The use of translation strategies for english idiomatic expression in the vietnamese version of pierce brown’s “red rising

Mẫu bìa Đề cương luận văn MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY THE USE OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION IN THE VIETNAMESE VERSION OF P[.]

-THE USE OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION IN THE VIETNAMESE VERSION OF PIERCE

BROWN’S “RED RISING”

Major: English Language

Course code:

HO CHI MINH CITY, FEBRUARY/ 2023

-THE USE OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES FOR ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION IN

THE VIETNAMESE VERSION OF

PIERCE BROWN’S “RED RISING”

Submitted to the Faculty of English Language

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in English Language

(Total number of words should be stated here)

Course code: 60220201

By

HO CHI MINH CITY, FEBRUARY/ 2023

ABSTRACT Keywords: idiomatic expression, translation, translation strategy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

List of tables iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS vi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem 3

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study 4

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 5

1.7 Definition of the key terms 5

1.8 Organization of the thesis 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Introduction 6

2.2 Idioms 6

2.2.1 Definitions of idioms 6

2.2.2 Characteristics of idioms 8

2.2.3 English idiomatic expressions 9

2.3 Translation strategy 10

2.3.1 Definitions of translation strategy 10

2.3.2 Idiom translation 11

2.3.3 Idiom translation strategies 12

2.4 Previous studies 15

2.5 Conceptual framework 18

CHAPTER 3 19

METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Introduction 19

3.2 Research design 19

3.3 Data source 19

3.4 Sample and sampling procedures 20

3.5 Research instruments 20

3.6 Data collection procedures 21

3.7 Data analysis procedures 21

3.8 Validity & Reliability 21

3.8.1 Validity 21

3.8.2 Reliability 22

3.9 Ethical issues 22

3.10 Chapter summary 22

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 22

4.1 Introduction 22

4.2 Results 22

4.3 Discussions 22

4.4 Chapter summary 22

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 23

5.1 Summary of the main findings of the thesis 23

5.2 Implications of the research 23

5.3 Limitation of the research 23

5.4 Recommendations for further research 23

LIST OF REFERENCES 24

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

Language is an important part in every communication People cancommunicate well if they can deliver their message from their utterance Languageallows people to say things to others and expresses their communicative needs.Language and society may influence each other because as a human being, peoplecannot be separated with society and environment and they still need anotherpeople Alternatively, we say that language is a mean of communication (William,2005) The statement implies that persons must have a strong command of English.But, those who never learn English or who do not know the language needtranslated books or dictionaries to understand the meaning of a foreign word orphrase so that they can comprehend the word, phrase, or sentence without difficulty

In Vietnam, English is known as a foreign language, studied by many people

in the country, because it is used as a necessity and is used almost everywhere.Sometimes, English is a big barrier because people misunderstand the meaning ofthe sentence, so translation is one of the important tools to translate from English toVietnamese language Translation is one effective way to understand the Englishlanguage with ease

Translation is a two-party relationship (between target and source language)that requires effective cooperation in order to get desired results According to Bell(1991), the purpose of translation is to change a text that was originally written inone language into a text that has the same meaning but is written in a differentlanguage while preserving as much of the formal characteristics and functional roles

of the original text as is possible Bell (1974), in contrast to Catford, argues that atotal equivalence between a source language (SL) text and its translation issomething that can never be fully achieved Since translation has grown insignificance on both a national and international scale, it is unquestionably a topic

deserving more in-depth research To achieve a good translation, a translator musthave a good knowledge of the source language and the target language and theirculture Nida (1964) also adds that a translator's job is to make it easier for amessage's meaning and cultural components to be transferred from one languageinto another while also giving the listeners a comparable response One ofchallenges that translators meet is idiomatic expressions because they have literalmeaning and figurative meanings

Idiomatic expressions are a fascinating and widespread occurrence in alllanguages They are commonly used in daily life to convey ideas and notions thatcannot be encapsulated in a single phrase The consistently highlight thedistinctiveness of how each country views and responds to the outside world.Huber-Okrainec and Dennis (2003) state that idioms are non-literal phrases thatcannot be translated literally However, idiomatic expressions are used commonly

in spoken and written languages In actuality, they are a regularly used component

of communication According to Liu and Hwa (2018), understanding the intendedmeaning of an idiom or idiomatic expression depends on the context in which it isused Additionally, Oakhill, Cain, & Nesi (2016) affirm the significance of itscontext for general comprehension

In general, it is crucial for a translator to first identify idiomatic expressions inthe source language before determining the best strategies for translating them Thetranslator needs translation strategies so that the meaning of the idiom in the sourcetext may be managed appropriately in the target text because there are numerouschallenges in translating idioms The translators employ the translation strategy toaid them in translating idioms According to Baker (2006), the translator must selectthe best strategy so that the message of an idiomatic expression can be precisely andeffectively communicate The ability to identify idiomatic expressions and useappropriate translation strategies is thus enormously important Therefore, theresearcher considers translation strategies for idiomatic expressions from Englishinto Vietnamese is an interesting and useful topic for discussion and exploration

when the needs for translating books, especially literals ones, from English intoVietnamese are increasing In bookstores, we can find that thousands of works havebeen translatied from English into Vietnamese to serve Vietnamese readers of alltypes.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The use of idiomatic expressions is almost essential in books, even though,idioms are unique and tend to be difficult to be translated In this study, thetranslator chose a famous book, namely “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown, anAmerican science fiction author, wrote six novelsand faced rejection from over 120agents before selling Red Rising He wrote this novel in two months above hisparents' garage in Seattle, Washington

Red Rising is a 2014 dystopian science fiction novel of Pierce Brown, and the

first book and eponym of a series The novel, set in the future on Mars, follows

lowborn miner Darrow as he infiltrates the ranks of the elite Golds Red Rising has

received generally positive reviews In 2014, Universal Pictures secured the rights

for a film adaptation, but the project was eventually scrapped Red Rising was well

received by both readers and critics, and hit #20 on The New York Times BestSeller list in February 2014

The story depicts the Martian setting and future technologies of the Darrowworld in great detail and creativity From the beginning of the story, the author hasfocused on describing all aspects of the daily life of the residents of the Red class,

as well as the machinery and equipment they use in their daily lives and work.Thanks to that, when reading the story, you can almost feel like walking around themining areas, shaking hands and chatting with Darrow himself What's more, theauthor doesn't hold each thing in his hand, one by one, but lets the story flownaturally, and gradually the dialogues, the characters' inner thoughts will let thereader understand more about the context, about the technologies used Thus, toexpress common issues in life, the author uses a lot of idiomatic expressions As a

results, the translation strategies for these idiomatic expressions and theirVietnamese equivalents will serve as a useful source for translation teachers andstudents.

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study

The aim of this research is to analyze strategies that the translator, i.e.LeDinh Chi, used in translating idiomatic expressions and to find out the mostfrequent translation strategies so that useful implications can be achieved To put itspecifically, the objectives of this study are:

- To find out the idiomatic expressions in the English version Red Rising

1.5 Scope of the study

The study will focus on translation strategies including functions and meaning,

as well as Baker's translation theories for the translation of idiomatic expressions inthe English book Consequently, register and genre aspects of Baker's model willnot be disclosed This study will examine the data comprehensively using contentand descriptive analysis

1.6 Significance of the study

This study is hoped to serve as a further resource for readers, particularly fortranslation teachers and students who are interested in studying the strategies ofidiomatic expressions translation These strategies are anticipated to be expandedupon and further investigated by other researchers in future studies to get newexperience in researching idioms

In terms of theory, this study will make a contribution for scholarly literatureand empirical studies to support applying of more objective as well as applicabletranslation strategies for the Vietnamese and English languages

As far as a practical contribution, this study will serve as a resource for bothamateur and professional translators seeking to enhance the overall quality of otherliterary translations In addition, the study may serve as a roadmap for futureresearch including the application of Baker's theories 1992 to the evaluation ofidiom translation strategies

1.7 Definition of the key terms

- Idiomatic expressions: According to McCharthy and O‘Dell (2003) in their book,English Idiom Use states that, “idioms are expressions which have a meaning that isnot obvious from the individual word” (p.6) It means that the meaning of idioms isnot literal meanings, but they have non literal meanings The best way to understand

idiom are by looking at the content For example, drive somebody is an idiommeaning make somebody angry or frustrated.

- Translation: Munday (2012) states that translation is transferring source languagesinto target languages The translation is needed to help the readers understand thetext meaning that originally from a foreign language into their first language

- Idiomatic expression translation strategy: Krings (2013) defines translationstrategy as the ideas of translators who could be aware of some translation situationsand found a way for tickling any problems that occur in a concrete situation.Loescher (2013) simply understood it as “a potentially conscious procedure thattranslators found useful ways to solve the problem in translating a text, or anysegment of it” (p.33) An idiom of similar meaning and form, using an idiom ofsimilar meaning but dissimilar form, translation by paraphrase, and translationomission

1.8 Organization of the thesis

This study report comprises five separate chapters

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the study …

Chapter 2 is the literature review, presenting ………

Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the study …

Chapter 4 provides a presentation of (1) the data collected from …, (2) discussion ofthe data …

Chapter 5 presents …

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction

There are different literature aspects that need to be taken into considerationwhen conducting a study on how to use translation strategies in translation Thesecan be classified into two main categories: idiom and translation, focusing on thestrategies that the translators applied in the translation from English intoVietnamese Also, previous studies and research needs to be reviewed andcompared to show the gap in research Lastly, a conceptual framework will beproposed to lay the foundation for the research of the next chapter

2.2 Idioms

2.2.1 Definitions of idioms

Idioms are a natural and important part of every language but we hardly everpay attention to the amount to which we employ idioms in our regular speech.According to Langacher (1968), “an idiom is a kind of complex lexical item It is aphrase whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the morphemes itcomprises” (p.79) This definition shows two basic characteristics of the idiom; it

is a complex lexical item, and its meaning cannot be inferred from its parts Inaddition, Ball (1968) finds that an adequate definition of an idiom is “the use offamiliar words in an unfamiliar sense” (p.1) Baker (1992) defines idioms as

“frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and oftencarry meanings that cannot be deduced from their individual components” (p.63)

In definition of Hornby (1995), an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning

is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be leaned as

a whole unit” (p.589) Palmer (1996), on the other hand, states that “an idiom is

semantically like a single word, it does not function like one A large number ofidioms contain a verb and a noun, but although the verb may be placed in the pasttense, the number of the noun can never be changed” (p.80) In contrast to "kickthe buckets," which is never used, the phrases "kick the bucket" and "kicked thebucket" (referring to a person who passes away) are frequently used in English.

Following the viewpoint of Nguyen Thien Giap (1996), idioms are fixedphrases with both completeness and figurativeness in meaning Besides theintellectual content, they always contain certain attitudes like appreciation, respect,disdain, or disgust Sharing a similar definition of idiom, Mai Ngoc Chu and hisassociates support the same idea that idioms are fixed phrases with completestructures and meanings which are symbolic and expressive (1997) Hoang VanHanh (2007) defines “idioms are set expressions which are stable in morphine -structure, complete and figurative in meaning, used widely in dailycommunication” (p.15)

From the above linguists’ opinions, despite the differences in viewpointsamong many researchers and linguists, it can be concluded that idioms are fixedterms (fixed phrases) that are relatively stable in form, and used to name things,qualities, and actions; a phrase that cannot be understood from the meanings of themorphemes it is made up of The general meanings of idioms go beyond themeanings of their equivalent expressions in terms of refinement and figurativeness;their meanings cannot always be determined by combining the literal meaning oftheal words By reviewing the definition of each individu the dictionary, it isdifficult or occasionally impossible to locate their equivalents because words donot occur in their genuine meaning and do not follow the same grammatical rules

in idioms

2.2.2 Characteristics of idioms

This section's goal is to introduce what have been called the fundamental andexquisite qualities of idioms This section continues the subject by elaborating onthe distinctive characteristics of idioms in greater detail The previous section dealtwith very straightforward definitions of an idiom Although there may be someduplication between this chapter and the one before it, the researcher believes it isvital to discuss idioms' distinctive traits in more detail because they were onlycovered in general terms in the previous section As concluded in the previoussection, the basic definition of an idiom provided by dictionaries is relativelystraightforward Scholars may agree on some characteristics of idioms, but there issubstantial dispute, for example, over the range of idiomaticity The three mostfrequently cited idiomatic characteristics, according to Fernando (1996), are theircompositeness, institutionalization/conventionality, and semantic opacity

Compositeness means that idioms are multiword expressions which function

just likevsingle-word expressions For instance, Cowie and Mackin (1975) define anidiom as "a combination of two or more words", Makkai (1972) states that an idiom

is made up of "more than one minimal free form or word" (p.122) However,Fernando (1996) also notes that there are some scholars according to whom

singleword expressions can also qualify as idioms Institutionalization, on the other

hand, Fernando refers to the fact that idioms are conventionalized expressions(1996) The expression must be wellestablished and conventionally fixed in order toqualify as an idiom Institutionalization is one of Makkai’s (1972) and Fernando's

(1996) salient criteriafor identifying idioms Semantic opacity or non-literalness can

perhaps be considered as the most frequently mentioned feature of idioms Semanticopacity means that idioms are often non-literal, which is why their meaning cannot

be deducted from the meanings of the individual words of the idiom Hence, thewords that make up the idiom have no inherent meaning The literal meanings of theindividual words and the colloquial meaning of the sentence are typically seldom

ever connected (Fernando, 1996) Makkai (1972) states that the meaning of anidiom is not predictable from its component parts, because they are used in afigurative, non-literal sense Non-literalness is also in central place in Strässler’s(1982) idea of an idiom: he claimes that one cannot determine the meaning of anidiom by summing the meanings of its parts Therefore, the meaning of an idiom israrely the sum of its constituent components Semantic opacity seems rather crucialfor idioms, seeing as the scholars quoted here are only some of the manywhorecognize semantic opacity or non-literalness as an essential feature of idiom.Idioms are highly intricate and complex by their very natural, it could beclaimed in conclusion Consequently, idioms have been described in a variety ofways that are equally adaptable Idioms vary in their degree of fixity andopaqueness, for example, which is why it is difficult to provide precise standards foridiomaticity.

2.2.3 English idiomatic expressions

English idiomatic expressions are an important part of everyday English Theycome up all the time in both written and spoken English Idiomatic expressions areprevalent in all languages and are used often in all forms of communication,including spoken and written exchanges in both formal and informal contexts AsFernando (1996) puts it, idiomatic expressions not only ensure that ourcommunication is coherent and cohesive, but they also produce discourse "that issocially acceptable as well as precise, lively and interesting" Idiomatic expressionsare vibrant, energetic statements that are frequently exclusive to a single language.All languages include a great deal of idiomatic expression, which makes them both

a crucial component of our daily communication and a fascinating subject to study

As the equivalent of words, idiomatic expressions make up the sum of vocabularywith idioms and other words in a language (Xu, 2001)

Because idioms do not always make sense literally, you will need tofamiliarize yourself with the meaning and usage of each idiom That may seem like