VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************ NGUYỄN THU HẰNG TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?” BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS h gi h t g h i “Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” A it P i h gi h h u M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ************ NGUYỄN THU HẰNG TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?” BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS h gi h t g h i “Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” A it P i h gi h h u M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến HANOI - 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Translation quality evaluation of Ankit Panda‟s article “Why did China set up an oil rig within Vietnamese waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by four various translations” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master in English Linguistics.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, February 2016 Nguyễn Thu Hằng i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course. Without their support and encouragement, it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my parents, my husband and my younger brother for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT There is a fact that in the current era of information explosion, daily contents published on the Internet have neglected strict censorship in advance in terms of quantity and quality.
It can be seen that many English - Vietnamese translations cannot ensure enough precise information or convey emotion and intentions of the author in the source language text appropriately. Even some of them have modified on purpose by adding individual opinions or comments of the translators. Therefore, it is necessary to control the quality of the translations before publication so that the readers can enjoy the best edition. This thesis is an attempt to assess the quality of four different versions of for an online English article on The Diplomat basing on the schema of Translation Quality Assessment proposed by Newmark.
By this way, the writer has found that the translations have obtained a certain success. However, it still reveals some mismatches between the source text and the target text, especially in terms of reflecting the intention of the author accurately. In addition, some other mistakes in terms of word choice and structure arrangement which may affect the conciseness of the translations are also pointed out. From the basis of the findings, some implications are made along with suggestions for further studies.
iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Design of the thesis. 8 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Translation methods & procedures. 21 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
22 CHAPTER 2: APPLICATION OF NEWMARK’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT. Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its functional aspects. Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his translation method and the translation‟s likely readership. Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with the original.
Word choice & expression. Step 4: An evaluation of the translation. An evaluation of the translation in the translator‟s terms. An evaluation of the translation in the critic‟s term.
Assess the translation as a piece of writing, independently of its original. Step 5: An assessment of the likely place of the translation in the target language culture or discipline. XVII v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ST: Source Text TT: Target Text SL: Source Language TL: Target Language V1: Version 1 (the first version) V2: Version 2 (the second version) V3: Version 3 (the third version) V4: Version 4 (the fourth version) TQA: Translation Quality Assessment P: Paragraph S: Sentence vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS Table 1 Comparing versions in terms of words and expression 28 Table 2 Comparing versions in terms of denotative meanings 29 Table 3 Comparing versions in terms of separation and combination 30 Table 4 Comparing versions in terms of word order 31 Table 5 Comparing versions in terms of complex sentences and 33 relative clauses Table 6 Comparing versions in terms of passive and active forms 38 Table 7 Mistakes in the translation in terms of grammar 44 Diagram 1 Translation methods 10 Diagram 2 A scheme for analyzing and comparing original and translation 19 texts vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale of the study In human history, cultural exchange commenced along with the emergence of culture.
Translation, a cultural phenomenon and a means of cultural exchange, has brought a community beyond its spatial and temporal dimensions as contended by Kelly (2004): “Without translation, there is no history of the world.” Without translation, our world would encompass secluded oases, which would develop separately and their own histories without contributing to the world history. In fact, translation not only brings new knowledge horizons for humanity, but translation activities can also promote exchange of civilization and culture among the people and the nations worldwide. Therefore, it can be said that since its beginning days, translation has played a very important role for years. In Vietnam, after 1945, translation industry has developed and had great contribution to economic, cultural, and social development of our country.
As a result, the demand for translation is increasingly diversified. An enormous number of books and documents need to be translated. The mass media such as radios, televisions, newspapers are also required to transfer information from foreign languages into Vietnamese to convey to the public. The contracts, project documents, data in need of translation in the administrative transactions, trade, and international cooperation also surged.
The foreign movies should have captions or subtitles in Vietnamese. In addition, training sessions of professional interpreters are also being conducted at many universities in Vietnam to train a large team of people working in the translation field. Generally, neither translation nor interpretation in our country has not become a professional job. Sharing the same point, Ms.
Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, former Deputy Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of Vietnam‟s National Assembly said in the event "International Conference on Translation and Language" (Translator Day) held on December 13, 2013, “Translation in Vietnam has not 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com really been developed into a profession with high professionalism because of the lack of formal standards; then, the discipline in this work is not high and it is difficult to distinguish the level of translation.” It is a fact that this has led to bad even serious consequences. Sadly, Vietnam has been listed one of countries with the worst quality of translated versions. Tùy Phong, the author of the article “Bao giờ mới hết những chữ vô hồn” on the vietnamnet expressed his own opinions about “translation disasters”. According to him, besides rather successfully-translated masterpieces such as “Wuthering Heights” (Đồi gió hú), “Harry Porter”, “The Centaur in the Garden” (Con nhân mã ở trong vườn), some classic works such as “Lolita” translated by Dương Tường, “The Da Vinci Code” (Mật mã Da Vinci) by Đỗ Thu Hà and some other textbooks have been called “translation disasters” with dozens of mistakes.
These works have received a lot of negative criticism and opinions from the public and on mass media. This has become great concern for critics, translators, and linguistics. However, unfortunately, until now, we have had no works specialized in theory and method of translation between English and Vietnamese in our country, but only focusing on the study of translation practice while foreign countries have many relevant works between English and other languages by such famous authors as Nida, Newmark, Campbell, Baker, Bell, Hatim and Mason. These projects have contributed greatly in the development of theory as well practice of the translation and promoted the quality of translated versions more efficiently and professionally.
Translation is indeed a challenging job. In order to produce a high-quality translation, translators are required to have both talent and flexibility in every circumstance. In addition, they also have to hone their skills regularly, their love for translation, as well as abundant knowledge of culture, society, human beings and even equivalent languages. Sometimes, because of lacking certain understanding or translators‟ carelessness, translated versions may not be concise and clear enough.
Even more seriously, they can transfer messages which writers or authors want to 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com try to convey to readers in a wrong way. Such errors will have bad effect on the public for long time, especially the information on the mass media such televisions and newspapers. Therefore, the usage of vocabulary on the mass media in general and translation in particular requires both high quality and professionalism. theses review at universities in Vietnam shows that many assessment works related to literature, and some specialized terms, including law, economy, health care, and culture have been conducted.
These are preliminary studies on applying a new theory of translation evaluation and criticism into the assessment of translated versions from English into Vietnamese with remarkable results in terms of theory and practice. However, the number of political versions is still limited, especially sensitive political issues. Since information technology developed fast, the right of free press has been promoted. Correspondents, journalists, writers have had a big playground on the Internet, especially online newspaper pages or websites.
Every day, they can easily provide the latest information for readers without considering contents or vocabularies strictly before publishing them. In addition, some bad elements also took advantage of the Internet to distort and communicate false information to the readers. This can be reflected clearly through contents in tabloid newpapers. Remarkably, so far, many stories, talks, interviews and articles have kept discussing a hot topic - oil rig HYSY-981 on the mass media, especially on some famous newspapers and magazines.
Among them, “The Diplomat”, a premier international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region is known by many scholars and readers. Since 2002, “The Diplomat” has been dedicated to quality analysis and commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world. So, news on this press is very abundant and comprehensive.