A Systemic Literature Review of Translator’s Style in Translation Studies

Abstract

The translator's voice proposed by Hermans doubted the traditional view of the invisibility of the translator in the translation product. Then, Baker's combination of stylometric methods and corpus-based approaches made studying the translator's style possible. However, there is still no agreed-upon description of the translator's style, no practical research methodology, no reliable approach for selecting stylistic indicators, and no compelling theory for studying the translator's style. Hence, this paper aims to summarize the concept, research methodology, research theory, and stylistic indicators of the translator's style study by conducting a holistic literature evaluation of the Translator's Style study. This paper applies the method of systematic literature review which requires the researchers to select the academic articles or books with pre-set criteria. No time limit is set in the selection of meta-data to get a complete picture of the evolution and issues with the translator's style in translation studies. Based on the analysis of 97 samples mainly from Scopus and Web of Science following an updated PRISMA flow, this paper assessed the trend, research methods, and theories of the Translator's Style study.

The Multidimensional Analysis of the Translator Style in English Translations of The True Story of Ah Q

“…According to Huang [5], the purpose of employing multidimensional/factorial analysis in studying a translator style is to identify the diverse linguistic and non-linguistic factors that influence the language choices made by different translators. However, despite the contemporary nature of the topic, the definition of the Translator style is not fixed [6], which is one of the gaps to fill in the current study.…”

Investigating Translators’ Styles in The Little Prince: A Corpus-based Study

“…The term style is an umbrella term that can be variously defined depending on the research area (Li et al, 2022). Generally, style can refer to "the way in which language is used in a given context, by a given person, for a given purpose, and so on" (Leech & Short, 2007, p. 9).…”

“…Corpus-based translator's style research has recently been growing in number (Li et al, 2022). That said, there has not been an established or agreed-upon research methodology on a translator's style (Li et al, 2022).…”

“…Corpus-based translator's style research has recently been growing in number (Li et al, 2022). That said, there has not been an established or agreed-upon research methodology on a translator's style (Li et al, 2022). In addition to the indicators of a translator's style put forward by Baker (2000) which include type/token ratio, average sentence length, and reporting structure, other linguistic features have been utilised as the indicators of a translator's style in different studies.…”

Style in Translation as a Parameter in Tqa: A Pragmatic Perspective

“…It makes the style need to get the focus of the translator in translation activities. Style can also be using certain language choices (Li et al, 2023) in conceptualizing and expressing meaning. Therefore, studying style in translation means considering all these factors reflected in the text and translation.…”