hiết kế chương trình đọc tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh viên năm thứ 2 ngành Quản trị kinh doanh Trường Cao đẳng nghề Giao thông vận tải Đường thuỷ 1

Aims of the study The main aims of the study are:  To work out the most common types of equivalence used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words..  To draw out the common prob

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN PHƯƠNG

VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURAL WORDS IN THE BOOK

“HANOI’S ANCIENT FEATURES”

BY TRAN MANH THUONG

(CÁCH DỊCH TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH CÁC TỪ NGỮ

VĂN HÓA TRONG TÁC PHẨM “NÉT XƯA HÀ NỘI”

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN PHƯƠNG

VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURAL WORDS IN THE BOOK

“HANOI’S ANCIENT FEATURES”

BY TRAN MANH THUONG

(CÁCH DỊCH TỪ TIẾNG VIỆT SANG TIẾNG ANH CÁC TỪ NGỮ

VĂN HÓA TRONG TÁC PHẨM “NÉT XƯA HÀ NỘI”

CỦA TRẦN MẠNH THƯỜNG)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến

Hanoi, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration

Acknowledgement

Abstract

Table of contents

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Aims of the study 2

4 Methodology 2

5 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Translation Theory 5

1.1.1 Definition of translation 5

1.1.2 Translation equivalence 6

1.1.2.1 The concept of translation equivalence 6

1.1.2.2 Types of equivalence in translation 8

1.1.3 The problem of non – equivalence 10

1.2 The concept of culture in translation 13

1.3 Cultural categories 14

1.4 Translation methods 15

CHAPTER 2: THE MOST COMMON TYPE OF CULTURAL WORDS EQUIVALENCE 2.1 The most common types of cultural words 18

2.2 The most common types of equivalence 18

2.3 Strategies to deal with nil – equivalence 21

2.3.1 Borrowings 22

2.3.2 Paraphrasing 24

2.3.2.1 Description of the ingredients and how the dish is cooked 24

2.3.2.2 Description of the use of the object 24

2.3.2.3 Description of the shape and appearance of things 25

2.3.2.4 Literal translation 26

2.3.2.5 Transferring meanings of the words 27

CHAPTER 3: OTHER TYPES OF EQUIVALENCE 3.1 Many-to-one equivalence 29

3.2 One-to-part-of-one equivalence 32

3.3 One-to-one equivalence 35

3.4 Reasons for the differences 37

3.4.1 Different religions and beliefs 37

3.4.2 Different traditions and customs 38

3.4.3 Different historical allusion 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Addressed issues 39

2 Suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

PART A – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Language is the carrier of the culture For one thing, language is a part of culture and plays an important role in it Thus it reflects culture For another, as a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture Culture and intercultural competence and awareness that rise out of experience of culture, are far more complex phenomena than it may seem to the translator The more a translator

is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the better a translator s/he will be It is probably right to say that there has never been a time when the community of translators was unaware of cultural differences and their significance for translation Translation theorists have been cognizant of the problems attendant upon cultural knowledge and cultural differences at least since ancient Rome Cultural knowledge and cultural differences have been a major focus of translator training and translation theory for as long as either has been in existence The main concern has traditionally been with words and phrases that are so heavily and exclusively grounded in one culture that they are almost impossible to translate into the terms – verbal or otherwise – of another Long debate have been held over when

to paraphrase, when to use the nearest local equivalent, when to coin a new word by translating literally, and when to transcribe All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists

As hard as it may seem, the translation of Vietnamese cultural words is now an inevitable part in our integrating life since we have become a member of WTO It is important for any Vietnamese to match cultural equivalence between English and Vietnamese to introduce our culture into the world However, not many empirical studies have been conducted so far on the issue of translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English Those reasons may justify for the necessity of this study The study investigates how Vietnamese cultural words are transferred in the book

“Hanoi’s Ancient Features” It also raised the need for translators of

Vietnamese-English texts, especially in treating cultural terms, to pay close attention to the linguistic and cultural elements of the source texts

2 Scope of the study

Within limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the researcher focuses only on cultural words occurring in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” by Tran Manh Thuong Such is the boundary set for my thesis so as to achieve a thorough investigation Specifically, the study takes into consideration such major aspects as follows:

 The most common types of equivalence

 The possible reasons for the non – equivalence

 Their translations

3 Aims of the study

The main aims of the study are:

 To work out the most common types of equivalence used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words

 To draw out the common problems of equivalence seen in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English

 To draw out strategies and procedures that may apply to the translation of Vietnamese cultural words and suggest some implications for the translation

of the cultural words

4 Methodology

4.1 Research questions

The thesis seeks answers for the following research questions:

a What is the most typical type of equivalence used in the translation of cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”?

b What are the most common problems in translating Vietnamese cultural words into English that can be seen in the book?

c What are the common methods used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words?

4.2 Research methods

On the completion of the thesis, the researcher went through the following steps:

 Building up a theoretical background by reviewing translation and terminology

 Collecting and grouping Vietnamese cultural words in the book and their English equivalents for description, analysis and induction

 Finding out the similarities and differences and draw out the translation used

in the translation of cultural words

 The main method is contrastive analysis

4.3 Data collection

The Vietnamese cultural words studied are taken from the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” and their equivalents are picked out from the translation by the Vietnamese translator Tran Manh Thuong

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts, references and appendices as follows:

PART A – INTRODUCTION

The introduction gives rationale for the study It also outlines the aims and the methods of the study

PART B – DEVELOPMENT

The development comprises two chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

The theory of translation and the translation of cultural words will be dealt

with in this chapter

Chapter 2: The most common type of equivalence

This chapter features an investigation into the equivalence between Vietnamese and English translation of cultural words to draw out the most common type of equivalence in translation of Vietnamese cultural words, that

is nil equivalence

It also studies the translation of Vietnamese cultural words and translation methods employed in their translation by Tran Manh Thuong in his book

“Hanoi’s Ancient Features”

Chapter 3: Other types of equivalence

The other types of equivalence are to be stated and analysed in this chapter The researcher also indicates the reasons for the differences in cultural words between the two languages at the last part

PART C – CONCLUSION

The conclusion summaries the strategies and procedures and methods of translation

as well as makes relevant suggestions

Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to during

the writing of this thesis

The appendices list examples of different groups of equivalence in order of the

alphabet

PART B – DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Translation Theory

1.1.1 Definition of translation

Kelly, L.G - a prominent figure in linguistics stated “Without translation, there is no history of the world.” What is a basis for him to make such a strong claim? What is translation that is of great importance as implied by Kelly? Translation, traditionally and controversially seen with its status as an art or a science, has been viewed differently through times and thus defined variously Thus, in this section, the writer cites some definitions proposed by Catford, Larson, Newmark and Bell in order to have a clear concept about translation

General definition of translation has been set by Catford (1965:20) in “A Linguistic Theory of Translation”, he defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” He tried to emphasize the translation is the process of substituting the equivalent of lexical items ‘textual material’ It means that the process of substituting a text cannot be regarded as a translation if the message of the TL text

is not comparable to the message of the SL text

In addition to statement of Catford, Larson (1984:3) views that translation is a process of how a language is transferred into another by changing the form of source language and not the meaning of the source language, as he states that:

Translation consists of translating the meaning of the source

language into the receptor language This is done by going from

the form of the first language to the form of a second language

by way of semantic structure It is meaning which is being

transferred and must be held constant Only the form changes

Larson (1984:3)

In accordance with those definitions, Newmark (1988) assumes that translation is a way of conveying message from the author of the SL into TL He points out translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.” (1988:5) He did not seem to totally agree with Larson – who viewed translation a basic “change of form”, by emphasizing the “intended the text”

In line with the theory above, Bell (1991:5) assumes that “translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences” He also says that translation “is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language

by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.”

It is noticed that those definitions discussed above, though put different, share common features which is to find equivalents that best or appropriately preserve features of the original in terms of semantics, grammatical structures, lexis, cultural context as well as communication situation among other things to be considered

1.1.2 Translation equivalence

1.1.2.1 The concept of translation equivalence

Translation equivalence is a principal concept in translation theory It is a constitutive feature and the guiding principle of translation As Catford points out,

"the central problem of translation-practice is that of finding TL equivalents A central task of translation theory is that of defining the nature and conditions of translation equivalence." (Catford 1965:21) Actually, since the fifties of the twentieth century, many translation theorists have involved and elaborated translation equivalence in their respective theories First of all, it is necessary for us

to understand exactly the meaning of the word "equivalence" itself According to Mary Snell-Hornby (1988:17), for the last 150 years, the word "equivalence" in English has been used as a technical term in different kinds of exact sciences to refer to a number of scientific phenomena or processes For instance, in mathematics, it indicates a relationship of absolute equality that involves guaranteed

reversibility At the same time, however, it can also be used as a common word in the general vocabulary of English, and, in this sense, it means "of similar significance" In other words, the word "equivalence" is used in the English language both as a scientific term and as a common word As a central concept in translation theory, "equivalence" cannot be interpreted in its scientific sense It can only be understood in its common sense as a general word As J.R Firth points out

in his writing on translation, it was in the common sense and as an item of the general language that the word "equivalence" was originally used in English translation theory.(Snell-Hornby 1988:17)

Philosophically speaking, there are no things that are absolutely identical Nida expresses this view as follows:

There are no two stones alike, no flowers the same, and no two

people who are identical Although the structures of the DNA in

the nucleus of their cells may be the same, such persons

nevertheless differ as the result of certain developmental factors

No two sounds are ever exactly alike, and even the same person

pronouncing the same words will never utter it in an absolutely

identical manner (Nida 1986: 60)

As far as languages are concerned, there are no two absolute synonyms within one language Quite naturally, no two words in any two languages are completely identical in meaning As translation involves at least two languages and since each language has its own peculiarities in phonology, grammar, vocabulary, ways of denoting experiences and reflects different cultures, any translation involves a certain degree of loss or distortion of meaning of the source text That

is to say, it is impossible to establish absolute identity between the source text and the target text Therefore, we can say that equivalence in translation should not be approached as a search for sameness, but only as a kind of similarity or approximation, and this naturally indicates that it is possible to establish

equivalence between the source text and the target text on different linguistic levels and on different degrees

1.1.2.2 Types of equivalence in translation

Translation has been studied by many scholars from different notions of view Some of translation scholars defined their theories a source-oriented theory, others regarded the target-oriented theories These theorists have studied equivalence in relation to the translation process, using a variety of approaches, namely quantitative and qualitative approach; however, all translation theories are related to the notion of equivalence in one way or another Not surprisingly, equivalence plays a crucial role in translation which is the matter of establishing equivalence between source language and target language Some of the most widely accepted are quantitative, meaning-based, form-based and function-based

a Quantitative approach

Kade (1968) and other writers on lexical equivalence, in particular in the area

of terminology, categorizes equivalence relationships as follows:

 One-to-one equivalence: There is a single expression in the TL for a single expression in the SL

 One-to-many equivalence: There is more than one expression in the TL for

a single SL one

 Many-to-one equivalence: There is more than one expression in the SL, but there is only a single expression in the TL that is equivalent to them

 One-to-part-of-one equivalence: A TL expression is only equivalent to part

of the concept designated by a single expression in the SL, or the equivalent in the TL has a broader meaning than the concept in the SL

 Nil equivalence: There is no expression in the TL for a single expression

in the SL

b Meaning-based equivalence

Under Koller (1979)’s view, there are five types of equivalence:

 Denotative equivalence: The SL and the TL words refer to the same thing

in the real world

 Connotative equivalence: This type of equivalence provides additional values besides denotative value and is achieved by the translator’s choice

of synonymous words or expressions

 Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective languages

 Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words have the same effect on their respective readers

 Formal equivalence: This type of equivalence produces an analogy of form in the translation by their exploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating new forms in TL

c Form-based equivalence

Baker (1992) proposes five levels of equivalence: equivalence at word level, equivalence above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, pragmatic equivalence Firstly, equivalence at word level is taken into consideration Baker defines the term “word” and notes that word sometimes have different meanings in different languages, and relates meaning of words with morpheme Baker introduces problems at word level and above word level before suggesting some strategies in dealing with them Secondly, grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages She affirms that grammatical rules across languages may differ, which lead to some problems in finding a direct correspondence in the TL Thirdly, textual equivalence refers to the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text regarding information and cohesion Whether the cohesive relations between TL and SL should be maintained depends on three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type Finally, pragmatic equivalence refers to implication of the TL text The duty of a translator is recognizing the implied

meaning of SL text, and then reproducing it in a way that readers of the TL can comprehend clearly without any misunderstanding culturally

d Function-based equivalence:

Nida (1964) argues that there are two different types of equivalence, including formal equivalence- which, in the second edition, is referred to as formal correspondence and dynamic equivalence Formal correspondence focuses attention

on both form and content (as in Bible, international diplomacy, law and the like) unlike dynamic equivalence emphasizes the text readability

Formal correspondence consists of a TL item which represents the closest equivalent of a SL word or phrase Nida stresses that there are not always formal equivalents between language pairs Dynamic equivalence is a translation principle in which a translator translates the meaning of the original text; producing the same impact on the original wording did upon the ST audience Nida (1964) believes that the main aim of equivalent effect is to achieve "the closest natural equivalent to the source language" (p.126) He stresses that the adaptation of grammar, cultural references and lexicon of the ST will lead to the translation naturalness while highlighting the preservation of the text meaning on its style as the root of the equivalent effects He argues that formal translators who focus more

on forms are more likely to misinterpret the "intention of the author" and "distort the meaning" (p 191-192)

1.1.3 The problem of non-equivalence

The problem of non-equivalence has been drawing the attention of many researchers Jakobson claims that "there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code units" (as cited in Munday, 2001) Jakobson also explains the differences between structures, terminology, grammar and lexical forms of languages are the main reasons of non-equivalence Jacobson states that "equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics." (as cited in Munday, 2001) In his theory, the general principle of cross-language difference and the concept ‘semantic field’ has been established

Catford (1965) found that there are two factors which affected the equivalence i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kinds of equivalents i.e linguistic and cultural equivalents This finding of Catford is very significant because it consists of both important approaches toward equivalence, namely, linguistic and cultural approaches On the contrary, there were some arguments against Catford theory Snell-Hornby (1988:19-20) claims that textual equivalence introduced by Catford is “circular” and his examples are “isolated and even absurdly simplistic” Furthermore, she criticizes equivalence in translation is an illusion because there are many aspects, including textual, cultural and situational ones, get involved in the equivalent degree of the translation House (1977) also agrees that not only functional but situation factor need to be taken into consideration during the process of translation

Equivalent effect, as judged by Newmark (1988:134), is “the desirable result, rather than the aim of any translation” Accordingly, the equivalent effect is a result which all translators long to achieve Further, Newmark (1988) argues that the text may reach a 'broad equivalent effect' only if it is 'universal' that means cross culture share common ideas

Among many approaches introduced above, Mona Baker was the most outstanding theorist dramatically focusing on equivalence at word level since, as being claimed

by her, word is the basic unit to be considered in meaning of translation text Her analysis on word level is particularly clear, easy to comprehend

a Culture-specific concepts

The source-language word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to

a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food

b The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language

The source-language word may express a concept which is known in the target culture but simply not lexicalized, that is not ‘allocated’ a target-language word to express it

c The source-language word is semantically complex

The source-language word may be semantically complex This is a fairly common problem in translation Words do not have to be morphologically complex to be semantically complex (Bolinger and Sears, 1968) In other words, a single word which consists of a single morpheme can sometimes express a more complex set of meanings than a whole sentence

d The source and target languages make different distinctions in meaning

The target language may make more or fewer distinctions in meaning than the source language What one language regards as an important distinction in meaning another language may not perceive as relevant

e The target language lacks a superordinate

The target language may have specific words (hyponyms) but no general word (superordinate) to head the semantic field English has no ready equivalent for facilities, meaning ‘any equipment, building, services, etc that are provided for a

particular activity or purpose’

f The target language lacks a specific term (hyponym)

More commonly, languages tend to have general words (superordinates) but lack specific ones (hyponyms), since each language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to its particular environment

g Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective may be of more importance in one language than it is in another Perspective may also include the relationship between participants in the discourse (tenor)

h Differences in expressive meaning

There may be a target-language word which has the same propositional meaning as the source-language word, but it may have a different expressive meaning

i Differences in form

There is often no equivalent in the target language for a particular form in the source text Certain suffixes and prefixes which convey propositional and other types of meaning in English often have no direct equivalents in other languages

j Differences in frequency and purpose using specific forms

Even when a particular form does have a ready equivalent in the target language, there may be a difference in the frequency with which it is used or the purpose for which it is used

k The use of loan words in the source text

The use of loan words in the source text poses a special problem in translation

Quite apart form their respective propositional meaning, loan words such as au fait,

chic, and alfresco in English are often used for their prestige value, because they

can add an air of sophistication to the text or its subject matter

1.2 The concept of culture in translation

In the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999), the definition of “culture” varies from descriptions of the “arts” to plant and bacteria cultivation However, the translation scholar, Newmark (1988:94), views culture as “a way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression" Newmark’s (1988) definition implies that culture reflects the way in which a particular cultural group perceives and interprets meaning This implication highlights the fact that different cultural groups do not necessarily attach the same meaning to reality Each constructs its own way of expressing its values and beliefs Tomaselli (1985), a distinguished scholar on cultural issues in the media, agrees with this opinion Tomaselli (1985:8) regards culture as “the process which informs the way meanings and definitions are socially constructed by social actors themselves” Newmark’s and Tomaselli’s views of culture indicate that cultural differences and similarities between different culture groups need to be taken into account in order to attain a meaningful understanding of different groups

In translation the recognition of different cultures is very important because it facilitates a better understanding of a translation and its original Therefore, translation should not only be about transferring messages from one language to another, but it should also involve transferring certain cultural elements from source language to target language This is further confirmed by Lotman’s (1978) theory which states that “no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have at its centre, the structure of natural language” Bassnet avers that “to attempt to impose the value system of the source language onto the target language is dangerous ground, and the translator should not

be tempted by the school that pretends to determine the original intentions of the author on the basis of a self-contained text” (1980:13)

In other words, translation is not simply linguistic transfer “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world which different labels attached” (Sapir 1958:69) Therefore, when translating,

it is important to consider not only the lexical impact on the TL reader, but also the manner in which cultural aspects may be perceived and make translating decisions accordingly

1.3 Cultural categories

There exist many different classifications proposed by various authors Newmark (1988:95) talks about “cultural categories”, among which cultural words can be classified:

a Ecology including flora, fauna, types of winds and natural phenomena, etc.;

b Material culture, related to the artificial products manufactured by a society, like food, clothes, housing, cities, means of transport, etc.;

c Social culture, including work and employment, and leisure;

d Organizations, political, administrative, religious or artistic concepts, activities or institutions;

e Gestures and habits (often described in “non-verbal” language)

Furthermore, there are other authors who introduce new factors and concepts in their typologies of cultural references, such as Mallafre (1991), who deals with a related factor: the opposition between tribe language (referring to private life) and polis language (regarding public life) The first element would be related to the own personal experience of an individual, and it would allude to his or her personal relationships, his or her family, etc In this group, there can be children’s plays, traditional tales and stories, folk feasts and traditions In contrast, polis language would be intimately related to the social, political and working environment of an individual as a community citizen, and it would refer to laws, conventions, rights, organizations, etc

Finally, Katan (1999:45) distinguishes five categories in his classification of cultural words:

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Word-for-word translation

This method focuses on SL word order in which words are translated by most common meaning and out of context Therefore, the results of this method are that the translation is read like original text

In this method, translators try to produce the same effect on the TL readers

as the original does on the SL readers

Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a so-called ‘intralingual translation’, often prolix and pretentious, and not translation

at all

Idiomatic translation

Idiomatic translation reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original

1.5 Chapter conclusion

This part of study has fulfilled its task of gathering information about general translation theories and cultures A number of different approaches have been examined to shed light on the translation of cultural words in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2 THE MOST COMMON TYPE OF CULTURAL WORDS EQUIVALENCE 2.1 The most common types of cultural words

In the classification of Peter Newmark (1988), there are five major categories of cultural words including ecology, material culture (artifacts), social culture – work and leisure, organizations, customs, ideas and gestures and habits

In Tran Manh Thuong’s book, the frequency of material culture, and physical cultural objects in particular is the highest in comparison with other types The following chart illustrates the ratio among them

Cultural words Quantity Percentage

41.30%

58.70%

Physical cultural objects Others

2.2 The most common type of equivalence – Nil equivalence

As mentioned in Chapter 1, there exist many approaches to the classification of equivalence in translation However, Munday’s (2001) view of quantitative equivalence including one-to-one equivalence, many-to-one equivalence, one-to-

part-of-one equivalence and nil equivalence seems to be best suited the aim of this thesis We can hardly find the case of one-to-many equivalence, so this is not taken into account

The writer of the thesis has listed almost all the cultural words occurred in the book and put them into the order of the most common types of equivalence to the least common one The data can be easily found in the table below:

Type of equivalence Quantity Rate (%)

Nil One-to-one Many-to-one One-to-part-of-one

It can be seen clearly from the chart showing the equivalence in the translation of

“Hanoi’s Ancient Features” that nil equivalence accounts for the largest part of cultural words translation with 50.7% This result comes as no surprise to any translator who have ever involved in the translation of culture related words The domination of nil equivalence in translating cultural words can be explained by the following reasons

First of all, it is the availability that leads to the biggest share of nil equivalence Nida (1986:60) stated “There are no two stones alike, no flowers the same, and no two people who are identical.” let alone two cultures It is widely accepted that with the exactly same meaning, no one can be sure that two cultures could choose to express it the same way no matter how close the two cultures are Meanwhile, English and Vietnamese cultures are widely known to be totally different when the former represents Western culture and the latter characterizes Eastern For example, the Vietnamese would prefer to use the chicken in many idioms “Vắng chúa nhà, gà vọc niêu tôm”, but English people would like to use “cat” and “mouse” as in “When the cat is away, the mice will play” An idiom “Run như cầy sấy” seems to be very popular with Vietnamese people, but their English equivalent could be “As nervous

as a cat” or “As nervous as a mouse” This is only the case when two cultures express the exactly same meaning Therefore, when coming into the area where there are abundant of things in source language culture but there is no such things in target language culture, one can easily see how difficult it is in that situation

The difficulty presents itself when the Vietnamese word may express a concept which is mostly unknown in the target language culture Those words often relate to many types of cultural objects For example:

The situation may result from geographical differences in the cultures of two countries Vietnam locates in Asia with a strong domination of China, the once powerful empire in the world Whereas, with the location in the West, English culture is mainly under the flow of Western culture which, as one can say, is totally different from the East

Also due to the location of the country, with favourable natural conditions for agriculture, Vietnam has been under the strong influence of paddy culture This may also the reason for the second group of non-equivalence in the book Living on land,

Vietnamese peasants also have their own festivals, customs or ceremonies relating

to land, housing and trees with special attention to the living of people For instances:

As the peasants, the Vietnamese have to work long hours on the fields to earn their living However, it would be a mistake to come to a conclusion that work is their only living activity Such a boring life can not be the Vietnamese’s who usually take any possible chance to organize and take part in various kinds of traditional games and entertainments, not only in special occasion but also in daily life The example can be as follows:

In the prolonged culture of Vietnam, traditional games and entertainments also play their part in diversifying the spiritual life of people and in creating distinct ethnical and regional characteristics

With the above mentioned groups, we are just roughly at the foot of the mountain of Vietnamese cultural words which reflect the richness of the source language culture This obviously presents a huge challenge to the translator and the writer

2.3 Strategies to deal with nil-equivalence

The translator’s task is not as simple as one might think It is unacceptable for him

to omit all words that he finds difficult So what should the translator do when he confronts the translation of culture-specific concepts? Digging in the translation of those nil equivalence words, one can clearly see that the first common translation tool that is widely used is borrowings

2.3.1 Borrowings

The first look at the group of typical religious figures and countries shows that the translator uses the third language, that is, Chinese transcript and Sanskrit as a medium for translation

Source language Target language

It can be undeniable that Chinese or Sanskrit words can make the text difficult to understand because not all common English readers can know all the words or have enough time to find out who exactly the figures are if they are expressed in the uncommon languages However, in an attempt to be loyal to the original and be as detailed as possible, the translator has no other choice but borrow the words Those above mentioned items are mainly Buddhism figures which are Indian – rooted, so

it seems to be the best solution for the translator to use Sanskrit loan words to express those To one who already has some ideas on Buddhism, it would be a chance for them to comprehend the meaning of these words Meanwhile, to the whole group of common readers, the equivalents may be a hard nut for them to crack In my opinion, in order to make the words easier for readers to understand, the translator should add some notes at the end of the page to briefly explain the role of each figure

Apart from employing the third languages, the translator also uses Vietnamese words as the common English word Some words are borrowed because they come from the proper names of the places as in:

Source language Target language

To make the translation understandable for non-Vietnamese speakers, the translator accompanies each borrowed word with the explanation of the main use or feature of each type

Additionally, the source language loan words can also be found in the translation of items considered to be the Vietnamese cultural specialties which are unique for the Vietnamese like:

Source language Target language

2.3.2.1 Description of the ingredients and how the dish is cooked

With dish-related group, each word is translated by description of the ingredients and how the dish is cooked:

Source language Target language Back translation

glutinous rice dyed black with concoction of leaves

Bánh làm từ gạo nếp được nhuộm đen bằng các loại lá

and chicken

Gạo nếp hấp chín và gà

Food making and using is said to be one of the liking of people It is also the clear character of a nation because different nations use different kinds of food and ingredients to create their own dishes though they are neibouring countries Moreover, the Vietnamese are also well-known for their diversified ways of cooking dishes Therefore, the translator feels the need to describe the ingredients as well as the ways of cooking for readers to understand clearly the dishes

2.3.2.2 Description of the use of the object

As for the cultural objects group, it would be a good choice of the translator to render the words by the description of the use of the object

Source language Target language Back translation

fuse for crackers

Một loại giấy để làm ngòi nổ cho pháo

Source language Target language Back translation

honor conferring diploma

Loại giấy đặc biệt dùng cho chiếu chỉ vua ban

audiences with the kings

Quần áo của các quan mặc trong các buổi chầu với vua

dedicated to Confucius and prominent scholars as well as to various spirits

Đền thờ nhỏ ở ngoài trời thờ Khổng Tử, những học giả khác và thần thánh

It would be a great challenge for a non – Vietnamese reader to understand the heavily loaded cultural – specific words like “triều phục” because such a word is hardly found in the English vocabulary bank and it may not suggest any single idea

in the readers’ minds Thus, description of the use of the objects may seem to be a reasonable solution

2.3.2.3 Description of the shape and appearance of things

Another method to translate cultural objects is through the shape and appearance of things In terms of colour, there are some examples as follows:

Source language Target language Back translation

Sơn son thiếp vàng Red lacquer trimmed with gold Sơn mài đỏ được điểm

vàng

Other examples can be taken from the shape of things like:

Source language Target language Back translation

nước

The look of things also makes up another group of examples:

Source language Target language Back translation

song

Source language Target language

Source language Target language

From the examples, one can easily figure out the literal meaning of the words However, literal translation, in my opinion, should only be employed as the last resort The translator is required to do more than just leisurely move the words from source language to target language without considering their hidden meaning like those examples Take “gà mía” as an example With the translation as “sugar – cane chicken”, it is certain that the immediate image appears in readers’ mind will be a kind of chicken which looks like sugar cane with purple outlook However, it is totally untrue, this kind of chicken has no relation with sugar cane Its name comes from the ancient title of the place where it is raised, that is Ke Mia

2.3.2.5 Transferring meanings of the words

One of the best ways to deal with difficult cultural words is to paraphrase by transferring meaning of the words This is also used widely in the majority of non equivalence cases in the book The translator utilizes this way of paraphrasing to explain in detail the difficult-to-understand part of the word to the commonly understandable one For example, most Vietnamese people nowadays may not have any idea about words like “ấp”, “kinh lý” or “nghề tầm tang” When reading the translation, the modern Vietnamese readers could understand the words more as well as English readers

Source language Target language Back translation

Source language Target language Back translation

kiểm tra

silkworm

Trồng dâu nuôi tằm

Thăng Long tứ trấn Four Great Gods that

protected the capital of Thang Long

Bốn vị thần bảo vệ kinh

đô Thăng Long

alcohol and swore

Uống rượu pha với máu

to his ancestors after attaining academic honor

Trở về nhà để cảm ơn tổ tiên sau khi đạt được danh

vị về mặt học vấn

In conclusion, this chapter has found out that the most common types of equivalences the translation of the culture-related word is nil-equivalence The major reason for this largest part is that the source language concept is unknown to the target language readers Those non-equivalences are mainly attributed to the differences in dishes, traditional customs or ceremony of festivals The writer of the book has successfully made full use of free translation method in dealing with the non-equivalence He also borrows words from third languages to translate the culture-related word, they are Chinese and Sanskrit

CHAPTER 3 OTHER TYPES OF EQUIVALENCE 3.1 Many-to-one equivalence

Many-to-one equivalence could occur when there is more than one expression in the source language but there is a single expression in target language which is equivalent to them

It is a common case that English tends to have general words but lack specific ones

as Vietnamese and English cultures are worlds apart For example:

Miếu: Công trình kiến trúc được xây dựng làm nơi thờ tự thần linh (nhân thần, nhiên thần) ở làng quê hoặc đô thị, có quy mô nhỏ (Từ điển Bách khoa Việt Nam 2, p.917)

A building worshipped gods (human gods or nature gods) in countryside or cities, often in small form

Phủ: Kiến trúc tôn giáo, tín ngưỡng để thờ Thánh Mẫu, nữ thần (Từ điển Bách khoa Việt Nam 3, p.500) A religious building devoted to the worship of Mother Goddesses

Điện: Nơi thờ các vị thánh trong tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam (Từ điển Bách khoa Việt Nam 1, p.794) A place to worship gods in Vietnamese traditional beliefs Đền: Công trình kiến trúc dùng làm nơi thờ những nhân vật lịch sử có công với dân với nước hoặc những vị thần được nhân dân tôn sùng (Từ điển Bách khoa Việt Nam 1, p.774) A building to worship historical figures who have merits to people

or are venerated by people

From those above definitions, it is easy to see the distinction among the four types

of religious building of Vietnamese people comes from whom the place is used to worship Đền is for national heroes or heroines while Miếu and Điện is for special god and Phủ is devoted to the Mother Goddesses of Vietnamese legends Coming to the task of translating those words, in English, there is only one word, that is