The primary objective of this paper is to propose a corpus-based research
methodology for comparing quantitative aspects of collocational patterning
in translated and non-translated texts of the same language. The main issue
under investigation is whether collocational patterns tend to be less diverse
(i.e. are reduced in range) in translated than non-translated texts. A pilot
study is carried out with a view to examining the overall number of collocates
and the distribution of collocations in relation to a given node in the
translated and non-translated subcorpora. The data is drawn from a comparable
corpus of Brazilian Portuguese which consists of two separate subcorpora:
one made up of translated Brazilian Portuguese and the other consisting
of non-translated Brazilian Portuguese. Both subcorpora are designed
according to the same criteria and specifications and are of similar size.