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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 29:3 (2017) ► pp.388–415

A corpus-based study of semantic differences in translation

The case of inchoativity in Dutch

ORCID logo | Ghent University
| Ghent University
| Ghent University
| Ghent University

This paper presents a corpus-driven, statistical method for the visualization of semantic structure, thereby tackling the under-researched issue of semantics in corpus-based Translation Studies. We aim to investigate the influence of translation on the structure of semantic fields and in particular the extent to which the structure of the semantic field of inchoativity differs between original, non-translated Dutch and translated Dutch. The visualizations of the semantic field of inchoativity show that translated Dutch indeed differs from non-translated Dutch on the semantic level. Based on the exploration of the semantic fields, we furthermore formulate some hypotheses concerning the presence of the so-called universal tendencies of translation on the semantic level.

Keywords: translational hypothesis, corpus-based, statistical, semantic differences, semantic field, translation universals, inchoativity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Lexeme retrieval
    • 2.2From lexeme retrieval to the compilation of comparable data sets for translated and non-translated language
    • 2.3Visualization of data sets
  • 3.The semantic field of inchoativity in translated and non-translated language
    • 3.1Retrieval
    • 3.2Visualization
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1The semantic field of inchoativity for SourceDutch
    • 4.2The semantic field of inchoativity for TransDutchENG
    • 4.3The semantic field of inchoativity for TransDutchFR
    • 4.4Provisional conclusions
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.15009.van
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