VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN PHƯƠNG VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURAL WORDS IN THE BOOK “HANOI’S ANCIENT FEATURES” BY TRAN MANH THUONG (CÁCH DỊCH TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH CÁC TỪ NGỮ VĂN HÓA TRONG TÁC PHẨM “NÉT XƯA HÀ NỘI” CỦA TRẦN MẠNH THƯỜNG) M. Minor Thesis English Linguistics 602215 Hanoi, 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN PHƯƠNG VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURAL WORDS IN THE BOOK “HANOI’S ANCIENT FEATURES” BY TRAN MANH THUONG (CÁCH DỊCH TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH CÁC TỪ NGỮ VĂN HÓA TRONG TÁC PHẨM “NÉT XƯA HÀ NỘI” CỦA TRẦN MẠNH THƯỜNG) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc. Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi, 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgement Abstract Table of contents PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Scope of the study. Aims of the study. Design of the study. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.
Definition of translation. The concept of translation equivalence. Types of equivalence in translation. The problem of non – equivalence.
The concept of culture in translation. 15 CHAPTER 2: THE MOST COMMON TYPE OF CULTURAL WORDS EQUIVALENCE 2. The most common types of cultural words. The most common types of equivalence.
Strategies to deal with nil – equivalence. 24 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Description of the ingredients and how the dish is cooked. Description of the use of the object.
Description of the shape and appearance of things. Transferring meanings of the words. 27 CHAPTER 3: OTHER TYPES OF EQUIVALENCE 3. Many-to-one equivalence.
One-to-part-of-one equivalence. One-to-one equivalence. Reasons for the differences. Different religions and beliefs.
Different traditions and customs. Different historical allusion. Suggestions for further study. 40 REFERENCES APPENDICES LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A – INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale Language is the carrier of the culture. For one thing, language is a part of culture and plays an important role in it. Thus it reflects culture. For another, as a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture.
Culture and intercultural competence and awareness that rise out of experience of culture, are far more complex phenomena than it may seem to the translator. The more a translator is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the better a translator s/he will be. It is probably right to say that there has never been a time when the community of translators was unaware of cultural differences and their significance for translation. Translation theorists have been cognizant of the problems attendant upon cultural knowledge and cultural differences at least since ancient Rome.
Cultural knowledge and cultural differences have been a major focus of translator training and translation theory for as long as either has been in existence. The main concern has traditionally been with words and phrases that are so heavily and exclusively grounded in one culture that they are almost impossible to translate into the terms – verbal or otherwise – of another. Long debate have been held over when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest local equivalent, when to coin a new word by translating literally, and when to transcribe. All these “untranslatable” cultural- bound words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists.
As hard as it may seem, the translation of Vietnamese cultural words is now an inevitable part in our integrating life since we have become a member of WTO. It is important for any Vietnamese to match cultural equivalence between English and Vietnamese to introduce our culture into the world. However, not many empirical studies have been conducted so far on the issue of translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English. Those reasons may justify for the necessity of this study.
The study investigates how Vietnamese cultural words are transferred in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”. It also raised the need for translators of Vietnamese- LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com English texts, especially in treating cultural terms, to pay close attention to the linguistic and cultural elements of the source texts. Scope of the study Within limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the researcher focuses only on cultural words occurring in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” by Tran Manh Thuong. Such is the boundary set for my thesis so as to achieve a thorough investigation.
Specifically, the study takes into consideration such major aspects as follows: The most common types of equivalence The possible reasons for the non – equivalence Their translations. Aims of the study The main aims of the study are: To work out the most common types of equivalence used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words. To draw out the common problems of equivalence seen in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English. To draw out strategies and procedures that may apply to the translation of Vietnamese cultural words and suggest some implications for the translation of the cultural words.
Research questions The thesis seeks answers for the following research questions: a. What is the most typical type of equivalence used in the translation of cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”? b. What are the most common problems in translating Vietnamese cultural words into English that can be seen in the book? c. What are the common methods used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Research methods On the completion of the thesis, the researcher went through the following steps: Building up a theoretical background by reviewing translation and terminology Collecting and grouping Vietnamese cultural words in the book and their English equivalents for description, analysis and induction Finding out the similarities and differences and draw out the translation used in the translation of cultural words. The main method is contrastive analysis. Data collection The Vietnamese cultural words studied are taken from the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” and their equivalents are picked out from the translation by the Vietnamese translator Tran Manh Thuong. Design of the study The study consists of three main parts, references and appendices as follows: PART A – INTRODUCTION The introduction gives rationale for the study.
It also outlines the aims and the methods of the study. PART B – DEVELOPMENT The development comprises two chapters. Chapter 1: Theoretical background The theory of translation and the translation of cultural words will be dealt with in this chapter Chapter 2: The most common type of equivalence This chapter features an investigation into the equivalence between Vietnamese and English translation of cultural words to draw out the most common type of equivalence in translation of Vietnamese cultural words, that is nil equivalence. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com It also studies the translation of Vietnamese cultural words and translation methods employed in their translation by Tran Manh Thuong in his book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”.
Chapter 3: Other types of equivalence The other types of equivalence are to be stated and analysed in this chapter. The researcher also indicates the reasons for the differences in cultural words between the two languages at the last part. PART C – CONCLUSION The conclusion summaries the strategies and procedures and methods of translation as well as makes relevant suggestions. Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to during the writing of this thesis.
The appendices list examples of different groups of equivalence in order of the alphabet. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Definition of translation Kelly, L.G - a prominent figure in linguistics stated “Without translation, there is no history of the world.” What is a basis for him to make such a strong claim? What is translation that is of great importance as implied by Kelly? Translation, traditionally and controversially seen with its status as an art or a science, has been viewed differently through times and thus defined variously. Thus, in this section, the writer cites some definitions proposed by Catford, Larson, Newmark and Bell in order to have a clear concept about translation.
General definition of translation has been set by Catford (1965:20) in “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”, he defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)”. He tried to emphasize the translation is the process of substituting the equivalent of lexical items ‘textual material’. It means that the process of substituting a text cannot be regarded as a translation if the message of the TL text is not comparable to the message of the SL text. In addition to statement of Catford, Larson (1984:3) views that translation is a process of how a language is transferred into another by changing the form of source language and not the meaning of the source language, as he states that: Translation consists of translating the meaning of the source language into the receptor language.
This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the form changes. Larson (1984:3) LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In accordance with those definitions, Newmark (1988) assumes that translation is a way of conveying message from the author of the SL into TL.
He points out translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text. He did not seem to totally agree with Larson – who viewed translation a basic “change of form”, by emphasizing the “intended the text”. In line with the theory above, Bell (1991:5) assumes that “translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences”. He also says that translation “is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.” It is noticed that those definitions discussed above, though put different, share common features which is to find equivalents that best or appropriately preserve features of the original in terms of semantics, grammatical structures, lexis, cultural context as well as communication situation among other things to be considered.
The concept of translation equivalence Translation equivalence is a principal concept in translation theory. It is a constitutive feature and the guiding principle of translation. As Catford points out, "the central problem of translation-practice is that of finding TL equivalents. A central task of translation theory is that of defining the nature and conditions of translation equivalence." (Catford 1965:21) Actually, since the fifties of the twentieth century, many translation theorists have involved and elaborated translation equivalence in their respective theories.
First of all, it is necessary for us to understand exactly the meaning of the word "equivalence" itself. According to Mary Snell-Hornby (1988:17), for the last 150 years, the word "equivalence" in English has been used as a technical term in different kinds of exact sciences to refer to a number of scientific phenomena or processes. For instance, in mathematics, it indicates a relationship of absolute equality that involves guaranteed LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. At the same time, however, it can also be used as a common word in the general vocabulary of English, and, in this sense, it means "of similar significance".
In other words, the word "equivalence" is used in the English language both as a scientific term and as a common word.