A corpus-based multidimensional analysis of the impact of translational Chinese and language contact on originally written Chinese
Both translation and language contact can induce language changes;however,the extent and scope of their influence remain unclear.This study examines texts in the same historical period(around the 1930s),including translated Chinese texts and bilingual and monolingual writers'texts,and compares them with original Chinese texts in an earlier period(the late Qing to the early Republican era).The aim is to investigate the register features of Chinese texts in translations and original works and compare the influences of translation and language contact on the development of original Chinese in later works.The study reveals the following:1)Compared to the two types of original Chinese texts,translated texts exhibit more"constrained"features,characterized by a higher level of explicit information,involvement,and on-line informational elaboration;2)The translated Chinese texts demonstrate a pioneering role,showing features before they appear in original Chinese texts,and a tendency toward normalization;3)The differences between monolingual and bilingual writers'texts are not statistically significant,and the translated Chinese texts are closer to those of monolingual writers along several dimensions,suggesting that the influence of translation on the target language may be more pronounced than that of language contact.This study suggests that translated texts differ from texts of a general language contact variety,and their inherent"constrained"features may influence certain linguistic features of the target language.
万方数据
维普
