A translation quality assessment of the first three chapters of the novel The da Vinci code by Do Thu Ha (2005) based on J.House's model

A translation quality assessment of the first three chapters of the novel "The da Vinci code" by Do Thu Ha 2005 based on J.House's model Đặng Thị Phượng Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận

A translation quality assessment of the first three chapters of the novel "The da Vinci code"

by Do Thu Ha (2005) based on J.House's model

Đặng Thị Phượng

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

Người hướng dẫn: Assoc.Prof.Dr Trần Xuân Điệp

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract Literary translation has been developing for a long time; however, the

definition of a “good” translation still remains a controversy Different theorists construct different models to assess the quality of a translation text; therefore, there exists only “good” translation according to a specific view This qualitative study attempts to evaluate the translation quality of the first three chapters in the Vietnamese version of the novel “The Da Vinci Code” translated by Do Thu Ha (2005) based on J House’s translation quality assessing model Under qualitative method, the source text has been analyzed in the light of Halliday’s functional grammar (under five dimensions namely Field, Tenor, Mode, Transitivity System, and Theme) and House’s model (under two dimensions namely Dimensions of Language Use and Dimensions of Language User) Besides, a comparison between the source and translation text has been implemented to discover the mismatches and errors (namely covert and overt erroneous errors) Thence, a statement of quality of the translation text has been presented, i.e the translation text is of rather poor quality and fails to exactly and completely convey the interpersonal and ideational meaning of the source text (ST) according to House’s

model

Keywords Phương pháp giảng dạy; Tiếng Anh; Dịch thuật; Bản dịch

Content

I Rationale of the study

There are various areas in translation among which translation quality assessment is a subject of interest To what degree a translation text is “good” all depends on a large variety of factors, one of those would be the angle from which the translation text can be looked at Translation theorists developed their own models of translation quality assessment (TQA); however, J House’s is widely adduced for its applicability J House is a German linguist who has developed her own TQA model after criticizing previously proposed ones by other linguists like Newmark’s or Hatim & Mason’s This paper is conducted based on her TQA model to assess the first three chapters of the novel “Mật mã Da Vinci” by Đỗ Thu Hà (2005) This translation work has raised a heated controversy over its quality among various translators and readers Tran, T.C.D, a famous translator, in his article “Bản dịch Mật mã Da Vinci: Một thảm

họa dịch thuật” in the newspaper “Văn Nghệ” (as cited in

http://www.baomoi.com/Chi-can-%C4%91oc-la-thay-loi/152/7153208.epi), indicates that the translation version is the result of the translator’s lack of knowledge of language, history, and religion in combination with her carelessness, laziness and the publisher’s irresponsibility and shamelessness Another article discussing this issue is “Mật mã Da Vinci dịch ẩu, NXB VHTT nói gì?” Retrieved from the website http://vietbao.vn/Van-hoa/Mat-ma-Da-Vinci-dich-au-nha-xuat-ban-VHTT-noi-gi/70027621/181/, this article also argues that the translation text contains numerous errors such

as vocabulary, grammar, expression, and obmission, etc Nonetheless, several scholars such as Thái Bá Tân, Vũ Thế Khôi and Lê Bầu (as cited in http://evan.vnexpress.net/news/phe-binh/dich-thuat/2005/11/3b9acaf9/) hold that the quality of “Mật mã Da Vinci” is not that poor and it should not be considered to be a “catastrophe” though there are noticeable mistakes in it Hence, the conductor of this research wishes to employ a recognized model of TQA in order to evaluate the translation quality of the first three chapters of this novel to contribute a voice to the controversy raised

II Scope and objectives of the study

Under the constraints of time and size, the study only focuses on the first three among

105 chapters in the book “Mật mã Da Vinci” by Đỗ Thu Hà in 2005 In this study, the investigated chapters will be analyzed under the light of J House’s approach of TQA in order to reach the objectives of (1) discovering the features of the source text (ST) in the light of Halliday’s functional grammar and House’s dimensions and (2) assessing the level of quality that the translation text reaches Due to the fact that House’s model is constituted based on pragmatic theories of language use meanwhile concerning semantic and textual aspect, the scope of this study is not limited as its title may arouse The paper covers quite a large range of applied linguistics, for example, constrastive analysis, cross-cultural study, functional grammar, and translation

III Research questions

In order to fulfill its objectives stated above, this paper needs to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the features of the ST in the light of Halliday’s functional grammar and House’s dimensions?

2 To what degree does the translation text (TT) meet the standard of quality as proposed

in House’s TQA model?

IV Research methodology

- Qualitative method: This research is a qualitative evaluation; hence, the source of data

is document, and information is gathered by an analysis of documents and materials Data are categorized into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results Qualitative method allows the researcher to study individual text closely It also enables multiple analytic strategies

- Synthetic and analytic methods: The analysis of the texts is also approached from the combination of analytic and synthetic methods: analytic perspective to identify, isolate certain aspects to concentrate on, and synthetic perspective to investigate the interdependence of these constituents – how they work together as a whole

- Descriptive and comparative methods: In order to provide in-depth and detailed descriptions of translation and evaluation, the study is descriptive and comparative in nature

V Organization of the study

The first part of the study is the Introduction which provides a general view of the research such as methods, objectives, and scope

In the second part – Development, the study aims to present the theoretical background of the research (Chapter I) and review the existing literature by presenting some related concepts of

translation theory and typical TQA models (Chapter II) Chapter III focuses on the Methodology and Procedures of the research Chapter IV is the Findings and Discussion which present the results of data analysis and discussions

In part 3, the conclusion of the study will be stated with three components: Recapitulation

of the study, Limitation of the study, and Recommendations for further research

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