2019, Vol.9, No.

T&I REVIEW 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.52

pISSN : 2233-9221 / eISSN : 2713-8720
https://journal.kci.go.kr/erits

Wei Deng and Xiaowen Wu. (2019). Acceptability of the Translation of Chinese Neologisms into French: Comparative Study of Four Methods of Translation. The Chinese neologism in the field of social and cultural life reflects the continual evolution of contemporary Chinese society. In order to communicate to the French-speaking countries and regions in the world the most recent Chinese concepts expressed in the form of neologisms in their native language, a distinctive French translation is indispensable. Translation methods adopted to do this and the acceptability of the proposed translation, evaluated by the French-speaking native speakers, are at the center of this work. Based on 100 Chinese social and cultural neologisms and their translations into French, extracted from the international translation project, "The key words about China", we have studied four methods of translation: literal translation, free translation, translation to French help of the third language and transliteration. Using a questionnaire, we evaluated with 21 native French speakers the acceptability of the proposed translations from a global, syntactical and lexical point of view. Analysis of the data collected shows that literally translated neologisms are the most accepted. On the contrary, those translated using Chinese phonetic transcription (transliteration) are considered the least acceptable. In addition, the survey also reveals that the ease of understanding of the translation has a great influence on the acceptability of the translation, under different aspects, this influence manifesting itself especially in the transliteration and in the translation with the help of the third language. Finally, at the end of this study, we provide some tips for improving the acceptability of translation.

When the strong and sensitive elements in the source text are toned down or downgraded, the translating effect of under-translation is achieved. In subtitling translation, any translating strategy leading to under-translation is considered as the more insensible and imperceptible form of linguistic manipulation. Based on textual analyses to English-Chinese subtitles of selected films, this study finds out that sensitive elements in the original dialogues being modified over under-translation are mostly related to sexual sensitive elements, profanes, and swearing words and most observed strategies employed are using Chinese idiomatic expressions, register moving, and euphemism. It is arguably possible that the motivation behind under-translation is translator’s self-censorship, drawing on the paradox Chinese translators are facing: rigorous official censoring process, the absence of movie content classification systems, and Chinese audiences’ growing awareness of possible (self)censorship. Comparing with other effects of translation, under-translation invisibly intervenes Chinese film viewers’ watching experience and reinforces the power imbalance between them and institutional and individual censors.

Miseon Yoon. (2019). Kim Soo-young as a translator: From a translator studies approach. Kim Soo-young is a Korean poet and translator whose works have attracted intense scholarly interest after his death. Recent studies on Kim Soo-young tend to take his translation works as a means for him to absorb western literature and establish a link between his reading/translating and his works. However, it can be an easy assumption as translating a text is not synonymous with an avid reading and it is a well known fact that he translated for a living. Few studies have been conducted to look into his translation in translation studies. This study aims to review the literature on Kim Soo-young’s translation works and show how future research can study his translation. (Chung-Ang University, Korea)