MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY --------------- THE COMPARISON OF TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED VERSIONS OF THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language Course code: 60220201 By TRAN QUYNH NHU Supervised by HUYNH VAN TAI, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2020 The thesis entitled THE COMPARISON OF TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED VERSIONS OF THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE was successfully defended and approved on …………. at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). Academic supervisor ………………………… HUYNH VAN TAI, Ph.
Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (Full name, title, signature) ii HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE HCMC, 30/04/2020 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: TRAN QUYNH NHU Sex: Female Date of birth: 05/06/1987 Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City Major: English Language Student code: 1841900004 I- Thesis title: THE COMPARISON OF TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED VERSIONS OF THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE II- Objectives and contents: The research aims at comparing the two translated versions, by Thien Luong and Nguyen Tuan Linh, of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in order to examine the differences and similarities of the two versions. Research results reveal how differently two translators render their versions in terms of relative clauses, personal pronouns, foreign terms and idiomatic expressions. III- Starting date: 30/10/2019 IV- Completing date: 30/04/2020 V- Academic supervisor: HUYNH VAN TAI, PH. ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN (Full name, signature) (Full name, signature) HUYNH VAN TAI, PH.
NGUYEN THI KIEU THU, PH. iii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: THE COMPARISON OF TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED VERSIONS OF THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE In terms of the statement of requirements for Thesis in Master’s programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology. Ho Chi Minh City, April 2020 TRAN QUYNH NHU iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TRAN QUYNH NHU, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Language) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses.
Ho Chi Minh City, April 2020 TRAN QUYNH NHU v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Huynh Van Tai, my supervisor, for his patience, guidance, insightful advice, and constant encouragement through the whole research process. Without his support and guidance, this thesis would never have been completed. I also would like to express my gratitude to Dr.
Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu and the Faculty of English Language of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, who have offered me and my classmates all the knowledge and materials we need for our theses. vi ABSTRACT Since the period of global integration, translation has been being an activity of enormous importance. In order to learn from the translators who are experienced and to draw some insights into the translation process, this thesis aims at comparing and contrasting two translated versions of the novel The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Thence, differences and similarities between the two were drawn out.
The corpus-based methodology was applied for the research. Data collection was carried out manually and convenient sampling procedure was adopted. Research results revealed how differently two translators render their versions in terms of relative clauses, personal pronouns, foreign terms and idiomatic expressions. Translator 1, Thien Luong, showed his tendency in translating every component of a relative clause by using the Vietnamese “mà” thoroughly to transfer this structure.
Meanwhile, translator 2, Nguyen Tuan Linh, chose to domesticate this structure by limiting the usage of “mà”. In terms of personal pronouns, translator 1 chose a set of neutral pronouns instead of a more intimate as well as emotion-provoking set like translator 2 did. The comparison also demonstrated how two translators coped with foreign terms and idiomatic expressions. Each translated version showed its advantages and disadvantages that would benefit translation learners.
(205 words) Keywords: translation studies; contrastive analysis; English to Vietnamese translation; literary translation; linguistic distinction vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page MASTER’S THESIS REPORT .iii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATION.
xi LIST OF TABLES. xii LIST OF FIGURES. xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.1 Background to the Study .2 Statement of the Problem .3 Aims and Objectives of the Study.5 Scope of the Study.6 Significance of the Study .7 Definitions of Key Terms .8 Organization of the Thesis. 4 viii CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 What is Translation? .2 A Brief History of Translation Studies .3 Literary Translation Theories .1 Linguistic Theory of Translation .2 Domestication versus Foreignization .3 Unit of Equivalence in Prose .4 The Significance of Literary Analysis in Translation .2 Vietnamese conjunction MÀ.3 Viewpoint on Translation of Idiom and Metaphorical Expression .1 Contrastive Analysis Studies on English and Vietnamese .2 Other Studies on Translation .3 Sample and Sampling Procedure .5 Data Collection Procedure .6 Data Analysis Procedure .1 The Coding System.2 Notes on Text Presentation .7 Validity and reliability.
27 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 Summary of the main findings of the thesis .2 Implications of the research .3 Limitation of the research .4 Recommendations for further research. 58 LIST OF REFERENCES. 68 x LIST OF ABBREVIATION E-V: Translation process from English to Vietnamese OB: the original The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in English PP: Personal Pronoun T1: Translator 1 – Thien Luong T2: Translator 2 – Nguyen Tuan Linh TV1: the first translated version of OB from T1 TV2: the second translated version of OB from T2 RC: Relative Clause RP: Relative Pronoun SL: Source Language ST: Suggested Translation TL: Target Language xi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The coding system Table 3.2 Typographical devices and purpose of usage Table 4.1a Comparison of translating examples of relative clause - Who/ Whom Table 4.1b Comparison of translating examples of relative clause - Whose Table 4.2 Vietnamese translation of English personal pronouns Table 4.3 Comparison of translating examples of personal pronoun Table 4.4 Comparison of different pairs of personal pronoun Table 4.5 Comparison of translating examples of foreign term Table 5 Commonly-used Vietnamese translation of relative clause xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Unit of equivalence in prose Figure 2.2 Conceptual framework of the study Figure 3.1 Research procedure flow-chart xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study Despite the fact that English is gradually reaching a stable position in the world as an irreplaceable global language, translation will never lose its place in its native country; especially in some specific fields such as literature, legal matters, news, etc. The same situation applies to Viet Nam as well.
In the article issued on November 6th 2014 on Nhan Dan Online, the author, Huu Viet mentioned an increase of translated books in Vietnamese market. The number of original books has been outnumbered with translated books. There was a time the rate of translated books that were published took a share of 90% in the Vietnamese publishing industry. However, the number of translated books that are considered good and qualified is rather humble.
Every year, Vietnam Writers’ Association and Hanoi Writers’ Association offer an annual award for prominent literary and translated works. As a judging member of translation literature board, in Huu Viet’s words, translated work candidates for the prize are about eight to ten works a year, a relatively small number in comparison with original literary works. Another article on The World and Vietnam Report (2018) addressed an issue that the quality of translated book has reached an “alarming level”.2 Statement of the Problem Working as a translator and editor, the researcher has had opportunities to work with many English-to-Vietnamese (E-V) translation books, and has encountered many difficulties in the process of learning and working. Reading broadly and in depth, as well as learning from experienced formers, is always practical and effective ways to approach translation profession.
Therefore, the researcher would like to study and analyze two translated versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde by two translators - Thien Luong and Nguyen Tuan Linh. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the traditional literature that is recommended for ones who want to study the language style of Wilde. With an ideal of art-for-art 1 literature, Wilde wrote this story for the sake of writing beautifully. He could write it in a simpler way, but he chose to express it in a more complex way.
Hence, The Picture of Dorian Gray is challenging for foreign translators who want to turn it into their languages. It also is difficult for Vietnamese translators who want to bring this novel into Vietnamese. In Viet Nam, there are some translators who have made attempts to bring this masterpiece to Vietnamese readers, including Duong Tuong, Nguyen Tho Sinh, and recently Thien Luong and Nguyen Tuan Linh. The researcher chooses to work with two latter translated versions for two reasons.
Firstly, they are the most recently translated versions of this novel. Secondly, these two are claimed to be the most complete and fullest translated versions of the novel.3 Aims and Objectives of the Study The research aims at comparing the two translated versions of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in order to examine the differences and similarities of the two versions. This research’s objective is to compare two translated versions by the two translators Thien Luong and Nguyen Tuan Linh of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in terms of dealing with relative clauses, personal pronouns, idiomatic expressions, and foreign terms.4 Research Questions This research focuses on answering the following research question: What are the similarities and differences between the two Vietnamese versions of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in terms of the translation of English relative clauses, personal pronouns, idiomatic expressions, and foreign terms? 1.5 Scope of the Study This study aims to investigate the similarities and differences between two translated versions from English to Vietnamese of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Other criteria for translation evaluation such as text formatting are not subjected to the scope of this study.6 Significance of the Study Thien Luong in Viet Nam has recently created his name for the translation of some famous works of Vladimir Nabokov such as Lolita, Cloud Castle Lake, A Russian Beauty and Other Stories.
He has a strong opinion on translation that is to keep the original structure as much as possible to transfer the style and culture of the original work into Vietnamese. In other words, he followed the school of externalization. Besides, he also has controversial criticisms for the translation products that have been published before. Therefore, Thien Luong's translated products can be considered as an attempt to improve errors from previous translations.
Analysis of Thien Luong's translation would be a great learning opportunity for the researcher on the field of foreignization translation. Meanwhile, although Nguyen Tuan Linh has not been recognized as an acclaimed translator, the way he put effort in the production of The Picture of Dorian Gray translation, as well as the way he diligently conversed with the readers from the opening of the book, in which he explained the reasons for several interpretations he adopted, demonstrated a serious attitude of working. Decoding how Nguyen Tuan Linh interpreted the original and rendered the translation would be a chance for learning as well.