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Article published In: Target
Vol. 38:2 (2026) ► pp.296–329

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Thinking-for-translating of manner beyond the motion domain

An analysis of directionality and proficiency in Chinese–English and English–Chinese translation

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cambridge
Published online: 7 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25007.she
Abstract
Typological influences on translating manner-of-motion have been extensively examined, but few studies have analyzed whether the ‘thinking-for-translating’ hypothesis extends to other semantic domains and how factors like directionality and proficiency interact with typology. Using . 2020. “Defining the Concept of Manner: An Attempt to Order Chaos.” UniSa. Sistema Bibliotecario Di Ateneo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar framework for multi-domain manner analysis, this study, which draws on the Parallel Corpus of Chinese EFL Learners, analyzes a bidirectional corpus of 8008 target texts translating twenty-four manner verbs and adjuncts between Chinese (equipollently-framed) and English (satellite-framed) by learners with varying English proficiency. The results reveal that: (1) Directionality affects manner transfer, with higher manner verb transfer in Chinese-to-English translation and higher manner adjunct transfer in English-to-Chinese translation; (2) English proficiency influences manner transfer, though with small effect sizes; (3) the effects of proficiency on manner transfer differ by translation directionality. These findings expand the ‘thinking-for-translating’ hypothesis to more semantic domains and offer implications for considering directionality and typology in translation training.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translation of manner across languages
  • 3.Hypotheses
    • 3.1Directionality and manner transfer
    • 3.2Effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
    • 3.3Directionality and effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Analyzing manner beyond the motion domain
    • 4.2Corpus data
    • 4.3Coding
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Directionality and manner transfer
    • 5.2Effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
    • 5.3Directionality and effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Directionality and manner transfer
    • 6.2Effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
    • 6.3Directionality and effects of language proficiency on manner transfer
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Note
  • References
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