Tropes in translation An analysis of Dutch creative collocations and compounds translated into English

This PhD investigates how translators deal with poetic, idiosyncratic expressions: do they translate them into similarly idiosyncratic expressions, or do they resort to more formulaic language? In other words, do translators have a tendency to normalize creative expressions, as has been previously hypothesized?
The research looked at six Dutch-language novels written by six award-winning authors, and translated into English by six award-winning translators. It focused on creative collocations and compounds, and made use of large reference corpora. The research found less normalization than previously reported, but discovered that certain poetic tropes tend to be normalized more than others.
This PhD, however, is more than a corpus study: it also explores the extent to which creativity in translation can be explored through empirical corpus research.