A study on connotative equivalence between Gone with the wind and its translation in Vietnamese by Duong Tuong

A study on connotative equivalence between "Gone with the wind" and its translation in Vietnamese by Duong Tuong Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành:

A study on connotative equivalence between

"Gone with the wind" and its translation in

Vietnamese by Duong Tuong

Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract The researcher conducted a study to investigate the kinds of connotative

equivalence between the novel "Gone with the wind" and its translated version by Duong Tuong Different kinds of connotative equivalence have been identified Technical data from both the source text and target text was collected Then the data was examined carefully to assess the degree of connotative equivalence achieved The following five kinds of connotative equivalence are the most typical and well achieved

in the source text: connotations of speech level (elevated, normal, poetic, and colloquial), connotations of socially determined usage (the language of the upper class and the slaves), connotations of geographical origin (comparative structures), connotations of register (military and religious), and connotations of evaluation (pejorative, positive and ironic) All in all, it can be concluded that connotative

equivalence is achieved between the novel and the translation by Duong Tuong

Keywords Ngôn ngữ học; Tiếng Anh; Dịch thuật

Content

I Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

Over the past few decades, international exchange is processing vigorously in various aspects, especially in culture By using language to bridge the gap between different cultures, inevitably, translation has contributed significantly to this process Besides, literature has been chosen as a rich source for translation Literary works are not only written in different languages but they also feature different cultures and civilizations Accordingly, the literary translation process is quite complex as it requires the translator to consider every aspect of the material, or even beyond the material in order to produce a good translation It poses a great challenge for anyone who attempts to assess the quality of translated literary works

According to Chesterman (1989) “Equivalence is obviously a central concept in translation theory” “The notion of equivalence held sway as a key issue in translation throughout the 1970s and beyond.” (Munday, 2008, p 49) Various works on translation theories have been carried out just to show how vital equivalence is in translation Great importance has been attached to equivalence since this is a controversial issue and it is likely to cause debates in the coming time However, despite its significance, little investigation has been carried out in the field of translation evaluation, particularly evaluation of equivalence between English and Vietnamese literary works

All the above made the researcher decide to carry out the study on equivalence in literary translation Specifically, the study investigates connotation equivalence achieved in the translation of “Gone with the wind” – one of the most famous novels of the 20th century This novel has been chosen as the source language text due to its distinctive features, aesthetic values and popularity worldwide The novel was first translated into Vietnamese more than 20 years ago Among several versions of the translation, the one translated by Duong Tuong is most praised by readers With the aim of investigating one of Duong Tuong's best translated works, the researcher chose his translation as the target text

II Research aims and research questions

The study firstly aims at providing a theoretical background on some issues relevant to the topic of the study, which are translation, literary translation, equivalence in translation and strategies to achieve equivalence

Secondly, the study is to investigate the types of connotative equivalence achieved between the novel and its translated version

Thirdly, the study is also aimed at finding out what strategies adopted by the translator in order to achieve that equivalence

Addressing the above issues is hoped to help English learners, especially those specialize

in translation enhance their awareness of various expressive means employed in a particular literary text and decide the most appropriate strategies to deal with different translation situations

The study is also expected to be a good reference of criteria to any Vietnamese readers who love romantic novel, and are fans “Gone with the wind” for a good translation

These aims can be formulated into the following research questions

1 What types of connotative equivalence achieved between the novel "Gone with the wind" and its translation by Duong Tuong?

2 What strategies adopted by the translator to achieve such types of connotative equivalence?

III Scope of the study

Firstly, the theoretical background of the study only focuses on some fundamental issues

in translation theory which are of vital importance to the issue examined, which are translation, equivalence, methods, and procedures

Secondly, the research focuses on one kind of equivalence, which is connotative equivalence Then only the most outstanding types of connotative equivalence are examined

IV Methods of the study

1 Data collection

The study is designed in accordance with the theory proposed by Koller (1979), that is characterizes the connotative dimensions of a source language (with the support of stylistic studies) to analyse their features and structural elements, and then relate these to the connotative dimenstions of a given target language In the first stage, the study explores the source language text to find out the different dimensions of connotations The features and structural elements of each connotative dimension are defined Data are collected in both English and Vietnamese to illustrate these dimensions Even though the novel is almost six hundred pages long, the researcher tries to collect comprehensive data by investigating almost every chapter Subsequently, the examples are grouped according to the stated catergory for the sake of comparison and assessment

2 Data analysis

In the second stage of the study, an assessment of the features in the target language text is carried out with the criteria established in the first stage The translation and the data are considered from various viewpoints The study is based on technical data of semantic densities,

occurrence probabilities and repetition rates of both the source language and target language text

to evaluate the degree of connotative equivalence achieved As stated by Koller (1979), equivalence is defined in terms of the frame and conditions that the target text must fulfill if there exists equivalence between a given source text and a given target text The conditions can

be content, style, function, etc Therefore, the requirement of equivalence has the following form: quality (qualities) X in the source language text must be preserved, meaning the source language content, form, style, function, etc must be preserved or at least the translation must seek

to preserve them as far as possible (Koller, 1979) Besides, the connotations are transmitted by means of the word choice Thus, the word choices that can affect the content, form, style or function of translation are investigated carefully After that, conclusions on types of connotative equivalence achieved are drawn Furthermore, based on the translation of Duong Tuong, the researcher also figures out the strategies employed to achieve connotative equivalence The strategies are categorized according to Newmark's theory about translation methods and translation procedures

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