Journal of Chongqing Jiaotong University Social Sciences Edition ›› 2023, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (4): 104-112.

Previous Articles    

A Study of the Readability of English Version of Museum Introduction Texts from China and Englishspeaking Countries

WANG Lin, SHI Hongyan   

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
  • Received:2023-01-10 Revised:2023-03-10 Online:2023-07-18 Published:2023-07-18

中英博物馆网站简介英语文本的可读性研究

王琳,石红燕   

  1. 浙江工商大学 外国语学院,杭州 310018
  • 作者简介:〖JP2〗王琳,女,浙江工商大学外国语学院教授,博士;石红燕(通信作者),女,浙江工商大学外国语学院研究生。〖JP〗
  • 基金资助:
    浙江省教育厅一般项目“中英博物馆网站简介英语文本的可读性研究”(Y202249946);2021年浙江省课程思政教学研究项目“外语课程思政‘一核四方’教学协同体系构建”;国家社会科学基金重大项目“汉语隐喻的逻辑表征与认知计算”(18ZDA290);浙江省优秀研究生课程《中西文化比较与翻译》;2021 年浙江工商大学新文科研究与改革实践项目“外语复合型拔尖人才立体分类式培养模式创新与实践”;浙江工商大学浙江省“外国语言文学”一流学科(A类)建设高层次项目(2021YLZS01)

Abstract: Museums are a microcosm of a countrys history and culture, and museum websites are of vital significance to disseminate regional and national cultures to the outside world. Based on a selfconstructed corpus of English translations of 36 museum website texts in China and a reference corpus of 36 museum website texts in English from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, where English is the native language, this study aims to explore the readability of Chinese and English museum introduction texts with the help of CohMetrix 3.0 and R from three dimensions: descriptive variables, readability principal component analysis and readability, and compare the similarities and differences between the translated Chinese museum texts and the original museum texts from three Englishspeaking countries. The study finds: 1)both corpora tend to use specific vocabularies and mediumlength sentences; 2)both corpora exhibit formal stylistic features; and 3)both corpora have a certain degree of difficulty. Statistical significance tests and analyses of the measures reveal: 1)Chinese museum texts are less evenly distributed in terms of sentence length than the original language; and 2)museums in Englishspeaking countries place more emphasis on reader engagement and interaction with their readers than do Chinese museums. The reasons for these differences can be summarised as follows: translation strategies, layout and thinking pattern. On this basis, this study proposes three suggestions for improving the quality of translation and writing of Chinese museum introduction texts.

Key words: museum introduction texts; text readability; CohMetrix; corpus

摘要: 博物馆是一个国家历史文化的缩影,博物馆网站是向外界传播文化知识的重要途径。选取中国、美国、英国和澳大利亚共72家博物馆网站的英文简介自建语料库,借助Coh-Metrix 3.0及R语言,从描述性变量、文本可读性主成分和易读度三个维度探究中英博物馆文本简介的可读性,对比中国博物馆翻译文本与英语国家博物馆原创文本之间的异同,挖掘造成差异的原因。研究发现,两语料库文本均倾向使用具体词汇和中等长度句子,文本都呈现出正式语体的特征,文本均有一定难度。对各测量指标进行统计学意义检验并分析,发现中国博物馆文本译文在句子长度均匀分布程度上低于原创语言,而英语国家博物馆重视读者的参与感,注重与读者之间的交流互动。造成差异的原因有翻译策略欠妥、谋篇布局和思维模式的差异。最后提出三点建议,以期为中国博物馆简介文本的翻译及写作质量提升提供借鉴。

关键词: 博物馆简介文本;文本可读性;CohMetrix;语料库