The past, present, and future of corpus and translation studies

Curry, Niall ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4471-6794 and McEnery, Tony (2025) The past, present, and future of corpus and translation studies. In: The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Translation Studies. Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies . Routledge, London, pp. 1-8. ISBN 9781032026503 (hardback); 9781003184454 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter offers a retrospective on the development of the field of translation studies, moving towards the current state-of-the-art of corpus and translation studies with a closing focus on future directions. The 20th century saw significant advances in translation studies, with its establishment as a field in its own right, and its development, in synchrony, with linguistic typology, contrastive linguistics, and corpus linguistics. Key concepts that underpin corpus approaches to translation studies effectively draw on theoretical concepts from a range of backgrounds, spanning corpus linguistics, contrastive linguistics, and translation studies. Among the key concepts discussed are representativeness, sampling, the tertium comparationis, and equivalence. The concepts are discussed specifically with a view to operationalising them for corpus and translation studies. Looking forward, the chapter sets the stage for the exploration of the intersection between corpus linguistics and translation studies, anticipating continued growth and refinement in the field.