Core Patterns of Lexical Use in a Comparable Corpu

Éruditestunconsortiuminteruniversitairesansbutlucratifcomposédel'UniversitédeMontréal,l'UniversitéLavaletl'UniversitéduQuébecàMontréal.Ilapourmissionlapromotionetlavalorisationdelarecherche.Éruditoffredesservicesd'éditionnumériquededocumentsscientifiquesdepuis1998.Pourcommuniqueraveclesresponsablesd'Érudit:[e-mail] :journaldestraducteurs /Meta:Translators'Journal,vol.43,n°4,1998,p.557-570.Pourcitercetarticle,utiliserl'adressesuivante::lesrèglesd'écrituredesréférencesbibliographiquespeuventvarierselonlesdifférentsdomainesdusavoir.Cedocumentestprotégéparlaloisurledroitd'auteur.L'utilisationdesservicesd'Érudit(ycomprislareproduction)estassujettieàsapolitiqued'utilisationquevouspouvezconsulteràl'URIéléchargéle26September201205:30CorePatternsofLexicalUseinaComparableCorpusofEnglishNarrativeProseMeta,XLIII,4,1998COREPATTERNSOFLEXICALUSEINACOMPARABLECORPUSOFENGLISHNARRATIVEPROSESARALAVIOSAUMIST,Manchester,UnitedKingdomMeta,XLIII,4,1998RésuméCetarticleétudielanaturelinguistiquedestextesanglaistraduits.L'auteurpartd'unesous-sectionduEnglishComparableCorpus(ECC).Lasous-sectioncontientdeuxsélectionsdeprosesnarrativesenanglais:unpremierjeuconstituédetraductionsàpartirdediverseslanguessourcesetunsecondcontenantdestextesoriginauxenanglaisrédigésàlamêmeépo-que.L'étuderévèlequatredifférentsmodèlesd'utilisationlexicaledanslestextestraduitsparrapportauxoriginaux.AbstractThispaperinvestigatesthelinguisticnatureofEnglishtranslatedtexts.Theauthor'cor-pusconsistsofasub-sectionoftheEnglishComparableCorpus(ECC).Itcomprisestwocollec-tionsofnarrativeproseinEnglish:oneismadeupoftranslationsfromavarietyofsourcelanguages,theotherincludesoriginalEnglishtextsproducedduringasimilartimespan.Thestudyrevealsfourpatternsoflexicaluseintranslatedversusoriginaltexts.1.INTRODUCTIONTheideaofcreatingacomparablecorpusofEnglish(Baker1995:234)hasbeenrecentlyrealisedinthedesignofamonolingual,multi-source-languageEnglishComparableCorpus(ECC).1Atthetimeofwriting,thiscorpusrepresentstwotextgenres:2newspapersandnarrativeprose,andhasanoverallsizeof2millionwords.ApreviousinvestigationofaECCsubsectionconsistingofnewspaperarticleshasshednewlightonthelinguisticnatureoftranslationalEnglish(Laviosa-Braith-waite1996,1997;Laviosa1998).Thestudyshowsthat,intheBritishnewspapersTheGuardianandTheEuropean,thetranslatedarticlesusearelativelylowerproportionoflexicalversusgrammaticalwords3independentlyofthesourcelanguage,aswellasahigherproportionoffrequentversuslessfrequentwords.Moreover,the108mostfrequentwords(orlisthead)arerepeatedmoreoften,thenucleusofthewordsmostfrequentlyusedislessvaried,andtheaveragesentencelengthislower.Theanalysisofnewspaperarticleshasalsoshownotherinterestingdifferencesbetweentranslatedandoriginaltexts.Inbothnewspapers,thetranslationsusethepresenttenseoftheauxiliaryverbstobeandtohavemorefrequently.Translatedarticlesarealsofoundtobemorehomogeneousinrespectoflexicaldensity,asshownbytheirrelativelylowervariance:aphenomenonIhavenamedconvergenceinanattempttoconveythemeaningofclusteringofacorpusoftranslationsaroundtheaveragevalueofalinguisticfeature(Laviosa1998).Theaimofthepresentstudyistoinvestigatetheextenttowhichthegloballin-guisticpatternsdiscoveredintranslatednewspaperarticlesarealsotypicaloftrans-latednarrativeprose,withaviewtoidentifyingthedistinguishingfeaturesof2Meta,XLIII,4,1998translationalEnglish.ThefirstpartofthepapergivesdetailsofthecompositionandgeneralfeaturesofthecomparablecorpusofEnglishnarrativetexts.Thisisfollowedbythestatementofhypotheses,theexpositionoftheresults,anddiscussion.Inthefinalsection,Iwillevaluatemyanalysesandmakesuggestionsforfurtherresearch.2.THECOMPARABLECORPUSOFNARRATIVEPROSE2.1.TheTranslationalComponent2.1.1.ThepublicationsThecollectionoftranslatednarrativecomprises14publishedworksintotal;twoarebiographies,therestisfiction.Alltheworksincludedarecompletetexts,withtheexceptionofForbiddenTerritory,whichisasampleof38,714words.ThemajorityofpublishersareBritish.BiographyWittgenstein'sNephew:AfriendshipbyThomasBernhard,translatedbyEwaldOsersfromGerman.ForbiddenTerritorybyJuanGoytisolo,translatedbyPeterBushfromSpanish.FictionMemoirsofLeticiaVallebyRosaChacel,translatedbyCarolMaierfromSpanish.TheStoneofLaughterbyHodaBarakat,translatedbySophieBennettfromArabic.TheStoneRaftbyJoséSaramago,translatedbyGiovanniPontierofromPortuguese.TheGospelaccordingtoJesusChristbyJoséSaramago,translatedbyGiovanniPontierofromPortuguese.DiscoveringtheWorldbyClariceLispector,translatedbyGiovanniPontierofromPortuguese.TurbulencebyChicoBuarque,translatedbyPeterBushfromBrazilianPortuguese.PassionbyI.U.Tarchetti,translatedbyLawrenceVenutifromItalian.FantasticTales,shortstoriesmainlybyI.U.Tarchetti,translatedbyLawrenceVenutimainlyfromItalian.TheSiren,shortstoriesbyDinoBuzzati,translatedbyLawrenceVenutifromItalian.RestlessNights,shortstoriesbyDinoBuzzati,translatedbyLawrenceVenutifromItalian.Lucio'sConfessionbyMarioDeSáCarneir