VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE VƢƠNG THỊ THANH NHÀN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF TERMS IN QUAN HO BAC NINH FOLK SONGS (Tương đương trong dịch thuật ngữ dân ca Quan Họ Bắc Ninh) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE VƢƠNG THỊ THANH NHÀN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF TERMS IN QUAN HO BAC NINH FOLK SONGS (Tương đương trong dịch thuật ngữ dân ca Quan Họ Bắc Ninh) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi - 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ………………………………………………………….iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………….iv LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………….viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………….ix PART A: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………1 I. Identification of the problem and rationale for the study……………. Aims of the study………………………………………………….
Scope of the study………………………………………………. Significance of the study…………………………………………. Organization of the study…………………………………………….5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND………………………. Definitions of translation ……………………………….
From linguistic approach………………………. From cultural approach ……………. Different theories of translation equivalence…………………. Concepts of “equivalent effect” in translation ……………….
Concepts of “non-equivalence” in translation…………. Translation of culture-specific concepts………………………. Different views on culture-specific concepts………………. Translation strategies for culture-specific concepts………….
Terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs as culture-specific concepts. Description of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs…………………. Origin of Quan Ho singing ……………………………………24 1. Performance of Quan Ho songs ………………………………25 1.
Quan Ho song lyrics …………………………………………. Quan Ho singing outfits ………………………………………27 2. Outstanding features of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs……………. From artistic aspect……………………………………………27 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
From cultural aspect……………………………………………28 3. Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms as culture-specific concepts………………29 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS………………. Phase 1: Identification of QHBN terms in Vietnamese………………30 1. Data collection methods………………………………………………30 1.
Data analysis methods ………………………………………………32 II. Phase 2: Analysis of QHBN terms in English …………. Data collection methods……………………………………………. Data analysis methods ………………………………………………39 3.
Phase 3: Creation of QHBN glossary ……………………………….39 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION …………………………. What are translation strategies for terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? 1. What are suggested translations of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? …………………………………………………………. Summary of key findings ……………………………………………60 II.
Limitation of the study ……………………………………………….61 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Recommendations for further studies ……………………………….64 APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS QHBN: Quan Ho Bac Ninh SL/ ST: Source language/ source text TL/ TT: Target language/ target text vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: QHBN terms in Vietnamese Table 2: English equivalents of QHBN terms Table 3: QHBN terms translated by literal translation Table 4: QHBN terms translated by reduction Table 5: QHBN terms translated by cultural equivalents Table 6: QHBN terms translated by descriptive equivalents Table 7: QHBN terms translated by couplets Table 8: Glossary of key terms in QHBN folk songs viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION I. Identification of the problem and rationales for the study Quan Ho Bac Ninh singing was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity at the fourth session of the UNESCO International Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, which took place in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from September 28 to October 2, 2010. After that, Vietnam snapped into action to protect its indigenous art form.
In October 2011, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism claimed that Quan Ho singing had been listed as a cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Among the measures taken to preserve and promote the heritage, introducing Quan Ho Bac Ninh documents in English to international friends is an indispensable part. However, the translation process has encountered a number of challenges due to the following reasons: As a cultural heritage of humanity, Quan Ho Bac Ninh is characterized by its distinction in local customs, musical features and singing outfits. Then the terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh are considered culture-specific concepts.
In translation theory, non-equivalence caused by culture-specific items has put an unanswered question and this issue calls for more researches from translators as well as theorists to figure out better solutions. Remarkable efforts in the field have been made with the introduction of many articles and journals about Quan Ho Bac Ninh written in English. However, terminological inconsistency has existed among those documents. A glossary will help to standardize the way Quan Ho terms are translated and increase the quality of products made by different translators.
Once the glossary is provided, confusion among the target readership will not occur 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com when they have access to a variety of materials about Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs. As a child growing up with the sweet melody of Quan Ho songs, the researcher has nurtured a great love for the folk. Bac Ninh is famous for traditional festivals held constantly around the year so the researcher has chances to join many social events in Quan Ho hometown. A period of time working with experts on Quan Ho folk songs has also brought the researcher particular understanding about this unique type of music.
In addition, it is expected that the researcher‟s experience as a translation practitioner will set firm background for related studies. These above grounds have encouraged the researcher to conduct a study on “Translation Equivalence of Terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Songs”. The study is hoped to be a modest contribution to the field. Aims of the study The study is firstly aimed at examining the problem of non-equivalence caused by culture-specific concepts like Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms so that solutions to overcome the difficulties will be worked out.
Then, the study will highlight a number of strategies to deal with Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms as culture-specific items. Finally, several suggested translations of key terms in Bac Ninh Quan Ho folk songs will be given. In brief, these aims can be summarized into two research questions as follows: - What are the strategies to form equivalents of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - What are the suggested equivalents of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? III. Scope of the study Within the limitation of time and reference materials, the study will address the problem of non-equivalence rather than stretching efforts in other differnt aspects of translation equivalence.
In addition, the researcher will not focus on all the terms used in Quan Ho singing documents. Only some key terms related to the following points will be discussed: - Quan Ho singing origin and social practice (with major focus on several customs) - Quan Ho singing forms - Quan Ho singing tunes - Quan Ho singing techniques - Quan Ho singing outfits IV. Significance of the study Once being completed, the study will serve as one of the initial small-scale researches on the non-equivalence in translation of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk terms with different strategies to cope with the problem. When the findings of the study are revealed, there might be several implications for those working on translating Quan Ho singing documents to take them into consideration.
The glossary of key terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs will certainly be an effective supporting tool for those who take interest in this type of music and want to introduce it to international friends. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The proposed study is also expected to be a practical guide and benefit future researchers in related fields. There might be opening doors to other aspects of translation that need to be explored. Organization of the study The study is divided into three main parts: Part A - Introduction identifies the central problem and introduces major objectives of the study which are shown in the two research questions.
The scope and significance of the study are also stated. Part B – Development is covered by three chapters. Chapter 1 – Literature review presents a review of relevant researches associated with the problem addressed. Chapter 2 – Research methods describes the research methods used for data collection and analysis.
Chapter 3 – Findings and discussion contains an analysis of the data and presentation of the results. Part C - Conclusion offers a summary of the study's findings, implications for practice, and recommendations for future research. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter explores the present state of knowledge regarding the topic under discussion. A critical review of major works on translation will be given.
An investigation of several key concepts including “translation”, “equivalence” vs. “non-equivalence”, “culture-specific items”, “translation strategies”, “Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs” will be provided so that the research gap could be clearly identified, creating reasonable grounds for the study. Definitions of translation 1.1 From linguistic approach It has been long taken for granted that translation deals only with language. Cultural perspective, however, has not yet been brought into discussion.
The first definition presented by Catford (1965: 20) refers to translation as the “replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language”. Yet, it is still vague in terms of the type of equivalence. Culture was not taken into account. Next, Nida and Taber (1969) explain the process of translating as follows: Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.
In the definitions of translation during 1960s-1970s, some similarities have been found: 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com there is a change of expression from one language to the other the meaning and message are rendered in the TL the translator has an obligation to seek for the closest equivalent in the TL. Yet, there is no indication that culture is placed emphasis on. The inclusion of cultural perspective in the definition of translation unfortunately does not continue. The later ones keep on not touching this matter.
For example, "translation involves the rendering of a source language (SL) text into the target language (TL) so as to ensure that the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and the structure of the SL will be preserved as closely as possible, but not so closely that the TL structure will be seriously distorted (McGuire, 1980: 2). Newmark‟s definition about translation was introduced in 1981, with major focus on linguistic aspect: "translation is 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" By nature, it is understood that the translation should be done to every language. However, as the content addresses all walks of life and culture plays an important role in human life, culture, therefore, should be considered.2 From cultural approach Other definitions are meant to explain the experts' view on translation theory to be applied in the translation of all types of material, including scientific or technical texts which are not deeply embedded in any culture. Thus, it can be momentarily hypothesized that cultural consideration must be taken if the material to translate is related to culture.
6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com According to Snell-Hornby (1988: 39), however, the exclusion of cultural aspect from the discussion of translation theory is due to the view of the traditional approach in linguistics which draws a sharp dividing-line between language and "extralinguistic reality" (culture, situation, etc. The contemporary approach, according to her, sees language as an integral part of culture.