영한번역시 관사 처리 능력을 중심으로 한 번역능력 교육의 문제점

The Current State of Translation Education : A call for translation competence enhancement, with a focus on translation trainees ability to render English noun phrases with determiners

Lately, the focus of translation education has tended to be placed on teaching how to fulfill the job of intercultural mediation while enhancing the translator s cultural competence in dealing with so-called culturemes. This paper, however, argues that translation education should be refocused on helping translation trainees develop not only cultural but also linguistic competence. (The basis for what appears to be an obvious argument is the recognition of the unique state of translation education in Korea, where competent bilinguals are rare, compared to the situation in other parts of the globe.) With this purpose, the current paper examines translations done at both undergraduate and graduate levels of a specific linguistic item, i.e., noun phrases with determiners such as definite/indefinite articles. The rationale for exploring this issue is its perceived difficulty amongst Korean translation trainees. Firstly, the concept of translation competence is reviewed, to establish translator s linguistic competence as one of its key components. Secondly, the issue of determiners is looked at in relation to the Givenness Hierarchy and text linguistics. The third part of the paper discusses the results and findings of the data analysis. The conclusion stresses the need to bring a specific linguistic phenomenon to the attention of translation trainees so as to enable them to develop their linguistic competence along with their cultural competence.