An Empirical Study of Translation Units in English-Chinese Translating

Zheng, Binghan; Mun, Tham Wai

Abstract

This paper highlights some marked findings of TAPs in the study of translation units to date. Based on this review, a series of TAP experiments are carried out to reanalyze the concept of translation unit from English into Chinese, a remotely connected language pair. We suggest that there are two types of translation units: Subjective Translation Unit (STU) and Objective Translation Unit (OTU) and that translation unit is a dynamic linguistic entity offering indexing function. On the one hand, the selection of STUs and OTUs is indicative of the underlying translation competence of translators. On the other hand, throughout the process of translation, there is a floating selection of translation units which is to say the initial translation unit chosen, be it lexical or sentential or other linguistic units, does not stay throughout. Instead it varies dynamically with parameters such as short-term memory and text comprehension among other factors.

Citation

Zheng, B., & Mun, T. W. (2007). An Empirical Study of Translation Units in English-Chinese Translating. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu, 39(2), 145-154

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
• Deposit Date: Dec 4, 2014
• Journal: 外语教学与研究/#/外語教學與研究
• Print ISSN: 1000-0429
• Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 145-154
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1529839
• Publisher URL: http://www.fltr.ac.cn:8080/