VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _******** _ A TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE VIETNAMESE VERSION OF US FINANCIAL & ACCOUNTING APPLICATION SOFTWARE (ĐÁNH GIÁ CHẤT LƯỢNG DỊCH THUẬT BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT CÁC PHẦN MỀM ỨNG DỤNG VỀ TÀI CHÍNH-KẾ TOÁN MỸ) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics BY: TRAN THI CAM TU SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr LE HUNG TIEN HANOI 2008 TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIONS Part A: INTRODUCTION Reasons for Choosing The Topic Aims of Study Scope of Study Research Method and Data Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Translation I.1.1 Definition of Translation I.1.2 Types of Translation a Technical Translation b Form-based and Meaning-based translation I.2 Translation Equivalence I.3 Translation Quality Assessment I.3.1 Definition of Translation Quality Assessment I.3.2 Aspects of Translation Quality Assessment I.3.3 Steps in Translation Quality Assessment I.4 Technical Language I.4.1 Terminology I.4.2 Information Technology Terms a Single terms b Compound terms 3 5 5 6 11 11 12 12 13 14 15 15 16 I.4.3 Application Software Terms I.4.4 Financial and Accounting terms I.5 Summary of Chapter's Findings Chapter II: SOURCE -TEXT ANALYSIS II.1 The author's Purpose II.2 Characteristic of the Readership II.3 The Topic II.4 Language Qualities of Source Text II.4.1 Features of SL Terms a Sub-technical terms b Highly technical terms • Single terms Single terms as nouns, verbs and past participles 16 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 20 21 22 23 23 Single terms as acronyms • Compound terms Compound terms as noun phrases Compound terms as verb phrases II.4.2 Application Messeges II.5 Summary of Chapter's Findings Chapter III: COMPARISON OF THE TRANSLATION WITH THE ORIGINAL III.1 The Translation of The Topic III.2 The Translation of Terms III.2.1 Sub-technical Terms III.2.2 Highly Technical Terms • Single terms Single terms as nouns, verbs and past participles Single terms as acronyms • Compound terms The translation of Noun phrases The translation of Verb phrases III.2.3 The Translation of Application Messeges III.3 The Evaluation of the Translation III.4 Sumary of Chapter's Findings Part C: CONCLUSION Issues addressed in the study Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDIX Screenshot of Enterprise Complete Business Application Suite Screenshot of example form of US F&A Application Software Term Type Classification 25 25 26 28 29 29 32 33 34 34 35 35 36 38 38 39 40 41 42 44 45 45 46 DECLARATION I declare that this MA Thesis, entitled A Translation Quality Assessment of The Vietnamese Version of US Financial & Accounting Application, is entirely the result of my own work The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or tertiary institution, and to the best of my knowledge, neither does it contain material previously published or written by another person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text Signature Tran Thi Cam Tu DEABSTRACT This study investigates translation quality assessment of the Vietnamese version of US Financial and Accounting application software translated by the pool of 20 translators coming from VNLocalize, a big localization company in Vietnam with its head office in Hanoi The introduction gives a rationale for the study and sets up aims, scope and methods of the study Chapter I present the study’s theoretical background It introduces the issues relevant to the study including translation, translation equivalence, translation quality assessment, technical language and terminology Chapter II analyzes the source language text with focus on the pragmatic accuracy, or in other word the accuracy of meaning in context, of the US F& A application software The emphasis of the analysis will be on terminology meaning accuracy Part of the analysis will also deal with form of the SL text The main group of terms will be divided according to their meaning and the sub group of terms will be divided according to their form Chapter III compares the original text with the translation and explores how the translation has solved issues in the original text based on mostly the meaning and partly the form aspects of the original text and then evaluation of the translation will be stated The conclusion summarizes the issues addressed in the study and gives suggestions for further study ACKNOWLEGEMENTS On the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien for transferring me his specialized knowledge in translation, his inspiring me the love in translation studies as well as his valuable suggestions, advice and correction during my writing up the thesis I also wish to express my sincere thanks to my friend, Van Thi Thanh Binh M.A and Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, post-graduate student for their insightful comments and suggestions I also take this opportunity to thank all my lecturers in the Post Graduate Department at College of Foreign Language, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for many of their interesting lectures, which have surely contributed to the foundation of my thesis I owe my debt of gratitude to my big managers Bettina Richard and Jeewon Kim from Oracle Worldwide Product Translation Group (WPTG) who encouraged me to continue my MA study after my accident by giving me favorable working condition Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my parents, my son and my sister for their support, encouragement and understanding and even my father's pushing, without which my thesis would not have been accomplished Hanoi, March, 2008 Tran Thi Cam Tu ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source Language TL: Target Language F& A: Finance and Accounting UI: User Interface IT: Information Technology N: Noun GL: General Ledger PART A: INTRODUCTION Translating US F&A terms in application software into Vietnamese is in big need at the moment as there are numerous IT companies who are implementing the localization of US F&A software for both public sector like the Ministry of Finance and private one covering many enterprises FPT, for example, a famous IT company with thousands of employees can only take responsibility for a small portion of the translation In addition, many of the terms here are used in the F&A world which is a very hot industry in Vietnam at the moment, with the mushrooming participation of many foreign and domestic banks, financial organizations etc However, it is quite a challenging task as the size of the translation is very big and the big volume of terminologies both in information technology and in finance and accounting also causes a lot of difficulties Another reason is that localization, which means the translation of software products, is quite a new industry in Vietnam with very few translation companies operating in the field This new industry also implies another difficulty for the translators, which is the fact that many terms are new to the target language In such cases, we need to invent terminology in the translation for complex business flows that are mostly a new concept To verify the huge scope and complexity of the translation project, I would like to have a brief introduction about what US financial and accounting software is Looking at the graph in Appendix 1, we can see financial and accounting software is one software among many other software that enterprises use such as Human Resource, Resource Planning, Purchasing etc to boost the process of their business activities by replacing the previous manual process with modern IT process now The form (screen) in Appendix will describe part of the automatic payment process we can use with the financial and accounting application software Before now, there have been researches about Translation Quality Assessment like the study by Julian House, Amos, Postgate, Newmark However, no researches about Translation Quality Assessment for Software Translation have been done, according to the researcher’s best knowledge from the finding in different sources like professional translation web sites like translationjournal.com or other local sources Even, it is very difficult to find document about language quality of software language, which is a very challenging domain covering a huge number of terminologies in different industries like IT, finance and accounting The general approach of the study is to research translation quality assessment for US F&A accounting application software, finding out what are the language qualities of the source text with specialization in computing and F&A terminology, comparing the translation with the source text to decide how the translation have solved issues in the source text and an evaluation of the translation will be made REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC The first reason that makes me to propose for the research is that few researchers have done about translation quality assessment In addition, as mentioned in the introduction, no researches about Translation Quality Assessment for Software Translation has been done, according to the researcher’s knowledge from the finding in different sources like professional translation web sites like translationjournal.com or other local sources With investigation on qualities employed in the source text of US F&A application, the researcher hopes to bring about clearer view on the nature of a technical text, which will result in better translation Secondly, the researcher hopes that this study will be of some help to language reviewers, especially the reviewers for application software translation, which is very challenging task because application software is a new industry in Vietnam and the application software translation is even a newer industry with a huge bulk of terminologies of different specialized fields Finally, I choose to write about Translation Criticism because I am now working as a language specialist for a global software translation organization with the main responsibility to translation review and give feedback to the translators about the errors they encounter Therefore, I especially enjoy the topic III.4 Summary of the Chapter's Findings: There is good translation of sub technical terms because the terms normally have single meanings and it is easy to find such meanings from an available technical dictionary Translation errors appear in a high number in highly technical category, both in singular terms and compound terms The researcher holds to the reason that these terms or parts of these terms as in the case of the compounds have multiple meanings, even highly technical meanings, this really causes big difficulties for the non-specialized people to the translation Another reason found in the study is translators lack reference for the meanings of the terms They did not read the definitions in the specialized documents, they did not take the context - e.g the neighboring terms- into account and no consultation with field experts was conducted The other problem, although with rare occurrences, is translators use descriptive phrase when there is equivalent term in TL SL form is preserved in the translation In most cases, there is no need to change form in the translation because the SL text is technical language used with high precision However, in certain cases, the change of form is necessary to accomodate correct meaning (Newmark, P.) because "form is secondary to content" (Nida), and they are cases where translators fail to achieve the meaning accuracy when SL form is preserved in the translation PART C: CONCLUSION ISSUES ADDRESSED IN THE STUDY Translation Quality Assessment model has been investigated based on the approach raised by famous scholars like Newmark (1988) and Koller: (1) the source text analysis with focus on the terminology meaning accuracy; (2) comparing the translation with the original based on the qualities found in step (1); and (3) the evaluation of the translation Detailed steps of the analysis are based on the approaches given by Newmark including "a statement of the author's purpose that is the attitude he takes towards the topic; characterization of the readership; an indication of its category and type, assessment of the quality of language to determine the translator's degree of licence, assuming for example that he can reduce cliché to natural language in informative but not in authoritative texts; statement of the topic or themes" The study started with the exploration of the SL text, which is a technical text having a big number of terms in two meaning categories including sub technical and highly technical To clarify, investigation on the qualities of technical text has also been conducted Its typical feature, according to Newmark, is jazzed up, i.e containing high density of terms free from emotive language Research has also been done on terminology and different types of terminology The emphasis of the SL text analysis is on meaning based on Newmark's approach to Translation Quality Assessment, in which the evaluation of the translation is based on its referential and pragmatic accuracy Other scholars also share this view, stating that the essence of translation lies in the preservation of meaning between two languages Two kinds of term meanings have been found including primary and secondary meaning Investigation on what kind of meaning makes it easy or difficult to understand the SL text leading to good or bad translation has also been carried out Other items suggested by Newmark that can be applied to the analysis of a technical text including the topic, the readership have also been investigated in the study In the second stage of the study, a comparison of the translation with the original was conducted with criteria worked out in the first stage Other factors including translators' research of reference documents, technical glossaries or consultation from field experts were also taken into consideration in the comparison The final stage, the evaluation of the translation was given The researcher has been objective, basing the evaluation on the findings in the translation comparison, avoiding criticizing the translators as suggested by Newmark (1988) To be objective, date of SL text and TL text were taken from the translated version of US F&A application software implemented by a real group of 20 translators SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY Due to the limited time and scope of the study, a number of issues were not investigated Therefore, the researcher would like to suggest further study on the following: a Technical language stylistics should be further investigated b Survey should be conducted by distributing questionnaire to the 20 translators to find out what the causes of their translation errors are c Translation techniques to deliver good technical translation and to handle the errors detected in the study should also be investigated REFERENCES An, L H (2003) Đặc điểm Thuật ngữ Kiểm toán Tiếng Đức và Cách chuyển dịch Thuật ngữ Kiểm toán Tiếng Đức sang Tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, Trường Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn Baker, M (1992) In Other Words - A course book on translation London and New York: Routledge Baker, M (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies London and New York: Routledge Bassnett, S (2002) Translation Studies (Vol Third edition) London and New York: Routledge Tailor &Francis Group Binh, V T T (2001) A Study on the Stylistic Equivalence between The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway and its translated Version in Vietnamese Hanoi: Vietnam National University Chesterman, A (1989) Readings in Translation Theories Finland: Oy Finn Lectura Ab Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology Giap, N.T (1998) Từ Vựng Học Tiếng Việt Hà Nội: NXB Đại học và Trung học Chuyên nghiệp Gottlieb, Y G a H (2001) (Multi) Media Translation (Vol 34) Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company 10 Hariyanto, S The Implication of Culture on Translation Theory and Practice, from http://www.translationdirectory.com/article634.htm/ 11 House, J (1977) A Model for Translation Quality Assessment Tubingen: Gunter Narr 12 Koller, W (1979) Equivalence in Translation Theory, in Chesterman, A (1989) Readings in Translation Theory, Loimaan Kirjapaino 13 Kreider, C.W (2001) Introducing English Semantics New York: Routledge 14 L.Larson, M (1984) Meaning-Based Translation - A Guide to CrossLanguage Equivalence Lanham: University Press of America 15 Lang, L.V (1977) Về Vấn Đề Xây Dựng Thuật Ngữ Khoa Học Hà Nội: NXB Lao Động và Xã Hội 16 Leonardi, V Equivalence in Translation: Between Myth and Reality Retrieved from http://www.accurapid.com/journal/14equiv.htm 17 Newmark, P (1982) Approaches to Translation Oxford: Pergamon Institute of English 18 Newmark, P (1988) A Textbook of Translation Hertfordshire: Cetre for Translation and Language Studies, University of Surrey 19 Novel Translation Definition and Theory Retrieved from http://www.proz.com/topic/94339 20 Phuong, V.C.T (2004) The study of the collocation in the English textbook on Electronics and Telecommunications Hanoi: Vietnam National University 21 Some key terms in translation theory Retrieved from http://www.translatum.gr/etexts/translation-theory.htm 22 Thuy, V T T (2005) A Study on The Translation of English Computer Texts in Vietnamese Equivalents Hanoi: Vietnam National University 23 Understanding Technical Language: A Literature Review Retrieved from http://www.aalec.ca/uploads/Understanding%20Technical%20Language.pdf 24 What is translation and how does it work? Retrieved from http://www.geocities.com/alberth_kendari/what_is_translation.htm 25 What is translation equivalence? Retrieved from http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsTranslation alEquivalence.htm 26 Yen, V T T (2007) A Study on The Equivalence between English and Vietnamese Translation of Insurance Terms in US Health Insurance Plans Hanoi: Vietnam National University APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1: Screenshot of Enterprise Complete Business Application Suite APPENDIX Screenshot of example form of US F&A Application Software APPENDIX 3: Term Type Classification Term Type Form Name Single Noun Sub Techni cal Apply Prepaym ent Apply Holds Prepaym ent_ General Matchin g Payables Matchin g Shipmen t FNDSR UN Verb 1.Account: Tài khoản 2.Description: Mô tả 3.Distribution: Chi tiết 4.Site: Địa điểm Line: Dòng Compound Apply: Áp Number: Số 1.Summary: Tổng hợp 2.Status: Trạng thái 3.Description: Mô tả 4.Approvals: Phê duyệt 1.Supplier: Nhà cung cấp 2.Item: Mặt hàng 3.Type: Loại 4.Name: Tên 5.Number: Số 6.Site: Địa điểm 7.Line: Dòng 8.Category: Loại 1.Label: Nhãn 2.Requester: Người yêu cầu 3.Variance: Sai số 1.Style: Kiểu 2.Printer: Máy in 3.Copies: Bản 4.Layout: Bố cục 5.Format: Định dạng Particip le N+N (+N) A+N (N+A) N(+N) +PII(PII + N) Verb phrase 1.Clear: Xóa 2.Cancel: Hủy 3.Find: Tìm Cancel: Hủy 1.Help: Trợ giúp 2.Preview: Xem trước 3.Cancel: Hủy Template Name: Tên khuôn mẫu Template Language Notify the following people: Thông báo những người sau Participle Phrase Abbrevi ations : Ngôn ngữ khuôn mẫu Matchin g Shipmen ts Work Order Cancel: Hủy 1.Name: Tên 2.Parameter: Tham số 4.Language: Ngôn ngữ 5.Option: Tùy chọn 6.Layout: Bố cục 1.Copy: Sao chép 2.Schedule : Đặt lịch 3.Notify: Thông báo 4.Help: Trợ giúp 5.Submit: Đệ trình 6.Cancel: Hủy Encumb rance Highly Techni cal Requester: Người yêu cầu Print the output to: In đầu đến Save all output files: Lưu toàn bộ tập tin đầu 1.Period: Kỳ 2.Description: Mô tả 3.Date:Ngày 4.Status: Trạng thái 5.Approval: Phê duyệt 6.Detail: Chi tiết Apply prepaym ent Apply hold 1.Apply: Áp 2.Unapply: Không áp Release: Giải phóng treo Account ed: Đã hạch toán 1.Order ed: Đã đặt hàng Receive d: Đã nhận 1.Invoice Amount 2.GL Date 3.PO 4.Number 5.Receipt Number 6.Tax Code 1.Amount Available: Số tiền hiện co More currencies: Nhiều loại tiền 1.Purchas e Order: Đơn mua hàng 2.Hold Name: Tên treo 3.Hold 1.Current Record: Dữ liệu hiện tại ́ 1.Amount applied: Số tiền đã áp Existing prepayment : Thanh toán trước hiện có 3.Invoice Amount Unpaid: Số tiền Hóa đơn Chưa toán 1.Ship to: Giao hàng tới 2.View PO: Xem ĐĐH (đơn đặt hàng) Held by: Treo bởi Released by: Giải phóng treo bởi Accepte d: Đã chấp nhận Billed: Đã xuất hóa đơn Payment _General Reason: Lý treo 4.Release Reason: Lý giải phóng treo 5.Release Name: Tên giải phóng treo Hold Date: Ngày treo 6.Release Date: Ngày giải phóng treo 6.Receipt Date: Ngày lập phiếu thu Shipment Quantity: Số lượng lô hàng 8.Release Quantity: Số lượng giải phóng treo Invoice Status: Trạng thái hóa đơn Approval status: Trạng thái phê duyệt Invoice currency: Loại tiền hóa đơn Payment Currency: Loại tiền toán Days Late: Số́ ngày trễ Amount paid: Số tiền đã toán Pending approver: Chờ̀ người phê duyê View Invoice Payment Tax Summar y Matchin g POs Void: Hủy Distributi on Total: Tổng tiền phát sinh Payment Overview : Tổng quát Thanh toán Payment Method: Phương thức Thanht oán Doc Number: Số chứng từ GL Date: Ngày hạch toán Payment Amount: Số tiền Thanh toán Discount Amount: Số tiền Chiết khấu Total Tax Amount: Tổng số tiền thuế 2.Tax Summary : Tổng Tax Code Tax Rate Net Amount Purchase Order: Số hóa đơn Price Discount taken: Chiết khấu đã nhận Recoverable Tax: Thuế đc Khấu trừ Nonrecoverable tax: Thuế không được khấu trừ Find POs for Matching: Tìm Đ ĐH để Matchin g Shipmen t FNDSR UN Match: Đối chiếu Variance: Sai số Match: Đối chiếu Ordered : Đã đặt hàng Billed: Đã xuất hóa đơn Delivere d: Đã giao hàng Correctio n: Điều chỉnh giá Supplier Name: Tên nhà cung cấp Supplier Number: Số hiệu NCC Supplier Site: Địa điểm NCC Tax Registrati on: Mã số thuế Invoice Num: Số hóa đơn Item Descripti on: Mô tả Mặt hàng Account Discriptio n: Mô tả Tài khoản 2.Distribu tion Quantity: Số lượng phân bổ Control Quantity: Số lượng kiểm soát Actual Quantity: Số lượng thực tế Control Amount: Số tiền kiểm soát Actual Amount: Số tiền thực tế đổi chiếu Ship to: Giao hàng đến Deliver to: Giao đến Advance Shipment Notice: Thông báo giao hàng trước Open Folder: Thư mục mở UOM (Unit of Measure ment): Đơn vị tính Encumb erance Fund: Quỹ Journal: Bút toán Debit: Nợ Credit: Có Fixed Assets 1.Cost: Nguyên giá Book: Sổ tài sản Assignment: Gán Payment Format Remittance: Chuyển tiền Home: Trụ sở /Trang chủ Payment Batch Invoice: Hóa đơn Currency: Loại tiền Vendor: Nhà cung cấp Post: sổ Kết Entered: Phát sinh Convert ed: Đã quy đổi Posted: Đã kết sổ Batch Total: Tổng lô Balance Type: Loại số dư Transacti on Code: Mã số Giao dịch Journal Type: Loại bút toán Control Total: tổng kiểm soát Void: Hủy Hold: Treo 1.Paymen t method: Phương thức toán 2.Check Payment: Thanh toán bằng séc Credit Memo: Điều chỉnh giảm từ qđịnh của NCC Debit Entered Debit: Phát sinh nợ Entered Credit: Phát sinh có Converted Debit: Nợ đã quy đổi Converted Credit: Có đã quy đổ Balance Forward Billing: Xuất hóa đơn số dư mang sang Check Funds: Kiểm tra quỹ Reserve Funds: Dự trữ quỹ Unreserve funds: Không dự dữ quỹ Reverse batch: Đảo lô 1.Current Cost: Nguyên giá hiện tại Direct Debit: Nợ trực tiếp Straight Line Method: Phương thức khấu hao đều 4.Quick Addition: Nhập nhanh Capitali zed: Đã vốn hóa 1.Late charge: Phí chậm trả 2.Monthly burn rate: Tỷ lệ tiêu tiền Date Placed in Service: Ngày đưa vào sử dụng Trade Asset in 1.Reverse Payment: Đảo toán Remit to Account: posted by: Kết sổ bởi 1.CIP: XDCB dở dang Deprn: Khấu hao (Lỗi sai các từ viết tắt) Memo: Điều chỉnh giảm từ qđịnh của doanh nghiệp 3.Invoice Overview : Xem tổng quát hóa đơn 4.Exchan ge Rate: Tỷ giá Quy đổi 5.Exchan ge Date: Ngày quy đổi 6.GL Date: Ngày hạch toán 7.Paymen t Amount: Số tiền toán Messages Tài khoản nhận tiền Delete action is disabled Approver is not an active worker Cause: You entered an inactive worker as the approver The approver must be an active worker if the requisition is unapproved Action: Enter an active worker as the approver Action: Make the approver an active worker Term Type Sub Technical Highly Technical ... also means "kế toán" as in "accounting period" (kỳ kế toán) In many cases, "accounting" also means "hạch toán" as in "accounting date", which is translated as "ngày hạch toán" Followings... Prepayment (Áp toán trước), Apply Holds (Áp treo), Payment General (Tổng quan về Thanh toán) , View Invoice Payment (Thanh toán Hóa đơn), Matching Payables (Đối chiếu Các khoản phải... "Apply" This term has its sub technical term meaning as "áp dụng" or "ứng dụng" like the common phrase "technology application" (ứng dụng công nghệ) using its derived noun However, in application