VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN PHRASES IN THE WEATHER FORECASTS FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ TRONG DỰ BÁO THỜI TIẾT TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student : NGO THI THUY Student code : 621201 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : TRAN THANH PHUONG, M.A Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN PHRASES IN THE WEATHER FORECASTS FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ TRONG DỰ BÁO THỜI TIẾT TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student : NGO THI THUY Student code : 621201 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : TRAN THANH PHUONG, M.A Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in the English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due the acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Ngo Thi Thuy Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: …………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Tran Thanh Phuong, M.A for her precious advice, practical suggestions and constant encouragement in the preparation and completion of this graduation paper.
Without her help this graduation paper would not have possibly been completed. I would also like to express my great gratitude to all the teachers at Vietnam National University of Agriculture for their devoted teaching and for giving me gain valuable knowledge during the four years at this university. Finally, I wish to extend my special thanks to my family and my friends for their assistance and encouragement in the making of this graduation paper. Sincerely thanks! zzzz ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION. vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. vii Part 1: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Design of the study. 4 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. 4 Review of the previous studies. Review of the previous studies ( at home).
Review of the previous studies ( at abroad). Review of theoretical background. Noun phrase theory. Research governing principles.
Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis. 20 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The similarities and differences of noun phrases in weather forecasts between English and Vietnamese. The strategies applied into translation of noun phrases in weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese.
Noun phrases in English weather forecasts. 23 a, Weather phenomena noun phrases. 23 b, Meteorological nouns and noun phrases. Shifts or transpositions.
Limitation of the current research. Suggestions for further research. 37 APPENDIX: Full translation of analyzed sample. 38 iv ABSTRACT This study aims to identify methods to translate noun phrases in weather forecast from English into Vietnamese and analyze the difference in word order between English noun phrases and Vietnamese counterpoints.
Furthermore, different translations of strategies proposed by scholars are considered, to lay the foundation for the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecast. Above all, it gives thoughtful recommendations for the effective translation of noun phrases in weather forecast from English into Vietnamese. Findings from the study can contribute to research in the field of compiling and interpreting the weather forecast literature in general. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION NPs Noun Phrase TL Target Language SL Source Language vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1.1: Structures of NPs .2: Vietnamese noun phrase .3: Vietnamese noun phrase .4: The position of descriptive words position -1 .1: The similarities of English and Vietnamese noun phrases in weather forecasts .2: The similarities of English and Vietnamese noun phrases in weather forecasts.
33 vii Part 1: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale for the study Today, we cannot deny the important role of translation in work, study or the daily life. Especially when the current trend is globalization, Vietnam is opening its doors to attract investment capital as well as economic, cultural and political cooperation and trade with world powers. Translation includes the study of vocabulary, grammatical structures, communication situations, and the cultural context of the source language text; analyze it to determine its meaning; and then reconstruct this same meaning using vocabulary and grammatical structures appropriate to its perceptual language and cultural context. It is a well-known fact that an increasing number large of people all over the world are drawing attention to the weather.
Human beings make effort to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since at least the nineteenth century. So, the weather forecast is an integral part of the daily living because it provides knowledge and information of future weather conditions. The weather forecast supports us to cope with the unusual kinds of climate to maintain the socio-economic innovation. Furthermore, there is no doubt that a large number of weather documents are written in English.
Therefore, understading and knowing English weather documents is necessary in our daily life. Translators often get trouble in conveying the exact meaning of words related to weather phenomena during the process of translating noun phrases from English into Vietnamese. When dealing with them, the author feels confused and faces many difficulties. Hence, translation techniques of noun phrases in weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese could be taken into consideration in this study.
For that reason, I would like to carry out a study on the topic “A study on the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese” to help learners and translators have deeper knowledge about noun 1 phrases in translation, more specifically in the weather forecasting. Aims and objectives of the study In detail, my study aims at finding out translation strategies of noun phrases in English weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese. Pointing out several the similarities and differences of weather forcast noun phrases in English and Vietnamese. Giving some translation strategies to translate noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese.
Research questions To reach the aims within the scope, the research questions below are solved: 1. What are the similarities and differences of weather forcast noun phrases in English and Vietnamese? 2. Which translation strategies can be used to translate noun phrases in English weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese? 1. Scope of the study Due to the limitation of time, knowledge and experience, my research mainly focuses on the characteristics of English noun phrases in weather forecasts, giving some problems when translating those ones as well as giving some strategies to apply to translating them.
Significance of the study It is commonly believed that the weather has a significant impact on the agriculture industry as well as in economy. Indeed, plants need the basics of moisture, warmth, and sun to grow. The weather information details can drive a grower‟s business decisions, helping them to plan efficiently, minimize costs and maximize yield and profits. As a result, understading and knowing English weather documents is necessary for our daily life.
Thus, research is carried out to help learners and translators know how to translate noun phrases in weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese. Design of the study Apart from abstracts, references & appendices, the study paper consists of three parts, in which the second one is considered the most important. PART 1 - INTRODUCTION presents the rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance of the study. PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is divided into 3 chapters: Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW – provides the theoretical background for the study including definitions of translation theory, noun phrase theory and weather forecast.
Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used in the research including the action research, data collection instruments, the procedures employed to carry out the research. Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS - reports and discusses the findings of the study. PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications concerning the research topic and suggests several solutions. 3 Part 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Review of the previous studies 1. Review of the previous studies ( at home) Noun pharse play an importance role in languages like English. The European Science Foundation has recognized the importance of the Noun Phrase in language when this topic was one of the central themes of its Eurotyp Project (Programme in Language Typology, 1990-4; Siewierska 1997). In “A study on the translation of English terms related to weather forecast” by Trinh Xuan Xam (2010), she collectes and presentes the basic English terms in the weather forecast.
Then, it provides their Vietnamese equivalents or expressions and analyzes translation strategies and procedures employed in the translation of these English terms into Vietnamese. This study helps readers understand and use the weather information efficiently, and have a certain understanding of some terms in the news letter as well as the reliability of the forecasts of the weather. In “A discourse analysis of the weather forecasts in English and Vietnamese” by Tran Thi Mo (2011), she describes and compares discourse features of the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese to seek the similarities and differences of the weather forecasts in terms of the layout, syntactic structures, lexical choice and cohesive devices. This study helps readers have deeper knowledge about discourse features of the weather forecasts.
From there, it is possible to choose the appropriate vocabulary or grammatical structures to translate the weather forecast or news about the weather from English into Vietnamese. Review of the previous studies ( at abroad) In “Deep comprehension, generation and translation of weather forecasts (weathra)” by Bengt Sigurd, Caroline Willners, Mats Eeg-Olofsson And Christer Johansson (1992). This study explores the language and semantics of weather forecasts further and it aims at deep comprehension of forecasts. In summary, there are a number of theses relevant to translation of noun phrases have been undertaken.
However, there is a little research about the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese so I would like to give some effective methods to help learners and translators in the process of translating in my thesis. Review of theoretical background 1. Definition The need for a translation service is very important in our modern world. Not just doing countries depend on it to close the communication gap if not, but it does also allows people to access the richness of global scientific and technological information, as well as the ideas that shape our society.
There are many researchers and linguists who have given the definition of translation. The following theories are the basic theoretical background for this study: - As stated by the definition on the website: “Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a translation that communicates the same message in another language. The text to be translated is called the source text, and the language that it is to be translated into is called the target language; the final product is sometimes called the target text.”(Wikipedia) - According to Bell (1991: 5): “Translation is the expression in another 5 language (target language) of what has been expressed in one language (source language) preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences”.