KJC Korea
Journal Central

Much linguistic evidence shows that the notion of natural atomicity, which applies to atoms in the real world, should be distinguished from semantic atomicity, which is for atoms in semantics. This distinction provides a theoretical basis that semantic plurality may not be used to represent a plural number of objects. The plural morpheme ‘-s’ in English is mainly used to represent the plurality of objects while the semantic role of ‘-tul’ in Korean is divided between plurality and distributivity. Thus, nouns referring to plural objects may not be accompanied by ‘-tul,’ and nouns with -‘tul’ may not be related with the plurality of their references in Korean. According to earlier theories on Korean plurality, nouns referring to humans are count nouns whereas the other categories of nouns are more likely to be used as mass nouns. Hence, the occurrence of ‘-tul’ basically represents plurality with human nouns but distributivity with non-human nouns. Based on the distinct semantics of ‘-tul,’ three translational strategies are suggested for plural nouns. First, plural human nouns in English are translated to nouns with or without ‘-tul’ in Korean. Second, non-human plural nouns in English are translated to nouns with ‘-tul’ only when they implicate strong individuality in texts. Finally, the plurality of non-human nouns in English is instantiated in diverse ways in Korean when plurality itself makes a crucial role in text interpretation.

This paper aims to show that relevance theory provides an important framework for translators when they add information in the translated material to enhance the understanding of the target readers. When the source language (SL) readers share more common knowledge with the source text (ST) author than the target text (TT) readers do, translators adjust the informativity gap with the following methods: (a) explanation within the text; (b) explanation in parenthesis within the text; (c) explanation by a translator's note within the text; (d) explanation by footnote; (e) explanation in a glossary(Kirk 2001: 137). This paper analyzed the cases of explanation by a translator's note and explanation by footnote to see if added information provided by a translator has the largest contextual effects and costs the least processing efforts(Gutt 2000: 31). Expressions with strong cultural background and different language use were collected and analyzed from five literary texts; typical problems in added information in terms of the level of relevance were found. The author made an adjustment to the translator's note or footnote of 10 problematic translation cases. Then to see whether the texts with higher level of contextual relevance and less processing efforts enhance the understanding of the TT readers, 27 students from the author's translation class at Sookmyung Women's University were surveyed. The students were asked to read comparative translated texts as TT readers and to choose texts which increas their understanding of context more effectively. The results showed that readers found added information with high level of relevance was far more understandable and closely related to their cognitive background knowledge.

This paper aims at complementing some limitations of the results derived from the statistical analysis—it is a quantitative method—by using the parallel corpus composed of English-original texts and Korean translated texts—it is a qualitative method. The results discussed so far are as follows:The traits of Korean translated texts acquired by comparing Korean translated texts with English original texts, could be summarized into two terms, explicitation and normalization. In a more concrete sense, the translation technique of selective explicitation were applied in the case of Korean bound noun-related sentences and Korean conjunctive adverbs-related sentences; and that of structural explicitation, in the case of Korean long-form causative constructions. In addition, the normalization, which is a kind of translation universals, were consistently revealed in Korean translated phrases related to English punctuation, dash. Based on the above discussions, we have named the traits of Korean translated texts as ‘those of interlanguage’, and proposed some sets of adjustment rules, which are applied after the first translation, towards the mutual approaching of translated and non-translated, normal language.

A translator negotiates two strategies of translation, domestication and foreignization. Domesticated translation and foreignized translation seem mutually hostile; however, they can coexist in the practice of translation such as Kawabata Yasunari’s novel The Old Capital, cited and lauded by the Nobel Literature Committee in 1968. Kawabata self-orientalizes Kyoto throughout the text, and the English and Korean translators are likely to domesticate such oriental atmosphere in some parts and foreignize Japanese tradition in other parts. In this paper, I explore how the English and Korean translators resist or comply with the original. I realize that the English translator attempts to tone down the author’s criticism of the US afflicting Postwar Japan. I also find that the Korean translator deliberately revises the source text when it evokes memories of the Japanese colonial rule in Korea. As America, Japan, and Korea have influenced each other throughout the twentieth century, domesticated translation reflects the hegemonic struggle between these societies. Nonetheless, the English and Korean translators attempt to preserve the foreign identity of the source at the same time. A translator compromises two strategies of translation based on his or her reading and understanding. When we look into how a translator coaxes the Japanese language into English and Korean, the cultural difference across the Pacific and Korean Strait emerges self-evidently. Understanding cultural difference and respecting diverse local color will be the first step to motivate transcultural and transnational exchange between American, Japanese, and Korean society.

The purpose of this study is to examine how ideological orientations are reflected in institutional translation by analyzing Korean news articles containing translations of English news and commentaries of foreign news publications on the sinking of the naval vessel Cheonan. Drawing on the theories and concepts of frames, narratives, macrostructure, and agency, the paper explores how Korean journalists as institutional translators consciously and/or unconsciously try to change the meanings and tones of the texts so as to portray the government and the President in either a positive or a negative light, depending on their ideological orientations. The study compared and analyzed eight sets of English news articles from foreign news media(ST), Korean articles based on translations of STs published by Yonhap News Agency as a quasi-governmental news agency(TT1), and articles written in a similar manner by local, private news media(TT2). The focus was on the shifts in narrative structures, frames, and headlines as well as on lexical changes. The study found that on both macro- and micro-levels, the TT1s tend to emphasize the merits of the actions of the government and the President, while trying to gloss over their weaknesses. By contrast, the TT2, which mostly have left-wing orientations, showed the opposite tendency.

The purpose of this paper lies in investigating the relations between working memory span of conference interpreters and their ability to process language on-line and express them during simultaneous interpreting. Simultaneous interpreting is a highly complex and complicated information transfer and language mediation process which requires special expertise that distinguishes the conference interpreters from other bilinguals. It is hypothesized in this study that conference interpreters have high working memory span which is described as limited-capacity mechanism involved in both the processing and storing of currently active information. Under such assumption, working memory span of sixteen conference interpreters were measured to categorize them into high span and low span working memory groups. Then, an English into Korean simultaneous interpreting experiment was carried out to investigate the implications of working memory capacity on these interpreters’ ability to transfer information from source language to target language. The interpreters’ ability to transfer information was measured in terms of the coverage in delivering meaning segments as well as their flexibility in choices of vocabulary and sentence structure. The results of the experiment showed that not only was High Span Group able to transfer higher percentage of meaning segments than Low Span Group of interpreters but also able to produce more natural and coherent target language re-expression.

This paper aims to encourage meta-discussions, which are one of the most essential elements for the development of Translation Studies. A meta-discussion refers to a theoretical discussion on Translation Studies itself, rather than on the act of translating or translations. A meta-discussion also includes an examination and self-reflection on the characteristics, scope, and methodologies of Translation Studies. This paper consists of four main parts. In the first part, the meaning of a meta-discussion as it pertains to Translation Studies is clarified. In the second part, based on the concept of interdisciplinarity, an explanation of the development phases of Translation Studies will be given. By explaining these phases, the reasons for the need of meta-discussions will be addressed. The third part of this paper reviews meta-discussions on Translation Studies at home and abroad, and points out their limitations. Finally, the last part suggests a philosophical meta-discussion as a future path that meta-discussions in general should headed toward.

Before the liberation from the Japanese, most of the modernized High Schools and Colleges encouraged students to establish diverse student-governed activities. One of such activity included the publication of school journals in which students were able to publish translated poetry. The following are the quality and significance of translated poetry publication. Firstly, students were publishing these contents under school authority which predetermined the influence of their instructors. Such influence is present even in a school where translated literature are not being published. However, in schools where translated literature are being published students are not only influenced by the instructors personality but by the traits of the instructor’s home country and vast amount of the translated poetry were found in England and America. Secondly, though student’s interest in practice of translation was heavily influenced by school instructors, the self-chosen literature content mirrors the level of culture and quality amongst the students. Their choice of literature materials were those that have not yet been recognized by those in the literary circles at the time. The youth of late tens and early twenties showed traits of romanticism: yearning for sad love story. Moreover, their selection of poetry indicates student effort to discover ones true character and identity in a period of colonialization through enlightenment ideas and by studying the literature written by great names of history. Lastly, because students were the ones publishing the school journals they were both author and audience. It was the practice of translation that allowed these students to come in contract with foreign culture. Futhermore, it was the practice of translation which influenced students to constitute the phase and concept of both modern literature and foreign literature.

The Internet has become a great source of tourist information today along with the growth and development of information and communication technologies. A local online travel guides or tourist information website is designed to provide prospective visitors with accurate and high quality information about local destinations as well as to enhance positive images of destinations and tourist satisfaction. Ultimately, an official travel information website plays an important role in promoting the tourism industry. Likewise, ‘Namdo Korea’ is an official website which was created in February, 2006 in order to furnish both Korean and foreign visitors with necessary and detailed information about the long history and natural tourist attractions in the areas of Gwangju and Jeonnam. However, after an extensive research and analysis of tourist information in Japanese posted on the website ‘Namdo Korea’ over a long period of time, we have found that there are a number of problems in translation. Among them, particularly, cultural equivalence turns out to be the most serious problem. Thus, in this study, not only do we examine the translation strategies translators used to address the complicated challenge of achieving equivalence in translating cultural elements from Korean to Japanese; but we also seek more effective strategies and methods to make better tourist guides and information in Japanese on the website ‘Namdo Korea’.

The aim of this paper is to examine the presentation of speech and thought proposed by Leech and Short, to compare and analyze the source and the target text of Diary of a Vagabond on the framework of their presentation, and to discuss problems which narration shift between ST and TT may imply. The style of Diary of a Vagabond is striking, especially narration, the representation of character speech and/or character thought. But the stylistic effects of the ST usually disappear in the TT, for Free Direct Discourse and Free Indirect Discourse are changed into Direct Discourse (the norm for speech) and Indirect Discourse (the norm for thought). Free Direct forms are the removal of quotation marks or reporting clauses which accompany Direct forms. Free Direct Speech evokes the effect of vividness and speed, and Free Direct Thought evokes ‘stream of consciousness,’ ‘interior monologue.’ Free Indirect forms are ‘free’ in that it has no reporting clause, and indirect in that a character’s voice is filtered through the narrator’s viewpoint: this interweaving is ‘dual voice.’Following English norms rather than unique narration styles in the ST may imply three problems: the failure to capture the meaning of the ST; the loss of identity of Diary of a Vagabond as a Korean literature; lowering the status of a translator.