Translation Style and Ideology: a Corpus-assisted Analysis of two English Translations of Hongloumeng

A Corpus-Based Study of Nominalization as a Feature of Translator’s Style (Based on the English Versions of Hong Lou Meng)

“…This study is a significant step forward in HLM English translation studies because it, like similar studies conducted by Liu (2010) and Li, Zhang and Liu (2011), also moves from impressionistic assessments of translator's style towards quantifiable data. Joly's style in HLM translation is described as much more formal than that of Yang and Yang by scholars such as Wong (1992) and Wang (2006).…”

“…Liu (2010), whose key work details the construction of a HLM corpus, considers various aspects, including the use of reporting verbs as a feature of translator's style. More recent studies, such as those by Li, Zhang and Liu (2011) and Ji and Oakes (2012), have sought to take such an approach further. However, these studies are still few in number, and the focus of the present study, nominalization, has not previously been examined.…”

Corpus-based Critical Translation Studies: Research Areas and Approaches

“…Fang (2005), on the contrary, argued that vulgar expressions in Shakespeare's plays should be rendered into vulgar expressions in the target language, without polishing, as the use of these expressions is one of the important features of Shakespeare's plays. Finally, using a Chinese-English parallel corpus of Hongloumeng, Li, Zhang, et al (2011) analyzed the stylistic differences between two English versions of Hongloumeng, a classic Chinese novel. The authors argue that the differences observed between the two translations are due to various factors, namely the two translators' differing primary goals, their consciousness of a clear target readership, and their concern for the readers, in addition to the social, political, and ideological milieu in which they both lived and worked.…”

Network motifs for translator stylometry identification

“…Researchers were interested in analysing how two translations of the same text by two different translators (which we denote as parallel translations) differed in delivering different meanings and mental pictures based on the identity of their translators. This includes their cultural [20], social [20], gender [21, 22], and proficiency level [8] backgrounds. Most of the research in this area analysed two different parallel translations originating from the same text, that were translted by two different translators, to address how their identities might have affected the choices they made throughout the process of text translation.…”

“…Li et.al [20] tried to capture differences in the translation styles of two English translations of a classic Chinese novel “Hongloumeng”. They calculated Type/token ratios, sentence length, and vocabulary.…”