A CORPUS-BASED STUDY OF THE STYLISTIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN IN-COMING TRANSLATORS AND OUT-GOING TRANSLATORS FOR ENGLISH VERSIONS OF TIANWEN IN THE CONTEXT OF “TRANSLATING CHINA”

Abstract

This study, based on a self-compiled parallel Chinese-English corpus of multiple translations of Tianwen and the Brown Reference Corpus, conducts an in-depth comparative analysis of the translation styles employed by in-coming and outcoming translators. The findings reveal that translations produced by in-coming translators exhibit a high degree of explicitation, with elevated language complexity, a more formal tone, diverse sentence structures, and a tendency toward foreignization, alongside frequent use of annotations. In contrast, translations produced by those out-coming translators demonstrate rich vocabulary and high information density, yet with simpler sentence structures and minimal variation in sentence length, enhancing readability. This group of translators also adopts foreignization strategies but uses annotations less frequently. As primary contributors to “Translating China,” out-going translators should appropriately draw on the stylistic approaches of in-coming translators, strengthening audience awareness, adding contextual annotations, and enriching language expression, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of cultural dissemination.

本文基于自建的《天问》中英多译本平行语料库及Brown参照语料库，深入对比分析了《天问》译入与译出群体的翻译风格。研究发现：译入群体译文呈现出显著的显化特征，语言复杂度较高，语体较为正式，句式多样，在翻译策略上倾向于采用异化，并善于运用注释。相比之下，译出群体译文用词丰富，信息负载量较大，但句式简洁，句子长短变化小，整体可读性较高，同样较多使用异化策略，但注释运用上相对不足。作为“翻译中国”的主力军，译出群体应适当借鉴译入群体的译者风格，强化受众意识，增加背景注释，丰富语言表达，从而更好提高文化传播效果。