1. Introduction

This article introduces the background and significance of the comparative study of syntactic complexity between translated Chinese and original Chinese, points out the new trend of translation commonality research, and highlights the shortcomings of domestic research on syntactic complexity in translated Chinese.

2. Review of Research on the Complexity of Chinese Written Sentences

Discussed the measurement indicators of Chinese syntactic complexity, including topic chains, complex noun phrases, and collocation based syntactic complexity indicators. Wu Jifeng, Hu Chunfen, and Lu Xiaofei (2022) established a Chinese syntactic complexity measurement system, covering 60 indicators at the levels of sentence, collocation, phrase, and grammatical point, divided into two categories: absolute complexity and relative complexity. At present, there is relatively little research on the syntactic complexity of translating Chinese, and commonly used indicators such as average sentence length cannot fully reflect its characteristics. Qin Hongwu and Kong Lei (2018) proposed a method for calculating the complexity of Chinese structures, while Liu, Liu u0026 Lei (2022) found through part of speech entropy that the syntactic complexity of translated Chinese is higher than that of original Chinese. However, these studies have limitations and further research is needed on the complexity of translating Chinese syntax. This study will be based on the Chinese syntactic complexity measurement system and use automated analysis tools to explore the differences in syntactic complexity between translated Chinese and original Chinese.

3. Research Design

This chapter explores the influence of text type and genre type on syntactic complexity, and proposes two research questions: whether there is a difference in syntactic complexity between translated Chinese and original Chinese, and whether there is a significant difference in syntactic complexity between these two types of Chinese in different genres. The study adopts a 2 × 4 experimental design, involving 14 syntactic complexity indicators. The original Chinese corpus comes from LCMC, and the translated Chinese corpus comes from ZCTC, forming a comparable corpus. The study uses "L2C Rater" and "Chinese CTAP" as measurement tools, covering 14 indicators at three levels: sentence, phrase, and collocation, including cross lingual universal collocation and Chinese characteristic collocation. The definition of low-frequency collocation is based on a large-scale Chinese collocation library.

4. Results

Through two factor analysis of variance, the differences in 14 syntactic complexity indicators between original Chinese and translated Chinese were compared. The results show that both text type and genre type have a significant impact on syntactic complexity. In terms of text type, translated Chinese is higher than original Chinese in 8 indicators and lower than original Chinese in 4 indicators. In terms of genre types, all 14 indicators show significant differences among different genres. Bonferroni's post hoc multiple comparisons revealed specific differences between different genres. The interaction effect between text type and genre type is significant on 8 indicators, indicating that there may be differences in these indicators between original Chinese and translated Chinese of different genres. The simple effects test further explored the differences between different text types within the same genre, and found that in some genres, translated Chinese was significantly higher or lower than original Chinese on specific indicators, while there was no significant difference in other genres.

5. Discussion

At the level of sentences, phrases, and collocations, the complexity of translated Chinese is higher than that of original Chinese in 8 indicators, indicating the "complexity" feature of translated Chinese. Meanwhile, in the four indicators, the complexity of translating Chinese is lower than that of original Chinese, indicating a "simplified" feature. The complexity of translating Chinese is affected by the interference of the source language, and the complex structure of English is transferred to translated Chinese, resulting in structural expansion. Original Chinese uses multiple simple clauses to express complete meaning, while translated Chinese has a higher proportion of special collocations, but a lower proportion of low-frequency collocations, overall collocations, and general collocations. The phenomenon of "complexity" and "simplification" in translating Chinese varies in different genres. The research results can be explained by the "Gravity Hypothesis" of cognitive translation studies and the "Translation Level Model" of psycholinguistics. The "Gravity Effect" and "Magnetic Effect" are reflected in multiple levels of syntactic complexity in translated Chinese, while some collocations and syntactic features of the target language may not be activated in the target language, resulting in lower translation complexity in some indicators compared to original Chinese.

6. Conclusion

Based on the LCMC and ZCTC corpora, research has found that translated Chinese is higher than original Chinese in multiple syntactic complexity indicators, but lower than original Chinese in other indicators. There is a significant interaction between text type and genre type in syntactic complexity. Translating Chinese shows the phenomenon of "simplification" and "complexity". The study adopts comparative analysis, the "gravity hypothesis", and the "translation level model" for explanation. Future research will expand syntactic complexity measurement indicators and build larger corpora to achieve more detailed comparisons.