The purpose of this study is to explore whether children's literature translation, targeted toward older children aged from around eleven to fourteen, is different from translation for adults, and if so, to examine the degree of difference.
Translations of children's literature are often characte...
The purpose of this study is to explore whether children's literature translation, targeted toward older children aged from around eleven to fourteen, is different from translation for adults, and if so, to examine the degree of difference.
Translations of children's literature are often characterized by strong translator intervention, as a means of compensating for a lack of world experience on the part of children. Such intervention is said to include linguistic simplification, intervention to bridge cultural gaps with the source text culture, explicitation, compliance with target language and cultural norms, the importance of rhythm, and adult didacticism and censorship. However, what is often overlooked is that such intervention may greatly vary according to the age of the children. Given that children's literature and hence, children's literature translation covers a broad range of age bracket, from pre-school to puberty, a distinction regarding the age bracket is required to discuss translation for children. For younger children, translation of sound is deemed imperative as the role of rhythm is emphasized for language acquisition in both Korean and English. When rhythm and adult didacticism and censorship are excluded, the other abovementioned characteristics are also frequently examined in translation in general for adult readers.
This study sets out to observe whether these four characteristics are conspicuous in translation for older children vis-a-vis translation for adults. Specifically, this study compares translation of Cuture Specific Items(CSIs, Aixelá, 1996), allusions and simplification of syntax between translation for children and adults.
Translations of eight English "classics" were chosen as data for the study. These translations are complete translations, not adapted or shortened, and have distinctly different target readers—either adults or older children. Eleven target texts(TTs) for children and twelve TTs for adult readers were statistically analyzed. After the overall results were compared between translation for children and adults, children's translations of same source texts(STs) were compared to observe how translation could vary according to translator style.
It was found that in children's translations, CSIs showed a statistically significant reduction in ST‐‑preserving strategies and were replaced by TT expressions. Allusions were translated with significantly more footnotes and less ST-preserving strategies. Finally, translations for children had significantly more ST sentences segmented, and these segmentations were made when there were coordinating conjunctions, participial constructions, and where colons, semi-colons or dashes were immediately followed by conjunctions, participial constructions or relatives. Subordinate clauses in ST were found to be more simplified in terms of statistical significance in children's translation, but embedded clauses were not simplified.
The results of this study show that compared with translation for adults, translation for older children tends to lean more toward Toury's acceptability norm. However, the two cannot be said to follow different norms since the degree of difference is not drastic, and order of preferred strategies were the same between them.
In examining translations for children from the same STs, it was found that the translations differed significantly according to translator —meaning not just the individual translators, but reflecting the views of publishers, reviewers, and other interested parties. This may point toward the possibility that translator variability should not be ignored in translation for children.
Overall, based on the data of this study, translating CSIs and allusions and simplifying syntax for children, at least where older children are concerned, is not drastically different from translation for adults, but is a matter of degree. In this regard, the results of this study suggest that there may not be characteristics that apply particularly to the genre of children's literature translation when the target readership is older children. In other words, while translation for younger children may show distinct characteristics compared to translation for adult readers, this may not be so for older children.
This may reflect different skopos between translation for the two age groups: Translation for younger children is more focused on pedagogical values to help them learn language, and thus closely follows target language and cultural norms. On the other hand, translation for older children is more focused on promoting familiarity with other cultures, and therefore chooses to expose the young readers to ST culture and language norms.
Future research work includes, among others, comparing the results of this study, for example, syntactic complexity, with books originally written in Korean as part of efforts to observe acceptability of translations to their target readers.
The purpose of this study is to explore whether children's literature translation, targeted toward older children aged from around eleven to fourteen, is different from translation for adults, and if so, to examine the degree of difference.
Translations of children's literature are often characterized by strong translator intervention, as a means of compensating for a lack of world experience on the part of children. Such intervention is said to include linguistic simplification, intervention to bridge cultural gaps with the source text culture, explicitation, compliance with target language and cultural norms, the importance of rhythm, and adult didacticism and censorship. However, what is often overlooked is that such intervention may greatly vary according to the age of the children. Given that children's literature and hence, children's literature translation covers a broad range of age bracket, from pre-school to puberty, a distinction regarding the age bracket is required to discuss translation for children. For younger children, translation of sound is deemed imperative as the role of rhythm is emphasized for language acquisition in both Korean and English. When rhythm and adult didacticism and censorship are excluded, the other abovementioned characteristics are also frequently examined in translation in general for adult readers.
This study sets out to observe whether these four characteristics are conspicuous in translation for older children vis-a-vis translation for adults. Specifically, this study compares translation of Cuture Specific Items(CSIs, Aixelá, 1996), allusions and simplification of syntax between translation for children and adults.
Translations of eight English "classics" were chosen as data for the study. These translations are complete translations, not adapted or shortened, and have distinctly different target readers—either adults or older children. Eleven target texts(TTs) for children and twelve TTs for adult readers were statistically analyzed. After the overall results were compared between translation for children and adults, children's translations of same source texts(STs) were compared to observe how translation could vary according to translator style.
It was found that in children's translations, CSIs showed a statistically significant reduction in ST‐‑preserving strategies and were replaced by TT expressions. Allusions were translated with significantly more footnotes and less ST-preserving strategies. Finally, translations for children had significantly more ST sentences segmented, and these segmentations were made when there were coordinating conjunctions, participial constructions, and where colons, semi-colons or dashes were immediately followed by conjunctions, participial constructions or relatives. Subordinate clauses in ST were found to be more simplified in terms of statistical significance in children's translation, but embedded clauses were not simplified.
The results of this study show that compared with translation for adults, translation for older children tends to lean more toward Toury's acceptability norm. However, the two cannot be said to follow different norms since the degree of difference is not drastic, and order of preferred strategies were the same between them.
In examining translations for children from the same STs, it was found that the translations differed significantly according to translator —meaning not just the individual translators, but reflecting the views of publishers, reviewers, and other interested parties. This may point toward the possibility that translator variability should not be ignored in translation for children.
Overall, based on the data of this study, translating CSIs and allusions and simplifying syntax for children, at least where older children are concerned, is not drastically different from translation for adults, but is a matter of degree. In this regard, the results of this study suggest that there may not be characteristics that apply particularly to the genre of children's literature translation when the target readership is older children. In other words, while translation for younger children may show distinct characteristics compared to translation for adult readers, this may not be so for older children.
This may reflect different skopos between translation for the two age groups: Translation for younger children is more focused on pedagogical values to help them learn language, and thus closely follows target language and cultural norms. On the other hand, translation for older children is more focused on promoting familiarity with other cultures, and therefore chooses to expose the young readers to ST culture and language norms.
Future research work includes, among others, comparing the results of this study, for example, syntactic complexity, with books originally written in Korean as part of efforts to observe acceptability of translations to their target readers.
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