번역 브리프 프롬프트를 활용한 전래동화 AI 번역 가능성 탐구: 잔인성 처리 양상 비교를 중심으로 = Exploring the Potential of AI Folktale Translation Through Translation-Brief Prompting: A Comparative Analysis of How Cruelty Is Processed

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines whether AI can replicate human translators' audience-sensitive approaches when translating Korean folktales containing violent content. Folktales traditionally featured brutal imagery, such as bodily mutilation, familial murder, that metaphorically represented life challenges. During Japan's colonial occupation of Korea (1910s-1920s), evolving childhood concepts repositioned these tales as children's literature. Western fairy tales like Cinderella underwent sanitization in Korean translation, and Korean folktales experienced parallel transformations prioritizing moral instruction for young readers.
Given AI's growing presence in translation markets, this research analyzes AI-generated translations of three Korean folktales originally containing expressive brutality to find out the possibility of replicating such a human translator's intervention. Using age-specific prompts designed for children (approximately age seven) and adults (over twenty), the study examines: (1) how AI represents or suppresses brutal content across age groups, and (2) what advantages AI offers human translators and what limitations require human intervention. Prompts incorporated translator persona, translation purpose, and target readership, requesting contextual explanations before translation.
Findings reveal child-oriented translations predominantly eliminated or generalized violence through euphemism and metaphor, while adult versions favored literal translation or amplification intensifying source brutality. Age-targeting influenced translational addition strategies, showing strategic parallels but functional divergence. Though AI occasionally compromised coherence through excessive suppression, these results underscore the significance of prompt design in translating Korean folktales and sensitive narrative elements that requires sophisticated modifications, and suggest that AI, when intergrated into human-AI collaboration, may contribute to broadening the global reach of Korean folktales.