Lee Joo-Young, Tochihara Yutaka, Wakabayashi Hitoshi, Stone Eric A
Department of Ergonomics, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Minami-ku, Fukuoka 815-8540, Japan.
J Physiol Anthropol. 2009 Jan;28(1):37-41. doi: 10.2114/jpa2.28.37.
This communication discussed the linguistic usages of terms expressing perceived thermal sensation in English, Japanese, and Korean. In particular, ttatthada (warm) in Korean and atatakai (warm) in Japanese represents a thermally positive feeling. For Koreans and Japanese, to explicitly express thermal sensation as warm is to implicitly connote a thermally comfortable or satisfied state. When 'comfortably warm' and 'uncomfortably warm' are translated into Korean or Japanese they sound like a redundant expression and possibly an oxymoron, respectively. Subjective thermal perception has been measured using particular languages and then translated into English for international communication. International Standards (ISO) in environmental physiology or ergonomics have played an important role in setting criteria, unifying international research, and suggesting the direction of further research. However, the differences in linguistic dimensions across cultures may cause confusion when interpreting thermal perceptions measured by different languages. It is conceivable that similar difficulties exemplified in Korean and Japanese may exist in other languages. Therefore, international standards for the measurement of subjective thermal perceptions need to take into account the variations of interpretation given to these descriptors across cultures. For international standards to be internationally valid, systematic research on linguistic differences in thermal perceptive words is required.
本文讨论了英语、日语和韩语中表达热感觉的术语的语言用法。特别是，韩语中的“ttatthada”（温暖）和日语中的“atatakai”（温暖）代表一种热的积极感觉。对于韩国人和日本人来说，明确将热感觉表达为“温暖”隐含着一种热舒适或满意的状态。当“舒适温暖”和“不舒适温暖”翻译成韩语或日语时，它们听起来分别像是冗余表达和矛盾修饰法。主观热感知是使用特定语言进行测量的，然后为了国际交流翻译成英语。环境生理学或人体工程学方面的国际标准（ISO）在设定标准、统一国际研究以及为进一步研究指明方向方面发挥了重要作用。然而，不同文化间语言维度的差异在解释用不同语言测量的热感知时可能会造成混淆。可以想象，韩语和日语中所体现的类似困难可能在其他语言中也存在。因此，主观热感知测量的国际标准需要考虑不同文化对这些描述词的解释差异。为使国际标准在国际上有效，需要对热感知词汇的语言差异进行系统研究。
