「英文和訳におけるカタカナ表記の研究」
The Study of Katakana Notation in English-Japanese Translation
Graduate School of Social System Studies: Language and Cultures
Student ID #2009M41001
Yuko Ishikawa
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the Katakana notation in English-Japanesetranslation by high school students. As National Institute for Japanese Language andLinguistics (NINJAL) pointed out that a lot of unfamiliar Katakana-go, foreign words
without Japanese translation, were used in public. And this tendency seems to be thesame in English- Japanese translation in English textbooks. Additionally, it is likelythat the trend would affect students when they translate English into Japanese.
In order to examine the Katakana notation in English textbooks, this paper did asurvey on five of them. In the research, this paper revealed that there were two types ofKatakana-go. One was “Standard Katakana-go”, words adopted from foreign languages
and the other is “Non-Standard Katakana-go”, originally Japanese words written not in
Chinese character or in Hiragana but in Katakana.
Referring to “Standard Katakana-go”, 606 words appeared in the textbooks. In order toresearch the tendency of English Japanese translation by high school students, thispaper randomly picked up Katakana-go with Japanese translation , such as “musician”「 ミ ュ ー ジ シ ャ ン （ 音 楽 家 ）」 . Like this case, students showed tendency to use
Katakana-go instead of proper Japanese translation.
However, Japanese English teachers seemed to disapprove of students using
Katakana-go. Although, more than 20% of students translated “chicken”, “beef” “goodnews “ and “roses” into Katakana-go, teachers did not give them full marks.
According to the orthographic rule of Katakana, we are expected to write animals’ andplants’ names in Katakana even they are Japanese. Two of the textbooks adopted thisrule and the other did not. To see the students’ inclination, this paper also picked up
English animals’ and plants’ names at random and asked students to translate theminto Japanese. In the result, more than 70% of students translated “cats”, “dogs”,“rabbits”, “a street dog”, “elephants”, “chickens” and “cherry trees” into Japanese using
either Chinese characters or Hiragana. From this point, it can be said that a lot ofstudents have a tendency to use Chinese characters or Hiragana with Japanese words.

The same tendency appeared in the translation of “Non-Standard Katakana-go”.
Tallied the number of “Non-Standard Katakana-go” in the five textbooks, 62 words
appeared with this style. Only to focus on translation parts, 47 words met definition of“Non-Standard Katakana-go”. Further out, 38 words were all Japanese names and 9words were translated into Japanese but written in Katakana. As to Japanese names,
more than 50 % of students used Katakana yet this tendency reversed when translating
Japanese family names.
Making relation to the rest of 9 words, Katakana was well used in “manga” and “bags”.
In Japanese schools, no matter what subjects students are studying, teachers coachthem to use “Proper Japanese”. It means students are expected to use Chinesecharacters when necessary. So when students make errors with the Chinese charactersthey use in English Japanese translation, teachers tend to deduct points on their test
This paper only focused on the Katakana notation in English Japanese translation.
Henceforth, this study is expected to expand to research the errors with Chinesecharacters in English Japanese translation and see how Japanese English teachers dealwith those.