Translation Style Research Articles

A Comparative Analysis of Two Translation Versions of Biancheng from the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization

Biancheng, translated as Green Jade, Border Town, The Border Town, The Frontier City, is a masterpiece of Chinese contemporary writer Shen Congwen that has enjoyed a worldwide reputation since its publication in 1934. Among the translations of the masterpiece, the versions of Gladys Yangs and Kinkleys are more praised and influential. Hence, by making a comparative analysis of Gladys Yangs and Kinkleys versions from the perspective of domestication and foreignization, this article aims to discuss how the two versions differ in translation strategies and translation methods. Through the analysis, it is found that Yang tends to apply the domestication strategy while Kinkley prefers to adopt the foreignization strategy. Meanwhile, by analysing the concrete examples in the source language and target language on word level and sentence level, the paper points out that the differences are a reflection of translators identities, translation styles and aims.

The Change of One Translator's Style and Cognition: A Speech-act Report Verb Study of Allan Barr's Two Translations of Yu Hua's Works

This article aims to explore the changes in a translator’s style with time and translation practice. Allan Barr was selected as the research subject, considering that his five translations of famous writer Yu Hua's works lasted for 16 years. Instead of focusing on one translator's consistent stylistic features throughout all his or her translations by comparing their translations with others, this study demonstrated the shift of a translator’s style through the revised source-oriented model for the study of the style. A systematic analysis was conducted on the quantitative and qualitative data regarding the English translations for the most frequent speech-act report verbs collected from the parallel corpus. The self-established corpus comprises Barr's earlier translation of “Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China” (Yu, 2014), which was completed in 2003. This was followed by his later translation for “The April 3rd Incident: Stories” (Yu, 2018), which was completed in 2018. Notably, Barr's understanding of style and translation ideology may change with time and translation practice, as indicated by the significant difference in the frequency of the speech-act report verbs with the same semantic meanings in ST and TT. This condition was also indicated through the distinguished motivations to change the semantic meaning of the speech-act verbs in the ST between Barr's earlier and subsequent translations. Subsequently, it was found that the method of corpus-based translator's style study can be applied to investigate how social and cognitive factors motivate a translator to change his or her translation ideology and strategies.

Criticizing the Turkish translation of the English poems in The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur based on Dryden’s translation types

The Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, a child of an immigrant family, is a rising figure in contemporary poetry which particularly focuses on immigration and womanhood. The English poems in the “rooting” chapter of her book The Sun and Her Flowers (2017a) reflect what she has experienced as a first-generation female immigrant. To analyze this experience in the target culture, this study concentrates on the poems translated into Turkish in Güneş ve Onun Çiçekleri (2017b) by Gizem Aldoğan in the "rooting" chapter. The study follows an eclectic method. The theoretical framework is based on John Dryden's three translation types (1992): Metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation. For the data analysis, the original and the translated poems are classified in terms of Hewson's macro-micro-macro methodological design (2011). Interrater reliability is ensured with the participation of three field experts during the data analysis. The macro-level analysis represents the final agreement of the field experts on the overall type of the translated poems in the defined chapter. The micro-level analysis, on the other hand, aims at finding out any unusual lines within a specific poem that fits into a translation type different from its macro-level type. The findings of the study show that the Turkish translations of Kaur's poems hold 100% paraphrastic translation style on the macro-level while there is a slight deviation on the micro-level.

An Oirat Fragment of the Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sutra in the Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts

The Mongolian collection of IOM RAS preserves one folio of a manuscript in Clear Script that contains the Oirat translation of the Śatasāhasrikā Prajāpāramitā Sutra. Before 2023, the folio was stored among mixed manuscript fragments that were delivered to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the 18th c. This fact, along with the characteristics of its paper and ductus, allows to conjecture that the manuscript was produced in the 18th c. The left and right margins of the folio are neatly cut off, which suggests that the manuscript was handled by collectors in the same period (similar traces were left on other Tibetan and Mongolian pothi manuscripts that were delivered to Russia and Europe in the 18th c.). The folio preserved at IOM RAS is the only specimen of the Oirat translation of the Śatasāhasrikā described today. The translation style is similar to that of the Oirat Zaya Pandita (15991662), although his authorship remains to be confirmed. In the paper, the facsimile of the folio is presented along with the transliteration of the Oirat text (in collation with the Tibetan source), and its translation into Russian.

Translation Techniques for Children Target Audience in The Wizard of Oz Novel

Translation of children's literature is a special form of cross-cultural communication, and its unique style brings corresponding challenges to translation. This paper discusses the techniques in the translation of children's literature based on the theory of "translation style theory". Style is not ethereal and visualized in the stylistic markers of the original text. With the analysis of stylistic means in phonetics, vocabularies and phrases, syntax, rhetoric and discourse structure of children's literature translation, this paper concludes that the translator should adhere to the overall principle of style representation in children's literature translation to represent stylistic features according to stylistic markers. The language of children's literature is more inclined to spoken language and should be easy to understand, vivid, humorous and full of childlike interest. Translators should conform to children's expression habits in terms of words, grammar and text through translation means to achieve the representation of style.

Four Challenges Faced by Early Chinese Buddhist Translators: A Case Study of Zhi Qian’s Chinese Translation of Dhammapada

This study focuses on the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, specifically the Faju jing, a Chinese version of the Dhammapada completed in the third century CE. It reveals that the Faju jing is not a straightforward translation but a combination of different sources. The translator, Zhi Qian, faced challenges in integrating multiple translation practices, dealing with diverse original Indian languages, incorporating pre-existing phrases from other translators’ work, and managing divergent opinions within the translation team regarding the translation style. This multi-layered process of translation, involving the participation of multiple translators, also likely occurred in other early translations. These challenges extended beyond mere comprehension of the Indian text, resulting in potential errors and deviations from straightforward translations. It is possible that some mistranslations were a consequence of integrating multiple traditions within the source text, making it difficult for translators to maintain a consistent linguistic framework and leading to errors. Furthermore, this study highlights the remarkable efforts of Chinese translators who collaborated with foreign monks in translation groups. It emphasizes the important role of Chinese translators in integrating diverse translation processes and refining the language to suit Chinese readers. They incorporated earlier translations and modified the language to align with Chinese forms. Overall, this case study sheds light on the complexity of early Chinese Buddhist translations, influenced by the integration of multiple traditions and the localization of the texts. It underscores the significance of Chinese translators in the translation process and their contributions to the development of Chinese Buddhist literature.

The Quality of Translated Children's Literature in the Let’s Read Application: Evaluating Source Text Meaning Accuracy Using Angelelli's Scoring Rubric

This study evaluates the translation quality of a children's story, "Dive", in the Let’s Read app using Angelelli's scoring rubric. The focus is on the accuracy, fluency, readability, cultural adaptation, and style in the Indonesian translation, "Menyelam." The research uncovers the strengths and challenges of the translation process and its impact on the young Indonesian audience. With scores from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), the study contributes significantly to the debate on translation quality assessment in children's literature. The findings offer insights for improving the translation process and reading experience for users of the Let’s Read app. The study underscores the importance of accurate translation and cultural adaptation to maintain the educational value and reader engagement in translated children's literature for diverse audiences.

QUEST FOR THE TRUTH IN TRANSLATION: TO THE ONTOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF ANALYSIS IN TRANSLATION

The paper presents an attempt to explain the phenomenon of correspondence in translation through the notion of truth. The truth of translation is conceived as a complex category that manifests itself through a system of functional oppositions. The central object of this study, contrastively combining all the aspects of translation, is transformation. The paper stands against a unilateral structural linguistic view on the phenomenon of transformation, considering transformation as an interpretative means of translation combining invariable and variable sides. The paper equates transformation to interpretation in translation. In translation the interpretation is represented by transformation. Constructively any interpretation unfolds from its invariable side to its variable side. In the usual scenario of communication, interpretation represents a transition from the linguistic form to the sense where the sense is variable representing a common field of understanding shared between communicants. In translation, the sense is the invariable side; consequently, the interpretation unfolds from the sense to the linguistic form. The link between the invariable and variable sides in translation is treated in terms of inductive logic. The equivalence is seen through the category of transitivity (a potential substitutability of semantic elements on the basis of the same sense). The truth of translation is a binary category with the sense being its foundation and the referential semantic side being its boundary where semantic variability up to some limits is supposed. The interrelationship between the boundary and the foundation of the truth is the matter of analytical work of interpreter. The truth of translation is subject to the logical verification and falsification procedures. The logical procedures precede the translation forming the base of the subsequent decision the interpreter takes to choose an equivalent. The paper deals also with the function of style, sociocultural and figurative nuances in translation. From this perspective, categories of foreignization and domestication in their functional interconnection are taken into consideration. Their interconnection means that one category may result from the other. The paper presents a number of examples of English-Russian and Portuguese-Russian translation. The paper may be of interest to specialists in translation studies, contrastive linguistics and general linguistics.

The translator's visibility: A stylistic perspective

AbstractNo agreement has yet been reached as to whether translators are visible or not in translation. To answer this question, we first chose Lin Yutang and James Legge as cases, supplemented their translations with their originals, and then applied Principal Component Analysis along with N-MFW metrics to the texts for their stylistic features. In our cases, we found that (1) for each translator, the styles of their originals and translations vary; (2) for both translators, the styles of their translations converge for the same source text; (3) the two translators preserve only part of their stylistic fingerprints in their translations, suggesting the existence of a powerful compensation mechanism. Our findings bring new insights into the translator's style, help settle the (in)visibility dispute, and illustrate effective metrics for developing translator identification tools.

On Intercultural Communication and Game Translation

With the development of globalization, international communication is becoming more and more frequent, and cross-cultural communication emerges as the times require. Translation is the hub of intercultural communication. Different text backgrounds show different translation styles. With the promotion of today’s network technology, people’s ability to access information is more efficient. The translated texts are no longer confined to books, newspapers, etc., and game translation has also poured into the public’s field of vision. Many of today’s hottest games have been developed by foreign companies and then introduced by Chinese companies. According to the China Internet Center, the number of online game users in China exceeds 420 million. As a result, people are increasingly concerned about the quality of game translation. From the cross-cultural perspective, this paper discusses the translation features of game characters and analyzes how game translation embodies the purpose of cross-cultural communication.

Literary Translation Style - Linguocultural Phenomenon (According to Ivane Machabeli’s translation of the tragedy “Hamlet” by Shakespeare)

This article deals with the essence of the artistic translation as creation and translation style as Linguoultural Phenomenon. The problem refers to the issue how the artistic translation as phenomenon should be seen wholly, that implies its  researching creatively and  lingvo-culturally. According to the methodological approach  translation style should be studied interdisciplinary. So, it is the most essential to combine successively interdisciplinary methodology to the linguistic approach of the artistic translation (this is the approach that  is implied by linguocultural paradigm).  The methodology of the mentioned research implies the conceptual combination of such disciplines as, on the one hand, Literature Studies and on the other hand Linguistics – (because original text as well as translated text are at the same time the subject matter of Literature-Studies and Linguistics). But, according to the fact that artistic translation is studied as creation in this article, the methodology of our research means the disciplines such as Esthetics and Linguistic Theory of Translation, in particular the conception of translation transformation.

TOEIC 교재 번역에 대한 ‘가독성’ 연구

The purpose of the paper is to compare and analyze the English sentences were shown in the TOEIC textbook and Korean translation sentences according to them, based on the translation style, which is one of the basic theories of translation studies. To understand the concept of translation by first examining the theory of translation that has been dealt with in previous studies. And based on this, to analyze the English sentences covered in various TOEIC textbooks and the translated Korean sentences. Among the many sentences that appeared, sentences with severe translation were extracted and analyzed. Therefore, considering that this study presented another guideline in translation research by studying the awkwardness of Korean translation that English learners may feel while learning in the TOEIC textbook, the meaning and value of this study are fully appreciated.

황순원 단편소설을 영역한 두 번역가에 대한 계량문체론적 연구

This study explores the possibility that translators who have translated many works may develop their own translation styles rather than simply following the stylistic features of the source text. By examining the translation of Hwang Sun-won's concise literary style by two different translators, this study aims to identify the presence and aspects of their stylistic choices. An exploratory and stylometric approach was used to analyze a parallel corpus of 29 short stories by Hwang Sun-won and their translations by Bruce and Ju-chan Fulton and Edward W. Poitras, along with a corresponding reference corpus, at the lexical, syntactic, and textual levels, using stylistic markers such as STTR, average sentence length, syntactic complexity, readability, and document similarity. The results indicate that both the author's and the translators' styles contribute to the stylistic formation of translated texts, and the degree to which a translator's unique style is evident varies depending on the stylistic marker and the translator. These findings highlight the significant influence of stylistic choices made by translators on the final translated text, and emphasize the importance of considering both author's and translator's styles in translation production and analysis.

A Burglar of the Better Sort: Poems, Dramatic Works, Theoretical Writings

A Burglar of the Better Sort: Poems, Dramatic Works, Theoretical Writings

INDIVIDUAL STYLE IN TRANSLATION (BASED ON T. CHIANG’S SHORT NOVEL STORY OF YOUR LIFE)

The article examines the main features of the individual style of the American science fiction writer Ted Chiang and the peculiarities of their translation into Russian language.
 The relevance is related to the fact that the individual style of the writer has not yet become a subject of study, despite popularity of his works. The problem of author’s style in translation is critical as there is no unanimity on criteria to define style-forming elements of author’s style.
 The purpose of the study is to identify the main features of the author’s individual style and their forming factors, as well as the ways to translate them into Russian. For this we analyze the genre affiliation of the work, writer’s sphere of interest, ideological and thematic components, characters’ images and stylistic means, the type of narration, as well as the translation in terms of preserving or transforming these features.
 The material: T. Chiang’s sort novel Story of Your Life (2002).
 Results of the study: by textual comparison we define T. Chiang’s style elements and show that some of them are extralinguistic, also we describe their translation strategies.

Investigating translation style in English translations of Chinese editorials and commentaries from the Hong Kong Economic Journal: a corpus stylistic analysis

ABSTRACT Previous studies on translator’s or translation style have mostly focused on literary works. This study is a stylistic analysis of Chinese-language editorials and commentaries published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ) and their print and web versions of English translations. The study includes a corpus analysis of the original and translated news texts’ average sentence length, standardized type-token ratio, reporting verbs and high-frequency words. These are interpreted in relation to the translators’ personal attributes and the socio-cultural contexts to identify several major factors contributing to stylistic differences. This study finds that the news translation style is influenced by both source language linguistic features and target language conventions. The production of translated news texts involves the input of multiple agents, which is demonstrated in the collective traces of translation styles. The stylistic shifts between the original and translated news editorials and commentaries reflect the news outlet’s editorial stance and targeted readership. The empirical findings contribute to our understanding of the critical role stylistic features play in Chinese-to-English journalistic translation.

A Critical Review Of "Zia ul Mulk Mulla Ramuzi: The Founder Of Gulabi Urdu" By Prof Bashir Ahmed Soz

Mullah Ramuzi is known in Urdu literature as the inventor of Gulabi Urdu. Gulabi Urdu in its own words means to change the order of the words in the sentence. For example, first the verb then the subject and the object, in this way, the style of translation from Arabic to Urdu is created. Of course it is fun, but after a while the reader gets tired. The atrocities of the government, social injustice and social ills force him to write whatever he writes under the guise of humor

A corpus-based study of the translation of modal verbs in the three versions of Shih chi.

Modality plays an important part in verbal communication, as it can reveal the speaker's views and perspectives. The modal verb, as an essential component of the modality system, has been a hot research topic and a challenge in academic circles in recent years. Analyzing the modal verbs in a text may indicate the context produced by the translator in the translation and the identity difference between the translator and the reader. In this study, three representative English translations of Shih chi are selected for comparative analysis with the original text. With the help of corpus techniques, the paper investigates the differences in the use of modal verbs by various translators, the distribution of quantitative changes and their influence on translations, as well as the historical and cultural backgrounds and identities of the translators that led to these differences. It is found that owing to the different professional identities of the translators and historical and cultural contexts in which they live, the choice of modal verbs and the shifts of modality values in the three translations are distinct, leading to different translation styles.

An interview with Joel Martinsen: translating The Dark Forest and Cixin Liu’s other Sci-fi

ABSTRACT This interview took place on the ZOOM platform on 29 July 2022. The focus of the interview between Gaosheng Deng and Joel Martinsen, the translator of The Dark Forest and Cixin Liu’s other Sci-fi, was on the habitus and subjectivity of translators. Since Toury introduced the concept of norms into translation studies, most translation practices can be explained by using norms. The role of translation norms was reinforced by habitus. Translators embody their habitus and translation style formed by their externalization in translation, which includes the selection of translation materials, translation strategies, and translator’s understanding of the essence of translation, all of which represent various translation norms. The main topics covered in the interview include the social path taken by translators before entering the translation industry, the translator’s style, the process of translation, revision, and the differences between Chinese and Western culture, allowing readers and researchers to learn more about the external social norms that has shaped the translator’s habitus.

Ragtime with Jazz Variations: A Novel by E. L. Doctorow Translated by Vasily Aksenov

The study focuses on the translation of Edgar Lowrence Doctorow's novel “Ragtime” (1975), made by Vassily Aksenov for the journal “Foreign Literature” and published in 1978. The article examines Aksenov's translation from different sides: both from the comparative point of view (the choice of translation strategies; linguistic, stylistic and semantic transformations of the original text) and from the evolutionary point of view (the influence of the American novel on Aksenov's works of the mid-1970s, mainly, on the novel “Burn”). A common place in the reception of the Russian translation of “Ragtime” was the discussion of the stylistic inaccuracies of Aksenov, who did not want to be “invisible”, as required by translation ethics (according to Lawrence Venuti). The study analyzes the language and style of translation and finds out how a Russian writer transforms the source text. Aksenov modifies the factual and moderate narrative manner of Doctorow’s novel, complements it with internal monologues of the characters and intensifies the subjectivity of the historical novel the American writer's intended. The translator combines both domestication and foreignization. Friedrich Schleiermacher, who first introduced these terms into academic field, considered it mutually exclusive. Aksenov uses domestication (adaptation of unfamiliar phenomena of foreign culture for the target reader) only if necessary (for instance, to explain the difference in Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature scales) or for censorship reasons (to replace “inconvenient” words like “sexologist”). Foreignization becomes the main strategy: there are plenty of Americanisms and intentionally “untranslated” words (“derby”, “darling”). The translation of “Ragtime” essentially impacted Aksyonov’s opus magnum – “Burn”. Like ragtime for Doctorow, Aksenov considers the musical form as the basis of novel’s composition: jazz happens to be a key metaphor for both the spirit of the era and the painful nostalgia for it.