A Corpus-based Study Of Explicitation In English Versions Of Nahan

Since the1990s, the corpus-based study of translation universals, especially the study of explicitation, has become an important area of translation studies with the rapid development of corpus-based translation studies. At present, there are not many systematic studies of explicitation in English translations of modern vernacular novels.This research randomly chooses seven novels in Nahan and their three English versions to build the parallel corpus, then based on Klaudy’s classification of explicitation, the research collects and classifies explicitation in the three English versions. And then uses software such as WordSmith and Antconc to analyze the data, investigate the explicitation in these three versions, and puts forward reasons of their difference in the degree of explicitation.There are two major findings in this research:firstly, this research proves that the three English versions all have an obvious tendency towards explicitation; however, the research also finds that the number and types of explicitation in these versions vary from each other. Secondly, two general factors lead to this result:the subjective factors (the translator’s preferred strategy of translation, nationality, aims of translating the novel, etc.) and the objective factors (different social environment, cultural background, etc.). It’s worth pointing out that this research is conducive to conquer the disadvantages of traditional translation studies, and provides references for future explicitation studies, translation practice and translation teaching, so it is a beneficial attempt.