Corpus-based Study Of Translation Universals In C-E Translation Of Electronic Product Profiles

Translation Universals Hypothesis has been a focus in the field of Corpus Translation Studies since it was proposed by Mona Baker in 1993.Many translation scholars have conducted various studies within the corpus translation research paradigm,confirming or questioning the Translation Universals Hypothesis.However,most of these studies have focused on the translation of literary texts and political texts.Research on different text types,especially on the translation of applied texts,needs to be deepened.As more and more domestic electronic products go abroad,the translation of electronic product profiles that have distinctive features deserves attention.Hence,this paper attempts to use the corpus-based method and build corpora in order to study the different features of the C-E translation of electronic product profiles compared to the original English electronic product profile texts.It studies the translated electronic product profiles from three aspects: simplification,explicitation and normalization to verify whether the features of the translated text conform to Translation Universals Hypothesis in a specific genre and to analyze the relevant factors influencing the results of this study.This paper investigates whether there is simplification in the translated texts compared to the original electronic product profiles by using some corpus tools to examine the standard token/type ratio,lexical density,sentence length,readability to analyze the specific linguistic features.Second,the explicitation features of the translated texts are investigated via abbreviations,conjunctions,personal pronoun subject.A parallel corpus of C-E translated electronic product profiles and their STs is also used in this process to investigate the phenomenon of interlingual explicitation.Third,the characteristics of normalization are examined in relation to the phenomena of nominalization,hapax legomena,and passive voice.As a result,this study discovered that the phenomenon of normalization is obvious in the CE translated electronic product profiles,confirming the normalization hypotheses.In terms of the explicitation hypothesis,the inter-explicitation can be totally supported while the tendency of intra-explicitation is not apparent,so the explicitation hypothesis can be partly proven.As for the simplification hypothesis,it cannot be proven in this study,which reflects the fact that the Translation Universals Hypothesis does not exist in any translated text.The author examines the factors that contributed to the study’s findings in terms of language system differences,relative social status of languages,cultural differences,text type,and subjective factors in the translator’s translation process.Finally,corresponding translation strategies are proposed based on the differences in linguistic features between the translation of electronic product profiles and the original English electronic product profiles.In summary,the text genre explored in Translation Universals is expanded in this study,which reveals that text genre can impact Translation Universals.It also investigates the causes of the phenomenon.Based on the study’s findings,this paper presents suggestions for the translation of electronic product profile texts that will benefit the translation of such texts.