Analyzing Sentence Joining and Separation in Translating Keigo Higashino’s Japanese Novels into English : A Quantitative Linguistic Perspective

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Other Title
  • 東野圭吾の小説の英訳における文の結合と分離の分析 : 計量言語学の観点から
  • ヒガシノケイゴ ノ ショウセツ ノ エイヤク ニ オケル ブン ノ ケツゴウ ト ブンリ ノ ブンセキ : ケイリョウ ゲンゴガク ノ カンテン カラ

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Abstract

Translators sometimes join or separate source sentences when translating. But how often, when, how and why do they do this? In this study, we investigate the tendencies, methods, and motivations behind translators’ decisions to join or separate source sentences during the translation process. We focus on the translated works of four translators who rendered Keigo Higashino’s Japanese novels into English. Employing a quantitative linguistic approach, we analyze how these translators merge or divide source sentences, as well as the underlying reasons driving their choices. Furthermore, we scrutinize whether the four translators exhibit a consistent pattern in determining the length of the Japanese and English sentences they manipulate during this process. The results indicate that the translators tried to adhere closely to the original source texts in terms of both sentence quantity and length. Their primary endeavor appeared to preserve the authentic tone and essence of the source material. There is an observation that, to maintain the natural flow of the target language, translators frequently joined several Japanese sentences into one English sentence, or conversely, separated one Japanese sentence into several in English. This could be classified as an instance of Baker’s (1996) concept of normalisation. There was no significant difference in sentence length among the four translators’ choices of Japanese sentences for translation or in their resultant English translations. This indicates that the four translators employed a consistent methodology for determining sentence length in both the Japanese and English contexts.

Journal

  • 英語英米文学

    英語英米文学 64 101-122, 2024-02-20

    中央大学英米文学会

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