Change of word types to word tokens ratio in the course of translation (based on Russian translations of K. Vonnegut novels)

TL;DR

This study analyzes how the ratio of word types to tokens changes during translation, using Russian translations of Vonnegut's novels to explore typical patterns and translation features.

Contribution

It introduces a lexical statistical analysis of translation changes in word type/token ratios, highlighting patterns specific to English-Russian literary translation.

Findings

Word type/token ratio changes differ between source and target texts.

Russian translations show a leveling out effect in translation.

Changes are characteristic of English-Russian translation patterns.

Abstract

The article provides lexical statistical analysis of K. Vonnegut's two novels and their Russian translations. It is found out that there happen some changes between the speed of word types and word tokens ratio change in the source and target texts. The author hypothesizes that these changes are typical for English-Russian translations, and moreover, they represent an example of Baker's translation feature of levelling out.