In:Multilingual Discourse Production: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives
Edited by Svenja Kranich, Viktor Becher, Steffen Höder and Juliane House
[Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 12] 2011
► pp. 233–256
Assessing the impact of translations on English-German language contact
Some methodological considerations
Published online: 9 November 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsm.12.11neu
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsm.12.11neu
Translations have been widely described as one source of language contact phenomena in language maintenance situations. In particular the impact of English on German by translation is a topic of ongoing research interest. The present article reviews the place of translations in the study of language contact and discusses two different methodological approaches to determining causal explanations for an assumed influence of translations on target language original text production. We discuss the limitations of corpus-based studies in providing evidence for a direct effect of translations on original text production in the target language. An alternative experimental approach focussing on cognitive processing during text production is shown not to overcome the limitations of corpus studies. The paper therefore argues for a different approach drawing on various methods that may help control confounding factors.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Redelinghuys, Karien
2024. Language contact and change through translation in Afrikaans and South African English. In Constraints on Language Variation and Change in Complex Multilingual Contact Settings [Contact Language Library, 60], ► pp. 58 ff.
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