2024, Vol.25, No.1

The Journal of Translation Studies 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.49

pISSN : 1229-795X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kats

This paper addresses the quality of machine translation (MT) and post-editing (MTPE) outputs in comparison with human translation (HT) in the context of Korean-English legal translation, focusing on error analysis. Using the three major criteria of accuracy, fluency, and terminology, the study examines errors in twelve from-scratch translations and twelve post-edited MT outputs as well as the MT output generated by DeepL Translator. Error comments provided by three human evaluators were analyzed to identify error types and occurrences in the three different output types. Our findings reveal that MTPE generated the fewest errors, while MT exhibited the highest error count. Across all output types (HT, MT, and MTPE), accuracy errors were the most prevalent, with distortion being the predominant type. Fluency errors ranked next in frequency for HT and MTPE, while terminology errors were more common in MT than in HT and MTPE. Further analysis indicates that fluency and terminology errors were generally corrected in MTPE, but accuracy errors, particularly distortion, requiring substantial cognitive effort, often remained uncorrected. In terms of prevalent error types, MTPE demonstrated a closer resemblance to HT than MT. These findings underscore the potential of MTPE to yield high-quality legal text translations with reduced errors. However, HT remained advantageous in terms of producing accurate translations, particularly with regard to meaning transfer. This study contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on the efficacy of different translation methods in the legal domain.

This study aims to examine the characteristics of translation manifested within the diverse purposes of writing on blogging platforms. Specifically, this study analyzes the contents posted on the three most popularly-visited blogging platforms in South Korea including Naver Blog, Kakao's Tistory, and Brunch Story. The analysis primarily focuses on the phenomenon of quoting and translating classical Chinese poetry within blog posts. The characteristics of translation observed in blog posts are divided into two aspects: internal and external elements within the text. The analysis on the external elements of the texts reveals that the translation subjects appeared in a diverse range, and their translation purposes often leaned towards serving as tools for self-expression. This study also highlights some pronounced internal elements such as the omission of citation, the use of images and hyperlinks, and other features of digital writing.

Despite the rapid growth of the musical market in Korea, research on musical translation, particularly the surtitle translation of musicals, remains nascent both domestically and internationally. In this context, this study aims to explore the characteristics of surtitle translations of English musicals into Korean, in contrast to movie translations. The Korean surtitle of the comedy musical Nine to Five was examined as a case study. Additionally, the translator was interviewed, and relevant news articles were consulted for triangulation. The study reveals that, unlike movie subtitles that are embedded in the screen, musical surtitles are displayed separately from the stage, either above or beside it. The condensation rate in word count for surtitles was 42.9%, higher than those of movie subtitles. Secondly, surtitles were continually adjusted according to surtitle monitor locations, audience response, and individual actors’ performances. Thirdly, the role of the surtitle operator was found to be significant. Fourthly, non-linguistic elements were employed to convey nuances of actors’ voice acting. Lastly, paratextual surtitles were used to engage the audience during the curtain call. This study is significant in that it examined the multi-modal aspect of musical surtitles, thus laying the groundwork for more comprehensive studies. Furthermore, it highlights musical surtitles’ distinct characteristics compared to movie subtitles.