CORPUS LINGUISTICS IN TRANSLATION STUDIES

Abstract

Corpus-based methodology clearly has some applicability within the broad theoretical framework of descriptive translation studies, since it appears to provide a method for the description of language use in translation. Unlike much multilingual corpus linguistics research, corpus-based translation studies focus on the translation, not in terms of its relationship to a source text but instead foregrounding it as an instance of text production and communication in its own right. The discussion of what we understand translation to be is therefore important for a number of reasons. Firstly, researchers’ viewpoints on the concept of translation form an important basis for the application of corpus-based methodology to the study of translation, since they will underpin the choice of object of study what kind of translation, produced when, by whom, for what purpose.