The Routledge Course in Korean Translation by Kiaer Jieun

Author:Kiaer, Jieun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2017-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

p.90

Chapter 5

Word matters

When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more, nor less.

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

Words matter and translators need to carefully choose words that contain all the meanings that have been realised, as well as inherent meanings (see Chapter 4 for a discussion on meaning). Translators can use many similar words to convey the same idea in the TL. Yet the translator’s job is to find the best, most suitable candidate that conveys the same meaning from the original text. This undoubtedly forms a quintessential part of the whole translation process.

This chapter presents the process of choosing the “best” word in translating from Korean to English and vice versa, although the focus will be on K-E translation. We will discuss how a word’s lexical origin brings forth either heaviness or lightness within the text. In addition, we will explore how the speaker’s attitudes towards the TL influence translation choices – whether to translate, or not to translate and leave it as it is (i.e. to transliterate). We will discuss some linguistic characteristics of Korean words in comparison to English words (Section 5.1). Then, we will discuss Koreans’ attitudes towards words based on their lexical origin (Section 5.2). In Section 5.3, we discuss characteristics of Anglo-Korean words. Then, in Section 5.4, we will discuss two-way systems in word usages between Anglo- vs. native/Sino-Korean words. A summary is provided in Section 5.5.

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