Lexical Density And Grammatical Intricacy In Chinese-English Translation And Interpretation

Interpreting and translating are two closely related linguistic behaviors which also demonstrate striking differences with each other. They have their own characteristics and difficult points, so they are different from each other in many aspects. Among these differences, one is derived from the differences between spoken and written language. According to Halliday (1985c), spoken language is different from written language in the aspects of lexical density and grammatical intricacy. Inspired by his idea, this thesis intends to reveal the differences between Chinese-English translation and interpretation from the perspectives of lexical density and grammatical intricacy and discusses the causes for such differences, with an aim to shed some light on the theoretical studies and practice of translation and interpretation in China.On the other hand, with the development of modern technology, corpus linguistics, as a new branch of linguistics, has revolutionized the way of language studies. Corpora, the collection of many authentic language data, make language studies more objective. Therefore, in order to ensure the objectivity, this study will be carried out on the basis of Parallel Corpus of Chinese EFL Learners (PACCEL).As for lexical density, the present study adopts both Halliday’s (1985c) and Ure’s (1971) model for a thorough and objective exploration of the differences between C-E translation and interpretation. At the same time, in order to make the research findings more intuitive, the definition of grammatical density put forward by Eggins (1994) is utilized to quantify the concept of grammatical intricacy.This study mainly includes three steps. First, the lexical density and grammatical density of C-E translation and interpretation will be worked out respectively. Then, data analysis will be conducted with the aid of Chi-square test. Finally, an interpretation of such differences will be given.The findings of the research are as follows:(a) there is a significant distinction in terms of lexical density between C-E translation and interpretation. The lexical density of C-E translation is higher than that of C-E interpretation; (b) as for grammatical intricacy, a marked difference can be identified. The grammatical density of C-E interpretation is higher than that of C-E translation.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is set to be a brief introduction to the present study including research rationale, research significance and a sketch of the overall structure of the whole thesis. Chapter Two provides reviews relevant literature in four domains:(a) corpus-based translation studies carried out both abroad and at home; (b) the development of corpus-based interpretation studies; (c) contrastive studies between translation and interpretation; (d) the previous application of lexical density. Chapter Three presents the theoretical framework of this thesis, which paves the way for the subsequent research. Chapter Four focuses on data analysis and discussion. In this chapter, the contrastive analysis of lexical density and grammatical intricacy between C-E translation and interpretation will be carried out. Then an interpretation of the differences will be given. Chapter Five serves as the conclusion. In this chapter, the researcher makes a summary of the present study and gives its pedagogical implications. Meanwhile, the limitations of the study and suggestions are also touched on.