Centre for Translation Technology
Ongoing Projects
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Chinese Translations and Pseudo-translations, 1712-1840: A Three-way Comparable Corpus |
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Abstract:
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I propose the establishment of a three-way comparable corpus of authentic Chinese translations, Chinese pseudo-translations, and texts composed in English that do not claim to be translations from 1712 - 1840. This will allow me to compare linguistic features of the three types of texts, as well as enable me to compare multiple translations of the same text line by line, to be able to trace the popularity of certain terms in translations over time, and to study the relationship between pseudo-translations and authentic translations in a period where we move from almost exclusively pseudo-translations (up to 1808), to a large majority of authentic translations (1809 onward). The corpus will be groundbreaking: no one has yet compiled a comparable corpus of authentic translations and pseudo-translations.
The project is also modular: in other words, an initial core project (up to 1840) will first be digitized, but in future years, the time range (up to 1900 or even beyond) and language (French, German) may be expanded if the project is successful and the department feels it is valuable to expand the database. It may also be used in conjunction with the Translation English Corpus (TEC) in Manchester. |
