Sentence splitting as a marker of translator style in non-literary translations.

This study explores the notion of translator style through a corpus-based analysis of non-literary translation, an area less frequently scrutinized compared to literary translation. It addresses the gap in research by focusing on howtranslators manage sentence segmentation during the translation process. This is an aspect often overlooked by prior studies which have traditionally prioritized lexical characteristics within sentences. The corpus comprises translations fromthree seasoned translators of English business books into Korean, supported by interviews that delve into their translation choices. Results reveal distinct stylistic patterns in handling sentence structure, suggesting that such strategies can significantlymark a translator’s style. Among three translators, the one who stated he could freely alter the segmentation of sentences in the original text was found to split sentences more frequently in his actual translations than the other two, who believed that the original sentence segmentation should not be altered. This difference was statistically significant. The findings in this study are meaningful as they were derived fromthe corpora that were meticulously designed tominimize external influences fromother agents such as editors. This study not only extends the understanding of translator style but also suggests practical implications for identifying individual translator's stylistic signatures in non-literary texts.