Translation and linguistic strategies of English oxymora into Japanese by Japanese language learners
An oxymoron is a complex term as it contains inherent contradictions. This often results in confusion and miscommunication. In translation studies, despite the existence of quite a rich body of research on figurative language, the dearth of research that focuses on oxymoron further compounds this...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2021
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18531/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18531/1/51587-172420-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | An oxymoron is a complex term as it contains inherent contradictions. This often results in
confusion and miscommunication. In translation studies, despite the existence of quite a rich
body of research on figurative language, the dearth of research that focuses on oxymoron
further compounds this complexity. The objectives of this research are two-fold. First, is
identifying whether or not the Japanese language learners are aware of the existence of
oxymoron, whereas the second objective is to determine strategies used in translating English
oxymoron into Japanese. This study used written translation tasks and follow-up online
interviews as the methods. The study utilises purposive sampling technique and the respondents
are 12 undergraduate students from the Universiti Malaya majoring in Japanese Language and
Linguistics. Six of the respondents are Malay and six are Chinese. The oxymora are taken from
the corpus of English texts at english-corpora.org/iweb. Data were manually collected and
analysed using Aixelá’s Culture-Specific Items classification as the framework for analysing
translation strategies. The research found that the respondents have difficulties translating some
English oxymora and the challenges lie in finding correct words to describe, if not similar
oxymoron in the target language. Other than their existing knowledge, the respondents refer to
online resources to help them with translation such as Google Translate and online dictionaries.
However, with some unfamiliar oxymora, this strategy is insufficient as most online
dictionaries directly translate figurative language. This study is intended to raise interest in the
translation of oxymoron, because this topic is not often the subject of study and application in
practice. This study will help language instructors in understanding the process of translation
of oxymoron and in implementing this subject as a syllabus in the translation studies. |
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