VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** MAI VĂN TRỌNG APPLICATION OF HOUSE’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE VIETNAM’S CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE NO. Major Program Thesis Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** MAI VĂN TRỌNG APPLICATION OF HOUSE’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE VIETNAM’S CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE NO. Major Program Thesis Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor : Assoc. LÊ HÙNG TIẾN Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify my authority of the research submitted entitled “Application of House’s model for translation quality assessment in assessing the English version of the Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code No.
19/2003/QH11” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Hanoi, 06th October, 2014 Mai Văn Trọng i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, my boundless and most sincere gratitude is due to my beloved teacher, Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến, Ph.D, Dean of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, ULIS for his insightful editorial skills and for truly guiding the track for this paper. Whenever I lost track of thought, he pumped plentiful guidance and inspiration to my mind in anticipation of my successful study.
I would like to take this once-in-life-time opportunity to thank my respectable ULIS teachers for their teaching, due assistance and kindness blessed on me during my last two-year. I cannot fully express my gratitude to my exceptional family who gave me a love of life and to my friends who offered me a life of love. None of those mentioned, or anyone else, is responsible for my errors and omissions. Limitations and mistakes are surely inevitable in my study.
Therefore, I take hold of high regards for all the recommendations and suggestions from the readers. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study aims at assessing the quality of the English translation of the Vietnamese Criminal Procedure Code. Among various approaches to, criteria and models for translation quality assessment, House’s model is selected in this study because it comprises a comprehensive set of parameters for assessing functional and pragmatic equivalence of the translation text. The analysis of and comparison between the ST and TT has yielded significant results and implications for translating legal texts.
Accordingly, the TT is a “second original” or covert one; semantic translation method and text-normative equivalence type are suggested for the translation of such type of texts. However, the accurate interpretation of the Vietnamese provisions can be achieved mainly thanks to the ultimate command of both SL and TL. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source Language TL: Target Language ST: Source Text TT: Translation Text iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The schema for analyzing and comparing original and translation texts………. 32 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. v TABLE OF CONTENTS. Rationale for the study.
Significance of the study. Scope and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Objectives of the study.
Overview of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Previous studies on legal language. Definition of translation.
Approaches to translation quality assessment. Anecdotal, biographical and neo-hermeneutic approaches to judging translation quality. Response-oriented, behavioural approaches to evaluating translations. Text and discourse-based approaches.
Linguistic features of English legal language. 18 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Other properties of law language. Linguistic features of Vietnamese legal language.
Other properties of legal language. House’s model for translation quality assessment. Operation of the model. Two Types of Translation: Overt and Covert Translation.
37 CHAPTER 3: TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF SELECTED TEXT. Analysis of Source Text. Statement of function. 55 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Comparison of Target Text and Source Text. Statement of Quality. Quality of the translation. Implications for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English.
Suggestions for further studies. 78 APPENDIX A: VIETNAMESE VERSION OF THE SELECTED TEXT. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE SELECTED TEXT. XIII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Rationale for the study Vietnam has integrated into the common trends of the world in both scope and depth. As a result, opportunities for our country to develop and promote its image in the international area are numerous, whereas enormous challenges posed to the public security forces are unable to be fought off overnight, but it is required to initiate a well- planned roadmap including the finalization of our legal system. As a matter of fact, laws constitute one of the sharp and effective instruments to prevent and combat crimes. Vietnam is a developing country which is lagged behind developed ones in terms of science, technology, and legal and administrative system perfection as well.
Cooperation among law enforcement agencies worldwide, therefore, is in urgent need to check the increasing types of crime. International extradition and legal assistance are part of a step- forward finalization of our legal system towards a cumber-free administration apparatus which is mainly inherited from selective acceptance of and reference to other legal models of developed countries. Equally important, Vietnam’s codes or laws should be analyzed and made comparison with those of other nations in the light of legal perspective. To that end, Vietnamese - English translation of such codes or laws is of paramount significance, which somehow facilitates international legal experts’ further contribution of their comments on or recommendations to our adopted laws or bills.
Furthermore, upon the settlement of criminal cases, international law enforcement officers are equipped with certain body of knowledge related to our procedures in crime investigation, trial, and execution. English is an accepted contemporary international language; consequently, an increasing number of documents in other languages are 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com being translated into English with no exception granted to the legal field. The quality of such translations has gained untold attention and put under much discussion. Translation theorists have their own initiated criteria for translation quality assessment, with Julian House, a German linguist, as an outstanding representative who worked out her model for translation quality assessment.
In the hope of effective international integration in legal field, Vietnam has ratified and amended a mixed variety of laws as an objective requirement. In parallel with such laws’ efficiency in Vietnam’s territory, better understanding should be bestowed upon foreign law enforcement offices via reliable English versions of these laws in the fight against crimes. Though these English versions do not have legal value, they do facilitate the process of understanding and observing our laws by our counterparts. A good translation of a legal document will mitigate misinterpretations and misapplications, facilitating the settlement of criminal cases with foreign- related elements.
From the practice and status quo of the crime prevention and suppression, our enacted law, the Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code no. 19/2003/QH11, is considered the most effective tool for international cooperation namely international extradition, investigation, and trail of transnational organized criminals. The Code has been translated into English by the National Assembly Office. An assessment of the English version of the Code is thus of practical requirements.
Significance of the study The study will shed light on the features of the language of both Vietnamese and English used in legal documents, thus making due 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com contribution to the acquisition of the distinctive features by students and operational services. The results of this study will help test the quality of the English translation of the Criminal Procedure Code 2003 of Vietnam under the model developed by House (1997), and suggest any timely changes should there be to limit avoidable misunderstandings by foreign law enforcement officers in interpreting the law. Besides, the study will also propose some suggestions concerning the translation of Vietnamese authoritative legal documents into English. More important, the comparison and contrast between the use of the two languages used in the two versions are likely to function as references for students and officers of the Ministry of Public Security for better translating Memoranda of Understanding or Agreements between our legal bodies and their counterparts.
Scope and objectives of the study 3. Scope of the study The Criminal Procedure Code 2003 of Vietnam is composed of 346 articles, divided into 37 chapters. A study of the entire document is therefore beyond the needed requirements of the paper. Therefore, the paper will put chapter IX only under analysis, with the title of which being “Những quy định chung về điều tra”.
There are sixteen articles in this chapter, from Article 110 to Article 125. Objectives of the study The study is aimed at: - Exploring the functional and pragmatic mismatches resulted from the translation of the Vietnamese Criminal Code into English. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Identifying the type of the English translation of the Code according the model of translation quality assessment proposed by House. - Assessing the quality of the English translation of the Code in the light of the distinctive features of legal text in the English language.
Research questions The study is aimed at finding answers to three following questions: 1. What are the functional and pragmatic mismatches between the source text and the target one? 2. Is the translation, according to House’s model, overt or covert? 3. To what extent does the English translation of the Code satisfy the requirements for translating a Vietnamese legal text into English? 4.
Research methods The paper is aimed at assessing the quality of the English translation of the Criminal Procedure Code of Vietnam. Therefore, a set of parameters for assessment is of necessity. Among the various criteria and models for translation quality assessment, House’s model is selected in this study because it is deemed to have a comprehensive set of parameters for assessing functional and pragmatic equivalence of the translation text. Furthermore, as House argues, the model can be applied with a wide range of texts.
In applying House’s model, a source text is first selected, then analyzed to draw its textual profile along the eight situational dimensions and a statement of function of the ST will be made. Similarly, a profile of the translation text will be come up with and compared with the ST’s under the same set of parameters to find out any possible mismatches before a statement of quality can be drawn about the TT. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Overview of the study The paper is composed of three chapters, excluding the Introduction and Conclusion: Chapter 1: Literature review The first part of this chapter will first introduce some studies on legal language in Vietnam.
The next two parts present some definitions of renowned scholars worldwide and discuss different approaches to translation quality assessment, respectively. Linguistic features of both Vietnamese and English are also under in- depth analysis and comparison in the last two parts. Chapter 2: Methodology In this chapter, House’s model for translation quality assessment will be introduced as the analytical framework and its operation model will also be interpreted for the follow-up application. Chapter 3: Translation quality assessment of selected text The English translation of Chapter IX of the Code will be analyzed and assessed on the basis of the aforesaid analytical framework with the same set of parameters for both ST and TT.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion Findings about the quality of the translation text based on the application of the model will be discussed and the research questions will be answered.