1. Introduction

This article introduces the complexity of translation, points out the correlation between the characteristics of the source text and the output of the translated text, emphasizes the importance of dependency distance as an indicator of sentence comprehension difficulty, and explores the application of dependency distance in translation research, such as the impact of interpreting performance and source text difficulty on interpreting fluency. At the same time, it is pointed out that there is a lack of research combining dependency distance with learners' translation performance. This article aims to analyze the impact of source language difficulty on Chinese English learners' Chinese English translation performance based on a learner translation corpus.

2. Literature review

In depth exploration of dependency grammar theory and its application in language structure description, particularly the concept and calculation methods of dependency distance. Dependency distance, as an indicator of sentence comprehension difficulty, has been proven to have a significant impact on second language writing performance. Current research mainly focuses on the correlation between interpreting performance and dependency distance, but there is relatively little research on translation performance, and experimental methods are often used, lacking large-scale analysis based on corpora. In addition, the differences between translation and interpretation in the process of language conversion have not been fully explored. The chapter also points out that although there have been studies focusing on quantitative evaluation of translation quality and analysis of language features, there is insufficient research on the impact of source text difficulty. It is necessary to introduce the indicator of dependency distance to more comprehensively examine its influence on learners' translation performance.

3. Research Design

Elaborated on the research design, including research questions, corpus sources, measurement indicators, and tools. The research focuses on the impact of source language dependency distance on the complexity and quality of Chinese English learners' translations. The corpus is selected from PACCEL and includes 24 individual sentences and 6916 translated sentences. The Stanford NLP toolkit is used for word segmentation and syntactic analysis, and the mean dependency distance is calculated to divide the individual sentences into three groups: short, medium, and long. Translation complexity is measured from two dimensions: vocabulary and syntax, covering 11 indicators such as vocabulary diversity, difficulty, density, and word frequency breadth, as well as average sentence length and dependency distance. The quality of the translation is reflected through manual scoring, and evaluated based on the analytical scoring criteria for Chinese English translation, from two aspects: language form and semantic content.

4. Research results

The impact of source language dependency distance on the complexity and quality of Chinese English translations by Chinese English learners was explored through analysis of variance and post hoc testing. Research has found that dependency distance has a significant impact on multiple indicators of translated vocabulary complexity, including vocabulary diversity, difficulty, density, and word frequency breadth. As dependency distance increases, vocabulary diversity and density show a trend of first deviating and then approaching the best translated sentence, while vocabulary difficulty gradually increases. In terms of syntactic complexity, the increase in dependency distance leads to a significant increase in the average length and average dependency distance of translated sentences. In terms of translation quality, dependency distance has a significant impact on the total score, formal score, and semantic score of the translated sentence. The total score and semantic score increase with the increase of dependency distance, while the formal score first increases and then decreases. These results reveal that source language dependency distance has a significant impact on the complexity and quality of Chinese English translation.

5. Discussion

In depth exploration was conducted on the impact of source language dependency distance on the complexity and quality of vocabulary in the Chinese English translation process for Chinese English learners. Research has found that as the dependency distance of the original sentence increases, the vocabulary diversity, difficulty, density, and different levels of vocabulary usage in translated sentences exhibit different trends. Learners prioritize processing meaning in the translation process, resulting in a greater emphasis on vocabulary processing, especially with an increase in the use of low-frequency and difficult words, while high-frequency simple vocabulary decreases. Individual differences in the translation process, such as memory capacity and cognitive resource allocation, can also affect the characteristics of the translated text. In addition, the increase in source language dependency distance may lead to simplification of the translated language, reflecting the simplification strategies adopted by learners when facing higher cognitive loads.

6. Conclusion

By analyzing 24 Chinese sentences and 6916 English translated sentences, the influence of source language dependency distance on the Chinese English translation performance of Chinese English learners was studied. Research has found that the increase in dependency distance is related to the trend of changes in the complexity and quality of translated sentences. The study applied dependency distance to learners' translation output, providing a new indicator for measuring the difficulty of translation tasks. In addition, exploring the impact of source language difficulty on translation performance is of positive significance for translation teaching and improving learners' translation abilities. This article has made a preliminary exploration of the relationship between source language dependency distance and learners' translation performance, but there are still many issues that need further research, such as the role of translation direction, translator group, language style, syntactic structure, and other factors. Future research can expand the corpus and comprehensively and systematically examine the impact of source language difficulty on translated text output.