Onomatopoeia: A relevance-based eye-tracking study of digital manga
This study is concerned with the reception of onomatopoeia in the English translation of digital manga. In manga, onomatopoeia is often presented as part of the aesthetics, being both verbal (meaning) and non-verbal (showing) simultaneously. Drawing on the relevance-theoretic notion of a showing-say...
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| Published in: | Journal of pragmatics 2021-12, Vol.186, p.60-72 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | This study is concerned with the reception of onomatopoeia in the English translation of digital manga. In manga, onomatopoeia is often presented as part of the aesthetics, being both verbal (meaning) and non-verbal (showing) simultaneously. Drawing on the relevance-theoretic notion of a showing-saying continuum (Sperber and Wilson 1995), this study aims to identify factors that affect reading behaviour including the translation strategies and the degree of the showing/meaning ness. We conducted an eye-tracking study to gain empirically supported insight into readers’ interaction with onomatopoeia in manga. Findings of this study show that full-textual substitution, which is the hybrid of showing-meaning, attracts most interest and is the area that receives most attention when compared with annotation or the Japanese original. This in turn indicates that the degree of showing-ness of onomatopoeia influences the way readers interact with onomatopoeia in manga. The conclusion is that separating the showing and meaning elements of onomatopoeia in manga could result in a loss of engagement potential with readers, and full-textual substitution would be the recommended translation strategy for the best level of attention.
•Full-Textual Substitution attracts readers' attention more than other translation strategies.•Separating the showing and saying elements could result in a loss of engagement potential.•Full-Textual Substitution is the recommended translation strategy for the best attention level.•The degree of showing-ness influences the way readers interact with onomatopoeia in manga.•Eye-tracking and Relevance theory foster a theoretically-grounded, evidence-based approach. |
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| ISSN: | 0378-2166 1879-1387 |