Abstract
The article focuses on the study of the possible objectification of the procedure for comparative analysis of the original text and translation texts using computer technologies. The study draws on a lecture by Vladimir Nabokov on the novel “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert in Russian, English, French, and German. Using the T-LAB computer program, frequency dictionaries were built for the analyzed texts, which made it possible to identify ten words from the upper zone of the obtained frequency distributions that best correspond to the main themes of the novel. In addition, with the help of the T-Lab program, the associative links of the selected lexemes were analyzed. Based on the association analysis results, a number of coincidences of the joint occurrence of the analyzed lemma with other lemmas for pairs of languages were calculated. It has been established that the frequency of selected keywords demonstrates a significant match in all the languages, while in some cases there is a translation of an English word with the help of two words in the target language. However, at the level of contextual association the number of matches decreases, nowhere reaching a 100% match. Therefore, the applied method of computer stylometric analysis makes it possible to trace how the translator, creatively interpreting the meaning of the source text, forms their own associative fields to reveal the content of the author's topics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Martynenko, G. (1998). Osnovy stilemetrii [Basics of stylemetria]. Izdatel’stvo Sankt Peterburgskogo universiteta. (In Russian).
Lasswell, H. D. (1965). Style in the language of politics. Language of Politics: Studies in Quantitative Semantics. MA, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 20–39.
T-LAB, https://www.tlab.it/, last accessed 2021/09/10.
Nabokov, V. (1980) Nabokov Vladimir. Lectures on Literature. Introduction by John Updike. Edited by Fredson Bowers, New York City, 125–178.
Nabokov, V.V. (1998). Nabokov V.V. Lekcii po zarubezhnoj literature [Lectures on foreign literature]. Izdatel'stvo nezavisimaya gazeta, Moskva, 183–238 (In Russian).
Nabokov, V. (2009). Nabokov Vladimir. Littératures. Introductions de John Updike et de Guy Davenport. Editions Robert Laffont, Paris, 191–250.
Nabokov, V. (1982). Die Kunst des Lesens: Meisterwerke der europäischen Literatur. Vorw. von John Updike. S. Fischer, Frf. am Main, 173–229.
Guseinova, E.R. (2010). Igrovye strategii v lekcionnom kurse V. Nabokova [Games in Navokov’s lecture course]. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta 10(2), 74–77 (In Russian).
Prunč, E. (2007). Entwicklungslinien der Translationswissenschaft: Von den Asymmetrien der Sprachen zu den Asymmetrien der Macht. Frank & Timme.
Equivalences: revue de traduction et de traductologie, http://www.trad–equivalences.org, last accessed 2022/12/04.
Bolanos Cuéllar, S. (2002). Equivalence Revisted: A key Concept in Modern Translation Theory. Forma y Functión, 15, 60–88.
Draskau, J. K. (1991). Some Reflections on “Equivalence/Aquivalenz” as a Term and Concept in the Theory of Translation. Meta, 36(1), 269–274.
Melby, A. (1990). The Mentions of Equivalence in Translation. Meta, 35(1), 207–213.
Pym, A. (2010). Translation Theory Today and Tomorrow—Responses to Equivalence. In L. N. Zybatow (Ed.), Ranslationswissenschaft—Stand und Perspektiven (pp. 1–14). Frankfurt aM.
Jäger, G. Translation und Translationslinguistik. Veb Max Niemeyer, Halle.
Koller, W. (1979). Einfuhrung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft. Quelle & Meyer.
Komissarov, V. (1987). The semantic and the cognitive in the text: A problem in equivalence. Meta, 32(4), 416–419.
Neubert, A. (2000). Competence in language, in languages, and in translation. In: C. Schäffner, B. Adab (Eds.), Developing translation competence. John Benjamins Pub, Amsterdam–Philadelphia, 3–18.
Nida, E.A. (1964). Toward a science of translating. Brill, Leiden.
Reiss K. (2002). La critique des traductions. Ses possibilités et ses limites: cathégories et critères pour une évaluation pertinente des traductions. Artois Presses Université, Artois.
Vermeer, H.J. (2000). Skopos and Commission in Translational Action (translated By A. Chesterman). The Translator Studies Reader. Routledge, London and New York, 221–232.
Nord, Ch. (1996). Translating as a purposeful activity. Functionalist approaches explained. St. Jerome, Manchester.
Emery, P. G. (2004). Translation, equivalence and fidelity: a pragmatic approach. Babel, 50(2), 143–167.
Leech, G., Rayson, P., & Wilson, A. (2001). Word Frequencies in written and Spoken English: Based on the British National Corpus. Longman.
Baron, A., Rayson, P., Archer, D. (2009). Word frequency and key word statistics in historical corpus linguistics. Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 20(1), 41–67.
Grebennikov, A., & Skrebtsova, T. (2019). Yazykovaya kartina mira v russkom rasskaze nachala XX veka [Language world picture in Russian stories of the beginning of XX century]. Philosophy and the Humanities in the Information Society, 3, 82–92. (In Russian).
Sherstinova, T., Grebennikov, A., Skrebtsova, T., Guseva, A., Gukasian, M., Egoshina, I., Turygina, M. (2020). Frequency Word Lists and Their Variability (the Case of Russian Fiction in 1900–1930). In: 27th Conference of Open Innovations Association FRUCT, University of Trento, Italy, 366—373, https://fruct.org/publications/acm27/files/She.pdf.
Sherstinova, T., Skrebtsova, T. (2021). Russian Literature Around the October Revolution: A Quantitative Exploratory Study of Literary Themes and Narrative Structure in Russian Short Stories of 1900–1930. In: Proceedings of the International Workshop «Computational Linguistics» (St. Petersburg, 17–20 June, 2020), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2813, pp. 117—128, http://ceur–ws.org/Vol–2813/rpaper09.pdf.
Skrebtsova, T. (2021). Thematic tagging of literary fiction: the case of early 20th century Russian short stories. In: Proceedings. of the International Workshop «Computational Linguistics» (St. Petersburg, 17–20 June, 2020), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2813, pp. 265—276, http://ceur–ws.org/Vol–2813/rpaper20.pdf.
Acknowledgements
This research has been conducted with financial support from St. Petersburg University (project No 92565342).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grebennikov, A., Ivanova, E., Koryshev, M., Solovieva, M. (2023). Stylometric Methods in Comparative Text Analysis. In: Eismont, P., Khokhlova, M., Koryshev, M., Riekhakaynen, E. (eds) Literature, Language and Computing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3604-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3604-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-99-3603-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-99-3604-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)