Luận văn applying house's translation quality assessment model to assess the vietnamese translation of mark twain’s the adventures of huckleberry finn chapter xx and its vietnamese translation by xuân oanh

vii LIST OF ABEREVIATIONS TQA: Translation Quality Assessment SI: Source ‘Text TT: Target Text SL: Source Language ‘TL: Target Language... The fequency of their occurences will be the fo

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNTVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

HOANG THI DIEM HANG

APPLYING HOUSE’S TRANSLATION QUALITY

ASSESSMENT MODEL TO ASSESS THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF MARK

TWAIN'S “THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”-CHAPTER XX

BY XUAN OANH

ÁP DỤNG MÔ HÌNH ĐÁNH GIÁ CHÁT LUONG

BẢN DỊCH CỦA HOUSE VÀO VIỆC ĐÁNH GIÁ

BAN DICH TIENG VIET “NHUNG CUỘC PHIÊU

LUU CUA HUCKLEBERRY FTNN”- CHƯƠNGXX-

DỊCH GIÁ XUÂN OANH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

HOANG TH] DIEM HANG

APPLYING HOUSE’S TRANSLATION QUALITY

ASSESSMENT MODEL TO ASSESS THE

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF MARK

TWAIN'S “THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”-CHAPTER XX

BY XUAN OANH

AP DUNG MO HiNH DANH GIA CHAT LUONG

BAN DICH CUA HOUSE VAO VIEC DANH GIA BAN DICH TIENG VIET “NHỮNG CUỘC PHIEU LƯU CỦA HUCKLEBERRY EINN°-CHƯƠNG XX-

DỊCH GIÁ XUÂN OANH

M.A Thesis Combined Programme ‘Thesis

Major: English Linguistics

Supervisor: Asso Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến

HÀ NOI-2012

4 Research metha

5 Significance of the study

CITAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1.3.1 Three main views on translation equivalence

1.1.3.2 Interlingual and intertextnal equivalence 6 1.1.3.3 Typologies of equivalence

1.2.2 Difficulties in literary translaiOn os eects

1.2.2.3 Linguistic translation problems cecseeeereeroe L2

1.2.2.4 Text specific translation problems 12

1.4 House’s model of translation quality assessment

1.4.2 Housc°s reviscd modkl SH teeiiierriseeieirsoTÊ,

CHAPTER 2: RESUTLS AND DISCUSSION

2 Comparison of original and translation Loxt and slatcment of quality

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Appendix A Vietnamese version of the selected text

Appendix B English version of the selected text

‘Appendix C, Huek’s repetition of phrase “by and by”

Appendix D Huck’s repetition of word “considerable”

Appendix E Huck’s repetition of word “considerable”

Appendix F Omissions of clausal linkages

Appendix G Back ‘Translation and Categorization of Overtly Lrroneous rrors

vii

LIST OF ABEREVIATIONS TQA: Translation Quality Assessment

SI: Source ‘Text

TT: Target Text

SL: Source Language

‘TL: Target Language

viii

LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Housc’s Revised Schema for the Analysis of ST and TT Page 21

INTRODUCTION

1 Ralionale

People all over the world are now getting closer and closer thanks to many factors,

among which literature is an important one Net only can readers entertain but they can also

approach the cullures of a far away country while slaying al their home However, il is a matter of fact that not everyone 1s competent enough to read the original text Therefore, the readers normally choose to read translation texts The increasing number of translations available calls for the necd of asscssing the quality of such works so that the readers can enjoy reliable ones

Given the situation, the cvalution of a translation has bscome the concem of Translation Quality Assessment approaches and quite many attempts have been made to find the answer to the question of how to effectively assess the quality of a translated work Along with those attempts are a numbers of related frameworks advocated by some translation rescarchers; among which The Translation Quality Assessment Model by the German scholar Juliane House is one of few approaches considered promising

This 2

sinont model by House is based on Hallidayan Systemic-Fimetional Theœy, but it also draws eclectically on Prague School ideas, speech act theory, pragmatics, discourse analysis and corpus-based distinctions between the spoken and written language Llouse’s Model enablas us to analyze and compare an original od and its translation on thrce different levels; Language’ Text, Register (Field, Mode and Tenor) and Genre, This study aims to apply

House’s Model on Mark ‘lwain’s “lhe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’-chapter XX and its

¢ tanslation by Xuân Oanh (2008)

Viglnamn

It can be said that this research is a new exciting experience for the researcher in that she is not a graduate majoring in translation Therefore, this research first and foremost is to ful 11 the research

interest iv ranslation and in House's Modst in particular Inv addition, being able to assess a translation will provide the researcher confidence and knowledge to practice translation, particulatly literature translation

Resides the above reasons, through library reasearch, it is realized that Tonse’s Madel has been widely applied to assess legal document translation Therefore, this study seeks to explore new aspects on utilizing House’s ñamework to evaluate a literal translation work

1, Purpose of the study

In this research, an allcrmpl will be made lo apply the Housian TQA Modet ta identity two kinds of errors in the translated work: overtly erroenous errors and covertly errornous errors The fequency of their occurences will be the foundation to assess the quality of the targct text and to challenge Housc’s idca that to literary work, it has to be an overt kind of

translation

3 Reserch questions

© Tow good is the translation according to House’s model?

© What are the remaining problems of the translation?

© Whether the translation is an overt or covert kind of translation?

© What might be some implications for the translation of English literature into

Vietnamese?

4 Research method

Thus study utilizes qualitative design First, the original text will be read thoroughly and comprehensively then the souree text will be compared to its translation under the framework of Touse’s TQA model Although, there are quite mumy models available for translation quality assessment, House’s model is applied in that this mode] provides a comprehensive set of parameters enable the researcher to assess the translation text on dimension of both functional and pragmatic cqnivatence, In addition, as stated by House, the model can be applied for a wide range of text, The procedure is briefly introduced by Munday

(2001, p.92) as below:

© A profile is introduced of the ST register

© To this is added a description of the 8T genre realized by the register

© Together, this allows a “statement of function” to be made for the ST, including the ideational and interpersonal component of that fimetion (in other words,

what information is being conveyed and what the relationship is between sender and receiver)

» The same desoriptive process is then carried out for the TT

© The TT profile is compared to the ST profile and a statement of “mismatches”

or exrors is produced, categorized according to genre and to the situational dimensions of register and genre

« — Á "siatement of quality” is then made of the translation

© Finally, the translation can be categorized into one of two types: overt

translation or covert translation

Asitis impossible for the researcher lo analyze the whole text dus to limit of time and knowledge and also to bc suitable with the applicd framework, only one chapter will be selected randomly to guarantee the objectiveness of the procedure (chapter XX), However, examples from ofher chaplers will be taken to prove the generality of the obtained findings in possible cases,

5 Significance of the study

Itis very important to be able fo evaluate a translation in thal translation has become art

indispensable part in human civilization, In Vietnam, English is a popular foreign language and is a tool of communication as well as a key to human kmowledge The demand for knowledge has fostered the development of translation and il seems thal many nom professionals and semi-professional translators undertake the task of translating Hopefully, this study will be a source of reference for other researcher concerning the same issue and

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1.Translation theory

ELI Definition of translation

Nowrnark (1981) defines translation as “a crafl consisting in the altcmp! 1o replace ä written message and/or statement in one language by the same language and/or statement in another language.” [lis definition of translation is then understood as “rendering the meaning

of a text into another language in the same way that the author intended the text” (1988:5)

House (1977:29) defines translation, specifically written translation “is the replacement

of a text in the source language by 4 somumtically and pragmatically cquivalent text in the target language”

It can be seen that though definitions on translation are quite diverse, they all seem to imply that translation does not refér to language as a system but refers to language in use In addition, the necessity to reach some kind of equivalence between the two languages is emphasized in translation

This diagram can bs bricfly explained as follow

- Word for word translation: The SL word order is maintained and only the most common meanings of the words are used out of context

- Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions arc converted to their nearest

TL equivalents but the lexical words are translated singly, out of context

- Faithfidl translation: The SI text is reproduced in its precise contextual meaning

under the constraints of the TL grammatical structures

- Semantic translation: the aesthetic value of the SL text is greatly emphasized, compromising on ‘meaning’ where appropriate so that assonanee, word-lay or repetition jars

in the finished version Conssquenily, il gains more Nexibilily and allows the translator to be

intuitively empathetic with the original

- Adaptation: themes, characters, plots are preserved, and the SL culture is converted to

the TL culture and the text is rewritten

- Free translation: the translated text or the so-called “intralingual translation” is longer

Jerfiots"”

than the original, oflen “prolix” and “gai

- Idiomatic translation: nuances of meaning tend to be distorted by prefsrring

colloquialisms and idioms that do not exist in the original

- Communicative translation: the exact contextual meaning of the original is rendered

in such a way that both content and language arc readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

According to Newmark (1988), among the above-mentioned cighl methods, only

semantic and communicative translation can fulfill the two main aims of translation namely

accuracy and economy

44.3 Transtation equivalence

When analyzing a translation especially literary translation, equivalence is one of the

standards that can not be missed However, due to its status as a central concept, it is also a

source of coulroversy A thorough knowledge of this notion would enable us to umderstand the

principles underlying models of translation quality assessment presented thereatter

1.1.3.1 1hree main views on translation equivalence

According to Pym (1992:37) “equivalence is supposed to define Iranslation, and

translation, in turn, defines equivalence” In other words, equivalence is a major concept in

translation theory; however, approaches to this concept are considerably different In this part,

three main views will be introduced.

According to Taker and Sandanha (1992) in the Routledge Tncyclopedia, of Translation Studies, authors such as Cartford, Nida, Taber, Touwry and Koller consider

equivalence an essential requirement in translation and it can be acitieved However, authors

Snell-Homby and Genzler reject the theoretical notion of equivalence ‘They claim that it is

cither irrelevant or causes darmage lo translation studies Yel other theorists have neutral

‘viewpoint on this concept Baker uses the notion of equivalence “Yor the sake of convenience- because most translators are used to it rather than because it has any theoretical status” (p:

6)

It can be said that those contradictory views on translation equivalence results from different views on the nature of transtation Authors in the firs! group consider Iranslation as a communicative process, the focus of which is to convey the message fiom source text into target text ‘Ihe second group see translation as a brand of linguistics absolutely thus, translation equivalence is mechanically the transference of meaning units from source text into target text The third group although sccs absolute translation cquivalence is ixrclevant, thinks that equivalence is still achieved and translation is a means of communication for people of

im that both

different languages This is quite a thorough view on translation cquivalsn

communicative aspect and linguistic aspect are taken into consideration when translation is

discussed

41.3.2 Interiingual and intertextual equivalence

It is a shortcoming to put equivalence in discussion without mentioning two terms

interlingual and intertextual equivalence Krom the early time when equivalence is discussed,

Similarly, Toury (1980:24-6) charts the evolution of the notion of TRANSLATION ABILITY from an inte:lingual phenomenon to an intertextual one Hence, the concept of

equivalence was soon popiilarly understood as a relationship between texts in two different languages, rather than between the languages themselves According to Kenny (201,99) this step enabled us to reject the translation-ability on the basis of entire language systems with

“all their unactualized meaning potential” Kenny also adds that the shift from differences in

language siruclures between languages to texls and ullcrances makes translation “nol only

more tractable, but also more realistic” thanks to reference to co-text and context,

‘Narrowing down the broad concept of equivalence into textual equivalence has made it casy for us to approach a translation text, The next pait will briefly present some prominent equivalence typologies

or phonological) respectively

Baker (1992) extends the concept of equivalence to cover similarity in source text and

target text information flow and in the cohesive roles that source text and target text devices

ing a kind of fnctional equivalence

Kade (1968) and other writers on lexical equivalence , in particular in the area of terminology combine the above qualitative distinctions with a quantitative scheme that categorizes cquivalonee relationships according to whether there is: a single expression in the target language for a single source language expression, i.e one-to-one equivalence, more

than one target language expression for a single somrce language expression, 1.6, one-to-many equivalence; a target language expression that covers part of a concept designated by a single expression, ie one-to-part-of-one equivalence; or no target language expression for an source language expression, ie nil equivalence ‘This quantitative, lexical approach reflects an earlier

concern with language systems and has been criticized previscly because il is restricted to the word level and because it assumes that the language system can be equated with conerete realization in text (Snell-Ilornby, 1988:20)

1.2 Literary translation

The above part has discussed some major terms in translation theory, which form the foundation for any kind of rescarch on iranslation The next part will present literary translation in general and challenges in litzrary translation

1.2.1, Definition

Bush (1998) defines literary translation as follow:

“Literary teanslation ia the work of literary translators That is a truism which has to scrvc as a starting poml for a description of filerary translalion, an original subjective aclivily at the cenler of a complex

actwork of social and cultural practices The imaginative intellectual and intuitive writing of the

translator mast not be lost to the disembodied abtraction which is often described ax ‘translation”’

tia

Talking about the work of a literary translator, Lamberts (1998:130) considers “a published translation is the Guil of a substantial creative effort by the tanslator, who is the key agent in the subjective activity and social practice of translation.” He claims it is the literary translator whe decides how to translate and gives the literary translation ils existence no matter whal restraits of ths network of social and cultural factors are Ta smphasize the challenges

of literary translation, Landers (2009:9) adds that “literary translation entails an unending skein of choices.”

While, the above mentioned authors view literary translation more as a subjective and creative activity of the translator, Youry (1993: 12-13) cited in Sanchez, emphasizes aspect of equivalence between source text and targel text in literary translation and defines it as bwo different concepls

i} the translation of texts which are regarded as ‘literary’ in the source culture The

focus of this kind of translation is to construct the so-called “web of relationships” of the source text, the one which makes that text a unique instance of performance

i) the translation of a text (in principle, at least, any text) i a way that the praduct be acceptable as “hierary” to the recipient culture

In the first sense, the text is considered ta be a literary piece of work in the source culture and its rewriting is considered as such In another sense, the focus is on the receiving

end ot the nature of the text in accordance with tastes, traditions, what is regarded as literary in

target culture independent of the source culture In other words, source text and target text

belong to two different genres However, iL is nol very oflen thal what is normally classified as

a literary text in one language is not recognized as such in another language

It can be seen that definitions of literary translation vary depending on the authors’ emphasis While writers such as Bush, Lampert and Newmark emphasize the subjective work

of the translator, others focus on the degree of equivalence between the ST and TT No matter how different they are in their view of literary wanslation, no one can deny that literary is challenging ‘The next pari will discover prominent difficulties thal (ranslators have Lo cope

with literary translation as “when there is any kind of translation problem, literal translation is normally (not always) out of the question” (Newmark, 1988:70)

12.2, Difficutties in literary translation

1.2.2.1.Cidtural translation problems

It can be said that culture is an important key role that enables one to understand a

¢ Lo lackle

fiterary work, which is quils a relatively difficull is on in the source Ianguage, not that of target text It is crucial for a translator to understand beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules of the soures Ianguage audience so that he or she can successfully translate it for people

the translator to work with a text originating from a highly technical socicty to a non-technical

source document by translating with both cultures in mind,” (p.436)

Deahng with cultural specific problems in literary translation, Nida and Taber (1969/1982) have their own definition and approach ‘Ihey define cultural translation as "a iranslation i which the content of the message is changed lo conform Lo the reccplor culture

in some way, and/or in which mformation is introduced which is not linguistically implicit in the original” (p:199), In the context of Bible translation, they state that a cultural translation is one in which additions are made which camot be directly derived from the original ST wording ‘hus, these additions might take the form of ideas culturally foreign to SI or

clencnts which are simply included to provide necessary background: information,

(Shuulcworth & Cowie, 1997: 35)

Different authors use different terms to refer to words in source language that are telafly unknown in the larget culture While Gambier introduces the concept “cullursl-specific

, and for Baker (1992) it is “cultural-specific items” or “cultureme” by Nord (1997), Newmark (1988:96) uses “cultural word” and suggests that the wanslations strategies

reference:

applicd in such cases are dependent on clements such as text-lype, requirements of the

readership and client and the amportance of the “cultural word” in the text According to him, most “cultural words”, are not difficult to be realized in that they have associations with a

particular language and cannol be literally tamstated

‘Newmark (1988) advocates the utilization of two translation procedures which are of lwo opposite perspectives Al one end, iL is transference popular in lilerary Lexls characterived

by local color and atmosphere in specialist texts that make it possible for readers to identity

11

the referent in other texts without difficulty Tlowever, brief and concise as it is, transference

may block comprehension for its emphasis on the culture and exclusion of the intended

message At the other end, it is componential analysis, the most accurate translation

procedure, which excludes the culture and highlights the message In componential analysis, one can add extra contextual distinguishing components in addition Lo a componenl common

to the source language and the target language Unavoidably, a componential analysis is not as

economical and does not have the pragmatic impact of the original

In addition, Newmark (1988) points out that many cultural customs are described in ordinary language, where literal translation would distort the meaning and thus the translation

“nay include an approprialo deseriptive-funetional equivalent” (p95) Besides the above

mentioned procedures, the author also reminds the necessity te take the motivation and the

cultural specialist and linguistic level of readership into consideration when dealing with

cultural words

1.2.2.2 Sivhstic @anslation problems

Style is also a problem challenging literary translation Style can be understood as the

way one says a things or he way something is wrilierr as dislinel from its subject matter Tn a natural way, each language has its own problem of style, however, the decisions that literary translators have to make seem to be similar when tackling with this kind of problem

For a technical text, for example, style is nol a problensin thal its informational content remains from ST to TT Landers (2001, p:7) use the metaphor freight-train to illustrate the

importance of taking style into consideration in literary translation “In technical translation

the oriler of the cars is ineomsoquential if all the cargo arti

intact, Tn literary translation, however, the order of the cars- which is to say the style- can make the difference between a lively, highly readable translation and a stilted, rigid, and artificial rendering that strips the original of ils artistic and acsthetic csscnee, even ils very soul™

There are so many things to discuss concemmg style According to Landers, in theory

at least, “style” in a translator is an “oxymoron” In order to perform his or her task well, it

would be best if the translator strives to have no style at all and disappears into and become

12

indistinguishable from the style of the SI author Preferably, the translator should adapt to the

style of each author translated but always as faithful to the original as circumstances permit

1.2.2.3 Linguistic translation problems

Linguistic translation problems aise duc ta structural differences between the source

language and the target language Linguistically, each language has its own metaphysics, which determines the spirit of a nation and its behavioral norms, and this is what is known as

linguistic relativity or the Whorfian hypothesis It rejects the commonly held belief that all people of different countries have a common logical structure when processing with language independent of communication Instead, i cmphasives the mlusnee of linguistic patieans on

the way people perceive the world, Consequently, the modes of thinking and perceiving in

groups utilizing different linguistic systems will result in basically different world views Since words or images may vary considerably from one group to another, the translator needs

to pay attention te the style, language and vocabulary peculiar to the two languages in question

in order to produce an ‘exact’ translation of the source language text

1.2.2.4 Text specific translation problems

These elements prove to be bound to this specific source text In order to be able to understand and translate them, one must know what they are and what they refer to, and this is

only possibly when the antire novel has beon read

1.3 Translation quality assessment

13.2 Role of translation quality assessment

Newmark (1995) regards translation criticism or TQA as a crucial link between translation theory and its practice and as ‘the keystone of any course in comparative literature,

of Iiterature in translation, and a component of any professional translation course with the

appropriate text-types as an exercise for criticism and discussion.’ Ile clearly states the

important role of TQA for three main Teasons

In the first place, by critneizing others’ translations translators could perfect their

competences as well as gain essential professional experiences Besides, TQA could help translators expand their knowledge and understanding of linguistics regarding their mother tongues and the foreign language, as well as topics discussed in the translation Last but not least, this activity is a good chance for translators to, first, Te-organize their knowledge of

translation regarding translation prineiples and then, to sharpen their comprehension of

translation thearies which are inevitably crucial for professional translators

L3.3, Approaches to assess the quality of a translation

Williams (2004) present a therough study of available TQA models which arc categorized into

quantitative and non-quantitative approaches

1.3.3.1 Models with a quantitative dimension

«© Canadian Language Quality Measurement System (Sical): Developed by the Canadian government’s Translation Bureau, the best known one, at least on the Canadian scene + Systeme devaluation positive des waduetion (SEPT): Developed for the Translation Bureau by Daniel Gouadec but never put into practice of its eamplexity

* J2450 ‘Translation Quality Mewie: Developed in 2000 by the U.S Engineering Society for Advanced Mobility in Land, Sea, Air and Space to give a ‘standardived grade’ to translations for technical maintenance and ropair institutions

«Discourse analysis model

On the basis of works by Searle (1969), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Widdowson (1978), and van Dijk (1980), Bensoussan and Rosenhouse (1990) suggest a‘TQA model

for evaluating student translations by discourse analvsis which differentiates crrors

14

resulting from a Tack of comprehension and those resulting from other shortcomings or problems Exrers from a lack of comprehension is then divided into two categories so called macro-level misinterpretations (fame, schema) and micro-level mistranslations at

the utterance (propositional content, communicative fimetion) and word

factors The more frequent the level of the translation arror, the tore serious iL will be

1.3.3.2 Non- quantitative models

1.3.3.2.1 Critique productive

Antoine Berman’s model (1995) incorporates a positive assessment of literary translation He is not in favor of the idea of pointing out defects in the target text or how conditions of the largct cultune assigns such translations Tuslead, he introduces au assesstnenL that demonstrates not only the shortcomings but also the qualities and originality of the translation as work of art His design is then specialized by a general procedure, of which choosing significant passages in the translation that encapsulate its essence and comparison of these “zones signifiantes” (1995:70) with the original is the key point ‘Then, the statement of

“conftontation” may show the differences between the source text and the target text

Howew

the origmality of the translation

uch differences in some casos may be considered as slrong points conlribuling lo

15

Nevertheless, Herman's mods! is a clased system with no specific assessment criteria His overarching purpose is to demonstrate the superiority of a translation approach that brings out the essence of the original

1.3.3.2.2 Funclionalist model

The first systematic approach to TQA is generally thought to be that of Katharina

Reiss In her attempt to attack what she sees as arbitrary, subjective criticism of literary

tianslations, she advocates a model of TQA based on text type and goals Reiss’s method was groundbreaking in that she argued for a three-pronged approach, combining analyses of text ype, linguistic components, and extra linguistic delermrinanis She argues in favor of a text typology tailor-made for the

fic purposes of translation While admitting to the existence of an incalculable number of hybrid fonns, she identified four major text-types-“‘content focused”, “form focused”, “appeal focused” and

“audio medial” texts The etitic’s task is then to sce whether the hicrarehy of clements has been maintained in the target text: primarily the informational content for the first text type, the formal principles for the second, the purpose for the third, and the specific conditions of the “audio-medial’ text for the fourth, As Laushcher cited in Hewson (2011-4), there are several weaknesses in this approach: the vague notion of ‘optimum equivalence’ and the suggestion that “equivalence is established at least to some extent by bilingual dictionaries’ One may also wonder how, in practical terms, such an apparatus can really account for the complexities of the literary text, which is dominated by its poetic function, and where contents

is closely bound up with form, In addition, she does nol see much importance of the subjective conditions of the hermeneutical process and the translation critic’s personality

function and intention of the target text in the target culture and it can be applied to

instrumental ax much as to literary documents Whether to keep all semantic and formal features of the original or adapt the source text extensively depends on the function of the

lo Nord, i is the tanslalion project that issues the wanslation instruction and defines the

skopos, or prospective target situation

For such reason, the evaluator must take the TT skopos as the starting point for TQA, which is similar to that of Larosc’s cmphasis on reader expectations and the clients’ requirements in the contract Io illustrate the model, Nord analyses a translation-oriented text and her judgments are mainly parameter-specific However, the question is how an overall assessment can be made from the parameter-specific comparisons ,in particular when her judgment is based on the nature of the errors not their number

1.3.3.2 4 Descriptive-explanatory model

In an update of a work first published in 1977, Housc introduces a detailed non-quantitative, desctiptive-explanatory approach to IQA, in which she relies on the functional text features preseniad by Halliday (1978) and Crystal and Davy (1969), Tn addition, she also approaches the issue under the light of Skopostheorie because she thinks that it “relativizes the importance

of the meaning of the source text in favor of the primacy of target-culture norms and purpose” (cited in Williamn,2004:13) Tndecd, she presents her mods with a strong indication of her belief in autonomous meaning of the text and, therefore, the importance of equivalence, although her notion of equivalence is involves the consideration of communicative and

pragrnalic aspet

Like Larose and Nord, House advocates a textological approach to TQA: “The important of the textual aspect of meaning has often been neglected in evaluations of irmslations, although the 7 sily of achieving comeetivity betwoen suc scnlertacs in another language while at the same time retaining the semantic meaning conveyed in the original is important, especially in covert translation” (1997:31) In her model, she distinguishes overt translation (soures-text oriented) from covert translation (target-text-bascd) and applies a grid developed fiom established linguistic theory, House rejects the notion that

TQA is a subjective activity At the same time, she does not underestimate the “immense difficulties of empirically establishing what any ‘norm of usage’ is, “especially for the unique situation of an individual text (1997-18), and of dealing with differences in sociocultural norms (1997:74) She also says that “the relative weighting of individual errors is a problem

which varies from individual tex lo individual text” (1997-45) House presents the mode) and applies in a number of sample texts However, like Nord, she states that “it is difficult to pass

a ‘final judgment on the quality of a translation that fulfils the demands of objectivity” (1997:119) House ultimately sccs her model as descriptive-cxplanatory, as opposed to a socio-psychologically based value judgment (1997-116)

The last parl of this chapler wilh present Houss? original model and her revisited

model, under the light of which this study is conducted

1.4 House's model of translation quality assessment

1.4.1, Iouse’s original model

The key point in House’s model is to compare function of the source text and the target text,

therefore, to understand her model, it is necessary to understand “fiction” of an individual

lex which is different from fimetion of language According to House, the “function of a text

is the application or use which the text has in the context of a situation.” In order to see the

degree of functional equivalence between source text and target text, an analysis of the source

text mush be done and taking the situation from which the text is arisen is csscntial Thus,

House designs a model in which the enveloping situation is discussed by breaking it into

“manageable parts”- various situational dimensions as follow

The dimension of language use mention fours terms:

Medium: may be cither simple (written to be read) or complex (written to be spoken as ifnot written (as in a play), or simply written to be spoken (as ina draft of a speech or sermon)

Participation may alsa simple or complex Simple here is for a monologue or dialogue, complex indicates various ways of “participation elicitation” and indireet addressee participation in a monologue manifests linguistically, e.g., in the specific use of pronouns,

presence of contact parentheses, etc

Social Role Relationship is the relationship between addresser and addressee(s) It may

be symmetrical or asymmtstrical according as some kind of authority rolalionstip di [ferentiates them In considenng the addresser’s social role via the addressee, one needs futher to distinguish the relatively permanent position role and the more transient situational role

Social Attitude describes the degrse of social distance or proximity indicating formality or informality Joo (1961) mentions five different styles or degree of formality namely: frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate- this can be seen as a useftl schema

The dimension of Province is a large concept referring nat only to the Loxt-producer’s occupational and professional activity but also to the field or topic of the text in its widest sense or “area of operation” of the language activity, as well as details of the text production

as far as these cam be deduced from the text itself

House says that the above set of situational constraints enables us to judge the function

of a text presented by its linguistic evidence She then proposes to break this linguistic cviđenoc down into three types: syntactic, lexical, textual

19

Following the textual analysis of the ST, its ideational and interpersonal fimetion can

be deduced from the linguistic features that determing its situational dimensions Afterwards, the TT should be analyzed in the same way in arder to obtain its textual profile By comparing both textual profiles, the quality of the translation can bs evaluated, ‘he more the ‘I'I’s textual profile and its fimotion arc equal to those of the ST, the better the translatiorris, An analysis of the text on eight situational dimensions as above mentioned will help us realize the fumction of the text She then claims the basic criterion of functional match for translation equivalence: “a

TT should not only match its ST in function, but cmploy cquivalent situational-dimensional mean to achieve that function” By using situational dimensions for exploring the SI, a particular toxtual profile is obtained for the ST, which then becomes crileria to assess hờ degree to wluch the TT’s textual profile and function match with that of the ST

In House’s model any mismatch along the dimensions is an error which is then categorized into covertly erroneous errors and overtly erroneous errors

© Covertly erroneaus errors: those which result from a mismatch im one siluational dimension

© Overly erroneous errors: those which resull from a non-dimensional mismatch, Such errors can be divided into

1 Breaches of the target language system:

+ cases of imgrarmativally (clear breaches of the TL 8

tem)

- cases of dubious acceptability (breaches of the nou usage)

2 Mistakes in the denotative meanings if SI' and 'I'I'

-wrong selections

- wrong omissions

- ambiguities

zs of ST and TT

Coverity erroneous srrors 1s 4 mismatch of the denotative meaning:

elements or a breach of the target language system,

‘The final stage in 1louse's model is to list both covertly and overtly erroneous errors

and a stateruent of the relative match of the two fuetional components is made.

Depending on the ST, its context-situation, target audience and function, Touse distinguishes two types of translation

Gwert tanslations are texts that do not directly address the target audience of the translation because they are tight to the culture and the language community where they

originate Therefore, to this type of translation, the function of the translation text carmot

match with that of the ST's function, “either because the source text is tied to a specific non- repeatable historic event in the source culture [ ] or because of the unique status (as a literary text) that the source text has in the sourcc culture”, (House 1997:67)

In contrast to overt translation, covert translation appears to be “original source texts in the large culls” (1977.69) The translation text aims al addressing their audience in the sare way that the source text addresses their source culture community A source text and its covert ‘I'l are pragmatically of equal concern for source and target language addressees and they have equivalent purposes: both are based on contemporary, equivalent needs of a comparable audience in the source and target language communities She then introduces the concept “cultural filter” (p:70) to better adapt the translation to the target culture In other words, a cullural filler belween ST and TT enables the TT audicnes to view ST through the glasses of the target culture member

2.4.2 Llouse’s revised translation quality assessment model

In her reviscd model, in arder to thoroughly categorize w text's funelion and the language required, House introduces the category Genre Genre here is defined as “a socially established category characterized in terms of occurrence of use, source and a communicative

purpose or any conibination of these” Q: 107) Gene, Register and Language correlates lo each other Genre is the content-plane of Register, which at the same time is the expression-

plane of Genre Besides, Register is also the content-plane of Language while Language is its

expression plane, According lo House, Gem serves as a bridge connecling Register and Function In general, the application of her new model enables us to examine a text on four different levels: Function, Register and Language

Tndividnal textual function

Subject matter - Participant relationship Mode

and social - auhor's provenance - medium

- social role relationship

House bas » ơn Halliday’s “rinity”: Fisld, Tenor and Mode lo build her model and

make it easier to be applied, Field refers to the topic of the text, it subject matter In addition, it inchides the old category Province and the new one Social Action indicating whether the language usd to present the Lopic is general or specific,

Tenor concems the participants, the author and the audience as well as their relationship The Author’s Provenance reveals his temporal, geographical and social

In Mode category, two old dimensions Medium and Participation are still remained Both can be simple or complex For dimension of Medium, she adopts Biber’s dimensions to make it more precisely as below:

| Involved vs Informational Text Prodnetion

2 Explicit vs Situation-Dependent Reference

3 Abstract vs Non-Abstract Presentation of Information

Determining by its genre, a written text can be both, involved (for example letters) or informational (for example laws) Written lexis are normally more explicit and less situational-dependent than spoken language and therefore, the information is usually conveyed

in a more abstract and elaborate way lowever, texts rarsly correspond to only one of these dimensions, the three new paramcters can not replace the old distinction between simple and complex medium but can be a helpful addition to it,

In torms of the toxtual function, there is no change and il stills consists of an idcational and an impersonal component, which should be equally represented in the translation, The operation of the model is also kept in the same way

te a

CHAPTER 2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will present the application of House’s translation quality assessment model to assess the quality of the target text ‘I'o be more specific, a source text profile will he analyzed

on dimensions of \eld, ‘'enor, Mode and Genre via lexical, syntactic and textual means A slalcment of function is then drawn to sce the degree to which the original text fulfills its ideational and interpersonal function The next stage is a comparison of origmal and

translation text on ths above-mentioned dimensions: Field, Tenor, Mode Any violation of

these dimensions is categorized as coveit mistakes, and also a demonstration of avert mistakes are also given Kinally, statement of quality can be drawn from such findings under House’s

and Davy’s Province; however, it specities some features that will now be subsumed under

Genre such as professional character of a given field, i.e professional character of a religions

sermon

The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel telling about the adventures of Huck, his friend

‘Tom and the run away nigger Jim Huck is the innocent who serves to illuminate the hypocrisy

ibrough his pragmalic mature, his willingn

they show their true colors, and his innate sense of honor and fairness The novel evolves

around prominent themes that are racism and slavery, intellectual and moral education and the

hypoctisy of “civilized” society In the sludicd chapter, Huck narrates fraudulent activities af the duke and the dauphin in Parkville town

Lexical means

» ‘There is preponderance of dynamic verbs likely to be part of a narration and repetition

of phrase and words: “by and by”, “considerable”

Itis typical for Huck to use phrase “by and by” in his narration and adjective “considerable” to

denote meaning “a lot”

by and by-I took the watch, and Jim he laid down and snored away

and by-and-by the storm let up for good and all;

By- and- by he says-‘But the histrionic muse is the darling Have you ever trod the boards,

Royalty?”

“THEY asked us considerable many questions; wanted to know what we covered up the raft

that way for, and laid by in the daytime instead of ninning was Jim a mnaway nigger?”

“Well, for the next day or two we had considerable trouble”

“He told them he was a pirate been a pirate for thirty years out in the Indian Ocean and his

crew was thinned out considerable last spring ina fight,”

According to Richard Bridgman (1987), one of typical features of Huck’s speech patterns and

of Twain’s organizing structure in the novel is repetition He remarks that repetition represents

a particularly “conscious structural function in extended passages where phrases are repeated.”

In the studied chapter, “by and by” and “considerable” occurs three times; however, a careful

examination of the whole novel shows that they are used at a high frequency (see appendix)

° Huck uses lexical items that are connected to issues of racism and religion: nigger,

camp meeting, A-men,

Onomatopoeic words are used to describe sound h-wack!- bum! Bumble-umble-um-

bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-

Syntactic means:

° Huck tends to speak run-on sentences:

“Towards night it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat lightning was squirting

around, low down in the sky, and the leaves was beginning to shiver—it was going to be

pretty ugly, it was easy to see that.”

“He told them he was a pirate—been a pirate for thirty years, out in the Indian Ocean, and his

crew was thinned out considerable, last spring, in a fight, and he was home now, to take out

some fresh men, and thanks to goodness he'd been robbed last night, and put ashore off of a

steamboat without a cent, and he was glad of it, it was the blessedest thing that ever happened

to him, because he was a changed man now, and happy for the first time in his life, and poor

as he was, he was going to start right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean and put in the rest of his life trying to turn the pirates info the true path; for he cond do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all the pirate crews.”

Although run-on sciences are considered ungrammatical, they do help the aufhor reflect a child’s inability to subordinate experiences; therefore, he tends to equalize the events he strings together In addition, this ungrammaticality at the same time helps recreate a sense of dynamism It scems that everything is changing before the narrator’s cyes and cars

« —_ Inother places, Huck reveals his lack of formal education via ungrammatival sentences such as:

the use of object pronoun as subject: “So me and the king lit out for the camp-meeting:*

superlative with “a” instead of “the”: “We got there in about a half an hour, failly driping, for

it was a most awful hot day”

double negative: “When we got there, there wam't nobody stirring ; streets empty, and perfectly dead and still, like Sunday.”

incorrect subject-verb agreements : “Some of the old women was knitting, and some of the

‘young folks was courting on the sly.”

Although Standard English would find it hard to accept the above cases, they add to the authenticity and spontaneity of their descriptions Besides, it is entirely plausible for a young Southern boy with lilfle formal education

* ‘This chapter mainly contains long sentences with compound, complex stmeture throughout the text,

Huck’s frequent use of long sentences again enhances dynamism for the novel, ‘Things appear vivid in accordance with the rhythm he describes experiences that he undergoes during the journey,

“When we was three-quaiters of a mile below, we hoisted up our signal lantem, and about ten o'clock it come on to rain and blow and thunder and lighten like every-thing: so the king told

us to bolt stay on watel till the weather got better; then him and the duke crawled into the wigwam and tumed in for the night.”

“TTe told them he was a pirate—heen a pirate for thirty years, out in the Indian Ocean, and his crew was thinned out considerable, last spring, ina fight, and he was home now, to take out some fresh men, and thanks to goodness he'd been robbed last night, and put ashore off of a steamboat without a cent, and he was glad of it, it was the blessedest thing that ever happened

lo him, heaause he was a changed man naw, and happy for the first time in his life; and paor

as he was, he was going to start right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean and put in the rest of his life trying to tun the pirates into the true path ; for he could do it better than anybody elsc, being acquainted with all the pirate crews.”

This category includes the addresser’s temporal, geographical, social provenance as well as his intellectual, cmotional or affective stance or his “personal viewpoint” through the content he is portraying and the communicative task he is engaged in

The subdivisions of the dimension Social is simplified and a tripartite division into formal- consultative-intoxmal is adopted by House for a more economic analysis

Author's Temporal, Geographical and Social Provenance:

Marked, Missouri Nergo dialect, the ordinary ‘Pike-country” dialect

te qi

William Faulker credits twain as “the father of American literature” for his pioneering

in depicting vernacular language in his work It is the vernacular language Twain puts in Huck’s mouth that strongly contribute to the novel’s achievement referred as the “very note”

of real life by Llenry James, Bridgman (1966:118) describes Lluck’s dialect and his vivid lexicon: “His dialccLnones, sling: is thet of poctry And they contribute to the gradually accumulating feeling in American literature for the importance of the single word”, Below is a description of language features’ of Iluck, the king, the duke and Jim in the studied chapter, which arc sophisticatedly handled as a way to reveal their character and social class

«Language features of Huck

Huek offen drops endings, and adds the prefix- a to progressive verb forms

“{t most killed Jim a-laughing”

Well, the first I knowed, the king got agoing; and you could hear him over everybody ; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform and the preacher he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it

«Language features of Jim

Beside Huck, Jim’s language is certain to represent interesting features of the Affican Anne!

n Vernacular dialects His tends lo shorlen words and use [d] for dental frieatives and pronounce |gw| instead of the back vowel |o]

“luck, does you reck'n we gwyne to run acrost any mo! kings on dis trip ?"

"Well," says he, " dat's all right, den I doan! mine one cr two kings, but dat's cnough Dis One's powerful drunk, en de duke am' much better.”

Itis Jim’s vernacular language that adds to the humorous elements of the novel,

* Language features of the King

The King’s vernacular is to some extent similar to Jim’s dialect in that: he drops cndings

"But if Juliet’s such a young gal, Duke, my peeled head and my white whiskers is goin’ to look on-commont odd on her, maybe.”

and also similar to TInck’s adding the prefix “8” 1o progressive or past participle verb forms:

" T should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that a com-shuck bed wam't just fitten for me to sleep on Your Grace'll take the shuck bed yourself."

* All right I'm jist a-tteezn’s for something fresh, anyway Less commence, right away”

© ——_Language features of the Duke

The Duke’s vocabulary, in contrast, is nol basic and his pronunciation is nol lypieal of the Missouri vernacular He has carefull word choice, and there seems to have thythm and poetry in some of what he says, In addition, he uses terminology of formal technical register such as “phronclogy”, which is a challenge for any uneducated man, Therefore, the renders arc under impression that he is smarter or more educated than the King for Standard English the

he uses Nevertheless, no matter how sophisticate in the way he uses the language to create the image of a Jcamed and aristocratic man, his identity of a Missourian vagabond is then revealed through his using of lower register words such as “you know”

It can be seen that ‘I'wain is so excellent in using language to portray his characters and

he deserves to be considersd as “the father of American litzrature” for his contribution

Author's Personal (Emotional and Intellectual) Stance:

The author clearly views the adventure he portrays with involvement, encouragement for Huck’s thought when he is on the raft free from sovicty’s rule and be fliends with Jim He also spends great empathy for a run away nergo like Jim and a sarcastic attitude is revealed when he depicts the King and the Duke as two frausls

Lexical means: there are repetitions of the word “begun

“rhe people woke up more and more, and sung louder and louder; and towards the end, some begun to groan, and some begun to shout Then the preacher begun to preach; and begun in

‘Textual means are notable through frequent use of semicolon enabling the author to

arcate the movernent of the raf and time as Huck is describing il In areas where Huck is

describing the imagery of the river, thers are long sentences, with separate phrases combined

by semicolons This technique symbolizes the movement of the raft on the river

In addition, there are presences of iconic linkages:

“Oh, come to the moumers’ bench! Black with sin! (amen!) Come, sick and sore! (amen!) Come, lame and halt, and blind! G@men!) Come pors and needy, sumk in shame! (ae men).Come all that’s worn, and soiled, and suffering!- come with a broken spirit! Come with

a contrite heart! Come in your rags and sin and dirt!”

“Some of the young men was bare-footed, and some of the children didn’t have on any clothes but just a tow-linen shirt, Same of the old women was knitting, and same of the young folks was courting on the sly.”

Saciul Role Relationship

Anthor-reader(s): this book was written for adults and barely masquerades as a “boy book” and there is a symmetrical relationship between author and readers,

The author chooses Huck to be the narrator and addresses the readers dizcetly, which dircots the audience into the scene and create a bond with the storyteller

Lexical moans: There is prosencs of first and second personal pronouns

“And every second or two there’d come a glare that lit up the white-caps for a half’ and a mile around, and you'd see the islands looking dusty through the rain”

“{ bad the middls watch, you know, bul I was pretly sleepy by thal lime, so Jim he said he would stand the first half of it for me.”

“You couldn’t make out what the preacher said, any more, on account of the shouting and crying.”

“Well, the first I knowed the king got a-going, and you could hear him over everybody,”

Social Attitude

Informal style

Lexical means: the author used lexical items marked as informal spoken language such as interjection and slang

30

Well, for the next day ar two we had considerable trouble, bscause people was always coming out in skifffs and trying to take Jim away from me, saying they believed he was a runaway nigger

" All right I'm jist a-freezn’ for something fresh, anywat

so Jim he said he

“{ bad the middls watch, you know, bul 1 was pretty sleepy by that tin

would stand the first half of it for me;”

“We judged we could make miles snough that night to get out of the reach of the pow-wow

we reckoned the duke's work in the printing office was going to make in that little town”

MODE

MODE refers lo both the channel- spoken or written (which can be “simple”, cg., “written Lo

be read” or “complex”, e.g, “written to be spoken as if not written’), and the degree to which potential or real participation is allowed for between the interlocutars

Participation can also be “simple” For example, a monologue with no addressee participation

“puilt into the text”, It may also be “complex” with various addresscc-involving, mechanisms characterizing the text

Tn taking accoumt of the differcness im texts between the spoken and the written medium, House, on the foundation of Bibber’s work, suggests dimensions along which linguistic choices may reflect medium ‘These parameters ars as follows:

1 involved vs informational texl production

2, explicit vs situaion-dependent reference

3 abstract vs non-abstract presentation of information

Medium

Simple: written to be read

Along the three above mentioned dimensions, this text is clearly an the involved, situation-

STATEMENT OF FUNCTION

The function of this text consisting of an ideational and an interpersonal functional component may be summed up as follows: the author’s intention is to tell a good story about what Huck and Jim underwent in Parkville town with the King and the Duke

The ideational funetional component is strongly marked whereas the interpersonal component, although of course present, recedes into the background

On FIELD, the abundance of colloquial lexical items, long compound complex sentence with somnicolons to describs experisncos aboul tif certainly support idzetionat funetional

component of the text

On TENOR, the authorˆs humorous and sarcastic attitude is evidenced linguistically by the use

of repetitions ‘The apperanee of vernacular dialscls and pike county dialect, though sometimes pose difficulties for the readers, would depict the most vivid picture of life in the novel that clearly feeds info the ideational functional component I'he informal style level is inarked through informal loxicat ilems

On MODE, both the fact that the Medium of this text is “written to be read” (involved, situation-dependent and non-abstract) and that the Participation is marked by frequent dialogic parts interspersed in the mono-logic framework supports the interpersonal functional component, Linguistically this is achieved thiough many instanees of directly involving the readers

2, COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATION AND STATEMENT OF QUALITY

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATION

FIELD

Lexical mismatches:

While in the original text, Huck tends to repeat phrase “by and by” as well as adjective

“considerable” and repetition is deemed to be a feature of Huck language, the target text fail to reflect this habit Instead, the translator chooses to render these expressions flexibly to avoid repetition which is considered to be awkward in Vietnamese However, in this case, it would

be preferable if the translator can find way to use a certain expression best describing Huck’s repetition pattern

What is more, while the author chooses onomatopoeic such as “h-wack!- bum! Bumble- umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum’” to describe the sound of the thunder in the original

text, the translator renders it into nouns “mét tiếng xoet”, “một tiếng nỗ mạnh”

“Thinh thoảng, mét tiếng xoet, tiếp theo là tiếng rầm rầm nỗi lên, lan rộng ra rồi tắt hẳn, sau

đó lại một tia chớp lóe lên, rồi lại một tiếng nổ mạnh khác nữa ”: vs “then comes a h-wack!- bum! Bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum- and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit- and then rip comes another flash and another sockdolager.”

It is easy to realize that “tiếng xoet”, “tiéng ram ram” here do not match with the sound “h-

wack!- bum! Bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum” It would be better if the

target text keeps the original way of expression so that the sound effect is more profound and

the readers can feel this with their own sense and imagination as intended by the author

In addition, the original tends to use negative sentences while target text prefers positive

whereas negative forms are more emphatic and it is suitable with what Huck is trying to do to

persuade others to trust what he makes up

“Cha tôi đã nghèo túng lại còn mắc công nợ, cho nên khi trả xong nợ thì trong nhả chỉ còn xmười sáu đô la với một tên đầy tớ đa đen của chúng tôi tên là Jim” vs “Pa was pretty poor, and had some đebfs; so when he`d squared up there warn’t nothing left but sixteen dollars and our nigger, Jim”

*Với số tiên it ỏi ay chúng tôi không thể nào vượt quãng đường một nghìn bên trăm dam ay

bằng tàu thủy hay bất cứ phương tiên nào khác” vs “that wam't enough to take us fourteen

hundred mile, deck passage nor no other way.”

Variable sentence lengths are also needed to be taken into consideration during process of translation For the first chapters of this novel, Huck normally uses short sentences to narrate events, However, once he is on the raft, he tends to describe his experiences via long compound and complex sentences The original chapter uses long sentences with semicolons whereas the translation breaks the long sentences into simple ones with full stop Long

sentences, sometimes run-on sentences, with simple structure, which is simple, direct, and fluent, maintaining the rhythm of the word-groups of speech and the intonations of the

speaking voice, though considered as ungrammatical, in this case do help to emphasize the dynamism and intentionally reflect Huek's lack of formal education Whereas, simple short sentences in the target text seem to slow down the peace of things described and cause a loss

of rhythm

“Đền đêm, trời tôi sầm lại, có vẻ như muôn mưa Những tia chớp loang loáng ở phía chân trời

Lá cây bắt đầu lay động.Chắc là thời tiết sẽ xâu lam, diéu nay that qua 16 rang” vs “Towards

night it began to darken up and look like rain; the heat lightning was squirting around, low down in the sky; and the leaves was beginning to shiver- it was going to be pretty ugly, it was

easy to see that”

“Khi da đi khỏi thủ trấn chứng ba phần tư dặm, chúng tôi treo đèn hiệu lên Đến mười giở đêm,

mua, gid, sâm, chớp bắt đầu nỗi lên Nhả vua bảo tôi đứng canh gác cho đến khi nào thời tiết

khả hơn, sau đó nhà vua và quân công bỏ vào chỏi an nghi.” vs “When we was three-quarters