Syntactic complexity difference between L1 and L2 translators: A case study of Laozi translations

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstract

Abstract

Syntactic complexity has been traditionally considered one of the distinguishing features of more advanced second language proficiency (Lu 2011) and has been subsequently used in contrasting translations rendered by native (L1) and non-native (L2) translators. Generally, the 14 syntactic complexity indicators proposed by Lu (2011) has been adopted in relevant studies to compare translation styles of different translators, supporting that some L2 translators having used syntactically simpler structures in their translations (e.g., Liu and Afzaal 2021). However, based on two corpora of English translations of Laozi (also known as Dao De Jing, the most translated Chinese literary classic) produced by L1 and L2 translators respectively, the current study finds that L1 and L2 Laozi translations only significantly differ in terms of two out of 14 syntactic complexity indicators. In fact, the two indices both belong to the same complexity category, i.e., amount of coordination. The result hence challenges the previous assumption that L2 translators write syntactically simpler sentences. We argue that L2 translators do not necessarily use simpler syntactic structures, in which the differentiating effect has been exaggerated. Instead, the syntactic complexity differences found in previous studies may have been influenced by many variables other than second language proficiency alone, such as different readership and publication time.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2022
EventInternational Congress on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics - , Hong Kong
Duration: 6 Dec 20229 Dec 2022

Conference

ConferenceInternational Congress on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics
Country/TerritoryHong Kong
Period6/12/229/12/22

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Syntactic complexity difference between L1 and L2 translators: A case study of Laozi translations'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this