Following the Trail of Source Languages in Literary Translations

Abstract

We build on past research in distinguishing English translations from originally English text, and in guessing the source language where the text is deemed to be a translation. We replicate an extant method in relation to both a reconstruction of the original data set and a fresh data set compiled on an analogous basis. We extend this with an analysis of the features that emerge from the combined data set. Finally, we report on an inverse use of the method, not as guessing the source language of a translated text, but as a tool in quality estimation, marking a text as requiring in- spection if it is guessed to be a translation, rather than a text composed originally in the language analysed. With obtain c. 80% accuracy, comparable to results of earlier work in literary source language guessing -- this supports the claim of the method's validity in identifying salient features of source language interference.