Kaibao Hu: Introducing corpus-based translation studies

Introducing Corpus-Based Translation Studies by Kaibao Hu, published by Springerin 2016, is an English translation of a 2011 book originally published in Chinese by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. The book introduces corpus-based translation studies as a new paradigm that parallels the shift from introspective to corpus-based methods in linguistics. In a metaphor that recurs throughout the text, corpus-based translation studies are described as a “marriage” between descriptive translation studies and corpus linguistics. The book is divided into nine chapters. The first two address the definition of corpus-based translation studies and the corpora and tools commonly used in this field. Six chapters outline the use of corpus-based methods for different research questions in translation studies. The last chapter contains an outlook and discusses some of the problems and limitations of the approach.