NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH NGUYEN THI HUONG GIANG ERRORS IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES Hanoi, June 2020 NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH NGUYEN THI HUONG GIANG ERRORS IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES INTO VIETNAMESE AND SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDENTS, INTAKE 58, NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Le Thuy Linh, M.A Hanoi, June 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest sincere to all those who helped me to accomplish this thesis. Iam deeply indebted to my supervisor, Ms. Le Thuy Linh, who supplied me with materials, valuable guidance and suggestions and huge encouragement. This paper could not have been completed without her continual encouragement, careful analysis and valuable comments throughout the course of writing this graduation paper.
It is my pleasure to thank to the all lecturers from Business English Department in National Economics University for providing useful knowledge which greatly supported not only for my research but also for the future working life. An honorable mention goes to all forth-year BE students who supported my thesis by giving their honest answers. Their cooperation was greatly appreciated. I would like to express my gratitude to my family and my close friends.
They always support and encourage me whenI get the difficulties throughout the time of accomplishing thesis in particular and four years of studying in National Economics University in general. Finally, I owe sincere and earnest thankfulness to all the people who supported me during the complement of my graduation thesis. ABSTRACT This thesis was conducted to investigate common errors that forth-year Business English students at National Economics University make when they translate English relative clauses into Vietnamese. Besides, some possible solutions to resolve such errors are also provided in this study.
There are three data instruments: data analysis, the questionnaire and the interview. The participants of the study were 70 forth-year Business English students at National Economics University. Firstly, an analysis on 70 translation portfolios from BE students were collected to investigate the most common mistakes in translating relative clauses from English into Vietnamese. After that, a set of eight questions was designed and successfully delivered to 70 students in Business English Department and an interview with 20 students from the same major was also conducted to have a deep investigation into this topic.
The data then was collected, processed, and analyzed and demonstrated in the diagram format. Finally, on the basis of the findings, some applicable and practical suggestions were proposed to help translators to improve these errors. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 3.1 Students’ perception toward relative clause's other name Figure 3.Number of students aware of English relative clauses Figure 3. Student's opinion about the level of difficulty in translating relative clauses Figure 3.4 Students’ frequency of exposing to relative clause translation Figure 3.5 Translation methods applied when translating English- Vietnamese relative clauses Figure 3.6 Students’ satisfaction with their relative clause translation Figure 3.7 Common errors in translating relative clauses from English into Vietnamese Figure 3.8 Possible causes of making errors when translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese Figure 3.9 Effective skills for the improvement of the translation of English- Vietnamese relative clauses Table 1.
Sample table of frequencies of relative clause translation’s errors Table 2. Evaluation criteria for Likert scale questions Table 3. Translation methods by Peter Newmark (1988) Table 4. Criteria for making errors and errors’ description by ATA Table 4.1 Frequencies of error: The overuse of "ma" Table 4.
Translation methods by Peter Newmark (1988) Table 4.3 Frequencies of error: Misunderstanding of the original sentence Table 4.4 Frequencies of error: Grammatical structure Table 4.5 Frequencies of error: Word-for-word translation Table 5. Examples for the use of compound sentence when translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: source language TL: target language BE: Business English NEU: National Economics University ATA : American Translation Association e.g : example TABLE OF CONTENT Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMEENTTS. Q1 HT HH ngư, 3 ABSTTR. G1 SH nh TH HH re 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLUES.-- --- S n ng ngư 5 LIST OF ABBREVIA TIONS.
HH 1 11 ng ngư 6 TABLE OF CONTTIENTTẺ. -- - G1 1n HH ng 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.- SG Hs HH kg kg 9 1.1 Motivation of the T€S€ATCCHh.- 0 0 010 900 1931901 91 ng nh nh gà 9 1.4 Scope of the research. 5 HH TH HT HH ngà 10 I0 0000021. 10 Ih vui oi lai 5 nỤnD.-- cv HH ng HH kt 12 1.6 Organization of the r€S€arCH.
ng ni 13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.1 Definition of transÏafIOT.-- <6 + 3k1 91191119111 11901 HH nh Hiệp 16 °“P Xi j0.1 Definition of relative CÏ1SG.2 Classification of relative CÏAUSG. -- 6 5< 33 tk SH ng iệt 22 2.Problems in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese. 23 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Students’ perception towards translating relative clauses from English 1n(O_VI€(TIAIT€S€.
-- G- Ác 11T TH TH TH TH TH 24 3. Commons errors made by forth-year BE students in translating relative clauses from English into Vietnamese. Possible causes of making errors when translating English relative Clauses InNtO VietNAMESE.ó-Án TH nh TH ng nh 35 CHAPTER 4. Changing into compound senf€TCG.
Using parenthesis ( ) or hyphen -. Translating the relative clause as adjective .5 Using the discourse marker “ma” appropr1ateÌy.6 Using communicative frafnSÏAfIOTI.- - 5 <2 1x + ng nrưy 43 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION. Summary of the findings .2 The limitations of the researCH: .3 Suggestions for further studies. -ó- 5 + kg re 45 58509500) ad.- -- - LH HH HH HH ng 48 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation of the research In the era of global integration, the need for communication among countries is becoming more important than ever.
The role of translation, therefore, has become more and more undeniable which is considered as the most significant tool to overcome language barrier. As Newmark (1988) once stated that translation, with its lofty mission, is a “universally effective means of communication”. Nevertheless, it is stated that translation has always been a challenging task that requires translators to master the knowledge of not only linguistic aspect of the SL and the TL but also have profound understandings of various cultures in the world. In addition, to perform well the duties of translators, they have to constantly improve their knowledge and professional skills, and expand their perspectives regarding cross-culture.
However, it has never been an easy task, especially when translators have to deal with different languages that hold dissimilar characteristics in terms of grammar and syntax such as the translation of the English and Vietnamese language. The preference of relative clauses would be employed as an effective illustration of the difference between these two languages. The English tend to use relative clauses in their written document or even in their daily communication which is far more complex and principled rather than those in Vietnamese. In fact, in the Vietnamese language, there are no specific concepts of relative clauses that are approved by numerous Vietnamese people.
Due to the non-existence of Vietnamese relative clauses, translators, to some extent, find it difficult for them to convert English relative clauses into Vietnamese. For inexperienced translators or translation learners, they may fail to fulfill their tasks in translating this type of clause that causes the cumbersome and unnaturalness for their works whether it is English - Vietnamese translation or vice versa. By these reasons, the researcher conducted this study with the expectation of finding out the most common mistakes during the translation of English relative clauses into Vietnamese that fourth-year BE students frequently make which is “Errors in translating english relative clauses into vietnamese and some recommendations for Business English students, intake 58, National Economics University”.2 Research aims This research was conducted with two aims. The first one is seeking to investigate what common errors are currently made in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese by forth-year English majors at NEU.
Second, on the basis of the findings, possible suggestions were provided for improving these translation errors. Research questions This research is implemented with the aim of investigating and answering two questions: 1. What errors do forth-year BE students often make in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese? 2. What are recommendations that the translators should use to avoid to make mistakes in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese? 1.4 Scope of the research The main population of the study is limited to the 4" year BE students at NEU, who have taken translation module 1, 2 and 3, and have firm grammatical knowledge, especially about relative clauses.
Methodology Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to successfully complete this research. Documentary analysis, questionnaire and interview were data collection instruments which were carried out respectively to find out the answer for two above research questions. Documentary analysis In this method, the participants were 70 forth-year undergraduates English major at National Economics University. They have all studied the form, the meaning and the use of relative clauses in English.
Furthermore, translation process, translation methods, translation errors and translation skills must be trained by them. Firstly, 70 randomly exercises taken from the participants’ porfolios in Translation 3 module were collected. The purpose of this method is to collect the data which gained from the responses of 70 participants. After that, the researcher carefully analyzed and sorted out the translation errors by using the criteria for identifying and marking translation errors which partly adapted from American Translation Association and Newmark (1995) and described the most common mistakes in the translation practices.
Based on those suggested errors, the researchers identified whether the responses were true or false. The test responses were carefully examined to sort out the translation errors. In addition, the researcher also used descriptive statistic (Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)) to the characterize the quantitative characteristics of proposed mistakes in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese. Frequencies Statistics test was run and the results was presented in form of the table as below: Frequency Percent Valid percent Valid Total 10 Table 1.
Sample table of frequencies of relative clause translation’s errors 1. The questionnaire (see Appendix 1) In the questionnaire method, the researcher produced a carefully questionnaire and gave to the forth-year students in order to have deeply investigation into the interviewers’ perception about translating relative clauses as well as common errors in translating English relative clauses into Vietnamese. The survey questionnaire consisted of eight questions written in English and it was anomymously responded through Google Forms. This anonymity allowed the participants to show their attitudes and opinions in a truthful way.
As a result, the researcher could analyze the data more objectively. The objectives of this method can be described as below: The first six questions were grouped to find out the students’ perception as well as attitude towards translating relative clauses. Question (1) was designed to investigate students’ perception about relative clause’s name to see whether they understand the basic function of it. In the question (2), the researcher listed some of sentences including relative clauses and the participants had to choose the sentence which was thought to be relative clause.
In other words, this question was to test the student’s ability of recognizing relative clauses. Question (3) was for seeking the frequency of translating relative clauses. There are a number of translation topics with different kinds of sentences. So this question helps the researcher grasp the level of popularity in using relative clauses in translation texts.
The methods of translation which forth- year BE students often applied in translating relative clauses were clarified in the question (4). Question (5) was on purpose to find out the student attitudes toward translating relative clauses, whether they found translation relative clauses difficult or not. Question (6) was on the survey to find out the satisfaction of paricipants in their translation practices. Question (7) was applied to see whether given factors had an significant influence on translation errors.