CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG VIỆC DỊCH CÁC TÊN RIÊNG TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH TRONG TÁC PHẨM “SỐ ĐỎ” CỦA VŨ TRỌNG PHỤNG

Contrary to popular view, proper names translation is a nontrivial question. Many scholars and translators claim that proper names do not need to be translated, especially names of literary characters. However, proper names are not noninformative; they include a lot of useful information and help to provide some simple information for audiences. In fact, translation of proper names has not been accorded the appropriate attention. These factors encourage the researcher to carry out this study with the objectives of having a look at translation strategies applied in proper names of literary characters. The novel “Số đỏ” and its translated version “Dumb Luck” were chosen as the object of this study and document analysis along with the general interview guide approach were adopted as research methods. 25 proper names selected after purposive sampling process. Regarding translation strategies, the most dominant strategy in translating proper names from Vietnamese to English was literal translation.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STRATEGIES APPLIED IN VIETNAMES -ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF PROPER NAMES IN "SỐ ĐỎ"

(DUMB LUCK) BY VU TRONG PHUNG

Supervisor : Nguyễn Thành Vân (M.A)

QH2010.F E21

Hà Nội, 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG

VIỆC DỊCH CÁC TÊN RIÊNG TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH TRONG TÁC PHẨM “SỐ ĐỎ”

CỦA VŨ TRỌNG PHỤNG

Supervisor : Ths Nguyễn Thành Vân

Khóa : QH2010.F E21

Hanoi, 2014

I hereby state that I : Bui Thu Huong, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirement of the College relating

to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origins of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of the study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan and the reproduction of the paper

Hanoi, 2014

Bui Thu Huong

I am also grateful to my classmates for their helpful comments, wholeheartedencouragement throughout the process of this paper.

Finally, I appreciate the support and care from my family and my friends fromthe beginning to the end of the research

Contrary to popular view, proper names translation is a non-trivial question.Many scholars and translators claim that proper names do not need to be translated,especially names of literary characters However, proper names are not non-informative; they include a lot of useful information and help to provide some simpleinformation for audiences In fact, translation of proper names has not been accordedthe appropriate attention These factors encourage the researcher to carry out this studywith the objectives of having a look at translation strategies applied in proper names ofliterary characters The novel “Số đỏ” and its translated version “Dumb Luck” werechosen as the object of this study and document analysis along with the generalinterview guide approach were adopted as research methods 25 proper names selectedafter purposive sampling process Regarding translation strategies, the most dominantstrategy in translating proper names from Vietnamese to English was literal translation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and objectives 2

3 Significance of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

2.1 Translation theory 1

2.1.1 Definition of translation 1

2.1.2 Translation procedures 2

2.2 Proper names 7

2.2.1 Definition of proper names 7

2.2.2 Types of proper names 8

2.2.3 Proper names translation 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 The research approach 12

3.2 Design of the study 12

3.3 Phase one 13

3.3.1 Sampling 13

3.3.2 Data collection method 13

3.3.3 Data collection procedures 14

3.3.4 Data analysis procedures 15

3.4 Phase two 15

3.4.1 Sampling 15

3.4.2 Data collection method 15

3.4.3 Data collection procedures 16

3.4.4 Data analysis procedures 17

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

4.1 Research question 1: What are the satirical meanings behind the proper names in “Số đỏ”? 19

4.1.1 Social context in “Số đỏ” 19

4.1.2 Main characters in the novel 19

4.1.3 The satirical meanings behind some names of characters in 22

“Số đỏ” 22

4.2 Research question 2: Which strategies applied by Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman in translating proper names from Vietnamese to English in “Số đỏ”? ……… 24

4.2.1 Document analysis 24

4.2.2 Interview analysis 28

4.2.3 Summary 29

4.3 Critical discussion……… ………29

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 31

5.1 An overview about the research and its findings 31

5.2 Limitation of the study and possible areas for future research 31

5.3 Contribution and significance of the research 32

REFERENCES 33

APPENDIX 36

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SL: Source language

TL: Target language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 3.1 Types of proper names……… 8Table 4.1 The satirical meaning behind some proper names

of the characters in “Số đỏ”……….…20Table 4.2 The use of translation procedures in

Vietnamese-English translation

of proper names in “Số đỏ”……… 24Table 4.3 Proper names translated by literal……….25Table 4.4 Proper names translated by couplet……… 25Table 4.5 Types of combination couplet translation procedure…26Table 4.6 Proper names translated by transference……… 27Table 4.7 Proper names translated by cultural equivalent……….27Figure 4.2 The use of translation procedures in

Vietnamese-English translation of proper names in”Số đỏ”……….….24

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Translation is not a new term to human It has such a long history – since theearly dates of civilization In fact, no one can deny the inevitable role of translation insocieties Thanks to this activity, communication between people coming fromdifferent countries becomes easier It also brings nations and cultures to come closertogether Since translation’s momentous contributions, a lot of experts and scholarswere and are attempting to establish theories and principles to enhance the quality oftranslation They try to find equivalence between the source and target language; inother words, they wish to convey without distorting the meaning of the sourcelanguage into the target language More details, factors and features appearing in thesource text will be thoroughly focused on, to make sure that target language text canmaintain the spirit, the meaning of the original version However, it is commonlyknown that when facing proper names, many translators accept to ignore proper namesbecause they believe that translating proper names is not important and necessary.Vendler (1975) even emphasized that “proper names lack meaning, they are nottranslated, but simply carried over to language translation.” (p 175)

However, the translation of proper names is considered one of the mostchallenging parts in the translation given that translators are not able to look them up inthe dictionary Moreover, proper names also indicate “racial, ethnic, national, andreligious ijhjhhhfhfđgfgyhhk;llk;dentity” (Tymoczko, 1999, p 223) In the samemanner, Aixela (1996) indicates that proper names “account for the greatest percentage

of the culturally specific items in a text” (p 86) Therefore, it is essential to pay moreattention to an important factor like a proper name, since it has not been accordedsufficient attention by scholars and translators

In Vietnam, there have been several official theses or discussions about propernames from English to Vietnamese and there seems not yet any official thesis aboutnames from Vietnamese to English This gap motivates me as a researcher to carry out

a study on strategies applied in translating proper names Nevertheless, due to thelimited time frame and capable of the researcher, this study only focuses on the casestudy of translation strategies applied by Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman intranslating proper names from Vietnamese to English in “Số đỏ” by Vu Trong Phung.

The researcher chooses this writing given that Vu Trong Phung is anoutstanding and prolific satirist who has been compared to Balzac and lauded asarguably the greatest Vietnamese writer of this rich literary period, and whose workshave been published in English Vu Trong Phung died in 1939 at a very young age, at

27 years old However, he left a huge number of works of Vietnamese literature “eightnovels, seven plays, several dozen short stories, five book-length works of nonfictionreportage, and hundreds of reviews, essays and articles” (Zinoman, 2002, p 8) Amonghis works, “Số đỏ” is considered a masterpiece in Vu Trong Phung’s career andVietnamese literature as well, which first appeared in serialized form in a Hanoinewspaper in 1936

From the above reasons, the researcher decided to conduct a study titled

“Strategies applied in Vietnamese - English translation of proper names in " Số đỏ" by

Vu Trong Phung.

2 Aims and objectives

The aim of this paper is to identify how well the English translated version of

“Số đỏ” conveys the source texts in terms of style, sense and meaning and the focus is proper names

In brief, this objective could be fulfilled by answering the two followingresearch questions:

1 What are the satirical meanings behind proper names in “Số đỏ”?

2 Which strategies are applied by Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman in translating proper names from Vietnamese to English in “Số đỏ”?

3 Significance of the study

Upon completion, the study is expected to be beneficial for students andteachers who have to translate proper names They will, to a certain extent, be aware oftranslation procedures applied to translate proper names Then they may choose themost appropriate one in order to produce the well translated version

Besides, this study is also expected to serve as a preliminary work for furtherinvestigation on the issue The researcher hopes these pieces of information couldprovide in-depth understanding on the issue It means that this study could provide thefoundation for future further study on proper names translation in general, andVietnamese - English proper name translation in particular

4 Scope of the study

“Số đỏ” and its translation might be related to a lot of issues in the translationfield such as translation of satire, humor, word plays, etc However, as the time and thecapability of the researcher are limited, this study’s focus is placed on strategies thatNguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman used to translate proper names in “Số đỏ”

5 Organization of the study

The study includes 5 chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter will provide readers an overview of the study, including therationales, aims, scope, significance and the methodology used to conduct the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Theoretical background knowledge which has influence on the entire orientation

of the research will be discussed in this chapter First, an overview of translation andtranslation procedure are provided Then an overview on proper names and propername translation will be presented The purpose of this chapter is to build theresearcher’s understanding, background and expertise in the translation in general andthe proper name translation in particular Besides, this chapter will bring the readers up

to date; let them know the key concepts, go over all ideas of the past scholars andresearchers

Chapter 3: Methodology

Methods which were applied to conduct the research will be presented in thischapter In this chapter, the reader will be informed how the researcher approaches theresearch, why the researcher uses the methods the researcher is using instead of others.Then, the researcher will give a completely accurate description of the procedures ofdata collection and procedures of data analysis

Chapter 4: Results and discussion

In this chapter, necessary comparison and analysis will be made to sort out types

of strategies applied in translating proper names in from Vietnamese to English “Sốđỏ” This chapter also contains a critical discussion of the findings and their linkages tothe existing literature and research in order to ascertain whether these translationstrategies applied by Nguyen Nguyet Cam and Peter Zinoman can retain theimplication of author in the source text

Chapter 5: Conclusions

This chapter presents addresses the results delivered from the thesis and draws aconclusion on the work of the researcher It also suggests the possibility of furtherresearch in the future This chapter ends with a sum-up of the thesis’s contribution andsignificance to translation

Chapter 6: References and appendixes

A reference list includes books, articles, and web pages, etc that are cited in the study The list is arranged alphabetically by authors

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides background knowledge used to analyze data in the nextchapter, which includes definition of translation in general, proper names in particularand proper name’s translation as well

2.1 Translation theory

2.1.1 Definition of translation

A thorough and precise awareness of the definition of translation is aprerequisite for a study of translation

One of the first definitions of “translation” is presented by Cartford in his

1965 book named “A Linguistic Theory of Translation” In this book,translation is defined as “the replacement of textual material (SL) in onelanguage by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” (p 20)

Sharing a similar view, Newmark (1988, p 7) states that “translation is acraft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement inone language by the same message and/or statement in another language"

Along the same line, Hartman and Stork (1972, p 713) also consider

“translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by arepresentation of an equivalent text in a second language.”

Although, each of the above authors uses different words to express theterm “translation”, all of them share the same perspective that the basis oftranslation is finding and transferring successfully the equivalence between twolanguages

According to Larson, translation process includes three phases: the first isstudying the source language text including factors such as the lexicon,grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context; thenanalyzing it in the purpose of establishing its meaning; finally, reconstructingthis same meaning using the lexicons and grammatical structures which areappropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context

The most important responsibility of a translator is to convey withoutdistorting the meaning of the source language into the target language, whilestill maintaining the author’s purposes and implications between the words ofthe text in target language Newmark (1995, p.5) also emphasizes that “often,though not by any means always, it is rendering the meaning of text into anotherlanguage in the way that the author intended the text.”

Apparently, translation plays a crucial part in communication and culture.Thanks to translation, people are able to overcome language and culturalobstacles; they can easily connect together despite having differences in theirmother languages

In order to evaluate the translation of proper names, a language unit thatsmaller than sentences, the research utilizes theories on translation procedures

by Newmark (1988), in which he maintained a considerably different standpointfrom other theorists that literal translation is a translation procedure

16 translation procedures proposed by Newmark in his book “A textbook

transfers a word or expression from the source language to the target languagewithout further explanation Vocabulary is still separately translated andseparated from context

E.g

 It was a pleading cry of a strong man in distress (London, “Love of life”).

→ Đó là tiếng kêu van vỉ của một người đàn ông khoẻ mạnh trong lúc tuyệt vọng (Tình yêu cuộc sống - Đắc Lê dịch)

 International Monetary Fund

→ Quỹ tiền tệ quốc tế

2 Transference

Transference procedure is utilized when translator attempt to preserve theoriginal text in the source language The words which are often preserved may

be the names of newspaper, geographical names etc All these words have thesame characters because they do not have an equivalent in the target language.

E.g Santiago, New Zealand

3 Naturalization

This type of translation procedure comes after transference in that when anormal pronunciation is adapted first by the SL word, it is then followed by thenormal morphology of the target language

E.g :

 Nail → neo (nêu)

 Clark Clifford → Clác Clípphớt

4 Cultural equivalent

This procedure is a proximate translation translating the SL cultural word

to TL cultural word, and Newmark (1988) clearly indicated that supplement ofanother translation process in a couplet is the procedure’s main function.Because of different culture, idioms and currencies are translated differently E.g Muttons dressed as lamb

→ Cưa sừng làm nghé

5 Functional equivalent

Newmark (1988, p 83) said that the procedure is normally applied tocultural SL words; TL words can be unrelated to culture Sometimes, new termcan be invented Hence, this generalizes or removes the cultural influence in the

SL words He also defines that this method is “the most accurate way oftranslating i.e deculturalizing a cultural word” (Newmark, 1988, p 83)

→ Ngày quyên tiền cho công cuộc nghiên cứu hiện tượng trẻ em chết trong nôi

6 Descriptive equivalent

The meaning of the original word is explained in several words Thisprocedure is often used with transference to translate a cultural word orexpression

→ Do được ăn uống đầy đủ, chăm sóc sức khỏe đều đặn và được giáodục, đào tạo kỹ năng tốt

10 Modulation

This translation procedure involves a variation in the message when it istranslated into a TL due to a change in the point of view There are three types

of modulation:

a One part - Another

E.g She cleared her throat

→ Cô ta hắng giọng

b Passive – active:

E.g I was not prepared for …

→ Tôi đã không hề biết rằng…

c Possitive – Double Negative

E.g It isn’t impossible to …

This translation procedure combines two or more translation procedures

to deal with a single problem This procedure is particularly common forcultural words, where transference may be combined with a functional orcultural equivalence

E.g To attend the barbecue you must have a student ID

→ Để có thể tham gia bữa tiệc barbecue (tiệc nướng ngoài trời) anhphải mang theo thẻ sinh viên

15 Reduction and Expansion

Reduction implies “omission of a word from an expression” which “is not essential for understanding” (Newmark, 1988, p 90)

E.g Linguistics

→ Khoa học ngôn ngữ

2.2 Proper names

2.2.1 Definition of proper names

Generally, proper names cover several categories: names of people,places, animals, signs, festivals, etc Although many scholars provide their owndefinitions of proper names, this study focuses on the definition mentioned inThe Oxford Concise English Dictionary (2001, p.1146) A proper name is “aname for an individual person, place, or organization having an initial capitalletter”

According to Nord (2003, p.183), “if we are familiar with the culture inquestion, a proper name can tell us whether the referent is a female or a maleperson , maybe even about their age or their geographical origin within the samelanguage community” For example, many children were named after a soccerplayer, film star of a film which was shown on the television as the same year asthey were born

Furthermore, many translation theorists such as Javier Franco Aixelá,Irma Hagfors, Eirlys E Davies, Katrine Brøndsted and Cay Dollerupacknowledge that proper names may also have certain connotations, and thenthey treat proper names as belonging to certain culture and often call themculture-specific items.

In the same manner, Garcéc (2003, p 122) emphasized that “propernames are used “not only to reinforce characterization […], but in some cases toanticipate the drawing of a character or even make it unnecessary”

In short, proper names are not non-informative; it includes a lot of usefulinformation and helps to provide some simple information for audiences

2.2.2 Types of proper names

As mentioned above, proper names cover several categories such as:names of people, places, animals, signs, festivals, etc According to Marshall(2010), proper names can be classified as below:

Table 3.1 Types of proper names

Types of proper names Examples

7 Religious terms - Hindu

12 Possessive proper nouns - Mary’s coat

- Kansas’s prairie lands

Table 3.1 Types of proper names

However, in the framework of this study, the researcher limits the study’sscope to the analysis of translating proper names given to the literary characters.With her own observations and experiences in the field of linguistic study,Bertills (2003) categorizes proper names in literary works into the followinggroups:

“1) Conventional personal names including first names and/or familynames that belong to the general anthroponomy This category includes onlynames that are found as such in the general name register and which cannot bedefined as suggesting any characteristic traits of the name-bearer

2) Invented names or coined names which are, to use Hermans (1988)term, “semantically loaded” and are formed or invented for the purpose of acertain narrative context Most of these names are transparently or opaquelysemantically loaded, or have a clearly discernable origin For instance, Raivo(2001, p.9) distinguishes between invented or names derived from other wordsand imaginary names (Bertills, 2003) refers to these names in terms of poeticnames The term imaginary names with reference to names that have no

transparent semantic content, that is, they do not include already existing wordforms They are still coined for a specific narrative context.

3) Classic names (also historical, universal or literary names) contain a

“universal” content, that is, the name is associated with certain characteristicsindependently of cultural or linguistic context For instance, the classic names ofliterary characters “Hamlet”, historical names “Caesar” These are notconventional and do not have any discernable meaning.” (p.53)

2.2.3 Proper names translation

Gergana Apostolova presents a variety of aspects to consider whiletranslating proper names

“The transformation of names in translation […] is rooted deeply in thecultural background of the translator which includes phonetic and phonologicalcompetence, morphological competence, complete understanding of the context,

a correct attitude to the message, respect for tradition, compliance with thecurrent state of cross-cultural interference of languages, respect for the culturalvalues and the responsibilities of the translator The process reaches from an earfor aesthetic sounding to the philosophical motivation of re-naming.”

(2004, p.14)Therefore, Jaleniauskiene (2009) concludes that “for a translator totranslate efficiently it is not enough to be well linguistically educated Culturaleducation is also very important Moreover, a translator has to consider theintended audience and its age, as different audiences require different translationstrategies to be used.”

According to Nguyen (2013), to deal with proper names, translatorsemploy six translation procedures as defined by Peter Newmark to translateproper names Furthermore, transference is the procedure used the most

Chapter summary

In this chapter, the readers are briefly introduced to the theories whichhave an influence on the entire orientation of the research.

Firstly, an overview of translation and translation procedures is provided.Translation is considered as a process which involves the change of form from asource language into a target language Translation procedures are methodsapplied by translators when they coin equivalence between the source language(SL) and the target language (TL) There are 16 types of translation procedures:Literal translation, Through translation, Transference, Naturalization, Culturalequivalent, Functional equivalent, Descriptive equivalent, Componentialanalysis, Synonymy, Shifts or transpositions, Modulation, Recognizedtranslation, Compensation, Paraphrase, Couplets, Reduction and Expansion

Secondly, this chapter provides an overview on proper names and propernames translation In the dictionary, the term “proper name” is demonstrated as

“a word that is the name of a person, a place, an institution, etc and is writtenwith a capital letter” Depending on the meaning, proper names can categorizedinto 12 types which are (1) holidays, (2) geographical areas, (3) people and pets,(4) books, newspaper, magazines, (5) companies and organizations, (6)religious terms, (7) places, (8) tittles, (9) languages, (10) brand names, (11)languages, (12) possessive proper nouns However, this study limits itself to theanalysis of translating proper names given to the literary characters Therefore,proper names of literary characters can be sort out into 3 groups which are (1)conventional personal names, (2) invented names or coined names, and (3)classic names