Does simplification truly exist in translated Chinese? An exploration from a multilingual perspective

Abstract

Since the introduction of the translation universal hypothesis, validation efforts have predominantly focused on English and other European languages. However, studies on translated Chinese, particularly those involving language pairs beyond English and Chinese, remain limited. This study investigates the simplification hypothesis by examining Chinese fiction translated from six different source languages. The findings suggest that the hypothesis is not universally applicable from a multilingual perspective, especially at the lexical and syntactic levels. This provides further evidence of a potential tendency toward complexification in translated Chinese. A clear disparity between Chinese translated from European and non-European languages has been observed, highlighting the significance of typology in this domain. A comparison with research on the news genre suggests that simplification and complexification are not mutually exclusive. Rather, translation complexity is shaped by multiple factors, including the typology of the source language, text genre, and the linguistic features selected for analysis. Future research should move beyond simply confirming or rejecting translation universals, and instead explore the interaction between linguistic features and contextual variables in order to uncover deeper patterns in translated language.