MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH -VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF BUSINESS TEXTS (Nghiên cứu so sánh bản dịch Anh – Việt trong lĩnh vực Kinh doanh) MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 9.01 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics SUPERVISORS: 1. HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH 2. LÊ HÙNG TIẾN HÀ NỘI, 2022 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “A comparative study on English-Vietnamese translation of Business texts” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis, I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others in this thesis.
The thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other university. Signature NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ i ABSTRACT This descriptive, comparative, and evaluative research attempts to assess the equivalence extent of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and marketing strategies with their semantic modifications in an English- Vietnamese translation of a marketing text from the functional- pragmatic perspective. The data are extracted from the Source text (ST) “Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital”, published in 2017 and from the Target text (TT) “Tiếp thị 4.0: Dịch chuyển từ Truyền thống sang Công nghệ số”, published in 2018. The qualitative method is applied to the study, in which descriptive, comparative and interpretive procedures are adopted in which the nominal groups and verbal groups of the ST are described in terms of Register and Genre, followed by the comparison of these language units between the ST and TT.
Finally, the interpretive steps are applied to analyze the semantic modifications before the evaluation of equivalence extent is provided. The sources of data are analyzed and assessed from the functional- pragmatic perspective of House’s model (2015) incorporated with the Attitudinal and Gradational resources of Appraisal theory (Martin and White, 2005). House’s model begins with language embedded in the text, then Register is analyzed and Genre is described. On Register, component Field is combined with Gradational resources while component Tenor is integrated with Attitudinal resources from Appraisal theory.
The findings show that, among the 661 cases of the nominal groups and 392 verbal groups collected from the source text, 553 cases (both nominal and verbal groups) contain semantic modification in the translation, in which a large number of cases show an ‘upscaled’ trend of equivalence extent while the ‘downscaled’ trend accounts for a small proportion. The translation strategies applied are diverse including synonymy, paraphrasing, using end-of-page note, metaphors,… Moreover, a gain in equivalence can be seen in the way of figurative expressions, using ‘stronger’ adverbs, modal verbs, more formal words, resorting the longer ii expressions than the source text and applying metaphors which are carefully put in double quotation mark. Especially, when using metaphors in the translation, the cultural filters are employed to be more familiar to the target readers. Besides, for the abstract terms which may raise confusion for the target readers, notes of explanation at the end of the page is also carefully added right away to each page, revealing a respectful attitude towards the readership and enhancing the interpersonal function of the translation.
Additionally, the pragmatic equivalence is reached in several cases of the nominal and verbal groups in the translation. The partial loss in denotative and connotative equivalence occurs just very little in the translation when there is a phenomenon of ellipsis in some adjectives preceding the noun, weakening the supplementary meaning or lowering the meaning of elements in the group or when the proper names in the original text are completely remained the same as in the translated text in spite of their translatability. This probably seems to be the translators’ purposeful intention of retaining the identity and aesthetics of the source language. The findings of this study can make some theoretical contributions to applying House’s model in uncovering the equivalence of an English-Vietnamese translation of non-literary text.
Also, the model shows the effectiveness when integrated with another theory, particularly with the Appraisal theory of Martin and White (2005) in translation studies. The practical contributions are for translators, and translator training programme, especially in translating non- literarty texts. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been made possible without the guidance and the support of individuals who contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Assoc.
Lê Hùng Tiến and Assoc. Hoàng Tuyết Minh, who inflame the fervent passion inside me towards the research topic and research progress. Without their continuously constructive feedback and encouragement, the thesis could not come into being. Additionally, I am deeply grateful to Dr.
Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, whose guidance and insightful comments are of profound significance during my research completion. I also wish to extent my gratitude to Assoc. Hồ Ngọc Trung, Assoc. Phan Văn Quế, Dr.
Phạm Thị Thủy, Assoc. Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy, Dr. Nguyễn Việt Hùng, Dr. Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông, Dr.
Nguyễn Đăng Sửu, Dr. Lưu Thị Kim Nhung and Dr. Lê Phương Thảo, who gave practical comments on my research proposal and presentations, and provided me with many valuable suggestions to develop my research effectively. My sincere thanks also go to the colleagues and friends at the English Faculties of Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their continuous motivation, support, and valuable advice for me across the path.
I will never forget strong support from Mr. Lê Công Phú, Ms. Trần Thị Thúy Hà, Mr. Nguyễn Việt Xô, Mr.
Phạm Đức Diễn, Ms. Đào Thị Thu Nga, Ms. Vi Thị Hồng Ngân, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh, Ms.
Nguyễn Thanh Nhàn, Mr. Nguyễn Việt Tiệp, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Hảo, Ms. Đỗ Thị Kim Dung, and Ms.
Lê Thị Kiều Oanh. They have always supported me to overcome the obstacles during my research completion. Last but not least, I would like to thank my warm-hearted parents, my enthusiastic brothers, my sisters-in-law and my family with their restless assistance, especially my daughter and my son for their immense tenderness, deep empathy, strong inspiration, and firm support to motivate me throughout upheavals and realize the life values. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1 2 Research aim and objectives of the study 3 3 Research question 4 4 Scope of the study 5 5 Methods of the study 6 6 Significance of the study 6 7 Organization of the thesis 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9 2.1 Translation Studies as a discipline 9 2.
Central Issues of Translation Studies 11 2. Issue of translation equivalence 13 2. Approaches of Translation Assessment 17 2. Response-based approach 18 2.
Linguistics-based approach 19 2. Two popular models of Translation Assessment 20 2. Newmark’s model of translation assessment (1988) 20 2. House’s model of translation assessment (2015) 22 2.
Procedure of House’s model 22 2. Texts and contexts 25 2. Components of House’s model 26 2. Overt, covert translation and cultural filters 28 v 2.
Adaptation of House’s model for the research aim 31 2. Appraisal theory by Martin and White (2005) in House’s model 35 2. Attitudinal resources of the Appraisal theory 35 2. Gradational resources of the Appraisal theory 41 2.5 Nominal groups and Verbal groups 45 2.
Business and Marketing texts 50 2. Market segments and Marketing Human-centric strategy 56 2. Marketing Human-centric strategy 57 58 2. Review of previous studies 58 2.
Previous studies on Comparative Translation Studies 63 2. Previous studies on Marketing Texts 65 2. Summary CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3. Interpretive, explanatory and evaluative steps 70 3.
Data collection and procedures of data analysis 76 3. Selection of the source text and target text 76 3. Collection of nominal groups and verbal groups 78 3. Procedures of data analysis 80 3.
TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND 83 vi VERBAL GROUPS RELATED TO MARKET SEGMENTS 4.1 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market 84 segments 4. Nominal groups related to young, women, netizens’ market segment 84 4.2 Verbal groups related to young, women, netizens’ market segment 92 4. Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to young 99 market segment 4. Nominal groups related to the young market segment 99 4.2 Verbal groups related to the young market segment 109 4.3 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to women’s 117 market segment 4.1 Nominal groups related to women’s market segment 117 4.
Verbal groups related to women’s market segment 126 4.4 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to netizens’ 133 market segment 4.1 Nominal groups related to netizens’ market segment 133 4. Verbal groups related to netizens’ market segment 141 4.5 Summary of translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related 150 to market segments CHAPTER 5: TRANSLATION EQUIVAENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND 152 VERBAL GROUPS RELATED TO HUMAN-CENTRIC MARKETING STRATEGY 5. Translation equivalence of nominal groups related to human-centric marketing 152 strategy 5. Analysis of nominal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in the 152 source text 5.
Comparison of nominal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in 157 the source text and target text 5. Translation equivalence of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing 164 strategy 5. Analyses of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in the 164 source text 5. Comparison of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in the 168 vii source text and target text 5.
Summary of translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related 171 to human-centric marketing strategy CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 175 6. Recapitulation of the study 175 6. English-Vietnamese translation of nominal groups and verbal groups related to 176 market segments 6. English-Vietnamese translation of nominal groups and verbal groups related to 179 human-centric marketing strategy 6.
Contributions of the study 180 6. Limitations and suggestions for further research 183 REFERENCES 186 RESEARCHER’S ARTICLES RELATED TO THE THESIS 197 APPENDIXES APPDENDIX A. Nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments I APPDENDIX B. Gradational resources embedded in nominal groups related to XI the young market segment APPDENDIX C.
The authors’ attitudes embedded in nominal groups related to XII the young market segment APPDENDIX D. Process and graduation embedded in verbal groups related to XIV the young segment APPDENDIX E. The authors’ attitude embedded in verbal groups related to the XVII young segment APPDENDIX F. Gradational resources of nominal groups related to human- XIX centric marketing strategy APPDENDIX G.
The authors’ attitude embedded in nominal groups related to XXV human-centric marketing strategy APPDENDIX H. Some of the end-of-page explanation for nominal groups in the XXIX viii Target text APPDENDIX I. Equivalence extent in translating nominal groups related to human- XXXIII centric marketing strategy APPDENDIX J Process and graduation embedded in the verbal groups related to XL human-centric marketing strategy APPDENDIX K. The authors’ attitude embedded in verbal groups related human- XLIII centric marketing strategy APPENDIX L.
Equivalence extent in translating verbal groups related to human- XLV centric marketing strategy APPENDIX M1. Equivalence extent in semantic modification of Nominal groups and XLVII Verbal groups related to market segments APPENDIX M2 Equivalence extent in semantic modification of Nominal groups and LX Verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy Previous comparative translation studies APPENDIX N. Previous studies on marketing texts LXXVII ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES Figure 2. Relation between language and social context (Martin and Rose, 24 2008:10) Figure 2.
Three levels of text analysis (Martin and Rose, 2008:17) 25 Figure 2. House’s model of translation quality assessment (House 2015:127) 29 Figure 2. Theoretical framework of the study 33 Figure 2. The Appraisal framework (Martin and White, 2005) 37 Figure 2.