VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ HẢI YẾN A STUDY OF THE TRANSLATION OF ARCHITE TEMS IN THE" ARCHITECTS' DATA NEUFERT" BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ) 2009 z TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Scope of the study 2 3. Aims of the study 2 4. Method of the study 2 5.
Design of the study 2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 I.2 General features of terminology 5 I.1 Primary and secondary term creation 6 I.2 Term formation in technology 6 I.3 Guidance on the creation of term 7 I.1 Definition of translation 7 I.3 Translation strategies, procedures, methods 9 I.3 Translation of terminology 11 I.4 Chapter conclusion 13 CHAPTER II: CHAPTER II: AN OVERVIEW OF ARCHITECTURE TERMS 14 II.1 Architecture terms possess typical features of terminology 14 II.2 Classification of architecture terms according to their structural patterns 15 II.1 Single terms 15 II.2 Compound terms 17 II.3 Chapter conclusion 21 CHAPTER III: THE TRANSLATION OF ARCHITECTURE TERMS 22 z III.1 The translation of architecture terms of equivalence group 22 III.2 An overview of equivalence relationship in the translation of architecture terms 22 III.3 The common strategies and procedures used in translation of Architecture terms of equivalence group 24 III.1 The translation of single terms-Old words with new senses 24 III.2 The translation of compound terms by rank shift or transposition 25 III.3 The translation strategy which involves the deletion of "OF" 27 III.4 Concluding remarks 28 III. 2 The translation of architecture terms of non-equivalence group 28 III.1The source of non-equivalence problem in the translation of Architecture terms 29 III.2 The strategies, procedures and methods employed in dealing with non - equivalence problem in the translation of Architecture terms 29 III.1 Translation of terms with transference procedure (the use of loan word) 29 III.3The translation of terms by paraphrase 31 III.4 The translation of terms with communicative method 32 III.5 Literal translation 34 III.3 Conclusion 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 36 I. The groups of terms and translation strategies and procedures used to translate them 36 II. Suggestions for the methods, procedures and strategies 37 REFERENCES APPENDICES z PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale English for specific purposes is now one of the greatest needs for students of all majors. English for banking, English for tourism, English for law are all mentioned in everyday life of students of each type. Although they are very difficult and challenging, they have become popular in Viet Nam. There are still many majors that need ESP for their own such as: English for accounting, English for advertising, English for computing and English for building and constructing.
Building and constructing is not a new major in comparison with other majors like accounting or computing, but English for building and constructing, in contrast, is a completely new for those who work in this field. The problems do not lie in English itself, but in the great need for systematically translated terms. Vietnamese architects, constructors need systematical materials which are in Vietnamese to help them in their work, however, these materials mainly in English. "Neufert", by Ernst and Peter Neufert, is a valuable English book for architects.
It is edited by many famous authors. Undoubtedly, it provides a lot of useful information in architecture field. Therefore, students, teachers or even experienced architects need it. In an effort to bring new knowledge to Vietnamese, many translators have tried to make it in Vietnamese to provide students, architects and constructors an effective tool for their jobs.
However, translation in architecture field is not an easy task, the problem lies in the sharp differences in English architecture terms and Vietnamese ones. Obviously, this will pose a great obstacle to translators due to their insufficient knowledge about the two different sub- cultures of architecture. They may have to struggle to convey the true essence of each kind of architecture terms from English in Vietnamese. Though, in Vietnam, translators do not have to translate such architecture terms for clients, they still have to translate a number of popular architecture terms for at least architecture-majored students or for those who work in this field.
Having studied and compared the original and translated version by different translators, I have decided to make a study on how Architecture terms in Neufert are dealt with. In the hope that the study, titled”A study on the Translation of architecture Terms in the "Architects' data Neufert" between English and Vietnamese”, may be of some help to those who has been and will do translation, or are teaching in the field. Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on the Architecture terms in the material “Neufert”. The major aspects to be considered are their: classification of equivalence relationships structural patterns of AT in English their translation 3.
Aims of the study To work out the similarities and differences between English and their Vietnamese equivalents. To draw out the strategies, procedures and methods that may apply to the translation of architecture terms (especially to the translation of non-equivalence terms in the English architecture terms into Vietnamese). Method of the study 4.1 Research questions: a) What are the similarities and differences between English terms and their Vietnamese equivalent? b) What are strategies, procedures, methods that are appropriate to the translation of English architecture terms in Neufert? 4.2 Research methods: To carry out the thesis the author went through the following steps: Collecting and grouping English architecture terms in Neufert and their Vietnamese equivalents for description, analysis and induction. Draw out strategies, procedures and methods in translation of architecture terms.3 Data collection: The English architecture terms studied are taken from “Neufert”, “English for building and constructing” and their equivalents are picked out from the translation by Vietnamese translators those who are architects and teachers in this field.
Design of the study: The study consists of three main parts, references and appendixes as follows: + Part A: Introduction The rationale for the study, scope, aims, methods and design of the study are orderly presented in this part. + Part B: Development 2 z There are three chapters in this part: Chapter I: Theoretical background The theory of translation and terminology will be dealt with in this chapter. Chapter II: An over view of architecture terms Chapter III: The translation of architecture terms of architecture terms The translation of architecture terms of equivalence group This chapter gives out an investigation into the equivalence between English and Vietnamese translation of architecture terms in the Neufert. Accordingly, the research focuses on the two main questions: the first one is how architecture terms in the Neufert are currently translated and the second one what strategies, procedures, methods are employed.
The translation of architecture terms of non-equivalence group This chapter finds out how non-equivalence problems in the translation of architecture terms in the Neufert are solved by available translation strategies, procedures, methods. + Part C: Conclusion The conclusion summarizes the strategies, procedures and methods of translation, as well as, makes relevant suggestions. The appendixes give more examples of different groups of architecture terms. 3 z PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Definition: Terminology has been defined by many different linguists to establish its structure and meaning.
According to Mr. Do Huu Chau (1981) "Terms are specialist word used within a scientific field, a profession or any technological field". To identify technical terms he also states: " Scientific and technical terminology consists of lexical units used to denote phenomenal objects, activities. in industrial technologies and natural or social sciences".
Sharing the same points of view about some common features in content with the definition by Mr. Do Huu Chau, Mr. Nguyen Thien Giap (1998) proposed a different definition "Terminology, understood as a special linguistic unit of languages, consist of word and fixed phrase that provides precise definition and objectives that belong to particular scientific area". These definitions, though, are at different time and by different people, all show that there exist "special words in specialized fields or braches of human knowledge".
Therefore, there must be terms for mathematics, business, medicine. which should be distinguished from ordinary words. Indeed, Baker (1998: 261) says that: "Terms differ from words in that they are endowed with a special form of reference, namely that they refer to discrete conceptual entities properties, activities or relations which constitute the knowledge space of particular subject field. Further important differences between terms and words are: 1.
Terms have special reference within a particular discipline whereas words function in general reference over a variety of subject fields. Terms keep their lives and meanings only for as long as they serve the system of knowledge that gave rise to them. In other words, terms together with words and proper names constitute the general class of lexical items. Names refer individually to object and people; words refer arbitrarily to general concepts while terms refer deliberately to specific concepts.
However, the boundary between terms and words is not a clear cut i. many terms become ordinary words when they are closed to daily life and used with high frequency, and many words become terms when they are used in specialized field.2 General features of terminology Terms and words obviously are different in that terms have special reference within a particular discipline and surely they are not allowed to carry the speakers’ attitude, figurative sense, compliment or criticism, then it should possess the following qualities: accurateness, systematicism, internationalism, popularity and nationality as proposed by Nguyen Thien Giap (1998), Do Huu Chau (1981).1 Accurateness A term needs to be accurate and clear because basically it reflects an exact concept of a science. If a term is of absolute accuracy, people never mistake one concept for another. Once a word has become term, it no longer has connotational, emotional meaning; it also loses its polysemouness, synonymousness and antonymousness.
In short, terminology necessarily works on the principle that “once concept has only one term for it, and one term indicates only one concept”. This relationship is called the one-to-one equivalent between a concept and a term.2 Systematicism Any field of sciences has its own limited system of concepts, which are named by a system of terms. Therefore, each term has its own position in the system of concepts and belongs to a terminological system. The value of ech term is determined by its relationships with other terms in the same system.
As a result, a term loses its value when isolated from its system. In short, a term has to be a dependent member of its system.3 Internationality Terms are used internationally because they are special words expressing common scientific concepts to people of different languages. Therefore, it is useful to agree on terms to be used among languages in order to push up the development of science. The international links in science result in a number of terms presented in many different languages.
For example, video, radio, telephone… are found in French, German, English and Vietnamese… with little difference in form.4 Popularity Terms need to be popular in the sense that they should be close to the language of the masses, which is to say easy-to-remember, easy-to-understand and easy-to-understand, because they will help to bring knowledge to and benefit men of all aspects of life.5 Nationality Though terms are special words used in specialized fields, they are surely part of the national language. They, therefore, possess the colors, the characteristics of the national language. In other words, they should be made from materials of the national language in terms of lexicology, form and grammar.3 Term creation Terms are used to name the concepts, so whenever a concept appears, is made in a culture, or translated to a new culture, it involves the creation of a new term to name it.