Translating Japanese Texts

by Lita Lundquist, Kirsten Refsing

Overview

Translating Japanese Texts is a practical textbook and a precise introduction to problems of and strategies for translating Japanese texts, aimed at both students and teachers of translation, and professional translators. The theoretical foundation is that texts are created by means of interplay between different levels of linguistic material and pragmatic, cognitive and cultural mechanisms. The authors claim that all translation should hence take such factors into consideration. The book focuses on Japanese and English and attempts to highlight systematic differences between these two languages, but will be useful when translating Japanese into other languages than English and for translation in general. The book will be of interest not only for students and professionals of translation and language studies, but also for people generally interested in Asian languages, cultures and worlds of thought, seen through the lens of translation from Japanese into English.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788763507776
Publisher:	Museum Tusculanum Press
Publication date:	06/01/2008
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	195
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Kirsten Refsing is professor - formerly of Japanese Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Lita Lundquist is professor of Languages for Specific Purposes at the Copenhagen Business School.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Grammatical Abbreviations
Introduction

Part 1: The Source Text and Global Strategies for Its Translation
Chapter 1: The source text as text
1.1 Texts as coherent linguistic unites
    1.1.1 The unit of the text
    1.1.2 Inferences
1.2 Texts as mental representations
Chapter 2: Analysis and understanding of the source text
2.1 Questions to be addressed when analysing a source text
    Checklist of questions
2.2 Analysing a Japanese source text
Chapter 3: Strategies for transferring the source text
3.1 Global strategies
    3.1.1 Examples of choosing a global strategy
    3.1.2 Respecting genre
3.2 Local strategies
3.3 Losses and gains
Part II: Units of Translation and Local Strategies for Their Transfer
Chapter 4: Micro-units I: The word and beneath
4.1 Semes
4.2 Morphemes
4.3 Words and compound words
4.4 Fixed terms
4.5 Culturemes
Chapter 5: Micro-units II: Phases
5.1 Syntactic phrases
5.2 Fixed expressions
    5.2.1 Collocations
    5.2.2 Idioms
    5.2.3 Metaphors
    5.2.4 Proverbs and sayings
Chapter 6: Macro-units of translation: The sentence and beyond
6.1 Sentences
6.2 Linked sentences
6.3 Referential coherence—simple anaphors
    6.3.1 Unfaithful anaphors
    6.3.2 Resumptive anaphors
6.4 Semantic, or rhetorical coherence
6.5 Connectors
6.6 Argumentative markers
6.7 Mental space builders
Part III: The Target Text and Its Revision
Chapter 7: Mega-units and revision of the target text
7.1 Textual fit and intertextuality
    7.1.1 Not respecting intertextuality in Language 2
7.2 Genre
7.3 Text types
7.4 The final touch

Postscript
References
Index