Jieun Kiaer - The Routledge Course in Korean Translation

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The Routledge Course in Korean Translation

The Routledge Course in Korean Translation brings together for the first time materials dedicated to the theory and practice of translation to and from Korean.

This advanced course in Korean translation discusses cross-linguistic and cross-cultural issues that arise in the course of Korean-English and English-Korean translation and offers useful tools for dealing with the problems that arise in the actual practice of translation. Equipped with examples from a range of genres, this book provides a foundational understanding in translation theory that is necessary in Korean translation.

The Routledge Course in Korean Translation is essential reading for students of Korean at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels interested in translation, as well as for students and researchers with knowledge of Korean who are interested in linguistics, and cultural and communication studies.

Jieun Kiaer is Young Bin Min-KF Associate Professor of Korean Language and Linguistics at the University of Oxford, UK.

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The Routledge Course in
Korean Translation

Jieun Kiaer

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First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2018 Jieun Kiaer

The right of Jieun Kiaer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN: 978-1-138-66917-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-66924-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-61821-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

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What is translation? Translation is hard to define. In the preface to Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, David Bellos describes how the late Roy Harris became a legendary figure in academia for refusing to teach translation courses. His reason? How could he teach translation, he argued, when he didnt even know what translation was?

This book contains discussions about a number of episodes and experiments explored together with my students over the last seven years. Many of the points that I aim to cover arose over the course of our discussions. I am immensely grateful to my students, particularly those who, together with students from Korea University, participated in the Translating Translation: Beer, Wine or Sake seminar in Hilary Term 2013 at Oxford. Their insightful observations about their own languages, among many other things, have proved invaluable. My special thanks go to Vivian Evelina vers, Hugh Flint and Tobias Bladen, who provided various editorial help.

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This book discusses issues or problems that can occur in Korean-English (K-E) or English-Korean (E-K) translation. On key questions and issues, this book features lively discussions based on previous approaches in current translation studies. This book contains numerous examples extracted from Korean-English or English-Korean translation, which I believe will help not only readers in Korean studies but also those in translation studies, language pedagogy, applied linguistics and language teaching. Those interested in Korean literature may also benefit from this book with regard to its treatment of various literary texts. This book can be used as an accessible textbook helping readers without prior knowledge to build a basic understanding of Korean and English language, as well as that of core terms in translation studies. Each chapter contains a number of Translators corners, where we discuss some challenges and tasks of K-E/E-K translation with practical examples. These also contain analyses of how these challenges have been dealt with within the wider context of translation studies. This book contains a range of examples, exercises and practical tools and tips for translation. In compiling this book, Mona Bakers In Other Words and Yoko Hasegawas The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation were extremely helpful in reorganising the materials I have gathered in the class in a consistent, reader-friendly manner.

This book can be used as a resource book for anyone engaged in Korean studies. The intended audience is (i) advanced learners of Korean at both undergraduate and graduate levels who are interested in translation, (ii) undergraduate and graduate students with advanced knowledge of Korean who are interested in linguistics, cultural studies or communication studies, (iii) graduate students who are majoring in Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language, and (iv) scholars specialising in the field of Korean Language and Linguistics or in the broader fields of Korean or Asian Studies.

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This book was supported by the 2015 Daesan Foundation Research Grant. I dedicate this book to my father who passed away before it was completed. He helped open my eyes to language, linguistics and literature. I miss him dearly.

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Language matters in translation. Good translation relies on a developed understanding of both the source and target languages. The two languages discussed in this book, Korean and English, differ linguistically in almost every aspect. It is essential, therefore, for translators of Korean to fully understand and appreciate these differences. Although I will on occasion compare Korean with English, I do not provide a full analysis of the English language in this book. I will assume that the reader of this book will know enough of the characteristics of English to be able to write in English reasonably well. In Section 1.1, I discuss Korean matters in English-Korean/Korean-English translations. In Section 1.2, I discuss the main themes and history of English-Korean/Korean-English translations. In Section 1.3, I summarise.

1.1 Korean language matters

No discussion of Korean-English (K-E) translation is complete without an exploration of the similarities and differences between the two languages. Genetically, structurally, etymologically and lexically, Korean and English could not be more distant from each other. English belongs to a family of Indo-European languages. It is an SVO (Subject Verb Object order) language, with the object following the verb. Korean was for a long time assumed to be an Altaic language, though this has since been widely discredited. It is instead safe to assume that Korean is an isolated language (Lee and Ramsey 2011). Verbs come at the end of sentences, and although SOV (Subject Object Verb order) is the default word order, ordering tends to be much freer in comparison to other languages. Korean words share roots with Chinese and Japanese words much in the same way that many English words share their roots with words from nearby European languages. One crucial difference between Korean and English lies in the omission, context permitting, of even core expressions in Korean. In English, dropping the subject I is only possible in informal speech. Yet, in Korean, dropping