VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES. NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG APPLICATION OF J. HOUSE‟S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE NOVEL „DUMB LUCK‟ BY VU TRONG PHUNG (Áp dụng mô hình đánh giá chất lượng bản dịch của J. House vào việc đánh giá bản dịch tiếng Anh của tiểu thuyết “Số Đỏ” của Vũ Trọng Phụng) M.
MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201. Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi, 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi Nhung, hereby declare that the work in this thesis is the result of my own research. It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary actions could be taken and penalties could be imposed in accordance with university policies and rules. Hanoi, April 2019 Nguyễn Thị Nhung i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.
Le Hung Tien, who inspired me to conduct this research and spent his time giving me invaluable suggestions, corrections and improvement, without which I would have been, no doubt, unable to finish the thesis. I also send my gratitude to my family, who have always been supporting me during the completion of this study. I also give sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues for their great support and encouragement. Without the help of those people, this study has not been completed.
ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT The study aims at evaluating the Vietnamese English translation of the book „Dumb Luck” by Zinoman and Cam (2002) using House‘s (2015) model of translation quality assessment. The study is designed to seek answers whether the translation meets the standard of quality according to House‘s (2015) model and to draw some implications from the translation. In the study, basic concepts of translation theory in general and literary translation in particular were revealed. House‘s (2015) model was introduced and applied to analyze and compare Vietnamese source text and its English target text to assessing the quality of the translation.
Finally, conclusions on findings with some limitations as well as recommendations for further research were proposed. Keywords: translation, quality assessment, translation model, literary translation iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABBREVIATIONS SL Source Language TL Target Language TT Target Translation TE Translation Equivelance ST Source Translation TQA Translation Quality Assessment iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .v LIST OF FIGURES. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale for the study. Purposes and significances of the study. Method of study. Organization of the thesis .2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Translation Quality Assessment. Previous studies applying House‘s models on translation quality assessment .15 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .21 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Source text analysis. Statement of functions .37 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Comparison of target text and source text. Covertly erroneous errors. Overtly erroneous errors. Statement of quality.
Limitations and recommendations for further research. I vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF TABLES Table 1: Table of reduplicative words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck (See more in Appendix 2).25 Table 2: Figures of speech in ‗Số Đỏ‘ and Dumb Luck .26 Table 3: A world of characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .27 Table 4: Upper-class characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .28 Table 5: Lexical cohesion in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .30 Table 6: Language of homeless people in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .32 Table 7: Language of the impudentness in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .32 Table 8: Fashionable language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .33 Table 9: Administrative language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .33 Table 10: Miscellaneous words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .34 Table 11: Borrowing miscellaneous words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .34 Table 12: Informal style in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .35 Table 13: Spoken language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .36 Table 14: Syntactic means in Số Đỏ .36 Table 15: Descriptive adjectives translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .38 Table 16: Reduplicatives translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .38 Table 17: Figures of speech translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck .38 Table 18: Lexical mismatch .39 Table 19: Not-translated reduplicative words .40 Table 20: Syntactic mismatch .40 Table 21: Textual mismatch .41 Table 22: Translation of proper names .42 Table 23: Parody changing.43 Table 24: Colloquial words .44 Table 25: Sharp words .44 Table 26: Slight change in meaning .45 Table 27: Summary of ST and TT comparison .49 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: V-diagram of Translation method (Newmark, 1988, p.22 TABLE OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Comparison in ‗Số Đỏ‘ and Dumb luck. I Appendix 2: Reduplicative words in Dumb Luck. IV viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale for the study There are various literary works which have been translated from English to Vietnamese and vice versa. However, the quality of these translations seems not to get much attention from linguistics and readers. In order to create a good literary translation, the translator has to deal with many challenges such as finding equivalences not just for lexis, syntax, or concepts, but also for features like style, genre, figurative language, historical stylistic dimensions, polyvalence, connotations as well as denotations, cultural items and culture-specific concepts and values. Translation theorists developed their own models of translation quality assessment.
However, House‘s model is widely used for its applicability. This paper is conducted based on her model to assess the English translation of the novel “Số Đỏ” written by Phụng (1938). The English translation by Peter Zinoman and Nguyễn Nguyệt Cầm was published in 2002 in the USA. Purposes and significances of the study The study aims at investigating the translation quality of the novel ―Dumb luck‖ (Zinoman & Cầm, 2002) in full comparison with the source text, based on House‘s (2015) model.
The study is designed to seek answers for the following research questions: 1. To what extend does the English version of the novel “Số Đỏ” meet the standard of quality according to House‟s (2015) model? 2. What might be some implications from the translation to literary translation in general? 1. Method of study The method employed in the study is case study method, using the source language (The Novel – ‗Số Đỏ‘) to support the whole procedure of translation quality assessment.
The researcher also combines both qualitative and descriptive contrastive approaches, which is the key to analyze data and provide the readers 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com with deeper insights into the distinctions and value in the source translation (ST) and target translation (TT). Some important conclusions can be drawn from these analyses. Qualitative method: This research is a qualitative evaluation; hence, the source of data is documentary, and information is gathered by an analysis of documents and materials. Data are categorized into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results.
Qualitative method allows the researcher to study individual text closely. It also enables multiple analytic strategies (Creswell, 2013). Descriptive and contrastive methods: In order to provide in-depth and detailed descriptions of translation and evaluation, the study is descriptive and contrastive in nature. Organization of the thesis The first chapter of the study will be Introduction with the research questions, study methods as well as organization of the thesis.
The second chapter is Literature review in which some related concepts of translation theory and typical models of translation quality assessment are discussed. Also, in this chapter, characteristics and challenges of literary translation will be mentioned. Besides, previous studies related to this research problem are also reviewed in order to formulate the gaps and the research questions. The third chapter is Research Methodolody.
In this chapter, the data collection procedure was discussed along side with the method employed in the study. The research design and the analytical framework are presented in the two last subsections of this chapter. In the fourth chapter, the researcher applies House‘s (2015) model to analyze and compare Vietnamese ST and its English TT to evaluate the quality of the translation. The last chapter is Conclusion.
The researcher summarizes the findings of the study; hence provide implications, some limitations as well as recommendations for further research 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, section 1 presents the translation theory including definition, procedures, method of translation and translation equivalence. Section 2 mentions translation quality assessment. Section 3 describes the previous study applying House‘s model on translation quality assessment. Section 4 discusses about literary translation.
Definitions of translation There have been many definitions of translation so far. One of the first definitions of translation is presented in the book ―A Linguistic Theory of Translation‖ by Catford (2005). He defines translation as ―the replacement of textual material (SL) in one language by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)‘ (Catford, 2005, p. 20) In another work, Nida and Taber (1982) shares the view that translation is to produce in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence to the message of the source language, first in meaning and second in style.
Newmark (1988) defines translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language. According to Hatim and Mason (1990), translation deals with the signs and attempts to preserve semiotic, as well other pragmatic and communicative, properties which signs display. 29) defines translation specifically the written translation is the ―replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language‖. Those definitions above though differ from their expressions.
They all share the same essence of translation which lies in the preservation of semantic, pragmatic, and textual aspects of meaning across two different languages. As Vân 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com (2005) concludes in his book about the nature of translation, ―Translation is both an art and a science. It is an art in the sense that it is performed by human beings and human beings are creative. It is a science in the sense that it is a process going through different stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring…‖ b.
Translation procedures Translation is the field of various procedures. In addition to word-for-word and sense-for-sense procedures, the translator may use a variety of procedures that differ in importance according to the contextual factors of both the ST and the TT. According to Newmark (1988), there are fifteen translation procedures as follows: Transference Componential analysis Recognized translation Naturalization Synonymy Compensation Cultural equivalent Through-translation Paraphrase Functional equivalent Shifts or transpositions Couplets Descriptive equivalent Modulation Notes - Transference: it is the procedure of deciding use an SL word in his TL text because there is no appropriate term. This procedure is used in certain situations such as names of all living and dead people, geographical and graphical names, names of periodicals and newspapers, titles of literary works, plays, and films, names of companies and institutions, street names, and addresses, etc.
- Naturalization: It adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL. - Cultural equivalent: It is called an approximate translation where an SL cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word. This procedure is used when a brief explanation to readers who are ignorant of the relevant SL culture is needed. - Functional equivalent: It is applied to culture words and requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimes with a new specific term.
It, therefore, neutralizes or generalizes the SL word. This procedure, which is a cultural componential analysis, is the most accurate way of translating.