International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology

The International Promotion Agency of Culture Technology (국제문화기술진흥원)
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Evaluating English Loanwords and Their Usage for Professional Translation, Focusing on News Texts

  • Bokyung Noh (Dept. of Korean-English Interpretation and Translation, Seoul University of Foreign Studies)
  • Received : 2024.03.19
  • Accepted : 2024.05.10
  • Published : 2024.06.30
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Abstract

As globalization has accelerated, the use of English loanwords is increasing in South Korea. In this paper, we have analyzed news stories from four Korean quality newspapers-Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, KyungHyang Sinmun, and Chung-Ang Ilbo to investigate the usage of English loanwords in news texts. Thirty-eight news stories on life, politics, business and IT were collected from the four newspapers and then analyzed based on the five types of loanwords-Direct, Mixed Code Combination, Clipping and Neologism and Double Notation, partly following Lee's and Rudiger's classification. As a result, the followings were revealed: first, the use of the category Direct was overwhelming the others with 90%, indicating that English loanwords were not translated from its source language and introduced into Korean directly with little modification; second, the use of English loanwords was significantly higher in the sections of business and IT than in other sectors, implying that English loanwords function in a similar way as a lingua franca does within those fields. Furthermore, the linguistic trends can provide a basic guide for translators to make an informed decision between the use of English loanwords and its translated Korean version in English-into Korean translation.

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References

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