MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THU HIEN THE QUALITY OF GOOGLE TRANSLATE'S VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONS OF THE ENGLISH METAPHORS IN "THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO" BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 SUPERVISOR: LE NHAN THANH, PhD. e BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ THU HIỀN CHẤT LƯỢNG DỊCH CỦA GOOGLE TRANSLATE KHI DỊCH CÁC ẨN DỤ TRONG “THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” CỦA ALEXANDRE DUMAS SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Người hướng dẫn: TS. LÊ NHÂN THÀNH e i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I confirm that the thesis entitled "The quality of Google Translate's Vietnamese translations of the English metaphors in 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas" is my work's result except for the reference mentioned in the thesis. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any degree or other institution.
Quy Nhon, August 2021 Nguyen Thi Thu Hien e ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It can be said that I can't complete this thesis without help from many supporters. First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Nhan Thanh, for his patient and continued guidance during the research. He is always willing to spend his precious time guiding me to finish the thesis. Secondly, I would like to send many thanks to all the lecturers of the Foreign Languages Department at Quy Nhon University.
They helped me to be more confident in the process of researching due to their lectures. Last but not least, I extend my thanks and gratitude to my family and my colleagues who keep me positive and strong enough to pass my two years of studying and researching. e iii ABSTRACT While many people use Google Translate (GT) to support their translation task, GT has not met their expectations because of its quality, especially the translation of literary rhetoric. This study aims to investigate the quality of Google Translate's Vietnamese translations of the English metaphors in the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Duma.
This study investigated GT's Vietnamese translations of 120 metaphorical expressions in the book The Count of Monte Cristo. GT's Vietnamese translations of English metaphorical expressions from the novel were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative content analysis to identify translation errors. The study used the framework of Johnson (2019) to categorize types of metaphors and ATA's Framework for Standardized Error Making to classify translation errors. The study's key findings were that (1) In terms of metaphor types, GT had trouble translating metaphorical expressions.
(2) In terms of translation errors, GT committed 9 out of 22 types of errors suggested in ATA's framework, consisting of Word-for-word, Mistranslation into Target Language, Usage, Style, Ambiguity, Grammar, Syntax, Punctuation, and Case errors. This study suggests that GT could be beneficial for the pre-translating process to get perfect translations. Still, it has not yet been a trustworthy translation machine for translating English metaphors into Vietnamese. e v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
viiii LIST OF TABLES. ix LIST OF FIGURES. Aim and Objectives of the Study. Scope of the Study.
Significance of the Study. Organization of the Thesis. Definition of metaphors. Classification of metaphors.
Metaphor identification features. Definition of translation. Definition of translation theory. Equivalence in translation.
Translation quality assessment (TQA). Definition of Machine Translation. "The Count of Monte Cristo" Novel. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Types of metaphors. Translation error types in GT's Vietnamese translations. Quality of Google Translate in translating metaphors. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
Summary of the main findings. 71 e viii ABBREVIATIONS ATA: American Translators Association GT: Google Translate MT: Machine Translation QCA: Qualitative Content Analysis SL: Source Language ST: Source Text TL: Target Language TQA: Translation Quality Assessment TT: Target Text e ix LIST OF TABLES Table 2. Flanagan's Error Categories (Flanagan 1994, p. ATA's Framework for Standardized Error Making (Doyle 2003, pp.
Quantitative versus Qualitative Research (VanderStoep & Johnston 2009, p. English metaphors and Mai The Sang's translations. Google Translate's translation errors. The number and percentage of translation errors made by GT.
The number and frequency of metaphors. Frequencies of translation errors and no errors in GT’s Vietnamese translations. Frequencies of no errors in each type of metaphor in GT's Vietnamese translations. Frequencies of translation errors in GT’s Vietnamese translations.
Frequencies of Word-for-word errors in each type of metaphors. Frequencies of Mistranslation into Target Language errors in each type of metaphors. Frequencies of Usage errors in each type of metaphors. Frequencies of Style errors in each type of metaphors.
Frequencies of Ambiguity errors in each type of metaphors. Frequencies of Grammar errors in each type of e x metaphors. Frequencies of Syntax errors in each type of metaphors. Frequencies of Punctuation errors in each type of metaphors.
Frequencies of Case errors in each type of metaphors. The number and frequency of translation errors made by Google Translate. 64 e xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Eight translation methods (Newmark 1998, pp.
Rationale In the context of today's globalized world, it is undoubtedly that proficiency in a language other than the native one brings a lot of extreme benefits. Specifically, the ability to communicate in a foreign language contributes to creating a genuine connection among people and the opportunity to engage with this world. Charlemagne once said that to have another language is to possess a second soul. In approaching a new language, translation is not only essential but also crucial.
With the aid of valuable tools like dictionaries or machine translation, translating tasks nowadays are easier for everyone. In the current era of technology, even though translating is a time- consuming and complicated task, this task is easier for us to support a machine translation, which helps us quickly access the information in another language. Despite its convenience, MT sometimes gives an output that has some or many errors. Consequently, the quality of the product affects text cohesion as well as the reader's comprehension.
MT's quality is always of great concern. For most, the successful implementation of MT is a great leap and a long-term investment to meet human requirements. The language in literature is often more complex and elaborate than that in everyday language. The use of rhetoric is indispensable to make poems and novels more vivid and more attractive to readers.
Metaphor is one of the rhetorical devices frequently used by poets and writers in their works. Metaphor is human emotion expressed through human language. The standard translation is not easy, and the translation of rhetoric is many times more complicated. Metaphors make our lives more colourful; however, translating metaphors is more challenging than other language types due to the great importance of the e 2 meaning, form, content, and culture.
The quality of a text or a metaphor translated into another language depends on many factors. In the report of Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee (1966, p. 3), many experts in translation seem to agree that three critical factors that influence translating are (1) good knowledge of the target language, (2) comprehension of the subject matter, and (3) adequate knowledge of the source language. Medvedev (2016), Longears (2015), Giau (2019), Thu (2020), and My (2020) are the researchers who researched GT’s quality.
GT showed a lot of advantages such as its speed, its update in translating diverse types of languages, and its free usage; however, it did not always provide precise translations and committed many word-for-word errors. They did not mention the quality of GT in translating detailed types of metaphors. To investigate the quality of Google Translate (GT) in converting metaphors, I decided to study the theme "The quality of Google Translate's Vietnamese translations of the English metaphors in 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas. Aim and Objectives of the Study 1.
This study aims to evaluate the quality of GT's Vietnamese translations of the English metaphors in the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas. In order to achieve the above aim, the researcher will try - to identify and classify the metaphors in the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, - to identify and classify the errors in GT's Vietnamese translations of the e 3 English metaphors, and - to evaluate the quality of GT's Vietnamese translations of the English metaphors in terms of translation errors. Research Questions In order to achieve the above aim and objectives, the researcher collected data and analyzed them to answer the following questions: 1. What metaphors are there in the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas? 2.
What types of errors does GT make in translating these English metaphors into Vietnamese? 3. How well does GT translate these English metaphors into Vietnamese in terms of translation errors? 1. Scope of the Study Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) has many historical works of high adventure translated into many languages, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After etc. The researcher chose The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas, 1844) to take out the needed database due to its adventurous content and humanitarian.
This study analyzed GT's Vietnamese translations of 120 metaphors translated by Mai The Sang to have a reliable basis for comparing GT's translations and Mai The Sang's in the process of identifying GT's errors. The researcher randomly selected those 120 metaphors to make the data analysis more objective. Significance of the Study This study is expected to contribute to the quality assessment of GT. Its findings may have precious value to other researchers and translators who want to focus on metaphor translation with the aid of GT.
Another unique point of e 4 the study is to help specialized English students and English teachers in pre- translating by exploiting the GT tool in learning and teaching English. Furthermore, the study is supposed to contribute to Internet users interested in better understanding the metaphors and the translation. These people can rely on the research findings to save time editing translations to meet their needs. In terms of knowledge, this study serves as a reference for researchers who want to make further studies about metaphors and MT, especially GT.
Moreover, translators, English teachers, and Vietnamese learners of English are provided with a general knowledge of metaphor, translation, and translation errors to use GT as effectively as possible. In terms of practice, it is easier for English teachers to create efficient and effective techniques in teaching vocabulary related to both metaphors and other subjects with the aids of GT in general and translation in particular. GT has sufficient supply to provide the users with the comprehension of the meanings of the words, the way to pronounce them, and examples of how to use them. Internet users who have an interest in updating knowledge in literature can access this research.
Organization of the Thesis This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter 1 (Introduction) presents the rationale, the aim and objectives, the research questions, the scope, and the significance of the study. Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides the background of metaphor, translation theory, Google Translate, and the overview of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo." Chapter 3 (Methods) discusses the methods and procedures for data collection and data analysis. Chapter 4 (Findings and Discussion) reports the findings from data e 5 analysis. Chapter 5 (Conclusions and Implications) gives conclusions withdrawn from the results of the study.
The researcher will also show some implications for relevant beneficiaries. LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the researcher presents the study's theoretical background, including an overview of metaphor that concerns its definition, classifications, and identification features. Besides, the researcher also provides background knowledge about translation consisting of its description, methods, equivalence, and translation quality assessment. In this part, the researcher introduces the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.