Multiword expressions in Hongloumeng translations: a corpus-assisted structural and functional analysis

Lexical bundles (LBs), which are affirmed by extant linguistic research to be one of the major differences between native and non-native language production, has been gaining momentum in studying translator’s style. The current study uses LBs as an indicator to investigate translator’s style of two full-length English translations of Hongloumeng in a systematic manner. The two major translation versions were produced by a native English speaker (i.e. David
Hawkes) and a non-native English speaker (i.e. Xianyi Yang) respectively. The former has gained wider acceptability among Anglophone readers. We speculate that their translation styles might have been influenced by their respective first languages (i.e. Hawkes being influenced by English, and Yang being influenced by Chinese). Therefore, Hawkes’ and Yang’s translations of the dialogue part were first analyzed with keyword analysis to find out the LBs which are overused in respective versions (Key-LBs); the Key-LBs were then categorized according to Biber et al.’s (2004) Structural and Functional Classifications. Hawkes is found
to have used predominantly verb phrases and stance markers, while EFL features such as the overuse of prepositional phrases and referential markers are spotted in Yang’s version. Our research confirms that LBs can serve as a reliable indicator for studying translator’s style.