A Contrastive Study Of Connectives In Chinese Translation Of English Fiction Using Diachronic Composite Corpora

Recent years saw the increasing number of studies on connectives in Chinese translation,especially those on connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction.However,the uses and supposedly different features of connectives in the Chinese translation of English fiction remained unclear.In recent years researchers begun to apply Translation Universals Hypothesis to explain the different features of connectives found in Chinese translation of English fiction as compared to native Chinese fiction.However,researchers were divided on whether Translation Universals Hypothesis,which maintain that different features can be found in all translation texts,can be applied to connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction.Researchers on Translation Universals Hypothesis also mentioned the changing translation features and translation universals,which were explained by the diachronic changes of translation tactics.To investigate the issue three questions were asked:1)What are the different feature of connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction as compared to that in native Chinese fiction?2)What are the diachronic changes of translation universals and translation features of connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction?3)To what extent can the features of connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction testify the Translation Universals Hypothesis?To answer these three questions,the present research used self-established Diachronic Composite Corpora to investigate the issue.Fiction in both native Chinese and Chinese translation of English were selected and and sampled,which were also divided into two groups of 1920-1950 and 1980-2010 according to the time of publication.All connectives collected were divided into ten categories.Both contrastive and diachronic comparisons had been conducted.The frequencies of connectives of all categories in Chinese translation of English fiction were compared to that in native Chinese fiction.Connectives in both native Chinese fiction and in Chinese translation of English fiction were also compared diachronically.Log-Likelihood Ratio,Bayes Factor and LogRatio scores were calculated to assess the levels of similarities and differences.The results of the investigation were:1)Early Chinese Translation possesses different features as compared to that in native Chinese fiction published in the same time period,whose frequencies of hypothetical,causal and selective connectives along with overall frequency of connectives are much higher than that in native Chinese fiction.However,such different features cannot be found in Contemporary Chinese Translation,in which connectives have similar distribution and frequencies as that in native Chinese fiction.2)Connectives in Contemporary Chinese Translation exhibit more features of explication and simplification along with reduction of implication as compared to that in Early Chinese Translation since more conditional,progressive and causal connectives had been used.Translation universals also underwent significant changes,for translation universals can be found in Early Chinese Translation but not in Contemporary Chinese Translation regarding uses of connectives.3)Despite the fact connectives in Contemporary Chinese Translation exhibit changes including increases of explication and simplification,translation universals cannot be found in the Contemporary Chinese Translation as compared to that in native Chinese fiction.This observation contradicts the assertions of Baker(1993)and associates which claimed that translation universals can be found in all translation.Thus Translation Universals Hypothesis is refuted when it is used to explain features of connectives in Chinese translation of English fiction.