基于语料的英汉翻译语言风格对比研究--以《苔丝》三译本为例

A corpus-based comparative study on linguistic style in E-C translation:Take three Chinese versions of Tess of the D'urbervilles for instance

本文基于自建语料库对比分析《苔丝》原文及三个汉译本,旨在探讨译本之间及译本与原文之间语言风格的异同。研究显示,由于英汉差异,英语原文和译本语言风格存在差异。译本形符数明显超过英语原文,主要体现在动词、名词、副词、数词上;译本的平均句长高于英语原文,平均句段长低于英语原文。译本间的语言风格亦存在异同。译本间普遍存在显化和简化现象。此外,不同译本也体现了各自的语言风格。张译本的形符数最大,平均句长最长,平均句段最短,词汇密度最低;孙译本的形符数最小,平均句长最短,类形比、词汇密度最高,高频词重复率最低;王译本的平均句段最长,类形比最低,高频词重复率最高。

This paper aims to investigate the linguistic style of Tess of the D'urbervilles and its three Chinese versions on the basis of a parallel corpus. The findings of this study are as follows.There are noticeable differences between the original English version and each Chinese version.The number of tokens is noticeably higher in each Chinese version than in the original English version,which centers around the tokens of verbs,nouns,adverbs and numerals; the average sentence length is higher in each Chinese version than in the original English version; and the average sentence segment length is lower in each Chinese version than in the original English version. In addition,the study also finds that there are similarities and differences between different Chinese versions. In terms of similarities,the three Chinese versions all display explicitation and simplification. Differences also occur among the three Chinese versions. Zhang's version is characte-rized by the highest number of tokens,the longest average sentence length,the shortest average sentence segment length and the lowest lexical density; Sun's version is chara-cterized by the lowest number of tokens,the shortest average sentence length,the highest number of STTR, the lowest number of lexical density and the lowest repetition of high frequency words; WANG's version is characterized by the longest average sentence segment,the lowest number of STTR and the highest repetition of high frequency words.