Lexical Complexity in Corporate Communication: A Corpus-Based Study of Translated and Non-Translated Chairman’s Statements

This study examines the lexical complexity of translated and non-translated chairman’s statements in corporate annual reports through a corpus-based analysis. Drawing on a comprehensive corpus of English chairman’s statements, including both English translations from Chinese and original English texts from the United States and Hong Kong, we analyze various dimensions of lexical complexity. Key measures include lexical diversity, such as the number of different words (NDW) and type-token ratio (TTR) variants, lexical density, and verb sophistication. The results present a nuanced view of lexical complexity in translated texts. Translated chairman’s statements show lower complexity across NDW-related metrics, Corrected TTR, Root TTR, Bi-logarithmic TTR, Uber index, lexical word variation, verb variation, noun variation, and adverb variation. However, they display higher complexity in lexical density and verb sophistication compared to non-translated statements. These findings suggest that while translation may simplify certain aspects of vocabulary use, it can also produce more information-dense texts with more sophisticated verb usage. This paradox challenges traditional views on translation universals and underscores the intricate nature of translated corporate communications.