Translation universals: do they exist? A corpus-based NLP study of convergence and simplification

Convergence and simplification are two of the so-called universals in translation studies. The first one postulates that translated texts tend to be more similar than non-translated texts. The second one postulates that translated texts are simpler, easier-to-understand than non-translated ones. This paper discusses the results of a project which applies NLP techniques over comparable corpora of translated and non-translated texts in Spanish seeking to establish whether these two universals hold Corpas Pastor (2008).