Choice Variations In Lexical Equivalents Among Multiple Translators In Literary Text Translation (English To Chinese): A Case Study Of Proz

Abstract

This paper investigates into the variations in the choices of lexical equivalents made by multiple translators when translating literary text from English to Chinese. This case study is based on a sample of 12 translations of a single literary source text in the language pair English-Chinese, whereby 25 English words/phrases are selected from the English text and 12 translation equivalents in Chinese by 12 different translators are selected (total 25x12=300 cases) for analysis. The translators, including the author of this research, are professionals registered at ProZ participating in a competition. The research posits that there is large variation in the choice of lexical equivalents in the translation of literary text by different translators and literary translators adopting oblique methods have less chances of using same equivalents in comparison to translators using direct method. The findings of this research indicates that the translators choose different strategies to select the suitable equivalent for a particular word/phrase. The results show that in the 300 cases of 25 phrases translated by 12 translators, translators selected same equivalent in 36 per cent cases; slight variation in equivalents is visible in 30 per cent cases; and completely different equivalents are used in 34 per cent cases. Further direct translation methods were adopted in 47.66 per cent cases to obtain equivalents; whereas oblique translation methods were adopted in 52.34 per cent cases. In the translation of English metaphors, majority of the translators adopted direct method (literal translation); while in few cases, translators adopted generalization strategy. Sense for sense method was also noticed in few cases; though some wrong translations are also observed.