Vocabulary researches play an important role in language teaching.In recent decades,lexical complexity has drawn great attention by researchers and scholars.A large number of empirical studies have been conducted to f...Vocabulary researches play an important role in language teaching.In recent decades,lexical complexity has drawn great attention by researchers and scholars.A large number of empirical studies have been conducted to find out whether correlations exist between writing quality and lexical complexity in written texts.In the present study,299 English learners participated in the experiment from a comprehensive university.The data were timed CE texts translated by these learners.This study intends to answer the two questions with the assistance of such tools as LCA and SPSS.After analyzing the data with 9 indices from LCA,the results of this study are as follows:1.Chinese students’translated texts gain a high lexical density,which shows that content words can account for a large percentage in narrative translations.In the lexical sophistication measures,LS1 and LS2 do not differ greatly while CVS1 gets the greatest fluctuation.Among lexical variation indices,NDW is generally high.2.All indices in lexical variation and lexical sophistication show a high positive correlation with translation quality,while lexical density bears a negative relationship with translation quality.The findings of the current study indicate students’vocabulary use in translation and provide implications for English teaching,especially translation and vocabulary teaching.展开更多
Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that e...Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that explored the language of patient information leaflets for malaria. The present study explores the language of PILs of seven common ailments in Ghana. In all, 68 leaflets were purposely sampled for the study. Using SMOG and Flesch Kincaid grade level readability formulae, the researcher measured the readability of PILs and discovered that the readability of all the PILs was difficult to read except the dewormer leaflets that scored standard reading score. Further statistical analysis reveal that the lexical and syntactic complexity of the leaflets were not statistically different. Finally, an interview with 20 patients confirmed that the leaflets are difficult to read due to the complex words and long sentence structures. It is recommended that the PILs be revised to make the leaflets readable.展开更多
This paper is part of a major project investigating the language of the humanities in Mexico and the United States from the systemic functional perspective exploring different genres within the academic register. An a...This paper is part of a major project investigating the language of the humanities in Mexico and the United States from the systemic functional perspective exploring different genres within the academic register. An analysis of essays written by university students and teachers is presented here. Lexicogrammatical features of the texts are examined and their differences and similarities are detected. Three groups of texts are compared： ＂poor＂ texts, ＂good＂ texts, and model texts in order to determine the predominant features of the students＇ writing in relation to the grade marks that they received. The study realized permits us to arrive at the conclusion that success in the academic writing is linked to a larger number of complex themes, grammatical metaphors, as well as to a higher lexical density.展开更多
Spoken language is marked by para-verbal and non-verbal dimensions,such as silent pause,hesitation,and intonation.Fluency is considered as an essential parameter for evaluating the quality of oral output.Sight transla...Spoken language is marked by para-verbal and non-verbal dimensions,such as silent pause,hesitation,and intonation.Fluency is considered as an essential parameter for evaluating the quality of oral output.Sight translation is a hybrid form of written translation and oral interpreting;however,fluency in sight translation is an underresearched topic.This paper examines the disfluencies in the sight translation of professional and novice translators working from English to Chinese.It adopted a statistical approach to compare the silent pauses and hesitation fillers in the delivery of professional and student participants.According to the independent samples t-test results,the differences were significant in the occurrence and ratio of hesitation between professional and student participants.It can be inferred that professional translators are more apt at coping tactics,such as pausing for several seconds,rather than inserting hesitation fillers unconsciously.Furthermore,the corpus-assisted analysis suggested a higher lexical density among professional participants,followed by the think-aloud approach,which revealed the causes for disfluencies.By drawing upon the Speech Production Theory,the paper found six most influential factors:vocabulary,emotion,syntactic category,speaking habit,lexical ambiguity,and topical difficulty.It is hoped that translation and interpreting studies will not be confined to linguistic dimensions.Paralinguistic signs should have their places in the domain of translatology.Semiotics of translation,which views translation as a pure semiotic act,thereby provides a valued perspective for translation and interpreting studies.展开更多
文摘Vocabulary researches play an important role in language teaching.In recent decades,lexical complexity has drawn great attention by researchers and scholars.A large number of empirical studies have been conducted to find out whether correlations exist between writing quality and lexical complexity in written texts.In the present study,299 English learners participated in the experiment from a comprehensive university.The data were timed CE texts translated by these learners.This study intends to answer the two questions with the assistance of such tools as LCA and SPSS.After analyzing the data with 9 indices from LCA,the results of this study are as follows:1.Chinese students’translated texts gain a high lexical density,which shows that content words can account for a large percentage in narrative translations.In the lexical sophistication measures,LS1 and LS2 do not differ greatly while CVS1 gets the greatest fluctuation.Among lexical variation indices,NDW is generally high.2.All indices in lexical variation and lexical sophistication show a high positive correlation with translation quality,while lexical density bears a negative relationship with translation quality.The findings of the current study indicate students’vocabulary use in translation and provide implications for English teaching,especially translation and vocabulary teaching.
文摘Health communication is critical component of effective health delivery. While there are studies on the readability Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) around the world, so far, there is only one Ghanaian study that explored the language of patient information leaflets for malaria. The present study explores the language of PILs of seven common ailments in Ghana. In all, 68 leaflets were purposely sampled for the study. Using SMOG and Flesch Kincaid grade level readability formulae, the researcher measured the readability of PILs and discovered that the readability of all the PILs was difficult to read except the dewormer leaflets that scored standard reading score. Further statistical analysis reveal that the lexical and syntactic complexity of the leaflets were not statistically different. Finally, an interview with 20 patients confirmed that the leaflets are difficult to read due to the complex words and long sentence structures. It is recommended that the PILs be revised to make the leaflets readable.
文摘This paper is part of a major project investigating the language of the humanities in Mexico and the United States from the systemic functional perspective exploring different genres within the academic register. An analysis of essays written by university students and teachers is presented here. Lexicogrammatical features of the texts are examined and their differences and similarities are detected. Three groups of texts are compared： ＂poor＂ texts, ＂good＂ texts, and model texts in order to determine the predominant features of the students＇ writing in relation to the grade marks that they received. The study realized permits us to arrive at the conclusion that success in the academic writing is linked to a larger number of complex themes, grammatical metaphors, as well as to a higher lexical density.
基金This paper is part of the research project“A TAPs-Based Cognitive Approach to Interpreting Studies”(2016SJB740029)funded by Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education.The author would like to acknowledge with gratitude the comments on this paper from the anonymous reviewers.
文摘Spoken language is marked by para-verbal and non-verbal dimensions,such as silent pause,hesitation,and intonation.Fluency is considered as an essential parameter for evaluating the quality of oral output.Sight translation is a hybrid form of written translation and oral interpreting;however,fluency in sight translation is an underresearched topic.This paper examines the disfluencies in the sight translation of professional and novice translators working from English to Chinese.It adopted a statistical approach to compare the silent pauses and hesitation fillers in the delivery of professional and student participants.According to the independent samples t-test results,the differences were significant in the occurrence and ratio of hesitation between professional and student participants.It can be inferred that professional translators are more apt at coping tactics,such as pausing for several seconds,rather than inserting hesitation fillers unconsciously.Furthermore,the corpus-assisted analysis suggested a higher lexical density among professional participants,followed by the think-aloud approach,which revealed the causes for disfluencies.By drawing upon the Speech Production Theory,the paper found six most influential factors:vocabulary,emotion,syntactic category,speaking habit,lexical ambiguity,and topical difficulty.It is hoped that translation and interpreting studies will not be confined to linguistic dimensions.Paralinguistic signs should have their places in the domain of translatology.Semiotics of translation,which views translation as a pure semiotic act,thereby provides a valued perspective for translation and interpreting studies.
