VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --- --- PHẠM THỊ HỒNG NHUNG REFERENTIAL EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE VERSIONS OF "LOLITA" (ĐÁNH GIÁ MỨC ĐỘ THAM CHIẾU CỦA HAI BẢN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT CỦA TÁC PHẨM “LOLITA”) M. MINOR PROGRAMME 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 --- --- PHẠM THỊ HỒNG NHUNG REFERENTIAL EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE VERSIONS OF "LOLITA" (ĐÁNH GIÁ MỨC ĐỘ THAM CHIẾU CỦA HAI BẢN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT CỦA TÁC PHẨM “LOLITA”) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Asoc. Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: PHẠM THỊ HỒNG NHUNG, K20C, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts accept the requirements of the college relating to the retention and use of master‘s graduation paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Hanoi, February 10th, 2014 Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to many people who have assisted me in the completion of my research. First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Assoc. Le Hung Tien for his patient guidance, critical feedback, encouragement, and constructive supervision throughout my research.
I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to all of my friends who have always encouraged and given me valuable advice in the process of doing this research. The support extended to me by members of my family has been immeasurable. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my father, my mother, and my brother for their support and encouragement throughout my study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In today‘s world where no nation can ignore the globalization trend, the demand for easy access to the body of literary works of a country is greater than ever before.
More and more literary works are being translated from English, the international language of communication into Vietnamese, for various purposes. This calls for academic studies into the field of literary translation. It is extremely necessary to evaluate the quality of the translation text with a view to improving translation in general and Literary Translation in particular. This study aims at revealing the most basic features of English literary text and basic concepts of translation theory in general, literary translation in particular.
Then it will test the appropriateness of House‘s model for translation quality assessment in assessing Vietnamese version of English novel ―Lolita‖ regarding referential equivalence. Finally, suggestions for further studies in translating English literary texts into Vietnamese will be proposed. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Acceptance page i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1 2.
Aims and objectives of the study 2 3. Significance of the study 2 4. Scope of the study 2 5. Organisation 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.
Definition of translation 4 1. The nature of translation equivalence 5 1. Translation equivalence types 6 1. Discourse analysis in translation 7 1.
Basic features of literary text 10 1. Problems of literary translation 11 1. Covert and Overt Translation 12 1. Julianne House‘s translation quality assessment model 14 CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH VERSION OF ―LOLITA‖ 17 2.
Brief introduction 17 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Analysis of the original text based on J. Statement of function 24 2. Summary 25 CHAPTER 3: TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF VIETNAMESE VERSION OF ―LOLITA‖ 26 3.
Comparison in referential level of equivalence between the 26 source text and the target text based on J. House‘s model through lexical means 3. Statement of quality 41 PART C: CONCLUSION 42 1. Suggestions for further research 43 5.
Contribution of the research 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX: SUGGESTEST TRANSLATIONS I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source Language TL: Target Language ST: Source Text TT: Translation Text vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study The profound importance of translation cannot be denied all over the world through the ages. The massive expansion of translation of a wide diversity of fields such as economics or literature has increased a mutual exchange of knowledge and culture. In particular, not only do nations depend on it to bridge what would otherwise an impossible communication gap, but it also accommodate human access to the wealth of global scientific and technology information, as well as to the ideas that shape our society.
However, translation has never been an easy task, but truly an art which requires great efforts and proficiency of translators. Not surprisingly, the translator's role is, however, by no means a passive and mechanical one, and has also been compared to that of an artist. A translator must well-understand both languages, as well as the culture that he is to translate. When the researcher set out to investigate what had been written on the topic of translation assessment the researcher could notice that much had been written about translation theory and practice, but very little had been written on translation assessment.
Owing to the Vietnamese readers‘ increasing demand for English works of literature, there is a growing tendency for literary translation without being assessed and edited carefully. This has led to a hot issue ―translation disaster‖ arising among translators. The translator, Tran Dinh Hien stated that the essence of the translation is the cultural exchange between two countries. As a result, in order to be a good translator, apart from the exceptional ability to use languages, he also needs relevant experience and deep understanding of two cultures.
How one piece of literary work is translated has an enormous influence on the readers‘ interpretation and understanding of the country. Therefore, comprehensive assessment of literary 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com work is badly needed. However, there has been, so far, no appropriate official study on evaluating English-Vietnamese translation in the field of literature. ‗Lolita‘ by Nabakov is one of the most notable literary works that has excited long-standing controversy over the morality among translators.
Additionally, this piece of work is also reputable for Nabakov‘s writing style. The Vietnamese version of ―Lolita‖ was translated by an experienced translator, Duong Tuong; however, not only experts in translation quality assessment but also Vietnamese readers are doubtful about the quality of this version. All the things concerned above have offered the researcher an opportunity to conduct a study on ‗Referential equivalence between the English and Vietnamese versions of "Lolita". Aims and objectives of the study Regarding the aforementioned research gaps, the present study is undertaken as an attempt to evaluate the quality of translation text compared to the original one ―Lolita‖ in terms of referential equivalence.
In short, the principal aims of the study could be summarized into the research question as follows: How is the translation quality of Vietnamese version “Lolita” regarding referential equivalence? 3. Significance of the study Once having been completed, the study would serve as one official academic study on translation evaluation of Vietnamese version ―Lolita‖ that is eagerly awaited for so long among Vietnamese readers. In addition to academic significance, the findings from the research would probably contribute to the process of editing this version later. Scope of the study As a matter of fact, there has been different views and models on translation quality assessment.
Due to time constraint, resources, the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com researcher‘s knowledge and experience, the primary focus will inevitably be on evaluate the referential equivalence between two versions. Organisation The rest of the paper is organized as follows: PART B: DEVELOPMENT includes the 3 following chapters: CHAPTER 1 (LITERATURE REVIEW) provides the readers with theoretical background related to translation and translation equivalence in general, with a view to understanding the present research. It also highlights the main issues and controversies around the problem. CHAPTER 2 (ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH VERSION OF “LOLITA”) gives the readers the fundamental information about this novel.
In this novel, House‘s model for translation quality assessment will first be presented and then applied in analyzing the English version of Lolita. CHAPTER 3 (TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF VIETNAMESE VERSION OF “LOLITA”) provides the readers with thorough analysis of translation evaluation of Vietnamese version of ―Lolita‖ in terms of referential equivalence. PART C: CONCLUSION contains the summary of the main findings of the study, the brief limitations of the research and some suggestions for further studies. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Definition of translation Translation is usually defined as a process of substituting a source language text by a target language text, where the aim is to preserve the meaning and content of the original text as accurately as possible. This is obviously an immensely simplified definition of a process which might seem relatively simple; however, it is actually a much more complicated process in reality than expected. Some translation theorists have introduced their definitions of translation and characterized the nature and aims of translation. He describes translation as a unidirectional process, which is always performed from a given source language to a given target language.
In Catford‘s (ibid.: 21) view, the aim of translation is to find the target language equivalents. According to Bell (1991), the goal of translation is "the transformation of a text originally in one language into an equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the message and the formal features and functional roles of the original text." In contrast to Catford, Bell (ibid.: 6) argues that a total equivalence between a source language text and its translation is something that can never be fully achieved. Newmark (1981: 7) defines translation as "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 Bassnett- McGuire (1980: 2), the aim of translation is that the meaning of the target 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com language text is similar to that of the source language text, and that "the structures of the SL will be preserved as closely as possible, but not so closely that the TL structures will be seriously distorted".
In other words, the source language structure must not be imitated to such an extent that the target language text becomes ungrammatical or sounds otherwise unnatural or clumsy. These definitions of translation are fairly congruent with each other, and various theorists define translation in relatively similar terms. Although a diversity of perspectives has been articulated within the field of translation theory, there are some views that translation theorists generally agree on. Specifically, 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.
The nature of translation equivalence One of the most central concepts in translation theory is the concept of equivalence.