VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN SOME POEMS OF PRISON DIARY (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AND ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY AILEEN PALMER ON FORM-BASED APPROACH OF MONA BAKER (1992) NGHIÊN CỨU TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG DỊCH THUẬT GIỮA MỘT SỐ BÀI THƠ NHẬT KÝ TRONG TÙ ( BẢN TIẾNG VIỆT) VÀ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH TƢƠNG ỨNG CỦA AILEEN PALMER THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA MONA BAKER (1992) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Hanoi - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN SOME POEMS OF PRISON DIARY (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AND ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY AILEEN PALMER ON FORM-BASED APPROACH OF MONA BAKER (1992) NGHIÊN CỨU TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG DỊCH THUẬT GIỮA MỘT SỐ BÀI THƠ NHẬT KÝ TRONG TÙ ( BẢN TIẾNG VIỆT) VÀ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH TƢƠNG ỨNG CỦA AILEEN PALMER THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA MONA BAKER (1992) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Hanoi - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on translation equivalence between some poems of Prison Diary (Vietnamese version) and its English translation by Aileen Palmer on form-based approach of Mona Baker (1992)” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2016 Lê Thị Nhung i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc. Nguyen Xuan Thom, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to Assoc. Le Hung Tien; without his interesting lectures on Research Methodology in Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, consultancy and encouragement, it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the endless sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Given that translation equivalence lies at the center of what translation is and the translation of Prison Diary has posed both interests and challenges, the researcher conducted a study, investigating types of form-based equivalence proposed by Mona Baker (1992) between thirty Prison Diary poems and theirs translated versions by Aileen Palmer as well as some obstacles encountered by the translator.
Pairs of data were compared, contrasted and interpreted into different categories. Three prevalent types of non-equivalence have been identified, including that at the level of word, above word, and grammatically upon careful collection and interpretative analyses of data from both source texts and target texts. In coupled with the existence of such non-equivalence, many obstacles were addressed by the translator due to gaps in both linguistic and literary terms. The paper also sheds some light on practical applications for translators, and teachers and students with their work of translation.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi PART A : INTRODUCTION. AIMS OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
Research questions and concepts. DESIGN OF THE STUDY.8 CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of translation. MONA BAKER‘S THEORY ON EQUIVALENCE.
Equivalence at word level. Non-equivalence at word level .Equivalence above word level. Some problems in literary translation. Features of poetic translation and language .58 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
PREVIOUS STUDIES ON TRANSTION EQUIVALENCE IN LITERARY WORKS .62 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURES. Subjects of study.
Data collection and description .68 CHAPTER 3 : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. TRANSLATION (NON)EQUIVALENCE AND THE MOST POPULAR ONE. At-word-level non-equivalence. Above- word- level non-equivalence.
Grammatical non-equivalence. TRANSLATOR‘S STRATEGIES FOR NON-EQUIVALENCE. At word level. Above-word level.
REASONS FOR NONEQUIVALENCE. Literary or aesthetic reasons. RECAPITULATION AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY …………. IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES .93 REFERENCES APPENDICES v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL source language ST source text TE translation equivalence TL target language TT target text GNE grammatical nonequivalence vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale The idea, the question to which the thesis attempts to answer, came from both linguistic (scientific), practical and situational motivations. To begin with linguistic reasons, translation has long been a fertile land for research because of its important role in bridging the world and also recording and building up the history of the world. Translation theory is extensively regarded one big branch in applied linguistics that is worth researcher‘s intellectual curiosity.
It brings about the attractiveness of different languages to certain human communities. The author herself constantly holds on to the wonder whether or not translation of poetry is different from that of other genres, if so, to what extent, and if there is any working strategy for this special type of translation, especially in the case that it has something to deal with both linguistic and cultural gaps. Therefore, it is important to conduct studies on this theory. Practically, as one of the most important and common fields of translation, the translation of literary works (literary translation) is indeed a help to the understanding of different cultures and civilizations, so responsible for its complexity and the must for translator of literature to consider every aspect of the material and even beyond the material to produce a good translation.
Literary translation in general and the translation of poems between English and Vietnamese and other ways round have been such a challenging but charming task for me that I really want to clarify or at least understand the way translators of these works employ when doing translations. Another practical and inspiring motivation for my conducting this study is because of the fact that the year 2015 is the 125th celebration of President Ho Chi Minh‘s birthday. I really wish to be knowledgeable of how the translated versions of his poems have effects on target readers, whether to be the same to or different from those on Vietnamese counterparts. Last but not least, the findings of the paper are expected to be helpful in cross-cultural language learning and teaching.
1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In order to evaluate a translation, there is a wide variety of approaches, procedures, methods, all of which more or less draw assumption and notion of linguistic deviation and translation equivalence. The latter - equivalence remains the most interesting to me because it is equivalence that in my opinion conveys or destroys the effects on the two groups of readers, source language reader, and the target ones. Naturally, there are many theoretical approaches and previous studies on this cornerstone concept. The successful evaluation of the translated equivalents in English by Aileen Palmer is also helpful to the reading, teaching, and translating, and studying literary works in Vietnam.
Lastly, a considerable number of studies have been conducted on the translation of poems and novels between English and Vietnamese, the most famous of which are ―Gone with the Wind‖, ―The Old Man and the Sea‖, and ―The General Retires‖. However, very few studies have made efforts up to date to understand the rendering of Vietnamese great literary compositions into English in spite of numerous translated works. This, to my personal viewpoint, represents a gap in the circle of translation criticism and evaluation and motivates me to invest my effort into this topic. Aims of the study The conduct of the study firstly aims at providing a theoretical background on several concepts related to the topic of the study such as translation, translation studies, literary translation, and translation equivalence.
Subsequently, it made an investigation into the achievement of equivalence in the translated equivalents by Aileen Palmer based on Mona Baker‘s theory. Equivalence effect can be found at different aspects, namely quantity, function, and form. Seeing that poems in Prison Diary remain a great source of literary and translating values, this study employed the form-based approach to equivalence by Mona Baker (1992) to investigate this central issue in translation field, equivalence, at both word and above-word levels, grammatical, textual and pragmatic levels. More specifically, the research aims at reasoning out: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - identifying and describing types of equivalence in the approach of Mona Baker and clarifying the most prevalent ones; - examining Mona Baker-proposed strategies for dealing with such non-equivalence employed by the translator; - clarifying obstacles faced by the translator in rendering the selected poems.
Scope of the study Prison Diary, also known as Reflection in Captivity, encompasses some 133 Tang, Luc Bat and Ngu ngon poems written by President Ho Chi Minh when he was kept wrongly in jail in China. Nam Tran, a famous Sino-Vietnamese translator in Viet Nam, transforms them into Vietnamese. Therefore, the study in nature makes a comparison between Nam Tran‘s translations and Aileen Palmer‘s. However, this study will merely select 30 poems translated by Aileen Palmer for discussion, analysis and comparison.
There have been in reality a few translators of this work, but Aileen Palmer appeared to have translated creditably almost the whole work while the others just focus on a modest number of poems from Prison Diary, leading to my choice of his translation. More importantly, the study, in spite of the title, made an investigation into existent types of Mona Baker‘s form-based non- equivalence and corresponding strategies employed by the translator. Significance of the study The study is expected to be an effective and useful evaluation of translation equivalence between the two texts. It results in several theoretical and practical values, in terms of translation light.
Firstly, the study will help reader obtain a better understanding of explanation on equivalence suggested by Mona Baker through a wide variety of examples from the two groups of sample poems. Upon reading and analyzing the English version of Prison Diary, of course, they are likely to acquire some of effects used by the translator. However, when approaching the whole work of Prison Diary with some analytical conclusions, the effects will be significantly 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com greater to their understanding. Secondly, practically, the study will help teachers and students of translation subjects as a reference channel to their conducting research.
This is because the study will provide a detailed and relevant theoretical framework to the topic as well as a carefully conducted analytical framework for the discussions of findings. Overall, this paper is an attempt to examine the challenges and obstacles that literary translator – Aileen Palmer confronted when translating a great Vietnamese literary work of President Ho Chi Minh into English, which is supposed to be a different culture from Vietnamese. This extensive investigation helps readers of both languages to appreciate further his noble job in transferring both literary and cultural values from Vietnamese into English. Research questions and concepts In order to realize these aforementioned objectives, the study aims to provide answers to questions as follows: 1.
What is the most common group of non-equivalence used in the translation from Mona Baker perspective? 2.