no solid rules for how and when you must have or not have them. Because (1) Chinese allows noun-noun structure, even adjective-noun structure without 的. (2) In reading, "de-de-de" can bring in a brief stop. Therefore using too many of them would make the readers feel uncomfortable. For Example:

我家的房顶上有一只红色的小鸟.

我的家的房子的顶的上边有一只红的颜色的小的鸟. - 可能只有早期从日本留学回来的留学生会这样说话. :-)

Hope this answer can help you a little bit.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: That's incorrect. There is no break between "modern" Chinese and "classic" Chinese. Many works, say from the Qing dynasty and the Ming dynasty, are very close to "modern" Chines. For example, 水滸傳.  
> **username_6**: 1920年，在陈独秀、胡适等人的支持下，在上海经营一家小出版社的汪原，对《水浒传》进行标点、分段并进行出版，这是中国第一次使用标点符号出版古典书籍。https://www.zhihu.com/question/19731478  

---

