LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY AND SIMPLIFICATION IN TRANSLATION: COGNITIVELY-GROUNDED PHONOLOGICAL METRICS

Abstract

ABSTRACT   Translated text (TT) is characteristically simpler than non-translated (NTT) authentic text in terms of its lexicon, syntax, and style. It is still not clear what causes this phenomenon, and scholars continue to debate the issue. The traditional lexical metrics that are implemented in the simplification literature are often criticised as unreliable and lacking cognitive grounding. Moreover, being predominantly product-oriented, they cannot tell us how (or why) simplification happens. This paper addresses this limitation in the literature and proposes a paradigm that uses complexity-based measures adopted from Phonology and Cognitive Psychology. Calculations are run on a corpus of 100 translated and non-translated article abstracts drawn from five academic disciplines. Statistical analyses reveal significant differences between TTs and NTTs. The paper discusses the implications of these results and concludes that a cognition-informed approach is a key to demystifying simplification.   Keywords: linguistic complexity; simplification; phonological complexity; neighbourhood density, phonotactic probability