Research in Corpus Linguistics

Introduction: The ascent of corpus-based translation studies

Sara Laviosa — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The pervasiveness of corpus-based research in the broad interdisciplinary field of translation studies is well attested. This editorial briefly reports on some of the most significant academic initiatives undertaken in corpus-based translation studies in recent years. It introduces each of the eight papers selected for this special issue of Research in Corpus Linguistics (RiCL). In doing so, the editorial will highlight their distinctive contribution to the interdisciplinarity of translation and interpreting studies.

The impact of directionality and speech event type on target speech compression/expansion in simultaneous interpreting

Claudio Bendazzoli — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Simultaneous interpreting is a complex cognitive activity that can be influenced by several factors, including source speech features (e.g., delivery rate), contextual variables, working languages, and directionality (e.g., interpreting from/into one’s native or foreign language), among others. Owing to the time constraints inherent in this interpreting mode, simultaneous interpreters must make swift decisions on how to best deliver the original message into the target language. Although explicitation is considered a universal feature of translation and interpreting, it is also true that part of (redundant) information is eventually omitted. In fact, as opposed to translated texts, interpreting corpora show a general trend of interpreted speeches being shorter than source speeches (in terms of number of words). However, a closer look at the Directionality in Simultaneous Interpreting Corpus (DIRSI) partially disconfirms such a general trend. The DIRSI corpus consists of three medical conferences mediated by simultaneous interpreters (English/Italian). Each conference is analyzed in terms of speech length to ascertain to what extent directionality and speech event type may have an impact on the interpreters’ output. Results show that directionality cannot always be linked to target speech expansion, whereas the type of speech event is likely to play a role. In particular, this applies to the interpretation of source speeches under 500 words, as interpreters adopt optimization strategies to manage politeness, source speech ungrammaticality, and integrate contextual cues.

Non-fluency and language-pair specificity in Chinese-English consecutive interpreting: A corpus-driven study

Bing Zou, Binhua Wang — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Language-pair specificity, which refers to linguistic and cultural differences between the language pair, has been hypothesized as one of the variables shaping the interpreting performance and product. The current study adopts a corpus-driven paralinguistic approach to testifying the language-pair specificity hypothesis. The corpus is a bilingual parallel corpus of Chinese-English Interpreting for Premier Press Conferences, which consists of 200,000 words/characters in total. The original and interpreted discourses are aligned at the sentential level and annotated at linguistic, paralinguistic and extra-linguistic levels. The paralinguistic analysis focuses on non-fluency, specifically the different types of pauses and self-repairs. It is found that a majority of non-fluencies in the interpreted utterances are syntax-driven, which means that most of the pauses and self-repairs in Chinese-English interpreting are related to syntactical structures in the original speeches. The finding implies that language-pair specificity should be considered as an important variable in research and training of interpreting between syntactically-contrastive languages.

A Dutch discourse marker in interpreter-mediated police interviewing with drafting: A corpus-based approach to dialogue interpreting

Bart Defrancq, Sofie Verliefde — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study systematically analyses the use of a Dutch discourse marker (dus) by nine interpreters assisting in 12 police interviews. It is an attempt to approach dialogue interpreting with the analytical framework of corpus-based linguistics and a data collection that can stand the comparison with existing corpora of mostly simultaneous interpreting. In terms of frequencies, the results show that interpreters do not seem to divert from general usage patterns for spoken Dutch. However, their use of dus is mostly disconnected from the speech they are interpreting. While explicitation seems to be at play in a certain number of cases, the bulk of instances serves interaction coordination purposes. A substantial number of instances with a filler function are also found, where interpreters struggle to understand the source speech or to articulate their interpretation. Finally, some interesting cases of so-called discursive control enforced by dus are observed, further confirming the special relationship interpreting holds with drafting of written records during the interview.

Sketching the changing patterns in kaleidoscopes: New developments in corpus-based studies of translation features (2001–2021)

Shuangzi Pang, Kefei Wang — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Corpus-based Translation Studies (CTS) have developed and advanced substantially since its emergence in the 1990s. This article provides an overview of the evolution of CTS from 2001 to 2021, identifying new challenges and research opportunities. The evolution of CTS is presented into two stages: the establishment of the subject matter and the expansion of research, respectively. We argue that CTS may enter the stage when the traditional specialties, such as using corpora in contrastive linguistics and translation, continue to advance, while a variety of new research points emerge and expand. After outlining current problems and unresolved issues, the analysis presents newly emerged research areas, assumptions, perspectives, and cross-fertilization with neighboring disciplines as the new developments in CTS. Four possible trends in CTS are framed and presented accordingly. The analysis highlights the significant advancements made in CTS over the past two decades and provides a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the current state of CTS, and the directions it may take in the future.

Lexical simplification in learner translation: A corpus-based approach

Ho Ling Kwok, Sara Laviosa, Kanglong Liu — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The advance of corpus-based methodology in translation studies has greatly enhanced our understanding of the nature of translational language. While most research efforts have focused on identifying the unique features of translations carried out by professionals, comparatively fewer studies have investigated the linguistic features of student translations. In this corpus-based study, we examine if learner translations carried out by Hong Kong students exhibit lexical simplification features vis-à-vis comparable written texts. The study is based on two comparable corpora: the International Corpus of English in Hong Kong (ICE-HK) and the Parallel Learner Translation Corpus (PLTC) compiled at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Following Laviosa (1998), we compare four main lexical features (lexical density, type-token ratio, core vocabulary coverage, and list head coverage) to investigate if student translations show a simplification trend. The results demonstrate that Chinese-to-English translation is not lexically simpler than English as a Second Language (ESL) writing. Furthermore, it is lexically denser than ESL writing. Our study aims to provide new insights into learner translation as a form of constrained communication.

A corpus-based study of embellishment in translations of the Newbery Medal Awards

Yu Zhai, Bin Xu — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Embellishment is a stylistic feature of translated children’s literature. In recent years, children’s reading choices and experiences have been truly thought highly of and, today, the idea that lexical enrichment is good for children ––either for their writing or reading experience–– is prevailing among children’s literature translators and book editors. With this in mind, a small corpus composed of translations of the Newbery Medal Awards was built to figure out whether the phenomenon of embellishment exists in English-Chinese translations of children’s literature and, if so, what are the motivations for it. The corpus includes six books selected on four criteria. The study suggests that embellishment is a typical feature of selected translations of the Newbery Awards and that it can be related to both book editing and the translator’s own choices.

Multilingual parallel corpus: An institutional resource for terminology development at the University of South Africa (Unisa)

Koliswa Moropa, Bulelwa Nokele — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The indigenous African languages of South Africa are not fully developed to provide for specialised terminology and were considered unsuitable for use as languages of tuition and research. This was used as a scapegoat for not utilising these languages in the South African education system. Since 1994, however, terminology development has been one of the key priorities of democratic South Africa. The institutions of Higher Learning have been mandated to develop and intellectualise the indigenous languages for teaching, learning and research. In line with this, this article aims to address the problem of unavailability of scientific or technical terms by illustrating how a multilingual corpus ––from which multilingual glossaries as resources for tuition and research–– can be compiled. Adopting a qualitative descriptive approach, suitable source texts in English and their translations in various African indigenous languages, namely, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, IsiNdebele, SiSwati, Tshivenda, and Xitsonga were selected from the University study material for inclusion in the multilingual parallel corpus. ParaConc, a software that is suitable to query parallel texts, was used to align and extract terms from the corpus. The study demonstrates how parallel texts can be useful in developing scientific and technical terms. The University of South Africa can become the centre of corpus compilation for the intellectualisation of the official indigenous South African languages, since it is the only university in the country that caters for all these languages.

Combining corpora with other language resources and tools in pedagogic audiovisual translation

Ruska Ivanovska-Naskova — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study focuses on the potential of combining various types of language resources and tools in pedagogic audiovisual translation in university level courses. It argues that the direct use of ad-hoc corpora compiled by students can be combined with other tools such as bilingual dictionaries, online resources and subtitling software in performing concrete translation tasks. The study reports on the positive results of the translation activity conducted with students of the degree course in the Italian Language and Literature program at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in 2018. The first part of the study reflects on certain tendencies in the field of intersection between language pedagogy and audiovisual translation and presents concrete examples of this type of pedagogic tasks applied in teaching Italian as a foreign language. The central part of the study presents various aspects and stages of the activity: its aim, context, choice of video material, the complexity of the language of the videos, the tools used, the translation strategies, the creation of glossary, the revision of the subtitles and the discussion of the feedback. The study concludes with the results of the questionnaire and potential prospects for enhancing the task and reuse of the translated material for compilation of parallel corpus.

Review of Moessner, Lilo. 2020. The History of the Present English Subjunctive: A Corpus-based Study of Mood and Modality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Erik Smitterberg — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000