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Target
Vol. 13:2 (2001) ► pp.265–288

Enriching translations, simplified language?

An alternative viewpoint to lexical simplification

| Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Intuitively, the suggestion that lexical simplification be a translation universal seems to run counter to the established idea of translation as enrichment. The present paper seeks to relate the two ideas, simplification and enrichment, while addressing the issue of testing hypotheses about universality in Translation Studies, especially in Corpus Translation Studies. The nature of the data used and its implications to the results are discussed. Finnish 19th century texts constitute a case in point on the problems that heterogeneous data may give rise to, and it is suggested that alternative ways of studying lexical phenomena are needed, in order to complement the findings in Corpus Translation Studies.

Keywords: translation history, simplification, enrichment, universals, lexical variation, corpus studies
Article outline
  • 1.Universality in translation studies
  • 2.Universality underdefined?
  • 3.The Finnish situation and its implications for CTS
  • 4.Translation: Enrichment or simplification?
    • 4.1Enrichment in paratexts and in theory
    • 4.2Implications of the ‘enrichment’ idea
    • 4.3Lexical variation in Finland during 1809–1850
    • 4.4Across categories: Translational language and dialects
    • 4.5Standardization and simplification: Some implications for CTS
  • 5.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 June 2002
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.13.2.04pal
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