1 Idioms, word clusters, and reformulation markers in translational Chinese: Can “translation universals” survive in Mandarin? Richard Xiao Edge Hill University Abstract: This article is concerned with three linguistic features which have so far been rarely investigated in translation studies – namely idioms, word clusters and reformulation markers, in translational Chinese as represented in a one-million-word balanced corpus of translated Chinese texts in comparison with native Mandarin represented in a comparable corpus of non-translated Chinese texts. Our results show that idioms are more commonly used in native Chinese, meaning that the distribution patterns of idioms tend to be language- specific whereas word clusters are substantially more prevalent in translated Chinese, suggesting a tendency in translation to use fixed and semi-fixed recurring patterns in an attempt to achieve improved fluency. Reformulation markers function as a strategy for explicitation in Chinese translations, which tend to use informal, stylistically simpler forms than native Chinese texts. 1. Introduction An important area of corpus-based translation studies has been translation universal (TU) research, which investigates the common features of translational language. The term ‘translation universal’ is, however, not without controversy. Gaspari and Bernardini (2010), for example, argue that translation universal might as well be called “mediation universal” because some features of translated language are found to be present in non-native language, both of which are mediated discourses. This argument echoes Granger’s (1996: 48)