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Towards a corpus-based, statistical approach of translation quality : measuring and visualizing linguistic deviance in student translations

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Abstract
In this article we present a corpus-based statistical approach to measuring translation quality, more particularly translation acceptability, by comparing the features of translated and original texts. We discuss initial findings that aim to support and objectify formative quality assessment. To that end, we extract a multitude of linguistic and textual features from both student and professional translation corpora that consist of many different translations by several translators in two different genres (fiction, news) and in two translation directions (English to French and French to Dutch). The numerical information gathered from these corpora is exploratively analysed with Principal Component Analysis, which enables us to identify stable, language-independent linguistic and textual indicators of student translations compared to translations produced by professionals. The differences between these types of translation are subsequently tested by means of ANOVA. The results clearly indicate that the proposed methodology is indeed capable of distinguishing between student and professional translations. It is claimed that this deviant behaviour indicates an overall lower translation quality in student translations: student translations tend to score lower at the acceptability level, that is, they deviate significantly from target-language norms and conventions. In addition, the proposed methodology is capable of assessing the acceptability of an individual student’s translation – a smaller linguistic distance between a given student translation and the norm set by the professional translations correlates with higher quality. The methodology is also able to provide objective and concrete feedback about the divergent linguistic dimensions in their text.
Keywords
LT3, LANGUAGE, FRENCH

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MLA
De Sutter, Gert, et al. “Towards a Corpus-Based, Statistical Approach of Translation Quality : Measuring and Visualizing Linguistic Deviance in Student Translations.” LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES, edited by Geoffrey S. Koby and Isabel Lacruz, vol. 16, 2017, pp. 25–39.
APA
De Sutter, G., Cappelle, B., De Clercq, O., Loock, R., & Plevoets, K. (2017). Towards a corpus-based, statistical approach of translation quality : measuring and visualizing linguistic deviance in student translations. LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES, 16, 25–39.
Chicago author-date
De Sutter, Gert, Bert Cappelle, Orphée De Clercq, Rudy Loock, and Koen Plevoets. 2017. “Towards a Corpus-Based, Statistical Approach of Translation Quality : Measuring and Visualizing Linguistic Deviance in Student Translations.” Edited by Geoffrey S. Koby and Isabel Lacruz. LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES 16: 25–39.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
De Sutter, Gert, Bert Cappelle, Orphée De Clercq, Rudy Loock, and Koen Plevoets. 2017. “Towards a Corpus-Based, Statistical Approach of Translation Quality : Measuring and Visualizing Linguistic Deviance in Student Translations.” Ed by. Geoffrey S. Koby and Isabel Lacruz. LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES 16: 25–39.
Vancouver
1.
De Sutter G, Cappelle B, De Clercq O, Loock R, Plevoets K. Towards a corpus-based, statistical approach of translation quality : measuring and visualizing linguistic deviance in student translations. Koby GS, Lacruz I, editors. LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES. 2017;16:25–39.
IEEE
[1]
G. De Sutter, B. Cappelle, O. De Clercq, R. Loock, and K. Plevoets, “Towards a corpus-based, statistical approach of translation quality : measuring and visualizing linguistic deviance in student translations,” LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES, vol. 16, pp. 25–39, 2017.
@article{8520486,
  abstract     = {{In this article we present a corpus-based statistical approach to measuring translation quality, more particularly translation acceptability, by comparing the features of translated and original texts. We discuss initial findings that aim to support and objectify formative quality assessment. To that end, we extract a multitude of linguistic and textual features from both student and professional translation corpora that consist of many different translations by several translators in two different genres (fiction, news) and in two translation directions (English to French and French to Dutch). The numerical information gathered from these corpora is exploratively analysed with Principal Component Analysis, which enables us to identify stable, language-independent linguistic and textual indicators of student translations compared to translations produced by professionals. The differences between these types of translation are subsequently tested by means of ANOVA. The results clearly indicate that the proposed methodology is indeed capable of distinguishing between student and professional translations. It is claimed that this deviant behaviour indicates an overall lower translation quality in student translations: student translations tend to score lower at the acceptability level, that is, they deviate significantly from target-language norms and conventions. In addition, the proposed methodology is capable of assessing the acceptability of an individual student’s translation – a smaller linguistic distance between a given student translation and the norm set by the professional translations correlates with higher quality. The methodology is also able to provide objective and concrete feedback about the divergent linguistic dimensions in their text.}},
  author       = {{De Sutter, Gert and Cappelle, Bert and De Clercq, Orphée and Loock, Rudy and Plevoets, Koen}},
  editor       = {{Koby, Geoffrey S. and Lacruz, Isabel}},
  issn         = {{0304-2294}},
  journal      = {{LINGUISTICA ANTVERPIENSIA NEW SERIES-THEMES IN TRANSLATION STUDIES}},
  keywords     = {{LT3,LANGUAGE,FRENCH}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{25--39}},
  title        = {{Towards a corpus-based, statistical approach of translation quality : measuring and visualizing linguistic deviance in student translations}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}

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