Uncovering the functional aspect of translator style: corpus stylistic insights

Kan Wu ()
Additional contact information
Kan Wu: Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics Dongfang College

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract This study employs a corpus stylistic approach to examine the functional aspect of translator style. It introduces and explores the concept of “translator’s functional style” through a case study of the Chinese-English translation of Lao She’s Er Ma. To analyze functional styles, the study develops an analytic framework that explores how different translators reconstruct the literary theme of “Diasporic Chinese” in their translations. This involves an examination of how the translators render thematic words and handle the resulting lexico-semantic patterns. The findings reveal notable disparities in the translators’ functional styles, which are influenced by multiple translatorial and extra-translatorial factors, including the translators’ backgrounds, motivations, preferences, interpretation, patronage, and technological development. The study argues that future translator style research should decrease dependence on corpus linguistic methodologies, which are meant to analyze general language features and variations, and establish an independent framework that enables more effective stylistic explorations beyond the formal aspect.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-05123-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-05123-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05123-0

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().