Material process in “The old man and the sea” by Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version A Systematic Functional Comparison

Material process in “The old man and the sea” by Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version: A Systematic Functional Comparison 43 p.. Hoang Van Van Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: In

Material process in “The old man and the sea”

by Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version: A Systematic Functional Comparison

43 p

Quá trình vật chất trong bản gốc và bản dịch tác phẩm ‘Ông già và biển cả của Hemingway

Đặng Thị Phương Mai

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

Người hướng dẫn: Prof Dr Hoang Van Van

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: In this study, an attempt is made to explore whether such categories as the

number, configurations, voice and tense of material processes in the translation of the written extract from “The old man and the sea” by Lê Huy Bắc are equivalent to those in the original by Hemingway The data analysis is based on the framework of Halliday’s (1994) and Hoàng Văn Vân’s (2002) The conclusion claims that there exists both analogies and deviations in the translation in comparison with the original However, the deviations are inevitable due to the fact that each country has its own linguistic and cultural features It is undeniable that the translator tried to keep the target text equivalent

to the source text as much as possible Moreover, it is vital for translators of literature to pay much attention to linguistic features and cultural contexts, the author’s individual style and the genre of the text he or she is going to translate

Keywords: Hemingway; Biên dịch; Tác phẩm văn học; Tiếng Anh

Content

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Not until I had pursued Master degree of Applied Linguistics at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, did I have the first chance to familiarize myself with one of the most important schools of linguistics, which is so-called “Functional Grammar” from Professor Hoang Van Van’s lectures This type of grammar deeply impressed me especially when it was brought into comparison with another well-known subtype of grammar; that is, Traditional Grammar

I got to know Traditional Grammar, through its simple grammatical rules from my first days of the 6th grade When I studied at the university, it seemed that I was fully aware of the notion

“Traditional Grammar” Williams (2005) defined the Traditional Grammar as “the collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structures of language that is commonly taught in schools” This means that Traditional Grammar refers to ways of analyzing words into such

functions as Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O), Complement (C) and Adverbial (A) and analyzing sentences basing on seven major clause types: SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC

and SVOA All of these rules are presented clearly by Quirk et al (1985) in “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language” All in all, this kind of grammar takes linguistic structures

as its priority; therefore, it has limitations on interpreting the organization of a discourse As a result, Functional Grammar or Systemic Functional Grammar was developed by the linguist Halliday in the 1960s in order to solve the problems of discourse analysis

In fact, a functional grammar was designed to study the wording and interpret the wording by reference to what it means (Halliday, 1994) In detail, it is particularly helpful for explaining how language is selected and organized in particular ways for particular socio-cultural purposes Three important variables are Field (subject matter), Tenor (roles and relationships), and Mode (mode and medium) Other Systemic Functional Grammar terms which people might have approached include circumstance, participant and process Moreover, Systemic Functional Grammar is useful for explaining the structuring of clauses, sentences, texts, discourses by analyzing their cohesive devices Among all of these categories, what I am most interested in is types of process in general and material process in particular since material process is a popular process in English So I have decided to choose “material process” as the topic of my minor thesis

In addition, functional grammar has been studied by many famous linguists in the world like

M.A.K Halliday (1985, 1994), Bloor (1995), Eggins (1994) and Thompson (1996); among all

of whom, Halliday is considered to be a vanguard grammarian because of his great contributions

In Vietnam, firstly Cao Xuân Hạo and then Hoàng Văn Vân did researches on Vietnamese in the

light of systemic functional grammar Their studies respectively are Tiếng Việt – Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng (1991) and Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng Việt: mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống (2002), in which types of process especially material process in Vietnamese

are investigated Thus, however small my study is, I myself would like to contribute to this fledgling field by examining material process through both English and Vietnamese using the same theoretical framework – systemic functional linguistics

The functional comparison between material process in English and Vietnamese was carried out

by Huỳnh Thị Cẩm Nhung in 2002 However, in my opinion, the scope of this thesis is rather broad because the analysis is not attached to any specific texts or discourses As far as I am

concerned, I have chosen to compare material process in an extract from “The old man and the sea” by Earnest Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version by Lê Huy Bắc for three

reasons Firstly, I find myself have a passion for literature Secondly, in order to compare items

in two languages, it is vital to show that they are contextually equivalent Such equivalence can

be best achieved by reference to translation as “translation is the replacement of textual material

in one language by equivalent textual material in another language” (Cartford, 1965) In the

end, assuming English to be the control language and Vietnamese to be the comparative one, the comparison will become easier and more effective if I compare the translation which is translated

by an experienced and excellent linguist and has won public recognition with the original From all reasons above, it is hoped that this study will provide some insights into the understanding of the translation of material process in literature

1.2 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to answer the following questions:

a What is material process?

b Are Material processes in the original extract from “The old man and the sea” written by Hemingway the same as those in its Vietnamese translated version?

c What implications of translation equivalence does the study have for Vietnamese teachers, students and translators of literary works?

In order to find the answers to the research questions above, an attempt is made to examine how material process is conceptualized in English and Vietnamese by synthesizing the works of Halliday (1994) and Hoàng Văn Vân (2002)

So as to make the comparison between the original and translated version, Halliday’s and Hoàng Văn Vân’s theoretical framework are chosen to be the descriptive framework of my study Finally, basing on the findings of the study, I would like to offer some implications for translating material process in literature into Vietnamese

1.3 Scope of the study

1.3.1 The theoretical framework

In this study, I do not have an ambition to cover all aspects of functional grammar Only issues related to material process such as framework, elements and features are taken into consideration

Moreover, material process is a small domain in a grammatical space which is known as transitivity In fact, the Systemic Functional Linguistic model of language recognizes three social functions: ideational, interpersonal and textual Among them, ideational function is divided into experiential and logical Experiential function is realized by transitivity system As a result, metafunctions, the grammar

of experience and its representation in the transitivity system are also examined briefly

1.3.2 The chosen text

The scope of investigation is limited to the written extract from Hemingway’s novella “The old man and the sea” and, equivalently, its Vietnamese version which is translated by Lê Huy Bắc

The original extract is from page 88 to 94 and the translated version is from page 64 to 70 of the whole story However, during the process of analysis, I have cut down some unnecessary clauses

so that I can analyze the text more easily As a result, the chosen text in both languages has shrunk (from 6 to 4 pages)

The reason is that there is not enough space for a minor thesis to investigate the whole novella of more than 125 pages An extract of only 4 pages seems to be more feasible Furthermore, this extract is about the old man’s fierce battle with a giant marlin on the sea So, it is supposed to contain a high density of verbs of action which are frequently the representation of material process – process of DOING

This study is confined to an analysis at clause-level

1.4 Methods and data of the study

From these aims above, the study is carried out basing mainly on two methods: descriptive and comparative The former concerns with the description of material process in English and

Vietnamese and the latter concerns with the comparison of the process in the two languages

As I have said above, the data used for the study are taken from page 88 to 94 of the source language text and the corresponding pages in the Vietnamese version The analysis of the source language text’s clause is based on Halliday’s theory (1994) The investigation of the translated text is based on both Halliday’s and Hoàng Văn Vân (2002)’s theory

1.5 Design of the study

This thesis is designed in five chapters:

Chapter I: introduces rationale, aims, scope and methodology of the study

Chapter II: provides the theoretical orientations for the study: systemic functional theory and its

related issues to the topic of my thesis

Chapter III: discusses some basic notions of material process such as Actor, Goal and

Circumstance

Chapter IV: is concerned with the comparative analysis between participants, process and

circumstances of material process in English and Vietnamese

Chapter V: tries to reach the most clear-cut possible conclusions about the equivalence between

the two versions and provides some implications for translation task

REFERENCES

A ENGLISH

1 Bloor, T & Bloor, M (1995) The Functional Analysis of English London: Arnold

2 Cartford, J.C (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation Oxford University Press

3 Halliday, M.A.K (1970) Language Structure and Language Function (In) New Horizon in Linguistics Lyons, J (Ed.) Hamondsworth: Penguin

4 Halliday, M.A.K (1978) Language as Social Semiotic London and Baltimore: Edward Arnold

5 Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R (1985) Language, Text and Context: a social semiotic perspective Vic Gleelong: Deakin University Press

6 Halliday, M.A.K (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Arnold 7.Eggins,

S (1994) An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics London: Pinter

8 Halliday, M.A.K and Matthiessen, C (1997) Systemic Functional Grammar: A First Step into the Theory Sydney: Macquarie University

9 James, W (2005) The Teacher's Grammar Book Lawrence Erlbaum

10 Martin, J.R (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics and an Understanding of written texts

Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney

11 Martin, J.R & Rose, D (2003) Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the Clause

Continuum International Publishing Group

12 Martin, J.R, Matthiessen, C & Painter, C (1997) Working with Functional Grammar

London: Arnold

13 Nhung, Huỳnh T Cẩm (2002) The Grammar of Material process in English and Vietnamese: A Functional Comparison (MA Thesis)

14 Plimpton, G (1961) An Interview with Earnest Hemingway in Baker, C (1961) Hemingway and his Critics Hill and Wang Press

15 Quirk, R et al (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London:

Longman

16 Teich, E (1999) Systemic functional grammar in natural language generation: linguistic description and computational representation Continuum International Publishing Group

17 Thompson, G (1996) Introducing Functional Grammar London: Arnold

B VIETNAMESE

1 Ban, Diệp Quang (2002) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt, tập 1 Hà Nội: NXB Giáo dục

2 Cẩn, Nguyễn Tài (1999) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt Hà Nội: NXB Đại học Quốc gia

3 Hạo, Cao Xuân (1991) Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo Ngữ pháp chức năng, quyển 1 Hà Nội: Khoa học

xã hội

4 Quang, Nguyễn (2000) Giao thoa văn hóa nhìn từ góc độ hoạt động giao tiếp lời nói

5 Vân, Hoàng Văn (2000) Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống Hà Nội: Khoa học Xã hội