On Translationese In English-Chinese Translation:a Corpus Based Study From The Perspective Of Translation Universals

Since the1990s corpus-based translation studies have developed rapidly with the developing and maturing of the techniques of corpus creation and analysis. Among them the studies on translation universals are attracting more and more scholars’ attention. Also the term "translationese" appears frequently in vast literature, especially in corpus-based studies on this issue abroad. In the meanwhile, there has been a tendency to interpret this term neutrally. While in China up to now most of the studies on translationese are focused on sensuous criticism, or just define it from the perspective of traditional linguistic theories, rather than empirical studies on it. Based on a review of literature published abroad and in China, the present research explores translationese from the perspective of translation universals. By observation and comparison between the Chinese original corpus and English-Chinese translation corpus from GCEPC (the General Chinese-English Parallel Corpus) we attempt to connect translation universals and translationese in English-Chinese translation, and to answer the following4questions:(1). Can we find some features of translation universals in English-Chinese translation according to this research?(2). Synthesizing the relevant data, what translationese in English-Chinese translation can we find in this research? And what are the causes for it?(3).What is the relationship between translation universals and translationese?(4). How should translators deal with translationese in English-Chinese translation?The research results show that in English-Chinese translation there are some features of translation universals, such as explicitation, simplification, normalization, over/under representation of unique items in the target language, and source language interference. By observing the linguistic features of Chinese translation in the theoretical framework of translation universals, we get some practical examples of translationese in English-Chinese translation, and divide them into two types according to two factors:forms and meanings. Naturally we may attribute the appearing of translationese mainly to the influence of translation universals. Therefore from the perspective of translation universals, translationese is the manifestation of translation universals in a particular target language. Their relationship may be described as generality versus individuality, which have influence upon each other. We should recognize the source of translationese, understand and treat it objectively and dialectally. Finally some strategies are put forward from the angles of linguistics, culture and pragmatics/cognition.