Errors in translating english empty subject structure into vietnamese by senior translation majored students at faculty of english language and teacher education, university of languages and international studies, vietnam national university
INTRODUCTION
Rationales for the study
Empty subjects are familiar to students studying English in general, senior students in the division of Interpreter and Translator and Training, FELTE, ULIS, VNU in particular They can be spotted in many types of texts, informal or formal, in articles, poems, novels and so on This type of structure is introduced to students from quite an early grade, perhaps in the very first year of lower secondary school level The fact that it appears in the curriculum, especially in rewriting sentences exercises, has claimed people pay great attention to this structure in English learning and empty subjects hold their own importance in English structures
E.g: It is important that students do well on their exams
Students should/must do well on their exams
However, there are many controversies towards the use of empty subjects Some writers and editors dislike the use of this structure because empty subjects lack meaning Some state that empty subjects can weaken students’ writing, especially when overused According to them, writing is mainly about choosing words that have full meaning Yet, the application of empty subjects is still extremely common and completely idiomatic and it can be seen in various forms of speech and writing In fact, not using the empty subject in certain constructions can sound odd and lay unnecessary emphasis on the real subject For example, the following pairs of sentences elaborate on the situations where empty subjects help create a more natural sentence
Normal: It is important to be honest with each other in a relationship
Less common: To be honest with each other in a relationship is important
Normal: There is some cake left
Less common: Some cake is left
As simple as it may seem in terms of understanding, translation of this structure might result in error-making if not be handled carefully Yet, there seem to be a lack of researches on such interesting topic Therefore, this study shall be carried out to dig deeper into the concept of empty subjects’ structure, how students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU would translate it so as it follows the target norms (standard of language in target language) and what errors they would make through examining translation errors and propose some measures to improve the translation’s quality.
Research aims and research questions
This study aims to provide students with information about native language interference on the process of translating empty subjects’ structure as well as propose some ways to improve their translations of texts with empty subjects The study follows the logic of cause and solution, focusing on translation errors student might make during the translation process of empty subjects’ structure while taking a look into which factors of the native language (target language) result in error-making and how to avoid making those errors in the translation of empty subjects’ structure in future encounters
Regarding the aim of the study, researcher seek the results through answering the following three research questions:
1 What errors do senior translation and interpretation-majored students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU make when translating texts containing empty subjects from English to Vietnamese?
2 What are the reasons that lead to students making those error?
3 What measures can be adopted to minimize chances of error-making in translating texts with empty subjects from English to Vietnamese?
In order to help answer the first two questions, observation – testing and questionnaire are selected to collect data For the last question, the chosen data collection method is semi-structure interview.
Scope of the study
The researcher studies errors in the translation process of empty subject’s structure from English to Vietnamese made by senior students in the division of Interpreter and Translator Training, faculty of English Language and Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Also, the researcher hopes to find out reasons contributing to error-making in translating empty-subject structure and some measure to minimize this problem This study will be carried out in approximately six continuous months starting from November 2021 Throughout the study, the researcher will mainly discuss translation errors involved in translating the structure of empty subjects by researching collected testing results from the participants Moreover, backgrounds about English empty subjects and translation errors will be elaborated in this study.
Contributions of the research
It is common to find the use of empty subject in different types of English texts, regardless of academic level However, there seems to be a lack of studies on such a structure, let alone studies on the translation of empty subject from English into Vietnamese
This study serves to investigate error-making in texts with empty subjects, its cause and solutions, therefore, it should benefit students who choose translation and interpretation as their major Realization of possible translation errors while translating empty subjects’ structure is expected to be the output of the study Students are also expected to acknowledge the interference of native language on the translation process
4 that would lead to error-making as well as have some take-aways in terms of solutions to minimize the effect of native language in the translation process Hence, the quality of students’ translations should be improved Not only can students benefit from this study, translators can also find this useful for their work All experienced translator used to be a novice and via practice, they gain proficiency This study is hoped to be as helpful as a guidebook in which translators can learn about empty subject, understand the errors they might make during translating it along with the reasons for that and measures to help reduce making errors Therefore, they can improve their working skill, their work would be more highly appreciated by employers or clients This study is also expected to be helpful for teachers Perhaps they can gain some informative knowledge through this study that can be applied in their teaching.
Structure of the study
The study will be conducted in five sessions – five chapters following the order below:
Chapter 1 – Introduction: This chapter shall give an overview of the study by demonstrating the rationale (the reason why this study is carried out) along with the aims and research questions The scope and the contribution and the structure of the study are also provided
Chapter 2 – Literature review: This chapter focuses mainly on two parts regarding related theories and previous studies Definitions and descriptions of theories related to the topic of the study shall be provided Moreover, previous studies will be presented in order to provide a framework for this study
Chapter 3 – Methodology: In this chapter, the orientations of the study shall be presented This chapter describes the methods and instruments used in doing the research containing data collection and analyzing techniques
Chapter 4 – Findings and discussions: This chapter presents translation errors found by the researcher in the translation of students Reasons for such errors are also discussed along with some solutions to help reduce the number of errors occurred in translating empty subject The researcher also compares what she finds out with other research to see whether they get the similar results
Chapter 5 – Conclusion: This chapter summarizes what has been found out in the study Comments are given and limitations of the research are mentioned so that further studies can improve and expand the scope of study
A list of references is attached at the end of this study along with the appendices
LITERATURE REVIEW
Empty subject
Every sentence has a subject, but sometimes the subject does not hold any meanings In this situation, it is called empty subject, also known as dummy subject Empty subjects are ―It‖ and ―There‖ According to Cambridge dictionary, ―It‖ is often used as an empty subject with adjectives and their complements whereas ―There‖, mostly used in the structure ―there is‖ or ―there are‖ These two structures indicate that something or someone exists or is in a particular place or situation Other researches into empty subjects are also conducted, take The Editor’s Manual’s article as an example In this article, the writer has the same idea with the Cambridge dictionary about the use of
―There‖ as an empty subject, yet propose another way to classify ―It‖ as an empty subject According to ―Dummy Subjects in Grammar: It and There‖ by Karve (2020) on The Editor’s Manual, there are and ―The anticipatory it‖ When the word ―It‖ does not refer to anything specific but is still needed in the sentence, it is called ―The empty it‖ We use the empty it in references to time, weather, and dates It is also used to refer to situation e.g: It’s sunny outside—the perfect day for a picnic
It is 3 a.m., and I’m wide awake
It’s the third of December today
It’s getting dark, and we should go home
It’s a strange world we live in
―The anticipatory it‖ is used for the subject at the end instead of the beginning of a sentence This helps place end-focus on the subject
7 e.g: It’s wonderful that you found each other
It seems inevitable that she will discover the truth
It feels strange to have finally won
Another study about empty subject is written by The Proofreading Pal (2019), who claimed that the empty subject was a pronoun that lacked an antecedent An antecedent is a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another An empty subject, according to The Proofreading Pal, stands in for a subject that is implied or comes later in the sentence, and it got its name because it is replacing an actual, specific subject e.g: There are cookie crumbs all over the floor It is frustrating to find such a big mess
In this example, ―there‖ substitutes for ―cookie crumbs‖ and ―it‖ refers to ―to find such a mess‖ The author also provides another example where he rewrites these sentences with the subjects first so readers can see how empty subject works e.g: Cookies are all over the floor To find this mess is frustrating
The author stated that sentences with empty subjects were correct very common in English We could particularly see the use of empty subject in sentences describing time, weather, distance, and existence of something in a particular location He then proved his statement by providing the reader with the following example e.g: It was 5 o’clock when I found the cookie mess on the floor It had been snowing for hours, and it was five miles to the nearest bakery There were no more cookies in the house other than the crumbs on the floor
In these sentences, the empty subject is used mostly because it is part of a common expression (time, weather, etc.) In some case, not using an empty subject would even be considered an awkward way of sentence forming as in the sentence ―To find this mess is frustrating.‖ At the same time, according to the author, using the empty subject in certain expressions can have a similar awkward effect, as he provides another example e.g: It was sadness I was feeling about the lack of clean and unbroken cookies in the house
He believed that writing ―I was sad‖ would be more simple and more natural sounding In this case, he wrote, there was an obvious, active subject ―I‖, and perhaps in cases like this example above, it would be a better choice to go with the true subject rather than the empty subject
For the empty subject ―it‖, there is a small case in which we have a structure called ―cleft sentence‖, basically it could still be considered a sentence with empty subject and it is well taught in schools in Vietnam Cleft sentence is used when there is an element of the sentence that users want to emphasize on more than the others The rule is that users start the sentence with ―It is/was‖ (based on which tense they are using) and then the factor they want to emphasize, after that is the rest of the original sentence which is now written under relative clause For example:
Original sentence: Tom ate my pizza
Cleft sentence: It was Tom who ate my pizza or It was my pizza that/which Tom ate
The first linguist in this century to draw attention to these sentence patterns was Otto Jespersen He first described the this in some detail in his Modern English grammar
(1965) However, he did not call them "cleft sentences" there Later, in 1937, he
9 mentioned the term prominently in Analytic syntax (1969), along with some speculations about how this construction arose For Jespersen, cleft sentence is merely a modification of a simpler sentence pattern Lees (1963) also does his study based on Jespersen's work
He also regards the IT-cleft as derived from a simple sentence, but not directly According to him, the production of a cleft sentence goes through many stages For example:
Original sentence:the wife decides Stage 1: the wife WH-the-wife decides Stage 2: it is + the wife WH- decides
Like Lees, Akmajian (1970) also regarded the IT-cleft as derived, although he calls it
―genuine cleft‖, not from a simple sentence, but what he called the 'pseudo-cleft' (his term for the WH-cleft) The IT-cleft was derived from the latter by Chomskyan transformations in the style of that time Akmajian believed that sentences like ―It was Agnew who Nixon chose.‖ was converted from the sentence ―The one who Nixon chose was Agnew‖ instead of ―Nixon chose Agnew‖
Noticing the fact that empty subject itself, in different cases, can create either a sentence with natural way of expression or on the contrary, an awkward expression; the researcher would take a look at the structure and syntax of Vietnamese, especially empty subject, and the translation of empty subjects from English to Vietnamese in order to compare and assess By applying this knowledge, the researcher hopes to come up with a finding on what happens with the translation of empty subjects from English to Vietnamese regarding the similarities and differences of the two languages’ grammar systems; which error would be made, assumably mostly naturalness; the reasons for that and a way to help reduces such errors
Structure and syntax of Vietnamese
As the saying goes: "Thunderstorm is not as scary as Vietnamese grammar", the structure and syntax of Vietnamese is a complex system with many small branches In the study of ―Tập quy tắc cú pháp Tiếng Việt‖ by Dao Minh Thu et al (2015), structure and syntax of Vietnamese is introduced thoroughly
Unlike English, Vietnamese words are mono-syllable only, therefore, ―word‖ is the smallest unit in Vietnamese that has meaning
Next, we have clauses, nominal clause (danh ngữ), adjective clause (tính ngữ) and verb clause (translated by the researcher) (động ngữ) We also have prepositional clause (giới ngữ) and adverb clause (trạng ngữ) A sentence in Vietnamese can be formed by one or more than one clause It mainly consists of two basic factors: subject (chủ ngữ) and predicate (vị ngữ) Another factor that is commonly used in forming a sentence in Vietnamese is complements (mostly adverbs) In Vietnamese, categorized by the structure of sentence, there are three main types including simple, compound and complex sentence There are some types of special sentences as well
First, we have special simple sentence, in this sentence, the syntax center is neither the subject nor the predicate (e.g: Ở làng này, khó lắm or Năm ấy, mất mùa.) This type of sentence can be sorted by its purpose into 2 categories The first one is used in
11 communication with each other in order to get their attentions or to reply to the other It can also be used to express emotion e.g Mẹ!
The second one is called existential sentence This type itself has three small categories: nominal existential sentence (e.g Một tiếng gà gáy xa Một ánh sao mai chưa tắt Một chân trời ửng đỏ phía xa.), verbal-adjective existential sentence ( e.g Chửi Kêu Đấm Đá Thụi Bịch or Đông quá!) and existential sentence containing complements (e.g Vịt, còn hai con or Áo dài có hai chiếc) Nominal and verbal-adjective existential sentences are to illustrate the existence of a noun thing, an action or an emotion However, existential sentence containing complements tends to concentrate on the place that these things and actions exist or take place
The second type of special sentence is called deduction sentence or shortened sentence (câu rút gọn) This type of sentence is created when either the subject or the predicate is deducted, in some cases, both the subject and the predicate can be crossed out Subject-deducted sentences are popular in Vietnamese e.g Huế ơi quê mẹ của ta ơi!
Nhớ tự ngày xưa, tuổi chín mười
Normally, in this type of sentence, based on the context, the subject can be brought back For example, in the sentence ―Nhớ từ ngày xưa, tuổi chin mười‖, the subject here is actually the author of the poem
Predicate-deducted sentence is also very familiar
This type of sentence is used mostly in communication and with a view to not duplicate a part of the sentence that might make it lengthy
Moreover, based on the purpose of sentence, Vietnamese sentences can be divided into categories like interrogative (câu nghi vấn), exclamation (câu cảm than) or imperative sentence (câu mệnh lệnh) Interrogative are sentences used to ask question, normally end with a question mark (?) Exclamation sentence is for expressing emotions, it is usually ended with an exclamation mark (!) though not compulsory And imperative, this type of sentence is to give order or express obligation, like exclamation, this type can be noticed by the exclamation mark at the end However, this is not applicable in every case of imperative sentence
Until present, there have been many researches and controversies around whether Vietnamese is topic prominent or subject prominent Nguyễn Văn Hiệp and Hoàng Thị Thu Thủy in Về chủ ngữ giả trong Tiếng Việt has mentioned the topic, yet, at the end, they have not been able to conclude whether Vietnamese is singly a topic-prominent or subject-prominent language According to them, Vietnamese is both topic and subject prominent Pham Phu Quynh Na (2005) also mentions this topic in her thesis about Error analysis in Vietnamese-English translation: Pedagogical implications, however, she only assumes that Vietnamese is a topic-prominent language She also mentioned other authors who had mentioned or acknowledged that Vietnamese was a topic-prominent language (Emeneau, 1951; Thompson, 1987; Hao, 1991; Rosén, 1998) It can be seen from the study of Dao Minh Thu that in Vietnamese grammar the sentence does not always have a clear subject-predicate structure Instead, the sentence is always divided into a topic and comment, in which the topic is the center of the sentence while the comment provides information to the topic Therefore, whether Vietnamese is topic prominent or subject prominent is still a subject that needs more investigation
Form-based translation
Before the idea of form-based translation is demonstrated, the researcher shall look into the definition of translation According to Merriam – Webster dictionary, translation can be defined as an act, process, or instance of translating This process can be described as ―a rendering from one language into another‖ and at the same time ―the product of such a rendering‖ It is also a change to a different substance, form, or appearance, which is quite similar to the definition of ―conversion‖, according to Merriam - Webster dictionary The meaning of translation defined by Cambridge dictionary seems to match that of Merriam – Webster as it is also described as
―something that is translated, or the process of translating something, from one language to another‖ In another word, translation is the activity or process of changing the words of one language into the words in another language that have the same meaning For example, a literal translation of "euthanasia" would be "good death"
On Translation Journal, Amira Osman wrote that translation was a mental activity in which a meaning of given linguistic discourse was rendered from one language to another This is claimed to be the act of transferring the linguistic entities from one language in to their equivalents in to another language This definition is quite close to Merriam – Webster dictionary Translation, according to Foster (1958), is an act through which the content of a text is transferred from the source language in to the target language The language to be translated is called the source language (SL), whereas the language to be translated into or arrived at is called the target language (TL) Foster also stated that the translator needed to have good knowledge of both the source and the target language, in addition to a high linguistic sensitivity as he should transmit the writer's intention, original thoughts and opinions in the translated version as precisely and faithfully as possible Osman wrote in his journal that translation had been viewed differently due to its prominence According to Ghazala (1995), "translation is generally used to refer to all the process and methods used to convey the meaning of the source language in to the target language" (P.1 Ghazala's definition focuses on the notion of
14 meaning as an essential element in translation That is, when translating, understanding the meaning of source text is vital to have the appropriate equivalent in the target text thus, it is meaning that is translated in relation to grammar, style and sounds (Ghazala,
1995) Translation is a process and a product According to Catford (1995), translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) ", (p 20) This definition, like Osman commented, showed that translation was a process in the sense that is an activity performed by people through time, when expressions are translated in to simpler ones in the same language (Rewording and para-phrasing) It can be done also from one language into another different language Translation is, on the other hand, a product since it provides us with other different cultures, to ancient societies and civilization life when the translated texts reach us (Yowell and Mutfah, 1999)
According to Larson (1984: 15) translation is classified into two main types, namely form-based and meaning-based translation Form-based translation attempts to follow the form of Source Language (SL) and is known as literal translation, while meaning-based translation makes every effort to communicate the meaning of the SL text in the natural forms of the receptor language Such translation is called idiomatic translation Normally, meaning-based translation is a more preferred and oriented method than form-based as it would serve the purpose of fluency and naturalness, which is required in the target language standards, also known as target norms On the other hand, form-based translation occurs when translator follow the SL language structure in target language (TL) text production, which might lead to misapplication of language structures, therefore, the translation quality might fail to meet the standard of target language (target norms) Researchers hardly mention form-based translation in any studies, researches Therefore, this study is expected to look more into the application of form-based translation and to come to a conclusion that this type of translation method, along with the features of source language’s structure, contributes to error-making while translating the structure of empty subjects from English to Vietnamese
Translation error
In the translation field, Neubert & Shreve (1995) describe a translation error as something that is very complicated and difficult to define and identify Viewed from the standpoint of equivalence, translation errors can be considered as non-equivalence between source text and target text, or non-adequacy of the target text (Koller, 1979, p
216, cited in Dewi, 2015) Pym (1992, p 281) considers errors in translation as a manifestation of a defect in any factors entering into the skills in translation Hatim & Mason (1997, p 203) define translation errors as (1) significant (unmotivated) mismatches of denotational meaning between source and target text (subdivided into omissions, additions and substitutions); and (2) breaches of the target-language system (e.g orthography, grammar)
Viewed from a functionalistic approach, Seguinot (1990, p 172) defines translation errors as ―an offence against: (1) the function of the translation, (2) the coherence of the text, (3) the text type or text form, (4) linguistic conventions, (5) culture- and situation-specific conventions and conditions, (6) the language system‖ The ―skopos theory‖ views a translation error ―as a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the translation brief and as an inadequate solution to a translation problem‖ and how much the target text function meets the expectations of the receivers (Nord, 2009, p 190) As discussed previously, translations errors are defined differently depending on translation theories and norms (Hansen, 2010) Based on the projects of this study, the concept of translation errors adopted in this study is stated by ATA Framework According to ATA, translation errors are negative impact(s) on the understanding or use of a target text
A translation error, according to Neubert & Shreve (1995), is something complicated and difficult to define and identify In another word, it can be considered as non-equivalence between source text and target text, or non-adequacy of the target text according to Koller, (1979, p 216, cited in Dewi, 2015) Pym (1992, p 281) considers errors in translation as a manifestation of a defect in any factors entering into the skills in translation Hatim & Mason (1997, p 203) define translation errors as significant
16 mismatches of denotational meaning between source and target text; and breaches of the target-language system Seguinot (1990, p 172) defines translation errors as ―an offence against: (1) the function of the translation, (2) the coherence of the text, (3) the text type or text form, (4) linguistic conventions, (5) culture- and situation-specific conventions and conditions, (6) the language system‖ The ―skopos theory‖ views a translation error
―as a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the translation brief and as an inadequate solution to a translation problem‖ and how much the target text function meets the expectations of the receivers (Nord, 2009, p 190)
A translation error is due to the incomplete knowledge of the rules of that target language (Pultri, 2019, p 96) According to Pym (1992), errors come from different levels of language, pragmatics, or culture There are various types of translation error experienced by the translators For example, there are linguistic error, comprehension error, and translation error (Popescu, 2013), (Cúc, 2018) An error in translation is not only because of translators’ lack of knowledge of the target language, but also their lack of knowledge in both source and target language such as the structure, vocabulary, and punctuation (Youfi, 2014) Therefore, they can also be divided into three categories which are linguistic error, cultural error, and stylistic error Kafipour & Jahanshahi
(2015), however, stated that the possible reason for a translation error to exist is insufficient material in training Due to that reason, the translators do some errors while translating According to Kafipour & Jahanshahi’s research (2015), three other types of error in translation are also exposed, they are language error, miscellaneous error, and rendition error Besides those kinds of error, Wongranu (2017) added some types of error in translation: syntactic error, semantic error, and miscellaneous errors On the other hand, another study found different kinds of translation error Lexical error, morphological error, and syntax errors were found by Silalahi, Rafli, and Rasyid (2018) appeared in the result of scientific text translation from English into Indonesia Translation error not only occur in translating paper based It is also discovered that translation error in translation application which was translated manually and there were five types of error found in this
17 translation application: inversion of meaning, addition of meaning, omission of meaning, deviation of meaning, and modification of meaning (Salam, Akil, & Rahman, 2017) The effect of translation error besides changing the meaning of the source text, the purpose of the source text will not be delivered well and it can make the readers misunderstand Gunawan & Rini (2013) conducted research on error in translation in humor text that caused misunderstanding The researchers stated errors in transferring the message and possible variation in translation as the types of error found in the result of humor text translation
In the course book for students majoring in English Linguistics for the subject of translation theory, students are introduced to the ATA framework for standardized error making (version 2015) compiled by Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy and Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn
(2019) including twenty-three translation errors
- Addition (A): is when translator introduces superfluous information or stylistic effects
- Ambiguity (AMB): is when either the source or target text segment allows for more than one semantic interpretation
- Capitalization (C): is when upper- and lower-case usage is not followed
- Cohesion (COH): is when a text is hard to follow because of inconsistent use of terminology, misuse of pronouns, inappropriate conjunctions, or other structural errors
- Diacritical marks/ Accents (D): is when the target-language conventions of accents and diacritical marks are not followed
- Faithfulness (F): is when the target text does not respect the meaning of the source text as much as possible
- False friends (FF): is when words of similar form but dissimilar meaning across the language pair are confused
- Grammar (G): is when a translation in the translation violates the grammatical rules of the target language
- Illegibility (ILL): is when graders cannot read what the candidate has written
- Indecision (IND): is when the candidate gives more than one option for a given translation unit
- Literalness (L): is when a translation that follows the source text word for word results in awkward, unidiomatic or incorrect renditions
- Mistranslation (MT): is when the meaning of a segment of the original text is not conveyed properly in the target language
- Misunderstanding (MU): is when the grader can see that the error arises from misunderstanding a word, for example, or misinterpreting the syntax of a sentence
- Omission (O): is when an element of information in the source text is left out of the target text
- Punctuation (P): is when the conventions of the target language regarding punctuation are not followed
- Register (R): is when the language level or degree of formality produced in the target text is not appropriate for the target audience
- Spelling (SP)/ Character (CH): is when a word or character in the translation is spelled or used incorrectly according to target-language conventions
- Style (ST): is when the style of the translation is inappropriate for publication or professional use
- Syntax (SYN): is when the arrangement of words or other elements of a sentence does not conform to the syntactic rules of the target language
- Terminology (T): is when a term specific to a special subject field is not used when the corresponding term is used in the source text
- Unfinished (UNF): is when the translator does not finish the translation A substantially unfinished passage is not graded
- Usage (U): is when conventions of wording in the target language is not followed
- Word form/ Part of speech (WF/ PS): is when the root of the word is correct, but the form of the word is incorrect or nonexistent in the target language
The researcher will base on this framework to study the errors that students make while translating the structure of empty subjects to identify which specific types of errors will be made
Based on this theory of translation error, this research is also expected to classify errors into levels of severity According to Translation Error Severity Guide by Mironov, severity level of translation errors is supposed to be divided into three levels:
- 1st severity level: Errors that normally go unnoticed
The errors listed in this level do not affect the meaning and most users of the translation shall neglect as they do not notice the error These are spelling or punctuation errors, to name but a few
- 2nd severity level: Harmless errors
This level, perhaps, includes minor omissions, inconsistency, or inaccuracy They may cause changes to meaning or make user of the translation difficult to read it Yet, they do not bring any serious negative influence
- 3rd severity level: Harmful errors
METHODOLOGY
Selection of subjects
The research takes place at Faculty of English Language and Teacher Education (FELTE), in University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, where translating and interpreting oriented students have to attend many courses including translation and interpretation practice, advanced translation and interpretation, specialized translation and interpretation and translation theory Through these courses, students are expected to gain sufficient knowledge, experience and practice so that they can succeed in their future career
Students in senior and junior year attend these courses The materials for these courses are carefully chosen and edited by teaching staff of the faculty They are quite up-to-dated and have a wide range of topics for students to work on such as environment, culture, economic and so on Students are also provided with diverse in-class practices and activities, group projects and assignments for higher studying efficiency and enthusiasm
In order to figure out the errors that might could be made in the translation of empty subject from English to Vietnamese by translation and interpreting majored FELTE students, 30 students are invited to join the study Those participants are Vietnamese translation and interpreting oriented FELTE senior students who have fluent English language level as they have had a chance to study this language since primary school and have proved their English proficiency with the high results in English that met ULIS entrance exam requirements All of them have finished at least 2 translation courses
24 offered by FELTE, therefore they have gained knowledge of translation theory and translation training through in-course assignments
First, 30 selected students are invited to join a simulated classroom organized online by the researcher where they are asked to take a 25-minute test This test contains
6 different sentences with empty subject written in English, the students have to do the task of translating all 6 sentences into Vietnamese without any supporting tools (Google translate, dictionary, etc.) within 25 minutes These sentences are taken from diverse sources including articles and novel At the end of the test, students shall hand in their answers to the researcher in order for the process of error analysis to be carried out
To find out the reasons for translation errors students might make in the test, copies of a survey will be handed out to these 30 students Participants are asked to choose the reason which they think contributes to error-making in translating sentences with empty subject among the options provided by the researcher They can also give a reason of their own beside provided ones
Based on the errors found out and the reasons for those errors to happen, many interviews are conducted to figure out and form a solution to minimize such errors when translating empty-subject sentences from English to Vietnamese Two interviewees are professional translators, one from an US translation company and another from the Australian Embassy in Vietnam They have many years of experience in the field of translation With their comments and advice on the topic of translation errors in translating empty-subject sentences, the researcher expect to come up with some solutions to this problem Three students majoring in translation and interpretation, FELTE, ULIS, VNU are also asked for opinions on measures to reduce error making in translating empty subjects
Data collection
According to Jennifer Mason in Qualitative Researching (1996), testing, also referred to as assessment, is a type of observation commonly used in research It is said that when the study involves measuring performance, testing subjects is necessary and desirable Testing can be conducted via paper, computer or face to face with an examiner Therefore, the researcher believes this method is the best to serve the question of finding out which translation errors senior students majoring in translation and interpretation, FELTE, ULIS, VNU shall make during the translation of empty-subject sentences
The test is carried out online via Zoom application for participants’ convenience in the context of COVID-19 The researcher provides ID code and password for participants by sending them in the letter of invitation to join this data collection activity After all participants has joined meeting, the researcher shall introduce herself and the purpose of the activity so that all students will know what they have to do, then, she shall hand out the test To ensure the quality of the answer, participants are required to not use any supporting tools like Google translate or dictionary, at the same time they shall turn on their cameras throughout the activity The allotted time period for participants to finish their translations is exactly 25 minutes After all students have handed in their work, the researcher shall begin her analysis on the answers she receives, searching for translation errors
The test is designed via Google form, including six questions Each question has one to two sentences containing empty subject written in English, which participants have to translate into Vietnamese In two of the questions, the sentences are taken from the novel ―Hard Times‖ by Charles Dickens One question has it sentences extracted from the description of Ha Long Bay in the World Heritage List on UNESCO’s website The other three are taken from business articles on CNN website This is to diversify the type of texts containing empty subject, therefore, give students the chance to work in different fields These sentences are chosen to have the difficulty level from B2 to C1,
26 which suits the proficiency of the participants There are four questions with ―it‖ as empty subject and two with ―there‖ as empty subject The aim of this test is to find out which type of empty subject structure (―it‖ or ―there‖) is more prone to mistakes as well as how well students would do with a translation test without the help of searching tool like Google translate
According to Brown (2001, p.6), ―questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers.‖ The items in a questionnaire are said to be divided into two types: closed form and open form Closed-form items provide a set of alternative answers to each item from which the respondent must select at least one For example, if one question requires participants to choose either ―yes‖ or ―no‖, this a closed-form question On the other hand, open-form question allows participants to give their own answers without restrictions
Using closed form will give the researcher such advantages including recording data easily and analyzing with statistical procedures, whereas open form benefits the researcher with a wide variety of answers that participants might give to a question Therefore, Brown also wrote that typically, most questionnaires consisted of both open- and closed-form questions The researcher believes that by applying a combination of both closed- and open-form questions, she can obtain not only qualitative but also quantitative data
The questionnaire will be designed via Microsoft word It has six sections, matching six questions from the test previously done Each sections includes three questions, one closed-form and two mixed (both closed- and open- form)
In each section, the researcher writes the question that participants have done in testing along with their answer to that question, therefore, participants can recall what they have done in this exercise Then, participants are asked to answer three questions
Question number one asks the participants which error they think they might have made in translating empty-subject sentences The researcher provides a list of translation errors by ATA framework All participants are familiar with this framework as they have all taken the Translation Theory course They have to choose as many errors as they think they have made
Question number two is a mixed one (both open- and closed-form) where participants are asked about what reasons they think contribute to their error-making A number of reasons are prepared by the conductor Students can choose among the provide answers or give their own one in ―others‖ option
The last question requires students to give their suggestion for a solution to reduce translation error in translating sentences with empty subject This is a mixed question so that participants can speak their mind freely At the same time, the researcher prepares some solutions for participants to choose whichever options they think would be best to help fix these errors
Participants repeat answering these three questions in all six sections Only participants who take part in the translation test are invited to do the questionnaire as each one will receive his/her individual copy with the answer of his/her test This copy will be sent to students by email, they are expected to fill in the questionnaire and send it back to the conductor by replying to the same email sent to them At the end of the activity, the researcher shall collect a total of 30 copies filled with answers Then, she can begin the process of analyzing data to find the reasons for students’ mistake in translating empty-subject sentences
Cannel and Kahn (1968) defined research interview as ―a two-person conversation initiated by the interviewer for the specific purpose of obtaining research – relevant information, and focused by him on content specified by research objectives of
28 systematic description, prediction, or explanation.‖ It is a method that involves the gathering of data through direct verbal interaction between individuals
There are three types of interview, including unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews categorized by the level of control the interviewers show to the direction of the interview An unstructured interview is guided by the responses of the interviewee rather than the agenda of the researcher; therefore, the direction is relatively unpredictable On the other hand, in structured interview, the agenda is totally predetermined by the researcher as he/she works through a list of set questions in a predetermined order A semi-structured one, however, allows the researcher to control the direction of the interview to some extent and at the same time gives interviewees the freedom to give answers as broad as they wish Regarding the nature of the research and the degree of control the interviewer wishes to exert on the direction of the interview, she believes a semi-structured one will suit the aim of interviewing the most
A total number of 5 interviewees are invited to join this activity 2 out of 5 participants have gained at least 5 years of experience working in the translation field The other three are senior students majoring in translation and interpretation, FELTE, ULIS, VNU Participants will be interviewed individually, time and place of the interview will be arranged by both the researcher and the interviewee via online platform such as Zoom meeting, Microsoft Teams and so on Invitations will be sent to interviewees at least one week before the actual interview takes place so they can have time for preparation Before each interview, the researcher shall introduce herself, the aim of the interview and her study once again She then shall give the interviewee a copy of her analysis of translation errors made by students participating in the first activity and another copy of the reasons Interviewees shall be given some time to look through both copies and then suggest some resolutions to the problem of error-making in translating empty subject structure The researcher shall listen carefully, take note of important information It’s important that the researcher records the interview so she can listen to it
29 again in case some key ideas are missed; yet, interviewee must be informed that they will be recorded in the letter of invitation
Data analysis procedure
Data analysis process will be conducted after the data collection process is completed
After collecting participants’ answers for the translation test, the researcher will start looking into each answer sheet individually to find out which translation errors have been made and how frequently they are made In order for the researcher to sort out information easier, a table will be drawn for each question of the test For example, for question number one, there will be a table listed with translation errors in one column and another column for noting down the frequency of students making these errors This is to see, in each question, which errors are mostly made and how many times students make them There will be six tables for six questions in the test
To help figure out the reasons for translation errors made by senior students majoring in translation and interpretation in FELTE that are found out in research question one, data from a questionnaire is collected The researcher will collect answers form participants about what reasons they think contribute to making errors in translating
A table can also be drawn in this question to list which reason is the main reason for making translation errors and which seems to be the least likely cause among those reasons provide by the researcher Participants are also expected to give their own thoughts on the reason for translation errors in translating empty-subject structure, therefore, the researcher hopes to add in some more ideas other than her own ones
After five interviews are conducted, the recordings are listened several times and turned into transcript for easier analysis In interviews with two experts, the researcher
32 hopes to find out some more reasons for making errors in translating empty subject from English to Vietnamese In all five interviews, the researcher collects information about solutions to minimize these errors Data will be noted down in form of a list and will be objectively commented by the researcher on whether these solutions can help reduce error making and which solution can be the most likely to succeed
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of translation errors
Overall, the students handled this task of translating sentences with empty subject quite well After analyzing the work of participants, the researcher has counted 63 errors in total, in which there are 59 literalness errors, making up 94% of the total errors There are one omission error and two misunderstanding errors spotted in the translations
Table 4.1: Frequency of errors made by students in the test
For question number one, students are asked to translate a sentence in the novel Hard Time by Charles Dickens:
―It is said that every life has its roses and thorns, there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen’s case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else’s thorns in addition to his own.‖
On the whole, the students did a great job of translating this sentence into Vietnamese There are only 07 errors, approximately 23%, counted in translations for this sentence, 06 of which are under the category of literalness 06 students who made this error seem to have the same way to translate the empty subject ―it‖ To be specific, they translated ―It is said that‖ into ―Nó được nói rằng‖, which is understandable as the subject ―it‖ in English is taught to be translated into ―nó‖ in Vietnamese In this case, the students have translated mostly by following the structure of the source language instead of considering its meaning and it makes the translated sentence sound unnatural in Vietnamese However, this is not a severe error since the readers can still understand the main idea of the sentence There is also one case of omission error spotted in this sentence’s translations in which the student completely crossed out the phrase ―It is said that‖ This error does not affect the meaning of the sentence, in fact, it seems to make the sentence less complicated However, the researcher personally suggests that if there is a way to render this structure into Vietnamese, then it should be remained rather than omitted from the sentence
For question number two, another sentence in the novel Hard Time by Charles Dickens is taken out for the students to work on:
―It would be hopeless for me, Louisa, to endeavor to tell you how overwhelmed I have been, and still am, by what broke upon me last night‖
Compared to the first sentence, this one seems to be a harder puzzle as not only more mistakes are made, but there are also more types of errors made by students There are 10 mistakes in all translations of this sentence, in which literalness is still the most frequently-made error, accounting for about 27% (8 cases) In this sentence, the students did not translate the empty subject ―it‖ into ―nó‖ anymore, instead, they translated the whole structure ―It would be hopeless for me‖ into ―Sẽ là vô vọng đối với tôi‖ This is an
35 unnatural way of expression in Vietnamese, however, when writing in Vietnamese, students sometimes use this type of expression as well and it does not seriously do harm to the process of conveying the meaning Therefore, this error can be considered minor mistake Beside literalness, the researcher found a case of syntax error among the translations A student wrote: "Louisa, đối với tôi, việc cố gắng nói với cô rằng tôi đã và ngay lúc này đang bị choáng ngợp như thế nào, bởi những gì đã xảy ra với tôi đêm qua là vô vọng‖ This can be considered a major error as it does not follow the syntax of Vietnamese, therefore, readers cannot understand the meaning of the sentence There is also a case of misunderstanding It can be seen in the original text that ―me‖ (or ―I‖) and
―Louisa‖ are not the same character, yet a student mistook ―me‖ for ―Louisa‖, which leads to the meaning of this sentence being wrongly conveyed This can also be put under the third severity level, critical errors, as it would make readers get the wrong message
Question number three is a couple of sentences extracted from a writing on Ha Long Bay on UNESCO World Heritage Site website:
―There is a continuing challenge to improve the integrity and quality of the environment The natural scenic features, geomorphology, landform values and cultural heritage along with key features such as islands, caves and grottoes remain intact and the property retains a high level of naturalness despite the long history of human use in the area.‖ This question seems to be a lot easier than the previous two as only 03 errors are tracked in the translation of these sentences Perhaps it is easier to find a translation to the empty subject ―there‖ and the structure ―there + to be‖ In Vietnam, we have a special type of sentence that does not contain the subject element, it is not a subject-deducted sentence as you can not find a suitable subject for this sentence For example, we can say ―Có hai con mèo ngồi bên cửa sổ‖, and in English, we can say ―There are two cats sitting by the window‖ However, this translation cannot be applied in every case and that is the reason why in these sentences of the third question, using this structure causes a literalness error However, these errors do not affect the meaning of the sentences Therefore, they can be considered minor errors
Question number four is a sentence from an article called Here's what workers really want from their employers by Jeanne Sahadi on CNN Business:
―It's no surprise that anyone looking to quit their current job for a new one will want a position that offers better pay and work-life balance.‖
It can be said that all students have done an excellent job on translating this sentence No mistakes have been recorded in this question Although several students have several ways of translating empty subject structure, overall, they all successfully conveyed the meaning of the sentence into Vietnamese in a way that it’s understandable and natural
For question number five, a group of small sentences from an article called How Heinz uses a fake number to keep its brand timeless by Nathaniel Meyersohn on CNN Business are taken out for the students to work on:
―There weren't 57 Heinz varieties when Pittsburgh business magnate H.J Heinz first invented the slogan in 1896 Nor when Heinz 57 sauce was introduced soon after There aren't 57 now There are, in fact, hundreds of Heinz varieties.‖
In this question, there are 14 cases of literalness error recorded This is quite a considerable number, yet it is predictable In this question, students made mistake in the first sentence ―There weren't 57 Heinz varieties when Pittsburgh business magnate H.J Heinz first invented the slogan in 1896‖ Students would translate it into ―Không hề có 57 loại sốt Heinz khi mà ông trùm kinh doanh Pittsburgh H.J Heinz lần đầu tiên phát minh ra khẩu hiệu này vào năm 1896‖ Eventhough the meaning is fully conveyed; the sentence does not sound natural in Vietnamese, so this could be consider a preferential variation Moreover, there is one case of misunderstanding recorded in this sentence The student translated ―There weren’t 57 Heinz varieties‖ into ― Không có ―57 sốt Heinz‖‖, which means she understood ―57 varieties‖ here as a slogan invented in 1896
In the last question, the sentences are also taken out from How Heinz uses a fake number to keep its brand timeless by Nathaniel Meyersohn on CNN Business:
―It may seem commonplace today, but the idea of "57 varieties" was a significant innovation in food marketing at the time In the late 19th century, packaged and processed foods were a new concept to the public.‖
The last question seems to be the hardest for all students as only two out of 30 students successfully conveyed the meaning of the sentences, therefore, avoided making literalness errors Most students have difficulty in translating the first sentence ―It may seem commonplace today, but the idea of "57 varieties" was a significant innovation in food marketing at the time.‖ The sentences means that the idea of ―57 varieties‖ as a marketing strategy is commonplace today, so the empty subject ―it‖ is supposed to be alternative for ―marking strategy‖, not ―57 varieties‖ As students are unable to distinguish what the subject ―it‖ substitutes for, they tend to use ―nó‖ or ―điều này‖ or
―như vậy‖ instead For example, a student wrote ―Ngày nay nó có vẻ phổ biến, nhưng ý tưởng về "57 loại Heinz" là một sự đổi mới đáng kể trong việc tiếp thị thực phẩm ở thời điểm đó.‖ This leads to the fact that the readers are unlikely to fully understand the meaning of the sentence and students have made a literalness error as they focus on the meaning of the word ―it‖ rather than understand the whole meaning of the sentence However, the researcher did as the students to not use any supporting tools other than dictionary, therefore, it’s predictable and acceptable that students would make such mistakes
While observing the errors made by students, the researcher is also able to categorize students into three groups demonstrated in the following table:
Number of sentences containing errors
Table 4.2: Number of students making errors divided into three categories
It can be seen from the table that the students handle the test without helping tools quite well as the number of students who only make mistake in up to one sentence makes up for 46% On the other side, the number of students who make errors in almost every
Reasons for translation errors
A questionnaire has been handed out to help the researcher study the causes of making errors in translating sentences containing empty subject
I know the grammatical rule, but I have problem rendering the structure from English to Vietnamese
It is different from Vietnamese syntactic structures 45 20%
It is hard to find Vietnamese equivalence to some words in the sentences
I do not understand the messages in the sentences 16 7%
I know the grammatical rule and I mostly base on it to translate rather than the meaning of the sentences
Table 4.3: Reasons for error-making stated by students
The researcher collected 225 ticks on reasons for error-making in total The result is that most students claimed that the main reason for their making mistake was they knew the grammatical rule, yet they had problem rendering the structure from English to Vietnamese In all six sections (six translation questions), more than 90% of students tick this reason as the main reason for their making mistakes and 119 ticks in total are recorded for this reason, which accounts for 53% of all ticks
45 responses (20%) indicate the fact that the structure of the sentence is different from Vietnamese syntactic structures as the reason for making mistakes in translating This reason is mostly applied in section 1 and 5
There are 13% of responses claiming that they could not find the equivalence to some words in English, therefore it affects their translation
It is also recorded that 16 responses claimed to not understand the messages in the sentences The same figure applies in the reason ―I know the grammatical rule and I mostly base on it to translate rather than the meaning of the sentences‖
The researcher also conducts interviews with two experienced translators, in which she gives the interviewees her analysis of translation errors in students’ test results and ask them to voice their opinions on the reasons for such errors to occur
There are different reasons given by two interviewees, yet they do share the same perspective on some reasons They both think that literal translation or ―word to word‖ translation is the main cause for students making errors in translating empty subject structure This is because the students might not have good understanding of the context Mrs Office Manager from Australian Embassy also states some other reasons The first one, according to her, is that the phrase structure in English is different in Vietnamese and the empty subject is not common, yet existing in Vietnamese Therefore, there would be no equivalents between these 2 languages Also, she claims that the students would not have adequate cultural, historical and/or social knowledge to be able to transfer the right message of the text in their translation Moreover, they might have some gaps in their Vietnamese language such as grammar, vocabulary and so on Finally, she states that the students might have been influenced by their teachers who used to tell them that ―it‖ means ―nó‖ in Vietnamese, leading to the fact that students might use ―nó‖ as a subject in the Vietnamese translation rather than finding what ―nó‖ refers to Mrs Language Specialist from Oracle International Product Solutions, Oracle Corporation seems to agree on this point Answering the interview, she said that the students should find a real subject that the empty subject substituted for So, when the really subject could not be
40 found, the students tend to just translate the empty subject ―it‖ and use it as in alternative to the real one, therefore, they make a mistake
Some students who do not take the translation test are also asked whether they have difficulty in translating empty subject Two out of three answer that they find it hard to identify the real subject of the sentence (what empty subject substitutes for) Therefore, they would just omit it or translate word by word Accordingly, the researcher might conclude that another major reasons for making translation errors is not being able to identify the subject of a sentence
The researcher does some study into Error analysis in Vietnamese-English translation: Pedagogical implications by Pham Phu Quynh Na (2005) in which she studied errors while translating topic-comment structures As empty subject structure seems to be considered a topic-prominent structure, the researcher takes a look at Pham Phu Quynh Na’s study for a framework to compare her work Na found out that students make errors when translating such structures because 1) they lack linguistic competence and the ability to apply their English knowledge to writing; 2) they are unable to fully comprehend the source text or the author’s intent and 3) they are under the impact of Vietnamese language and Vietnamese source text Although this study does not list the exact same reasons as Na’s, the findings show some resemblances Students stated that they did not understand the message of the source text They also claimed that they had difficulty in rendering the sentences from English to Vietnamese due to the structure’s syntactic rule In Vietnamese – English Translation Errors Made by Second Year Translation-Major Students: An Initial Step towards Enhancing Translation Standards
(Hằng Ng & Hằng Tr, 2015), it is also pointed out that the reasons behind mistakes in translation is poor language competence Although ―lack of motivation‖, ―lack of concentration‖ and ―misuse of dictionary‖ are also as the reasons, all three studies share an opinion of influence of the mother tongue as the main reason for error-making
Solutions for translation errors
The researcher conducted five interviews, in which two interviews are with experienced translators and the other three are with senior students majoring in translation and interpretation in FELTE, ULIS, VNU
Overall, the two experts seem to come up with more solutions than the students, based on their experience However, what they all suggest is that translators should read more, watch more and listen more They should try to get access to both English and Vietnamese materials, especially those containing empty subjects By this way, translators can enrich their cultural, historical, political and social knowledge of Vietnam, which is very useful when you translate a text from English to Vietnamese and vice versa They can also learn other people’s way of translating structures, especially empty subject, and apply it into their work They may also come across some suitable guides to translate empty - subject sentences while reading materials like translation guidance book of some translation companies or other translators’ work
However, each interviewee still has their own novel idea for measures to reduce translation errors while translating empty subjects made by students majoring in translation and interpretation
Mrs Office Management from the Australian Embassy first advised that the teachers should not tell the students that ―it‖ is ―nó‖ By this, when the students face a sentence containing the empty subject ―it‖, they will not immediately translate it into
―nó‖ However, this has a drawback, in a sentence with ―it‖ as a noun or pronoun, not as empty subject, what will it be translated into in Vietnamese She also suggested that translators should try to understand the key message or idea of the text and try to pass it on, try to find the most equivalents Moreover, she presented a novel idea about how translators should always put themselves in the reader’s shoes by pretending they are Vietnamese people who did not know English Therefore, they could find out what and how they would say in that case or context
Mrs Language Specialist from Oracle International Product Solutions, Oracle Corporation suggested the first thing translators needed to pay attention to was to find a real subject for the empty subject ―it‖, normally it would be a noun or pronoun According to her, a subject is indispensable so if the real subject is not visible in the source text, translators should find it based on the context and then translate into Vietnamese Also, she suggested that translators should try not to translate based too much on words or structure
The first two students, when being interviewed, claimed that they were novices in the translation field, therefore they were not able to give a variety of solution to help reduce translation errors Yet, they shared the same idea about reading, watching and listening to as many materials as they can to help improve their translation This is understandable as translating requires more than just following the structure With two sentences, although they might have the same structure, each sentence could be translated in a completely different way Therefore, one of the best ways to improve translation’s quality is to learn from different materials and even other people’s work
The last student had quite a lot of idea on how to minimize the number of translation errors while translating empty subjects She stated that the first thing translators should do was to practice more to continually improve language competence of themselves Another solution given by her is that translators should enrich their lexical resources This student was also able to give a solution considering the role of teachers She said that teachers should improve teaching methods and develop different approaches so that students can have different kinds of exposure to empty subjects, therefore, they can familiarize themselves with the structure When they have enough knowledge, they can try to practice themselves
Not many other studies have looked into the field of solutions to reduce errors made while translating empty subject structure, however, solutions to translation errors in general are diversely stated Overall, students are advised to improve their language competence by reading more, practicing more and developing a sense of language They are expected to try to overcome the influence of the mother tongue in English-
Vietnamese translation and vice versa Yet, there seems to be a lack of advice on the teacher’s side Therefore, this study hopes to provide a different angle for finding way to tackle a problem named translation errors in empty subject structure