Testing simplification in translated and creative writing texts: The case of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee detective stories

Translational language has been reported to have unique characteristics, or translation universals, as compared to native non-translational production. One of the most widely studied features is simplification, i.e., translated texts tend to be less complex than non-translational texts. This study tested this hypothesis by comparing the translated and creative writing texts produced by a single author, Robert van Gulik, on the same topic (Judge Dee's detective adventures). Our well-controlled comparisons showed that the translated text was lexically less diverse, but syntactically more complex and generally less readable. The cognitive load of translation and the source text constrained the amount of vocabulary used in the translation compared with free writings. On the other hand, longer and more complex sentences reflected the translator's efforts to state the information in a more explicit form when conveying the ancient Chinese detective stories to the Western world. Our research, thus, offers some insights into the investigation of the simplification hypothesis and the relation between translation and writing.