Cover not available
Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 68:1 (2022) ► pp.139–164

A corpus-based comparative study of explicitation by investigating connectives in two Chinese translations of The Lord of the Rings

| Minnan Normal University
This article conducts a corpus-based comparative study of explicitation, one of the translation universals widely explored, by investigating the use of connectives in two versions of the Chinese translation of The Lord of the Rings from Taiwan and Mainland China. The two versions are compared with the originally produced Chinese text and their source text to find out whether explicitation through the use of connectives occurs in Chinese translation and to what extent such explicitation is influenced by the source text. A quantitative plus qualitative method is adopted to analyze the connectives in the two Chinese versions and compare them with their counterparts in the source text and the non-translated target text. The results show that explicitation occurs in both versions and that the Taiwan version exhibits a higher degree of explicitation than the Mainland version. Such findings may result from different pedagogical and regional translation norms, especially with greater importance attached to faithfulness in translation in Mainland China.
Keywords: explicitation, connective, corpus-based translation, Mainland China, Taiwan
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Defining explicitation
    • 1.2Objectives of the study
    • 1.3Typology of explicitation
      • 1.3.1Klaudy’s classification
      • 1.3.2House’s classification
      • 1.3.3Becher’s classification
    • 1.4An integrated model of explicitation
  • 2.Previous research on translational explicitation
    • 2.1Representative studies using different kinds of corpora
    • 2.2Problems existing in CTS of explicitation
  • 3.Data and methodology
    • 3.1Corpus size and composition
    • 3.2Methodology for a comparable investigation of research questions 1 and 2
    • 3.3Methodology for a parallel investigation of research question 3
  • 4.Statistical analysis
    • 4.1A comparable quantitative analysis of research question 1
      • 4.1.1Overall statistics
      • 4.1.2Common connectives
      • 4.1.3Translational distinctive connectives (TDCs)
    • 4.2A comparable qualitative analysis of research question 2
    • 4.3A parallel qualitative and qualitative analysis of research question 3
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 18 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00253.son
References (49)
References
Baker, Mona. 1993. “Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Applications.” In Text and Technology: In Honor of John Sinclair, edited by Mona Baker, Gill Francis, and Elena Tognini-Bonelli, 233–252. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1996. “Corpus-based Translation Studies: The Challenges that Lie Ahead.” In Terminology, LSP and Translation: Studies in Language Engineering in Honour of Juan C. Sager, edited by Harold Somer, 175–186. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2000. “Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator.” Target 12 (2): 241–266. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bercher, Viktor. 2011. “Explicitation and Implicitation in Business Translation: A Corpus-based Study of English-German and German-English Translations of Business Texts.” Ph.D. diss., University of Hamburg.
Birgitta-Englund, Dimitrova. 2005. Expertise and Explicitation in the Translation Process. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. 1986. “Shifts of Cohesion and Coherence in Translation.” In Interlingual and Intercultural Communication, edited by Julianne House and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 17–35. Tübinger: Narr. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Wallace. 2004. “Investigating Explicitation of Conjunctions in Translated Chinese: A Corpus-based Study.” Language Matters 35 (1): 295–312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. “Explicitation through the Use of Connectives in Translated Chinese: A Corpus-based Study.” Ph.D. diss., University of Manchester.
Dai, Guangrong 戴光荣, and Xiao Zhonghua 肖忠华. 2011. “Yiwen zhong ‘yuanyu touguo xiaoying’ yanjiu: Jiyu yuliaoku de Ying yi Han beidong ju yanjiu” 译文中 “源语透过效应” 研究：基于语料库的英译汉被动句研究 [“SL shining through” in translational language: A corpus-based study of Chinese translation of English passives]. Fanyi jikan 翻译季刊 [Translation quarterly] 621: 85–108.Google Scholar
Dunning, Ted. 1993. “Accurate Methods for the Statistics of Surprise and Coincidence.” Computational Linguistics 19 (1): 61–74.Google Scholar
Frawley, William. 1984. “Prolegomenon to a Theory of Translation.” In Translation: Literary, Linguistic and Philosophical Perspectives, edited by William Frawley, 159–175. London: Associated University Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Heltai, Pál. 2005. “Explicitation, Redundancy, Ellipsis and Translation.” In New Trends in Translation Studies: In Honour of Kinga Klaudy, edited by Kriztina Károly and Fóris Ágota, 45–74. Budapest: AkadémiaiKiadó.Google Scholar
House, Julianne. 2004. “Explicitness in Discourse across Languages.” In Neue Perspektiven der Übersetzungs- und Dolmetschwissenschaft. Festschrift für Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast zum 60. Geburtstag [New perspectives in translation and interpreting studies: In celebration of the sixtieth birthday of Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast], edited by Julianne House, Werner Koller, and Klaus Schubert, 185–207. Bochum: AKSVerlag.Google Scholar
Ippolito, Margherita. 2013. Simplification, Explicitation and Normalization: Corpus-based Research into English to Italian Translations of Children’s Classics. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. 2016. “Testing Explicitation in Translation: Triangulating Corpus and Experimental Studies.” Across Languages and Cultures 16 (2): 257–283. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Graeme. 1998. An Introduction to Corpus Linguistics. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Kenny, Dorothy. 2001. Lexis and Creativity in Translation: A Corpus-based Study. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
. 2005. “Parallel Corpora and Translation Studies: Old Questions, New Perspectives? Reporting that in Gepcolt: A Case Study.” In Meaningful Texts: The Extraction of Semantic Information from Monolingual and Multilingual Corpora, edited by Geoff Barnbrook, Pernilla Danielsson, and Michaela Mahlberg, 154–165. Birmingham: University of Birmingham Press.Google Scholar
Klaudy, Kinga. 1998. “Explicitation.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, edited by Mona Baker, 80–85. Shanghai. Shanghai waiyu jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Klaudy, Kinga, and Krisztina Károl. 2005. “Implicitation in Translation: An Empirical Justification of Operational Asymmetry in Translation.” Across Languages and Cultures 6 (1): 13–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laviosa, Sara. 1996. “The English Comparable Corpus (ECC): A Resource and a Methodology for the Empirical Study of Translation.” Ph.D. diss., University of Manchester.
. 1998. “Core Patterns of Lexical Use in a Comparable Corpus of English Narrative Prose.” Meta 43 (4): 557–570. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2002. Corpus-based Translation Studies: Theory, Findings and Applications. Amsterdam: Rodopi. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey, Paul Rayson, and Andrew Wilson. 2001. Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. Longman: London.Google Scholar
Li, Jinxi 黎锦熙. 2007. Xinzhu Guoyu wenfa 新著国语文法 [New Chinese grammar]. Hunan: Hunan jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Lian, Shuneng 连淑能. 2002. “Lun Zhong Xi siwei fangshi” 论中西思维方式 [A study of Chinese and Western thought patterns]. Waiyu yu waiyu jiaoxue 外语与外语教学 [Foreign languages and their teaching] 155 (2): 40–46.Google Scholar
Lü, Shisheng 吕世生. 2017. “Zhongguo ‘zouchuqu’ fanyi de kunjing yu zhongshi gainian de lishi juxiangxing” 中国 “走出去” 翻译的困境与忠实概念的历史局限性 [On the dilemma of China’s ‘going-out’ translation and historical limitations of the concept of faithfulness]. Waiguo yuyan wenzi 外国语言文字 [Foreign languages education] 38 (5): 86–90.Google Scholar
Malmkjaer, Kirsten. 2007. “On a Pseudo-subversive Use of Corpora in Translator Training.” In Corpora and Translator Education, edited by Federico Zanettin, Silvia Bernardini, and Dominic Stewart, 119–134. Beijing: Waiyu jiaoyu yu yanjiu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy. 1998. “A Computer-assisted Approach to the Analysis of Translation Shifts.” Meta 43 (4): 542–556. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Olohan, Maeva, and Mona Baker. 2000. “Reporting that in Translated English: Evidence for Subliminal Processes of Explicitation?.” Across Languages and Cultures 1 (2): 141–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Øverås, Linn. 1998. “In Search of the Third Code: An Investigation of Norms in Literary Translation.” Meta 43 (4): 557–570. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pápai, Vilma. 2004. “Explicitation: A Universal of Translated Text?.” In Translation Universals: Do They Exist?, edited by Anna Mauranen and Pekka Kujamaki, 143–164. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Puurtinen, Tiina. 2004. “Explicitation of Clausal Relations: A Corpus-based Analysis of Clause Connectives in Translated and Non-translated Finnish Children’s Literature.” In Translation Universals: Do They Exist?, edited by Anna Mauranen and Pekka Kujamaki, 165–176. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rayson, Paul, and Roger Garside. 2000. “Comparing Corpora Using Frequency Profiling.” In Proceedings of the Workshop on Comparing Corpora, edited by Adam Kilgarriff and Tony Berber Sardinha, 1–6. New Jersey: Association for Computational Linguistics.Google Scholar
Saldanha, Gabriela. 2008. “Explicitation Revisited: Bringing the Reader into the Picture.” Trans-Kom 1 (1): 20–35.Google Scholar
Shuttleworth, Mark, and Moira Cowie. 1997. Dictionary of Translation Studies. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Song, Hua. 2016. “A Review of Corpus-based Translation Studies: Implications and Applications .” Perspectives 24 (2): 339–345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stewart, Dominic. 2000. “Poor Relations and Black Sheep in Translation Studies.” Target 12 (2): 205–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sutarsyah, Cucu, Paul Nation, and Graeme Kennedy. 1994. “How Useful Is EAP Vocabulary for ESP? A Corpus-based Case Study.” RELC Journal 25 (2): 34–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Turner, Allen. 2011. Translating Tolkien: Philological Elements in “The Lord of the Rings.” Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. (1958) 1995. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation, translated by Juan C. Sager and Marie-Josée Hamel. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Weissbrod, Rachel. 1992. “Explicitation in Translation of Prose Fiction from English into Hebrew as a Function of Norms.” Multilingua 11 (2): 153–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wu, Jianping 吴建平. 2002. “Yuyan fuhao duiyi, yanyu fanyi yu kua wenhua xinxi” 语言符号对译、言语翻译与跨文化信息 [On equivalence of interlinguistic signs, speech translation and cross-cultural information]. Xiamen daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 厦门大学学报 (哲学社会科学版) [Journal of Xiamen University (arts and social sciences)] 154 (6): 51–56.Google Scholar
Williams, Donna A. 2005. “Recurrent Features of Translation in Canada: A Corpus-based Study.” Ph.D. diss, University of Ottawa.
Xiao, Zhonghua 肖忠华, and Dai Guangrong 戴光荣. 2010. “Xunqiu ‘di san yuma’: Jiyu Hanyu yiwen yuliaoku de fanyi gongxing yanjiu” 寻求 “第三语码”: 基于汉语译文语料库的翻译共性研究 [In pursuit of the third code: A study of translation universals based on the ZCTC corpus of translational Chinese]. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu 外语教学与研究 [Foreign language teaching and research] 42 (1): 52–58.Google Scholar
Xiao, Richard, and Xianyao Hu. 2015. “Source Language Interference in English-to Chinese Translation.” In Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2015, edited by Jesús Romero-Trillo, 139–162. Cham: Springer International Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhu, Chaowei 祝朝伟. 2010. “Yizhe zhize de fanyi lunli jiedu” 译者职责的翻译伦理解读 [The translator’s duties: A reading from the ethics of translation]. Waiguo yuwen 外国语文 [Foreign language and literature] 26 (6): 77–82.Google Scholar