随着小人书的流行,出现了从事租书业务的小人书摊,这对于那些想看又买不起书的人来说,只用很少的钱就能看一本,毫无疑问是件大好事。
I need your help about this part: 毫无疑问是件大好事
First of all, is my literal translation right? 毫无(without any)疑问(doubt)是(is)件(classifier)大(big)好(good)事(thing)? 大好事 means big and good thing?
I wonder why it is written as: 毫无疑问是件大好事... Myself, I would expect something like 毫无疑问那是一大好件事. The grammar rule is "classifier adjective noun" or "adjective classifier noun"? Why the 一 and 那 or 这 are omitted? Also, as I understand, in these cases the 和 is optional? 毫无疑问是件大和好事? Or the latter does not make grammatical sense?
The translation should be: Without any doubt, it is a very good thing. 1), 毫无疑问here can be treat as an adverb in English sentence. 2), “只用很少的钱就能看一本” is the subject of "毫无疑问是件大好事", so should add a "it" to refer the previous sentence. 3) "件" in "毫无疑问是件大好事" here is a 量词 [1] of 事。So if translate to English, it can be omitted here. 4) "大" here before 好事 is an adverb, like "very" in English, to modify the following adjective"好", so can be translated to: "very good thing".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics)As you have suspected, there are omissions in the sentence:
毫无疑问(那)是(一)件大好事 - Without any doubt, that is a(one) very good thing/great thing.
However, these omissions are not critical as people will understand through reading the full paragraph, and by "sensemaking (意會)".
毫无疑问: 不存在问题 undoubtedly, without question
The other bit, well, if it's a computer-generated transliteration of a radio interview or something, well, we all say things the way wrong round sometimes!
I wouldn't dwell on it too much.
毫无疑问是一件大好事。
without question this is a great thing!
I noticed that 事 here has been translated as "thing"
With due respect, my view is that 事 here is used as an abstract noun, denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. Therefore 好事 in the context of OP's passage should be translated as "a good idea / situation / state of affairs"
Even in the English version, the "thing" in this context is not a "thing", i.e. an object, but rather a "state of affairs"
And finally the 大 is not to be translated as "big", but rather it imbues the situation with superlative qualities.
Incidentally 大好事 should all go together as one common compound phrase and not separated into 大好件事; hence your phrase in question is "...是件大好事"
Now, finally why didn't the passage says 毫无疑问是一件大好事?, adding a "一" to it?
The answer is the passage is referencing a state of affairs of general occurrences, (namely, 只用很少的钱就能看一本), and not any "one particular occurrence" which would be the case if "一" is added.