English and Korean have different numeral quantifier constructions. English has two kinds of numeral quantifier phrases (NQPs), i.e., ‘NQ/N’ and ‘NQ/classifier/of/N’ constructions, in both of which the NQ precedes the N. On the other hand, Kor...
English and Korean have different numeral quantifier constructions. English has two kinds of numeral quantifier phrases (NQPs), i.e., ‘NQ/N’ and ‘NQ/classifier/of/N’ constructions, in both of which the NQ precedes the N. On the other hand, Korean has four kinds of NQPs, namely, ‘NQ/N,’ ‘NQ/classifier/uy/N,’ ‘N/NQ,’ and ‘N/NQ/classifier’ constructions. In the first two constructions which are similar to the two English NQPs, the NQ precedes the N, whereas in the other two constructions, the NQ follows the N. Also, English countable nouns are not usually used with classifiers while Korean nouns prefer to be used with classifiers. Therefore, when we translate an English NQP into Korean, we must decide on whether to use an NQ pre- or post-construction, and whether to use an NQP with or without a classifier.
Jung et al. (2010) argue that when an English NP with an NQ has a definite meaning, it is translated into Korean ‘NQ/N’ or ‘NQ/classifier/uy/N’ construction, where the NQ precedes the N. Shin et al. (2009) argue that in the case of human NPs, classifiers are relatively freely omitted in Korean. Based on these preceding studies, this investigates some factors that can affect the selection of the numeral quantifier constructions in Korean. One is ‘definiteness’ and the other is ‘animacy’.
To examine whether the text type as well as the two factors ‘definiteness’ and ‘animacy’ are involved in the Korean translation of English NQPs, a text analysis is conducted with two kinds of text data from CNN TV news scripts and novels. The NQPs translated into Korean are classified into the four NQ constructions. The results suggest that the preference for Korean NQ pre- or post-constructions is shown to depend on the text type. In the TV news scripts classified as an informative text, the NQ post-construction is preferred while in the novels classified as an expressive text, the NQ pre-construction is preferred. This result, which is opposed to the result of the previous studies, could be accounted for in terms of the focus of meaning in the NQPs. That is, when the NQPs have a definite meaning, the NQ pre-constructions seem to be preferred to focus on the noun. On the contrary, when the quantity of the NQPs is highlighted, the NQ post-constructions seem to be preferred. It could be explained that in the informative data, the quantities involved in the events are usually in focus, whereas in the expressive data, the focus is more on the nouns rather than on the quantities of the events.
In addition, the use of a classifier is shown to depend on the text type. Although the NQP with a classifier is preferred in both of the text types, the NQP with a classifier is preferred in the informative text than in the expressive text. This could be accounted for by the fact that a classifier can be freely used or omitted in the case of human NPs. Our results show that a classifier in the human NP in the expressive text is more often omitted than that in the informative text, and that this is the reason why the percentage of the NQPs with a classifier in the expressive text is lower than that in the informative text. However, we do not have an answer for the question of why the classifier in a human NP in the expressive text is more frequently omitted than in the informative text. Thus, the text type alone seems to be inadequate to account for the order of the NQ and N, and the use of classifiers in Korean NQPs.
The study results also show that the percentage of English NQPs with the definite determiner ‘the’ being translated into Korean NQ pre-constructions is 82.1%, whereas the percentage for NQ post-constructions is 17.9%. Also, the percentage of the classifier being omitted in the Korean translation is 70% in the case of human NPs, whereas the percentage is 30% in the case of non-human NPs.
Our results suggest that the definiteness and animacy of the noun affect the translation of English NQPs into Korean. In the target texts, the preference for the NQ pre-constructions has been observed when the source texts have a definite meaning. Furthermore, the occurrence of classifiers is observed to be related with the animacy of the noun. That is, classifiers are more freely omitted when the noun in the NQP is human. Hence, we propose the definiteness and animacy of the noun as two major factors that decide whether an NQ pre- or post-construction is used and whether an NQP with or without a classifier is used in the translation of English NQPs into Korean.
명사의 수나 양을 나타내는 수량사를 표현하는 방식과 어순은 언어에 따라 다르다. 영어에서는 수사가 명사에 선행하는 어순인 <수사/명사>유형과 <수사/분류사/of/명사>유형 등 두 ...
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