A Proposal of Machine Translation from Japanese to Chinese Onomatopoeias

Abstract

We can see many onomatopoeias in Japanese comics. Besides that, new onomatopoeic words are created and appear in the comics day by day. The new onomatopoeias aren’t found on Japanese dictionaries. Hence it is difficult for Chinese people to understand the onomatopoeias’ meaning or impression. This paper proposed machine translation from Japanese to Chinese onomatopoeias. The proposal is based on sound symbolism hypothesis. We are currently constructing the translation system. The paper reported components of the system and discussed the feasibility of the system.