Italian Novels and Novels Translated from English into Italian: a Comparative Analysis of Text Corpora

by Eleonora Gallitelli, Francesco Laurenti and Tim Parks

In this article we present the results of a quantitative analysis based on text corpora pointing out the changes in the use of certain syntactic traits in Italian and translated novels over three periods of Italian history, from the country’s unification to the present day. What emerges is a considerable difference between the language of translations and the language of books written directly in Italian, a difference which varies according to the role played by translation in the Italian literary context.