Strategies Used for Borrowing Neologisms from Harry Potter Movies to Chinese

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.13.1.91-106

Keywords:

loanwords, borrowings, Chinese, Harry Potter, lexicology, translation

Abstract

The story of a young student of wizardry Harry Potter is still famous all over the world even though the first book was published more than 20 years ago. The author of this heptalogy J. K. Rowling made up a whole new world full of spells, potions and magical creatures. When creating new words, she proved her talent for creating various puns. These expressions became a major challenge for translators of various languages, including Chinese. This study presents the results of a lexicological analysis of the neologisms that occurred in Harry Potter films. The main aim of the analysis was to determine which loanword categories were used for borrowing every single neologism from English to Chinese and which category was the most productive one within various groups of neologisms and within the whole corpus.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Čačija, R., & Marković, M. (2018). Translating Neologisms and Proper Nouns in Fantasy Fiction for Young Adults. Strani jezici, 47.

Harry Potter Wiki (n.d.). Retrieved 30 October 2022 from https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

Haspelmath, M. (2009). Lexical Borrowing: Concepts and Issues. In Haspelmath, M. & Tadmor, U., Loanwords in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook (pp. 35-54). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110218442.35

Heřmanová-Novotná, Z. (1975). Morphemic Reproductions of Foreign Lexical Models in Modern Chinese. Archiv oriantální, 43.

Karlík, P., Nekula, M., & Pleskalová, J. (Eds.). (2002). Encyklopedický slovník češtiny (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Czech). Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny.

Kim, T. (2019). Mandarin Loanwords. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351253406

Kolev, M. (2017). Strategy and Procedures for Translating Proper Nouns and Neologisms in Terry Pratchett’s Fantasy Novel Small Gods into Afrikaans (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Pretoria, Pretoria.

Lotko, E. (2003). Slovník lingvistických termínů pro filology (Dictionary of Linguistic Terms for Philologists). Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého.

Miao, R. (2005). Loanword Adaptation in Mandarin Chinese: Perceptual, Phonological and Sociolinguist Factors (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Stony Brook University, New York.

Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. Hoboken: Prentice Hall.

Novotná, Z. (1967). Contribution to the Study of Loan-words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese. Archiv orientální, 35.

Novotná, Z. (1968). Contribution to the Study of Loan-words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese. Archiv orientální, 36.

Novotná, Z. (1969). Contribution to the Study of Loan-words and Hybrid Words in Modern Chinese. Archiv orientální, 37.

Shi, Y. (2021). Loanwords in the Chinese Language. New York: Routledge.

Slaměníková, T., & Uher, D. (2021). Conversion Methods for Star Wars Animal Names into Chinese. Studia Orientalia Slovaca, 20.

Yip, P. (2000). The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey. New York: Routledge.

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

30.01.2023

How to Cite

Frydrychová, M. (2023). Strategies Used for Borrowing Neologisms from Harry Potter Movies to Chinese. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 13(1), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.13.1.91-106

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2023)

Section

Research articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Michaela Frydrychová

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors are confirming that they are the authors of the submitting article, which will be published online in journal Acta Linguistica Asiatica by Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia). Author’s name will be evident in the article in journal. All decisions regarding layout and distribution of the work are in hands of the publisher.
  2. Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
  3. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  4. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.