A Readability Study and Its Relevance to Simplification on Translations of Lun Yu

This research will apply readability theory into translation studies of Lunyu or “the Analects of Confucius” in Chinese and English versions. With the application of readability formulas, the analysis will explain the readability statistics in two ways: the Flesch reading ease score and other Reading Level index. The two translated texts will be compared in terms of four aspects: word numbers, lexical density, sentence numbers and average sentence length so as to find out the different degree of simplification in the translations. The findings show that the readability of Roger Ames’s translated texts is higher than James Legge’s; hence is much more difficult to read. The simplification degree is in accordance with the readability result, which indicates that readability analysis results can be referenced for studying translation features like simplification.