Quantitative and Qualitative Aspects of Corpus Selection in Translation Studies

Abstract: Although research procedures for translation analysis and comparison are being adapted to the principles of induction and deduction which are necessary in intersubjective research, criteria for corpus selection are often not explicitly motivated. Since hypotheses depend for their reliability on the corpus selected, attention should be paid to the relationship between exhaustiveness and representativeness. Criteria for corpus selection are often either random or textually motivated, while exceptions and deviations in translation often require a qualitative refinement of these criteria such as that obtained from extra-textual information.Resume: Les procedes de l'analyse et de la comparaison des traductions sont adaptes aux principes scientifiques de l'induction et de la deduction, tels qu'ils sont reguis en recherche intersubjective. En revanche, les criteres de selection du corpus sont rarement explicites, souvent ils sont arbitraires et fondes sur les textes eux-meme. Peu d'attention est pretee a la relation entre exhaustivite et representativite du corpus. Les exceptions ou deviations traductives, ainsi que la specificite du discours litteraire demandent une grille de criteres plus adaptee, dont ferait partie l'information extra-textuelle.