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Translation Universals.pdf - ymerleksi - home

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78 Anna Mauranen<br />

Table 3. English and Russian <strong>Translation</strong>s compared to mixed source languages and<br />

original Finnish<br />

Mixed source languages<br />

Originals<br />

Freq. Band English Russian Σ English Russian Σ<br />

1–30 63 71 134 75 96 171<br />

50–79 190 115 305 87 178 265<br />

100–129 104 51 155 167 77 244<br />

Σ 357 237 594 329 351 680<br />

Table 4. English and Russian <strong>Translation</strong>s compared to original Finnish<br />

Originals<br />

Freq. Band English Russian Σ<br />

1–30 75 96 171<br />

50–79 87 178 265<br />

100–129 167 77 244<br />

Σ 329 351 680<br />

TL originals cannot be reduced to SL-specific interference. At the same time,<br />

there is a clear profile difference between the source languages: while English<br />

SL texts deviate less from Finnish originals than from other translations,<br />

translations from Russian show the reverse tendency. This suggests traces of SLspecific<br />

interference. Thus, the results are compatible with the interpretation<br />

that interference is universal. In sum, the present findings suggest that overall,<br />

translations resemble each other more than original target language texts, but a<br />

clear source language effect is also discernible. This implies that transfer is one<br />

of the causes behind the special features of translated language.<br />

Finally, what about the differences between translations from English and<br />

from Russian? The hypothesis was that Russian SL texts should deviate less<br />

from original Finnish than English SL texts because there should be a greater<br />

tolerance in the culture for English than Russian interference. In fact, if we<br />

compare them (Table 4 is a repeat of the right-hand side of Table 3 above),<br />

we notice that Russian deviates more from original Finnish, not less. Thus the<br />

hypothesis of more deviation being accepted from a prestige culture receives<br />

no support from this data.<br />

Obviously, there is the weakness that there is less data from Russian. This<br />

in itself of course shows that the prestige value of Russian is lower, but as things<br />

stand, this bias cannot be hoped to be corrected; it is probably endemic. Getting<br />

equal amounts of data from more peripheral and more central source cultures

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