A study on the translation of adverbs in harry potter and the philosophers stone from english into vietnamese

The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adverbs of Manner in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” .... The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adv

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

TRAN THUY HANG

A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION

OF ADVERBS IN “HARRY POTTER AND THE

PHILOSOPHER’S STONE”

FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC CHUYỂN ĐỔI CÁC TRẠNG TỪ TRONG TÁC

PHẨM “HARRY POTTER VÀ HÒN ĐÁ PHÙ THỦY” VỀ TƯƠNG

ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other‟s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all those who have given me their generous helps, commitment and enthusiasm, which have been the major driving force to complete the current paper

I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân, who generously spent his precious time on insightful guidance and earnest help all through the searching, analysis and paper-writing stages, and kindly sent his valuable and detailed comments on it

My sincere thanks also go to Dean and all the lecturers at Faculty of Graduate Studies for their constructive ideas and assistance

I surely would express my sincere thanks to all friends and workmates who have offered their helping hands whenever I am in need of help I‟m so grateful to their understanding of my improper appeal for their aid and their kindness towards the inconveniency I have often put to them

To my fiancé, thank you for always having faith in me, for tolerating my temper and being extremely supportive in every way possible To my dear friends, Hạnh and Ng Hạnh, you have been a rich source of encouragement and love for me, I am truly grateful to have all of you in my life

Finally, I am deeply indebted my parents for their great encouragement and support during my study at Hanoi Open University Thank you for the great love and pray in my life

Trần Thúy Hằng

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Research questions 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1 1 A review of previous studies 6

1 2 Theoretical Background 7

1.2.1 Theory of Word 7

1.2.2.1 Word in English 7

1.2.2 Adverbs in English 11

1.2.2.1 Grammatical Definitions of Adverbs 11

1.2.2.2 Form of Adverbs 12

1.2.2.3 Functions of Adverbs 13

1.2.2.4 Position of Adverbs 14

1.2.3 Adverbs in Vietnamese 14

1.2.3.1 Function of Vietnamese Adverbs 16

1.2.3.2 Position of Vietnamese Adverbs 18

1.2.4 Theory of Translation 21

1.2.4.1 Definitions of Translation 21

1.2.4.2 Language and Culture 22

1.2.4.3 Translation Equivalence 24

1.2.4.4 Translation procedures 26

1.2.4.5 Translation Methods 33

1.2.4.6 Communicative Translation and Semantic Translation 36

CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURE 39

2.1 Aims of the Research 39

2.2 Research Design 39

2.3 Method of Research 40

2.3.1 Data Source 40

2.3.2 Method and Technique of Collecting and Analyzing Data 41

2.4 Research Procedures 42

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 44

3.1 The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adverbs of Manner in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” 45

3.1.1 Adverbs of manner translated as adjective + verb into the TL 45

3.1.2 Adverbs of manner translated as verb into the TL 46

3.1.3 Adverbs of manner translated as phrases into the TL 47

3.1.4 Adverbs of manner are not translated (zero translation) into the TL 48

3.2 The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adverbs of Frequency in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” 50

3.2.1 Adverbs of frequency translated as adverbs of frequency into the TL 50

3.2.2 Adverbs of frequency are not translated (zero translation) into the TL 51

3.3 The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adverbs of Place in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” 53

3.3.1 Adverbs of place translated as phrases into the TL 53

3.3.2 Adverbs of place translated as adverbs of place into the TL 54

3.4 The Strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of Adverbs of Time in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” 55

3.4.1 Adverbs of time translated as Noun into the TL 56

3.4.2 Adverbs of time translated as adverbs of time into the TL 57

3.4.3 Adverbs of time are not translated (zero translation) into the TL 58

3.5.1 Adverbs of degree translated as adverbs of degree into the TL 60

3.5.2 Adverbs of degree translated as phrases into the TL 60

3.5.3 Adverbs of degree are not translated (zero translation) into the TL 61

PART III CONCLUSION 64

1 Recapitulation 64

2 Limitations of the study 67

3 Suggestions for a further study 67

REFERENCES 69

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

1 Rationale of the study

Words are ubiquitous In a literate society words are everywhere and unavoidable Every day people read, write, speak, and hear words Words can

be readily found in books and magazines They can also be found plastered

on signs, engraved on buildings, scrawled on food, printed on clothing, and they often even reside on the tips of our tongues Obviously, ideas, notions and feelings are actually universal but the way we describe them in different languages is very unique Therefore, translation plays a crucial role in enhancing better understanding each other, transmitting information, exchanging experiences and getting knowledge However, translating from one language into another is no easy task Translation must take into account

a number of constraints, including the context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms In translating, there are some rules that must be obeyed by translator At least the translator must master the source language (SL) because every language has its own system Every language has its own grammatical or structural system in conveying an idea The translator must be able to transform the structure of SL

to the appropriate structure of the target language (TL) It means that, the reader and listener can understand about the translation result Part of speech is very important to make sentences Maclin (1996) states “Parts of Speech in English are traditionally classified into eight parts; they are verb, adjective, noun, pronoun, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection” Adverb is a part of speech which serves as a modifier of verbs, adjectives, clauses, sentences and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are

primarily determiners and adjectives I found out that many Vietnamese students are experiencing a lot of difficulties when trying to translate English adverbs They sometimes wrote down funny sentences which are not pure Vietnamese simply because they translated improperly phrases/sentences containing adverbs into their mother tongue Being a translator, I would like

to discover the art of translation through some translated work in order to find ways to transfer English adverbs to Vietnamese Furthermore, I also like to know whether my knowledge of English adverbs can be used to help some translator-wannabe deal with the problems

Rowling (born 31 July 1965) is considered one of the greatest authors nowadays and her novel has been translated in hundreds of different languages and has become one of the bestselling novels through years More specifically, the adverbs in this book are a challenge for the translator This novel was chosen to be the object of the present study also because it was published rather recently, in 1997, and thus is can be regarded as a very good example of popular literature of the end of the 20th century Furthermore, the novel has provoked many controversial thoughts and lively discussion among its readers and in the media because of its rather delicate issues and themes Besides, the novel contains many data that are relevant with the problem discussed and analyzed in this paper

Because of reasons mentioned above, my thesis is entitled “A Study on The Translation of Adverbs in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” from English into Vietnamese” I hope this thesis will help students and all

concerned understand and translate English adverbs more easily

2 Aims of the study

The aim of the research is to shed light on

 To find out the types of adverbs occurring in the English novel

 To describe how adverbs in the SL novel are translated into the TL novel

 To find out the procedure and strategy used in the process of translation

3 Research questions

Consequently, three questions will be investigated:

1 How are adverbs in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher‟s stone”

translated from English into Vietnamese?

2 What procedures and strategies are used in the process of translation?

4 Scope of the study

This study investigates the ways used in translating adverbs from English into Vietnamese Given the limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the researcher focuses only on Rowling‟s novel

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” translated by Lý Lan This

novel consists 17 chapters and has 249 pages

5 Methods of the study

The method that was used in the analysis of the adverbs in this study is descriptive and more qualitative than quantitative However, a few

percentages have been used to clarify the division between different strategies used in translating adverbs The material of the present study was collected by collecting 25 adverbs of time, manner, place, degree and

frequency in the original version of “ Harry Potter and the

Philosopher‟s stone”

6 Design of the study

This thesis includes three parts:

Part 1, Introduction, presents the statements of the problem, the justification for the study, the scope of the study, the organization, as well as definitions of terms

Part 2, Development, consists of three chapters:

Chapter One provides an overview of the previous studies on

translation and adverbs This chapter also introduces some theoretical preliminaries on the translation theory, the definitions and classification

of adverbs in English and Vietnamese

Chapter Two includes an overview of the data as well as the

methodology that were used in analyzing the translation of adverbs in

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone” by J.K Rowling, and how

they are collected and investigated

Chapter Three reports the results of the study and presents

some discussion of the major findings The results will be presented based

on the research questions that guide the current study

Part 3: Conclusion consists of the conclusion of the whole study, the implications for the translation and for the teaching and learning Limitations in doing the research and suggestions for further studies are also mentioned in this chapter

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

1 1 A review of previous studies

Translation is a complex process where fragile balance is achieved between the equivalence of the text translated and the linguistic means chosen In reality, translation from English into Vietnamese is a complex work which poses great difficulties to the translator but there are a few researchers dealing with adverb translation There are researchers who have done analysis about language translation and the process of translation from English into Vietnamese So, in conducting this analysis, I have consulted the

previous paper and research findings They are: Sinaiko and Brislin, Richard

(1970) in “Experiments in Language Translation: Technical

English-to-Vietnamese” documents the results of a series of experiments on translating

technical material from English to Vietnamese The paper addresses the questions of translation speed, number of errors, and quality assessment Three different methods for measuring the quality of translations are examined; back-translation, knowledge testing, and performance testing

In Vietnamese, Nguyễn Thƣợng Hùng in Dịch thuật: từ Lý Thuyết đến Thực

Hành (2005) not only focuses on the theory and the methods of translation

from English into Vietnamese but also describes the set of processes that actually employed in translating

About adverb and adverbial in English and Vietnamese, Võ Huỳnh Mai

(1973) Bàn thêm về phạm vi của trạng ngữ trong tiếng Việt focuses on the study on function of adverb in Vietnamese

Nguyễn Hồng Cổn (2001) Về vấn đề tương đương trong dịch thuật focuces

on how to translate single words in English into Vietnamese effectively Nguyễn Ngọc Toàn (MA Thesis, 2010) Khảo sát thuật ngữ kinh tế trong

Văn kiện Đại hội Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam và sự chuyển dịch tương ứng sang tiếng Anh (từ văn kiện Đại Hội IX - X ) investigates economic terms

used in the ninth and tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam and their equivalence in English

Hà Thành Chung (MA thesis, 2007) Cú phân từ định ngữ, trạng ngữ tiếng

Anh và các kết cấu tương đương trong tiếng Việt is a contrastive study of

commonly-used adverb and adverbial in English and Vietnamese

In brief, many researches dealing with translation from English into Vietnamese in different aspects but no one focus on the translation of adverbs and adverbial On doing this research, the writer has followed the viewpoint of linguistics in doing an investigation into common ways for translating adverbs from English into Vietnamese and found out the main approaches taken by translators in translating adverbs from English into Vietnamese

factor in social organization and meaning plays such an important role in communication Meaningless utterances have no value in communication; they can only make their language users a laughing stock, which is why understanding the meaning is very important for the language users The meaning of a word is not merely the result you get from your search in a good dictionary because it depends on many factors concerned

In Meaning in English, Jeffries (1998) states that “meaning is a kind of

invisible unclothed being waiting for the clothes of language to allow it to be seen, which is why it is very necessary to take off the clothes of language to understand the real meaning of words, phrases, and sentences” For

example, the red flag at the seaside of a resort means danger

In the book Semantics, Leech (1977) shows seven types of meaning:

i Conceptual meaning (sometimes called “denotative” or “cognitive” meaning

Denotative meaning refers to the literal meaning of a word For example,

the meaning of the word woman can be specified as +human, -male, +adult Three properties human, adult, and female provide a criterion of the correct

use of the word woman

ii Connotative meaning

Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue

of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual meaning

In other words, according to him, it refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings The connotations for the word woman can include not only its

denotative meaning but concomitants of womanhood (capable of speech,

experienced in cookery, skirt-or-dress wearing) as well as some traditional

attitudes such as frail, prone to tears, emotional or other qualities such as beautiful, gentle, compassionate, sensitive, and hard-working

iii Stylistic meaning

Stylistic meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use In this style of meaning, a word can be recognized

by the typical dimensions: Individuality (the language of Mr X, of Mrs Y, and so on); Dialect (the language of a geographical region or of a social class); Time (the language of the eighteen century, etc); Style (the language

of poetry, the language of journalism, and so forth); Singularity (the style of Dickens, of Hemingway, etc )

iv Affective meaning

According to Leech (1977) affective meaning is often explicitly conveyed

through the denotative or connotative content of the words used He also claims that affective meaning is largely a parasitic category in the sense that

to express our emotions we rely upon the mediation of other categories of meaning – denotative, connotative, or stylistic

v Reflected meaning

Reflected meaning is the meaning which arises in case of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense

vi Collocative meaning

Collocative meaning consists of the associations a word acquires on account

of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment For

example: pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning of

good-looking, but may be distinguished by the range of nouns with which

they are likely to co-occur or collocate: pretty girl, boy, flower, garden, etc and handsome boy, man, car, vessel, etc

vii Thematic meaning

Thematic meaning is what communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis

Moreover, mentioning word meaning, in Semantics and Translation,

Barnwell (1990) analyses meaning with five different kinds of associative

meaning, in which includes: connotative meaning, stylistic (social) meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning

b Sense Relations

In order to understand words comprehensively, we must rely upon the uses of themselves through various types of meaning as well as in the relations of senses

- Polysemy: Hurford (1997) defines “A case of polysemy is one where

a word has several very closely related senses.”

Ex: Mouth (of a river vs of an animal) is a case of polysemy The two senses

are clearly related by the concepts of an opening from the interior of some solid mass to the outside, and of a place of issue at the end of some long narrow channel

- Synonymy: Lyons (1995) defines two expressions as full

synonymous if the following conditions are met:

 All their meanings are identical

 They are synonyms in all contexts

 They are semantic equivalent in all aspects of their meaning

- Homonymy: According to Hurford (1988), a case of homonymy is

one of an ambiguous word whose different senses are far apart from each other and not obviously related to each other in any way For example,

Bank (the edge of a river vs a financial institution) makes a good example of

homonymy So does the word Ba in Vietnamese, which suggests both father and three

- Antonymy: Antonymy is the relation of opposite meanings

For example: Good/Bad; Fast/Slow are some examples of antonym

1.2.2 Adverbs in English

1.2.2.1 Grammatical Definitions of Adverbs

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2010) defines adverb as a word that

adds more information about place, time, manner, cause or degree to a verb,

an adjective, a phrase or another adverb

According to Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2009)

adverb is a word used for describing a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence Adverbs in English often consist of an adjective with '-ly'

added, for example quickly, mainly, and cheerfully

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2010) gives the definition of

adverb as a word that adds to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another

adverb, or a whole sentence, such as slowly in He ran slowly, very in It's very

hot, or naturally in Naturally, we want you to come

New World Encyclopedia (2013): An adverb is a part of speech Adverb refers

to any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives

Many different kinds of word are called adverbs We can usually recognize an adverb by its types, functions, form, and position

1.2.2.2 Form of Adverbs

Many adverbs are formed from adjectives and end in -ly

 The basic rule is that -ly is added to the end of the adjective:

 If the adjective ends with a consonant followed by -le, replace the final -e with -y on its own:

Adjective Adverb

terrible terribly comfortable comfortably incredible incredibly

1.2.2.3 Functions of Adverbs

Adverbs are considered a part of speech in traditional English grammar and are still included as a part of speech in grammar taught in schools and used in dictionaries However, modern grammarians recognize that words traditionally grouped together as adverbs serve a number of different functions

Adverbs of manner tell us how something happens They are usually placed after the main verb or after the object

She moved slowly and spoke quietly

Adverbs of place tell us where something happens

She has lived on the island all her life

She still lives there now

Adverbs of frequency tell how often or how frequently something

happens

She takes the boat to the mainland every day

She often goes by herself

Adverbs of time tell us when an action happened, but also for how

long, and how often

She tries to get back before dark

It's starting to get dark now

She finished her tea first

She left early

Adverbs of degree tell us about the intensity or degree of an action, an

adjective or another adverb

She doesn‟t quite know what she‟ll do after university

This coffee is too hot

1.2.2.4 Position of Adverbs

An adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb appears immediately

in front of the word it modifies An adverb that modifies a verb is generally more flexible: it may appear before or after the verb it modifies, or it may appear at the beginning of the sentence The position of the adverb may have

an effect on the meaning of the sentence

1.2.3 Adverbs in Vietnamese

“Trạng từ” (adverb) according to Diệp Quang Ban (2005) is a colorful

additive that makes an utterance or a sentence livelier As an additive, it cannot be used alone in terms of structural and semantic functions But it gives excellent flavor to other parts of speech in making the perfect cake of language Present-day Vietnamese adverbs and adjectives are identical

What is peculiar about trạng từ is that, in addition to modifying động từ

„verb‟ and tính từ „adjective‟, it is capable of adding color to danh từ „noun‟

as well

The position of Vietnamese adverb is flexible They can be placed

immediately after the verb hát as this verb requires no object

Eg:

Cô ấy hát rất hay

Or it is put after the object

Eg:

Tôi muốn học tiếng Việt nhanh

Adverbs are also positioned after “to be” and before other verb However,

some of these adverbs such as đôi khi, thỉnh thoảng, thường thường … can be

liberally positioned in front of or at the end of the sentence

Eg:

Đôi khi chúng tôi ra ngoại thành câu cá

Thỉnh thoảng ông ấy mới về nhà

Adverb modifies the adjective:

Eg:

Cô ấy rất xinh đẹp

Adverb modifies the adverb:

Eg:

Anh ta lái xe rất nhanh

Tiến độ làm thế này thì quá chậm rồi!

Adverb modifies the noun:

Eg:

Một mũi tên trúng nhiều đích

There are many types of adverbs in Vietnamese:

1.2.3.1 Function of Vietnamese Adverbs

As stated previously, adverbs can modify themselves, adjectives, verbs and even nouns

a Adverb modifying adverb

Not all adverbs can modify other adverbs: only some do The most common

adverbs that can fulfil this task are rất, thật, vô cùng, hoàn toàn,

Most of them stand before the adverb they modify:

Eg:

Ông Nam làm việc rất hữu hiệu

Chiếc xe này chạy nhanh vô cùng

b Adverb modifying adjective

Adverbs are normally modifiers of adjectives In Vietnamese many adjectives

can function as verbs Most of them stand before the adjective, except quá and lắm The latter only stands after an adverb or adjective to become an adverb Before a noun, lắm becomes an adjective

Eg:

Kết quả hoàn toàn như ý

Tin dữ về vụ sạt lở đất làm người dân vô cùng lo lắng

Nó mới 10 tuổi mà quá khôn

Nhà bà ấy nhiều đất đai lắm

c Adverbs modifying verb

Modifying the verb in a statement or an utterance is the third function of adverbs Depending on the statement an adverb can stand before or after the verb

- Adverbs come before the verb:

Normally, these adverbs stand before the verb they modify: rất, quá, lắm,

không, chẳng, chả, đã, đang, sẽ, …

- Adverb rất to modify verbs of emotion: rất (muốn, thích, ưa, ghét, thương);

quá; cũng …

Eg:

Cháu rất thích ăn kẹo ông à

- Adverb quá to emphasize a condition beyond one‟s endurance

Eg:

Bài toán này quá khó với học sinh lớp ba

- Adverbs of condition or opposition always stand before the verb, or before the statement

Eg:

Dầu ai nói ngả nói nghiêng

Lòng ta vẫn vững như kiềng ba chân

- Adverbs come after the verbs

Most adverbs or adverbials of direction are after the verb: Adverbs of

directions using: ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, …

Eg: Cả lớp đi ra sân tập thể dục nào

Cô giáo vừa bước vào thì cả lớp im bặt lại

Chúng tôi đi xuống sườn dốc, nhìn lại thấy mình đã leo được một đoạn khá dài

d Adverb modifying noun

Adverbs sometimes modify nouns They go directly with nouns

Eg:

Lúc ấy đã chiến tranh lại thiên tai, người dân Việt vô cùng khốn khổ

Trời sắp sáng rồi, dậy thôi chuẩn bị lên đường nào

Cơm xong hãy nói chuyện

1.2.3.2 Position of Vietnamese Adverbs

Position adverbs, especially adverbs of time, denote different points of time for actions or events to happen In general, in a statement that contains three adverbs – manner, place and time – the adverb of time always come before the adverb of place The adverb of manner often comes before the verb:

Eg:

Bà ấy hối hả chạy về nhà

Ông ấy đi lại chậm rãi trong phòng

Chúng tôi từ từ xếp hàng mua vé vào rạp chiếu phim

a Adverbs of time

i Adverb of time in initial position for future action

Adverbs: bao giờ, lúc nào, or khi nào meaning „when‟ indicating the future

will occur initially They are used in questions:

Eg:

Bao giờ anh đi làm lại?

Lúc nào anh sẽ đến tôi?

Khi nào công việc này mới xong?

ii Adverb of time in final position for past action

Adverbs: bao giờ, lúc nào, khi nào or hồi nào; all meaning „when‟ indicating

past action occur finally, used in questions:

Eg:

Nó đến đây hồi nào?

Anh về từ bao giờ thế?

Chúng ta sẽ xuất phát lúc nào?

iii Adverbs indicating seasons, days of the week, months of the year, years can stand in both initial and final position

Eg:

Mùa xuân, từng đàn chim én bay về tổ

Thứ hai này tôi sẽ vào thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

b Adverb of place

i Adverb of place before a statement

An adverb of place comes first in a statement when the adverb of time is less important

Eg:

Tại sân vận động, hàng nghàn khán giả đang reo hò, cổ vũ cho hai đội bóng

Trong căn phòng này chúng tôi đã có nhiều cuộc họp bí mật

ii Adverb of place after a statement

Normally adverb of place comes after adverb of time:

Eg:

Hội chợ Tết năm nay cũng sẽ được tổ chức tại Công Viên Garden Mọi người đều náo nức xem Hội chợ hoa ở Đà Lạt

c Adverbials occur before verbs, making verb phrases

Here are adverbials that precede the verbs:

Chỉ có, chỉ còn, chỉ cũng, chỉ vừa, đều chưa, vẫn chưa, còn có, cũng có, đều

có, không có, vừa có, vẫn có, lại có, sẽ có, rất có, đang có, còn lại, vẫn còn, không cứ, cũng chỉ, cũng có, cũng đang, cũng đều, cũng không, cũng sắp, cũng sẽ, cũng vẫn, cũng vừa, sắp có, đều sắp, đang sắp …

Eg:

Chúng ta chỉ còn một cái bánh mì cho cả ngày

Chúng tôi sẽ có nhiều phần quà hấp dẫn cho qúy khách

Cả anh ấy và tôi cũng đang đau đầu về vấn đề này

Ở đây đang sắp xảy ra một trận động đất lớn

Bọn họ đều chưa ăn tối

Ai cũng có những nỗi niềm riêng

Chị ấy về rồi, chắc anh ấy cũng sẽ về luôn

Đi „would‟+ verb can function as an adverbial to modify adjecitves or

adjectivals: đi tin „would believe‟, đi làm „would do‟, đi or mà đi + verb: mà

đi làm, mà đi tin, mà đi nói, mà đi chơi, … Sometimes đi can be omitted: mà làm, mà tin, mà nói, mà chơi, …without changing the meaning

Pragmatically this adverbial expresses a negative connotation

Eg:

Chẳng ai rảnh mà (đi) làm cái chuyện ấy

Thời đại bây giờ ai mà đi tin những chuyện nhảm nhí như vậy.‟

Tôi mà (đi) nói mấy điều ngu xuẩn đó à?

Lớn đầu rồi mà (đi) chơi dại!

Anh mà dám đi lại với con đó à? „

Người ta nói vậy mà tin được sao?

1.2.4 Theory of Translation

1.2.4.1 Definitions of Translation

Translation, by dictionary definition, consists of changing from one form

to another, to turn into one “own or another” language (The Merriam -

Webster Dictionary, 1974) Some authors have given the following different

definitions of translation:

In the book A Linguistic Theory of Translation, Catford (1965) defines that

translation is not a dangerous technique in itself provided its nature is understood, and its use is carefully controlled and translation is in itself a valuable skill to be imparted to students Furthermore, translation is an operation performed in languages and also a process of substituting a text in one language for a text in another More specifically, translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)

Benjamin in The Task of the Translator (1923) states that translation goes

beyond enriching the language and culture of a country which it contributes to, beyond renewing and maturing the life of the original text, beyond expressing and analyzing the most intimate relationships of languages with each other and becomes a way of entry into a universal language

Other researchers, Meetham and Hudsan (1969) mention that translation is

the replacement of a presentation of a text in one language by a presentation

of equivalent text in a second language

According to Hatim & Mason (1990), translation is a process, involving the

negotiation of meaning between producers and receivers of texts In other words, the resulting translated text is to be seen as the evidence of a transaction, a means of retracting the pathways of the translator‟s

decision-makings

Another author, Nguyễn Hồng Cổn (2004) in Cơ sở ngôn ngữ của nghiên

cứu dịch thuật và bộ môn dịch thuật học mentions that the activity of

translation is still a language activity and language plays core and basic roles However, he says that together with the attention to linguistic problem, translators also need to pay attention to the problems relating to the SL and TL such as social environment, culture and religion

Furthermore, Vũ Văn Đại , Tính giao tiếp một nguyên tắc trong hoạt động

dịch (2001) claims that there is an unequivalence in culture of translators

and original texts, so in order to become good translators, it is very necessary to enrich the cultural and national knowledge of the TL

Newmark‟s theory in Approaches to translation (1982) is different from the

point of view of above mentioned authors He defines that translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text

Briefly, the starting point of translation is a message This message is expressed in a specific language, which is called the SL When doing translation, we aim to re-express that message in another language (TL) We have already known that the form of each language is unique Thus, translation will involve some changes of form This does not matter provided that that the meaning of the message is retained unchanged Moreover, translation not only involves understanding the general meaning of the communication but also calls upon the ability to understand the culture of the communication Before we can translate a message, we must understand the total meaning of the message within its own cultural context

1.2.4.2 Language and Culture

Dealing with language and culture, Whorf who endorsed Sapir‟s theory

declares firmly that “No language can exist unless it is steeped in the context

of culture; and no culture of natural language.” Language, then, is the heart

within the body of culture, and it is the interaction between the two that results in the continuation of life energy In the same way that the surgeon, operating on the heart, cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from the culture at his peril

According to Kramsch (2000), language is the principle means whereby we

conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it

is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways “Language expresses

cultural reality” as the words people utter refer to common experience They

express facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a

stock of knowledge about the world that other people share “Language

embodies cultural reality through all its verbal and nonverbal aspects”

People also create experience through language They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one other, for example, speaking on the telephone or face- to-face, writing a letter or sending an email message The way they use spoken, written, or visual medium creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong Language is a system of signs that is seen that having itself a cultural value

“Language symbolizes cultural reality” as speakers identify themselves and

other through their use of language; they use their language as a symbol of their social identity

Sapir (1956) claims that “Language is a guide to social reality” and that

human beings are at the mercy of the language that has become the medium

of expression for their society Experience, he asserts, is largely determined

by the language habits of the community, and each separate structure

represents a separate reality He also affirms that “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, with different labels attached.”

Newmark (1991) indicates that culture is the way of life and its

manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of expression Frequently, where there is cultural focus, there is a translation problem due to the cultural “gap” or “distance” between the SL and TL

1.2.4.3 Translation Equivalence

Equivalence can be said to be the central issue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have caused heated controversy, and many different theories of the concept

of equivalence have been elaborated within this problem Translation equivalence occurs when a SL and a TL text or item are relatable to (at least some of) the same features of substance The greater the number of situational features common to the contextual meanings of both SL and TL texts, the “better” the translation

According to Newmark (1988), translation equivalence is an unwritten rule about translation which people know and which influences the form of

translating exchange “Translation equivalence will not be achieved word for

word, collocation for collocation, clause for clause, sentence for sentence, but possibly only paragraph for paragraph, or, rarely, text for text For this reason, translation equivalence, like the term „unit of translation‟, is sometimes a useful operational concept, but it can be only roughly and approximately indicated for a stretch of language.”

Mentioning translation equivalence, Nida (1982) distinguishes two types of

equivalence: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence Formal

equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form (poetry to poetry, sentence to sentence, concept and concept) and content (gloss translation, aim to allow the reader to understand as much of the SL context as possible) However, dynamic equivalence is based on the principle

of equivalent effect, i.e that the relationship between receiver and message should aim at being the same as that between the original receivers and the

SL message

Catford (1965) claims that SL and TL texts or items are translation

equivalents when they are interchangeable in a given situation Catford's approach to translation equivalence clearly differs from that adopted by Nida since Catford had a preference for a more linguistic-based approach to translation and this approach is based on the linguistic work of Firth and Halliday Catford proposed very broad types of translation in terms of three criteria: the extent of translation (full translation vs partial translation); the grammatical rank at which the translation equivalence is established (rank- bound translation vs unbounded translation); the levels of language involved

in translation (total translation vs restricted translation)

Moreover, Popovic as quoted in Barnwell (1990) distinguishes translation

equivalence into four types:

(1) Linguistic equivalence, where there is homogeneity on the linguistic level of both SL and TL texts, i.e word for word translation (2) Paradigmatic equivalence, where there is equivalence of the elements of a paradigmatic expressive axis, i.e elements of grammar, which Popovic sees as being a higher category than lexical equivalence

(3) Stylistic (translational) equivalence, where there is “functional equivalence of elements in both original and translation aiming at

an expressive identity with an invariant of identical meaning”

(4) Textual (syntagmatic) equivalence, where there is equivalence

of the syntagmatic structuring of a text, i.e equivalence of form and shape

In trying to solve the problem of translation equivalence, Newbert in Text

and Translation (1985) postulates that translation equivalence must be

considered a semiotic category consisting of the components (syntactic, semantic and pragmatic) These components are arranged in a hierarchical relationship, where semantic equivalence takes priority over syntactic equivalence and pragmatic equivalence conditions and modifies both the other elements Equivalence overall results from the relation between signs themselves, the relationship between signs what they stand for and those who use them

In general, to achieve translation equivalence requires translators to produce the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of the translation as was obtained on the readership of the original The translation equivalence is showed in some rules and principles which are very useful for the translators The focus is to assure the equivalence in translation of participants for translating to take place smoothly and effectively These principles help people best achieve their goals not only in communication but also in translating: exchanging information and establishing and maintaining social relations

 a thorough study of the source language text before making attempts translate it;

 making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations

Organizational procedures:

In the organizational procedures, translators need to go through these steps:

 constant reevaluation of the attempt made;

 contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators;

 checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions

Krings (1986) defines translation strategy as "translator's potentially

conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework

of a concrete translation task," and Seguinot (1989) believes that there are at

least three global strategies employed by the translators:

 translating without interruption for as long as possible;

 correcting surface errors immediately;

 leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage

Moreover, Loescher (1991) defines translation strategy as "a potentially

conscious procedure for solving a problem faced in translating a text, or any segment of it." As stated in this definition, the notion of consciousness is

significant in distinguishing strategies which are used by the learners or

translators In this regard, Cohen (1998) asserts that "the element of

consciousness is what distinguishes strategies from these processes that are not strategic."

Furthermore, Bell (1991) differentiates between global (those dealing with

whole texts) and local (those dealing with text segments) strategies and confirms that this distinction results from various kinds of translation problems

Venuti (1998) indicates that translation strategies "involve the basic tasks of

choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a method to translate it." He employs the concepts of domesticating and foreignizing to

refer to translation strategies

Jaaskelainen (1999) considers strategy as, "a series of competencies, a set of steps or processes that favor the acquisition, storage, and/or utilization of information." He maintains that strategies are "heuristic and flexible in nature, and their adoption implies a decision influenced by amendments in the translator's objectives."

Taking into account the process and product of translation, Jaaskelainen divides strategies into two major categories: some strategies relate to what happens to texts, while other strategies relate to what happens in the process Product-related strategies, as Jaaskelainen writes, involve the basic tasks of choosing the SL text and developing a method to translate it However, she maintains that process-related strategies "are a set of (loosely formulated) rules or principles which a translator uses to reach the goals determined by the translating situation" Moreover, Jaaskelainen divides this into two types, namely global strategies and local strategies: "global strategies refer to general principles and modes of action and local strategies refer to specific activities in relation to the translator's problem-solving and decision-making." The following are the different translation procedures that Newmark, one of the most popular translation scholars, (1988) proposed:

Transference: it is the process of transferring an SL word to

a TL text It includes transliteration and is the same as what Harvey named

“transcription”

Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal

pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL

Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in

the SL with TL one However, “they are not accurate.”

Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a

cultural-neutral word

Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure, the meaning of the

cultural-based translation (CBT) is explained in several words

Componential analysis: it means “comparing an SL word

with a TL word which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components.”

Synonym: it is a “near TL equivalent” Here economy trumps

accuracy

Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common

collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds It can

be called: claque or loan translation

Shifts or transpositions: Transposition, or shift as Catford

calls it, reflects the grammatical change that occurs in translation from SL to

TL According to Newmark, it involves a change in the grammar form SL to

TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, (iv) change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth

Modulation: With Newmark, it occurs when the translator

reproduces the message of the original text in the SL text in conformity with

the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar

in terms of perspective

Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator

“normally uses the official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term.”

Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of

a sentence is compensated in another part

- Paraphrase: in the procedure, the meaning of the CBT is explained Here the explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent

Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two

different procedures

Another popular translation scholar whose work on translation practice is widely adopted is Baker (1992), pointed out 8 strategies for dealing with non-equivalence at word level

Translation by a more general word (superordinate): this is

one of the commonest strategies for dealing with many types of equivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning It works equally well in most, if not all, languages, since the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is not language-specific

non-Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word: this is

also one of the commonest ways to set the equivalence between two or more languages by using a word or phrase to get the general meaning

Translation by cultural substitution: This strategy involves

replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target-language item which does not have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a

similar impact on the target reader

Translation by using a loan word or loan word plus explanation: this strategy is particularly common in dealing with culture-

specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words Following the loan word with an explanation is very useful when the word in questions repeated several times in the text Once explained the loan word then can be used on its own; the reader can understand it and it is not distracted by further lengthy explanation

Translation by paraphrase using a related word: this

strategy tends to be used when the concept expressed by the source item is lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is significantly higher than would be natural in the target language

Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word: if the

concept expressed by the source item is not lexicalized at all in the target language, the paraphrase strategy can still be used in some contexts Instead

of a related word, the paraphrased may be based on modifying the superordinate or simply on unpacking the meaning of the source item, particularly if the item in question semantically complex

Translation by omission: this strategy may sound rather

drastic, but in fact it does no harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning convey by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question

Translation by illustration: this is a useful option if the word

which lacks an equivalent in the target language refers to a physical entity

which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point

At the syntactic level, Catford (1965) suggests examining “shifts”, he defines them as departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the SL to the TL Catford argues that there are two main types of translation shifts, namely level shifts, where the SL item at one linguistic level (e.g grammar) has a TL equivalent at a different level (e.g lexis), and category shifts which are divided into four types:

 Structure-shifts, which involve a grammatical change between the structure of the ST and that of the TT;

 Class-shifts, when a SL item is translated with a TL item which belongs to a different grammatical class, i.e a verb may be translated with a noun;

 Unit-shifts, which involve changes in rank;

 Intra-system shifts, which occur when SL and TL possess systems which approximately correspond formally as to their constitution, but when translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the TL system For instance, when the

SL singular becomes a TL plural

Catford was very much criticized for his linguistic theory of translation One

of the most scathing criticisms came from Snell-Hornby (1988), who argued that Catford's definition of textual equivalence is circular, his theory's reliance on bilingual informants hopelessly inadequate, and his example sentences isolated and even absurdly simplistic She considers the concept of equivalence in translation as being an illusion She asserts that the translation process cannot simply be reduced to a linguistic exercise, as claimed by Catford for instance, since there are also other factors, such as textual,