What transcends “translation universals” across time?

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Abstract Translation universals have been a central focus in corpus-based translation studies (CBTS), providing key insights into translated texts. However, their diachronic aspects remain underexplored despite extensive study. This study addresses this gap using Biber’s (1988) linguistic feature indicators. It primarily investigates the diachronic evolution of register features in translated Chinese texts across four sampling periods, aiming to identify potential translation-specific features that may emerge over time. The study utilizes the CDCMC, a diachronic composite corpus comprising twenty million words sampled over four periods and spanning five genres. The research findings are as follows: (1) from a diachronic perspective, our analysis reveals a notable tendency towards “leveling out” in text variety among translated Chinese texts, with changes being comparatively smaller than those observed in original Chinese texts; (2) diachronic analysis revealed significant differences in four-dimensional features between translated and original Chinese texts, highlighting that translated texts are more informative, logically and semantically explicit, and demonstrate stronger argumentative and persuasive qualities than original Chinese texts; (3) multivariate regression analysis indicates stable linguistic traits over time with significant stage-wise variations, supporting translation as “constrained language” while also suggesting translated Chinese texts possess a degree of “activeness” compared to originals.