A Comparative Analysis of the Translation Styles in Chinese Versions of The Wealth of Nations based on the Adaptation Theory: A Corpus-based Statistical Examination

With the rapid iteration of information technology, information is digitized, translations continue to emerge, and the heat of translation research has reached its peak. Based on corpus statistics and analysis, this study selects two Chinese translations of The Wealth of Nations (Guo Da Li's translation and Xie Zong Lin's translation) as the research object from the perspective of adaptation theory and analyzes the translation styles of their translations from the levels of vocabulary, translation method, and discourse. Through a comparative study of the two translations, Xie Zonglin's translation is more inclined toward the Italian translation method, with rich vocabulary, strong readability, and flexible use of sentence expression, while Guo Dali's translation is more inclined toward the direct translation method, with a complete sentence structure and a strong sense of hierarchy. At the same time, it was found that all translations were labeled with their respective times. The translations of Guo Dali and Xie Zonglin are no exception; specifically, they conform to the context, language structure, and translation strategies. This study aimed to provide lessons for corpus translation research.