This book presents the state-of-art research in ETS by illustrating useful corpus methodologies in the study of important translational genres such as political texts, literature and media translations. Empirical Translation Studies (ETS) represents one of the most exciting fields of research. It gives emphasis and priority to the exploration and identification of new textual and linguistic patterns in large amounts of translation data gathered in the form of translation data bases. A distinct feature of current ETS is the testing and development of useful quantitative methods in the study of translational corpora. In this book, Hannu Kemppanen explores the distribution of ideologically loaded keywords in early Finnish translation of Russian political genres which yielded insights into the complex political relation between Finland and Russia in the post-Soviet era. Adriana Pagano uses multivariate analysis in the study of a large-scale corpus of Brazilian fiction translations produced between 1930s-1950s which is known as the golden age of Latin American translation. The statistical analysis detected a number of translation strategies in Brazilian Portuguese fictional translations which point to deliberate efforts made by translators to re-frame original English texts within the Brazilian social and political context in the first three decades under investigation. Meng Ji uses exploratory statistical techniques in the study of recent Chinese media translation by focusing three important media genres, i.e. reportage, editorial and review. The statistical analysis effectively detected important variations among three news genres which are analysed in light of the social and communicative functions of these news genres in informing and mobilising the audience in specific periods of time in Mainland China.

The present volume is devoted to the study of language use in translated texts as a function of various linguistic, contextual and cognitive factors. It contributes to the recent trend in empirical translation studies towards more methodological sophistication, including mixed methodology designs and multivariate statistical analyses, ultimately leading to a more accurate understanding of language use in translations.

The corpus study of lexicography and phraseology represents mainstream research in applied translation studies and multilingual studies. It has provided a focus of significant research in the field which explores the validity and productivity of corpus methods and approaches to the study of lexical events in translations. This volume provides an updated introduction to the interdisciplinary corpus study of lexicography in translation, whereas many past publications focus on a specific approach, for example, cognitive, stylistic or computational to the study of translation and/or multilingual lexis. An important component of this book is the historical sociolinguistic approach to the study of translation lexis. This represents an emerging research pathway in the field which has been rarely explored in translation studies, at least in a systematic corpus-based manner. The interdisciplinary research approaches presented in this book regarding the extraction, modeling, analysis and explanation of the use of lexis and phrase in translation and multilingual texts offer a practical study guide to postgraduate and research students of applied translation studies.

The present study examines the interrelation between literary texts, their successive retranslations and the corresponding historical, social and cultural backgrounds that inform these versions. The book considers how translations of works may change over time and how this influences perceptions of the translated authors themselves.

This book assembles fifteen original, interdisciplinary research chapters that explore methodological and conceptual considerations as well as user and usage studies to elucidate the relation between the translation product and translation/post-editing processes. It introduces numerous innovative empirical/data-driven measures as well as novel classification schemes and taxonomies to investigate and quantify the relation between translation quality and translation effort in from-scratch translation, machine translation post-editing and computer-assisted audiovisual translation. The volume addresses questions in the translation of cognates, neologisms, metaphors, and idioms, as well as figurative and cultural specific expressions. It re-assesses the notion of translation universals and translation literality, elaborates on the definition of translation units and syntactic equivalence, and investigates the impact of translation ambiguity and translation entropy. The results and findings are interpreted in the context of psycho-linguistic models of bilingualism and re-frame empirical translation process research within the context of modern dynamic cognitive theories of the mind. The volume bridges the gap between translation process research and machine translation research. It appeals to students and researchers in the fields.

For many of us, our earliest and most meaningful experiences with literature occur through the medium of a translated children’s book. This volume focuses on the complex interplay that happens between text and context when works of children’s literature are translated: what contexts of production and reception account for how translated children’s books come to be made and read as they are? How are translated children’s books adapted to suit the context of a new culture? Spanning the disciplines of Children’s Literature Studies and Translation Studies, this book brings together established and emerging voices to provide an overview of the analytical, empirical and geographic richness of current research in this field and to identify and reflect on common insights, analytical perspectives and trajectories for future interdisciplinary research. This volume will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience of scholars and students in Translation Studies and Children’s Literature Studies and related disciplines. It has a broad geographic and cultural scope, with contributions dealing with translated children’s literature in the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Spain, France, Brazil, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, China, the former Yugoslavia, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium.

This book derives empirical evidence for the didactic value of translating texts in context through an experiment involving final-year undergraduate students who study translation as a basic component of their curriculum. A number of theoretical frameworks are invoked here, most notably those of the discourse model elaborated by Hatim and Mason (1990) (1997) and House’s text analysis model (1997). Furthermore, the study conducted draws on Hatim’s multi-stage curriculum translation design (2000), consisting of various stages representing an increasing degree of evaluativeness and difficulty.