Literary and Linguistic Computing Advance Access originally published online on March 7, 2006
Literary and Linguistic Computing 2006 21(Supplement 1):113-126; doi:10.1093/llc/fql005
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A Multidimensional Perspective on Collocational Patterning in Swedish Fiction Texts Translated from English
Göteborg University, Sweden
Correspondence: P.-O. Nilsson, Gamla Skeppsbrogatan 9A, SE-371 33, Karlskrona, Sweden. E-mail: per-ola.nilsson{at}eng.gu.se
This article evaluates a method of frequency-based retrieval of translation-specific linguistic surface patterning on the basis of two pilot corpus studies of fiction translated from English into Swedish. The focus of the article is on the relevance of different methods for corpus research on source language transfer, necessary grammatical adaptation, and translation strategies conditioned by non-imperative cross-linguistic factors. The two studies, which started from overrepresentation of grammatical words, indicated that the overall distribution differences are related to register differences, source language transfer due to cross-linguistic compatibility, and grammatical adaptation due to target language syntactic restrictions. It is hypothesized that the method used will be suitable primarily for cross-linguistic textual and register-oriented study as well as for the study of necessary adaptations to target language grammatical restrictions. On the basis of this hypothesis, it is suggested that the search for translation corpus patterning indicative of other features than these will benefit from a more theory-driven orientation, although semi-automatic corpus markup is likely to play an important part in the development of new theories and methods.