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Säg det med färre ord – En komparativ undersökning av skillnader i ordantal mellan en engelsk text och dess svenska översättning

Say it in fewer words – A comparative study of differences in word count between an English text and its Swedish translation

På svenska

Author

  • Henning Karlsson

Summary, in English

This is a comparative translation study based around the English scientific text "From Etic to Emic Units in the Structural Study of Folktales" by Alan Dundes, as well as its Swedish translation by the study author. The aim of the study is to compare the differences in word count between the two languages. First, the English source text is analyzed with the model presented by Hellspong & Ledin (1997). Then, considerations done before and during the translation are presented. In the following part the study questions are formed, previous research in the field is analyzed and after this the two texts are compared. The analysis is both quantitative and qualitative. The results show both grammatical rules and individual translation choices which explain the difference in word count between the texts. The last part of the study is a discussion of the results.

Department/s

  • Translation Program

Publishing year

2025

Language

Swedish

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • översättning
  • engelska
  • svenska
  • ordantal
  • skillnad
  • skillnadsfaktor
  • textlängd
  • räkna ord
  • translation
  • English
  • Swedish
  • word count
  • number of words
  • difference
  • differing factor
  • text length
  • counting words

Supervisor

  • Lisa Holm (Professor)