Abstract This study compares the syntactic complexity between translational and non-translational English across four genres (i.e. fiction, news, general prose, and academic prose) and examines the connections between various forms and degrees of syntactic complexity measures and explicitation. Fourteen syntactic complexity indices were examined based on a one-million-word translational English corpus (COTE) and a one-million-word non-translational English corpus (i.e. FLOB), respectively. This study shows that syntactic explicitation in translations varies with the formality of discourse. The most significant complexity difference between translational vis-à-vis non-translational English is found in fiction, which is regarded as the major contributor to translational English syntactic complexity. No significant difference in syntactic complexity was observed between the two types of academic English texts. Translational English news and general prose stand between fiction and academic texts. Translational fiction and news are characterised by more phrasal complexity features such as coordinate and complex nominal phrases, and a key indicator of translational English general prose complexity is subordination. The findings of this study will help students of translation to make informed decisions on the arrangement of sentence structures when given texts of different genres.

中文翻译：

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跨体裁翻译英语的句法复杂性分析

摘要 本研究比较了翻译和非翻译英语在四种体裁（即小说、新闻、普通散文和学术散文）之间的句法复杂性，并检验了各种形式和程度的句法复杂性测量与显化之间的联系。分别基于一百万字的翻译英语语料库（COTE）和一百万字的非翻译英语语料库（即FLOB）检查了十四个句法复杂性指数。这项研究表明，翻译中的句法显化随着话语的形式而变化。翻译英语与非翻译英语之间最显着的复杂性差异出现在小说中，小说被认为是翻译英语句法复杂性的主要贡献者。在两种类型的学术英语文本之间没有观察到句法复杂性的显着差异。翻译英语新闻和普通散文介于小说和学术文本之间。翻译小说和新闻具有更多的短语复杂性特征，例如并列和复杂的名词短语，翻译英语一般散文复杂性的一个关键指标是从属关系。这项研究的结果将帮助翻译学生在给出不同体裁的文本时对句子结构的安排做出明智的决定。翻译小说和新闻具有更多的短语复杂性特征，例如并列和复杂的名词短语，翻译英语一般散文复杂性的一个关键指标是从属关系。这项研究的结果将帮助翻译学生在给出不同体裁的文本时对句子结构的安排做出明智的决定。翻译小说和新闻具有更多的短语复杂性特征，例如并列和复杂的名词短语，翻译英语一般散文复杂性的一个关键指标是从属关系。这项研究的结果将帮助翻译学生在给出不同体裁的文本时对句子结构的安排做出明智的决定。