Let the Verb Tell the Story: Translation of Japanese Verbs Revisited

Two and a half years have passed since I attended a JATPHARMA event held here in Osaka and talked about the ways to translate Japanese adaptive, all-round verbs, such as 検討する, 認める, and 対応する, into English. The gist of my talk was that word-for-word translation rarely works when it comes to translation of Japanese verbs, and that a Japanese verb should always be translated in reference to the underlying context. My subsequent experience recast my conviction: skills to find the right English verbs solve major problems endemic in Japanese-to-English translation. This presentation aims to discuss clues to find an English verb that best describes the action of a Japanese sentence, something like "justify" for 妥当性について説明する.