0

I understand that the overall meaning is "the titular superhero has been overshadowed by the myriad of powerful villains he has fought against," but I don't see the purpose off adding that "所衬托的," and trying to translate that/see its function here in the sentence is driving me crazy.

I know that the meaning of 衬托 is to set off or serve as a foil to. This makes me think that it serves to modify the "fought against" or "对抗" part of the sentence, but I just am not sure, and do not know how to integrate 衬托 into the English translation specifically.

AndrewO
  • 69
  • 9

2 Answers2

2

This sentence has a lot of problems

  1. 所 in 所衬托的 is not needed

  2. 的/dé/ in 衬托的 should be replaced with 得/dé/

(another case of 的/dé/, 得/dé/, 地/dé/ confusion)

  1. 衬托(to set off) is the wrong choice of word for " contrast". It should be 对比 (compare/ contrast)

这位有名无实的超级英雄

[被]他所对抗的各路神通广大的反面角色[对比得]黯然失色

[be]......[contrasted] pale in comparsion

Something that was being 衬托 (set off) is always shown in a positive way

  • in this case, the so-call superhero is overshadowed by his powerful enemies = 被比较下来 (been compared down)

Also, 反派角色 is better than 反面角色 here

Tang Ho
  • 78,643
  • 4
  • 28
  • 71
  • Thank you. I was driving myself crazy trying to find out what that "的" was modifying in this sentence. Turns out it was just wrong. That's a bit worrysome, considering I got the sentence from zaojv.com, which I assumed to be a reliable site for practicing sentence reading. – AndrewO Apr 23 '22 at 00:02
  • 1
    There is a discussion on 的 pronounced as "di" rather then "de" in its spoken form. https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/318/why-is-%E7%9A%84-de-sometimes-pronounced-di-even-though-it-is-used-as-a-possessive-p – Wayne Cheah Apr 23 '22 at 03:13
2

Sympathy for superheroes!

I agree with Tang Ho, 友 should be 反 and you don't want 所衬托, just 衬托.

As for 的 or 得 or 地， Becky asked about this somewhere here (I'm useless at finding old threads). Someone answered:

Prior to the 1950s, many Chinese writers made no distinction between 的、地 or 得

That may have led to the contentious 的。

这位有名无实的超级英雄
This insubstantial superhero
被他的所对抗的各路神通广大的反面角色衬托得黯然失色。
was eclipsed by all of his opponents, each of whom possessed superior powers.

Pedroski
  • 18,287
  • 3
  • 18
  • 38