South Korean Newspaper Headlines Title Performance And Translation Strategies

In order to attract the attentions of readers, concise and implicative expressions are often used in the titles of newspaper headlines. This has led to the creation of unique expressions which are accepted and applied in the titles of newspaper headlines. Translating such titles is a challenging work to professional translators.Utilizing a functionalist approach, this study examined differences in the titles of Korean newspapers headlines which had been translated into Chinese. Based on the assumption that titles of headlines are a type of text in and of themselves and are intended to achieve their own text functions, the study analyzed titles of headlines in two different sub-genres:informative and phatic type. By analyzing different types of title-shifts in different types of headlines, the paper tried to show translation strategy selected by translators in dependent on the intended function or purpose of the text in its target environment. The results of the analysis, though limited in the scope and the amount of data, showed that the manner in which titles are translated is different depending on the intended functions of titles. This conclusion supports the functionalist view on translation. This paper compares and analyses the different characters of headline expressions of Korean and Chinese newspapers, and presents a functional translating strategy of titles of headlines from Korean to Chinese. Unlike general translation, title translation requires translators to adopt a strategy in which they detach themselves from original texts and put the focus of translation on fulfill its informative function by delivering the meaning concisely in target language reflecting the characters of expressions of Chinese title of headlines.