A quantitative approach to compare collocational patterns in translated and non‑translated texts

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to propose a corpus-based research methodology for comparing quantitative aspects of collocational patterning in translated and non-translated texts of the same language. The main issue under investigation is whether collocational patterns tend to be less diverse (i.e. reduced in range) in translated than non-translated texts. A pilot study is carried out with a view to examining the overall number of collocates and the distribution of collocations in relation to a given node in the translated and non-translated subcorpora. The data is drawn from a comparable corpus of Brazilian Portuguese which consists of two separate subcorpora: one made up of translated Brazilian Portuguese and the other consisting of non-translated Brazilian Portuguese. Both subcorpora are designed according to the same criteria and specifications and are of similar size.