The Multiple Meaning Structure of Japanese Language and the Transfer Mechanism

Abstract

This paper studies language transfer using a rather unique method. It employs Japanese-English transfer analysis by looking at how key aesthetic words from the Tale of Genji are translated into English expressions. Two classical versions of translation of the Tale of Genji, Seidensticker (1979) and Tyler (2001) translations, were used for a contrastive analysis. Difficulties in translating an expression in one language into an appropriate expression in other language will depend on many things, including cultural differences. The proper expression may not exist in other language because of the cultural differences. A careful matching of expressions in two languages is needed to be taken to investigate whether cultural differences may have been the main cause, not language transfer, in mismatching the expressions by the translators. The result of this study shows that aesthetic words which involve emotional factor (that is, Group Ⅳ and Ⅴ) are relatively highly associated with high degree of language transfer (that is, improper translations). As one moves toward to more emotional expressions in Japanese language, the degree of language transfer increases. On the other hand, aesthetic words which do not involve emotional factor show relatively low degree of language transfer (that is, proper translations). Hence, the result may imply that language transfer can be affected by emotional content of the aesthetic words in Japanese language. The key implication of the findings in this paper is that language transfer may be present in the translations of aesthetic words of the Tale of Genji both by Seidensticker and Tylor. And the roots of the language transfer rest on the multiple meaning structure of aesthetic words in Japanese language especially in the Heian period. Language 1 (L1, Japanese) goes through the multiple meaning structure and may be transferred into different meanings in Language 2 (L2, English).