Japanese onomatopoeias and mimetic words why are they difficult to translate?

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstract

Abstract / Description of output

The question looks straightforward. But the answers are multiple as the use of mimetic expressions covers not only imitating sounds, but also a wide-range of sound-symbolic language such as abstract manners or one’s psychological states. Therefore, their use is pervasive in everyday Japanese, in media and in literary works from children’s literature to poetic and fictional genres.

The talk will discuss translatability issues in Japanese-English translation with examples taken from traditional children’s literature and multimodal text of manga (Japanese comics) and I will focus on the translation strategies used to overcome the lack of translation equivalents of Japanese onomatopoeic and mimetic words in English.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 21 Nov 2015
Event Scottish Society, Chartered Institute of Linguists - Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Nov 2015 → …

Conference

Conference Scottish Society, Chartered Institute of Linguists
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityEdinburgh
Period21/11/15 → …

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Japanese onomatopoeias
  • manga and onomatopoeias
  • translation

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