A study on the vietnamese translation of english non finite clauses

Title:A STUDY ON THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH NON-FINITE CLAUSES I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without ac

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

A STUDY ON THE VIETNAMESETRANSLATION OF

ENGLISH NON-FINITE CLAUSES

Supervisor: Vu Tuan Anh, M.A

Student: Doan Thi Thanh Hien Date of birth: 28/02/1994

Course: K19A06 (2012-2016)

Hanoi - 2016

Title:A STUDY ON THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF

ENGLISH NON-FINITE CLAUSES

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under the strict guidance of my supervisor

Hanoi…… May 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The graduation paper is written under the supervisor of Mr Vu Tuan Anh, MA

of the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University In the process of completing this Graduation Paper, I also have received a great deal of help, guidance and encouragement from my teachers and friends

I would first and foremost like to express my thanks to my supervisor Mr Vu Tuan Anh, M.A for his precious advice, suggestion, and inspiration

Secondly, my sincere thanks go to all my teachers in the Faculty of English for their lectures and instructions which definitely are useful for my research

I also would like to express my gratefulness to my peers, my friends for their encouragement and help to complete the graduation paper

Finally, my heartfelt thanks are to my family for their unconditional support and love

Hanoi …/……….2016

Doan Thi Thanh Hien

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 01

1 Rationale 01

2 Aims and objectives of the study 02

2.1 Aims 02

2.2 Objectives 02

3 Scope of the study 02

4 Research questions 03

5 Methods of the study 03

6 Design of the study 03

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 05

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 05

1.1 Definition of translation 05

1.2 Translation methods 06

1.3 Definition of non-finite clauses 07

1.4 Forms of non-finite clauses 08

1.4.1 The infinitive 08

1.4.2 The gerund 11

1.4.3 The participle clauses 12

1.5 Syntactic features of non-finite clauses 13

1.5.1 The present participle clause 13

1.5.2 The past participle clause 14

1.5.3 The full infinitive clause 14

1.6 Functions of non-finite clauses 15

1.7 Position of non-finite clauses 15

1.8 Semantic meanings of non-finite clauses 17

1.8.1 Extension 18

1.8.2 Enhancement 18

1.8.3 Elaborating 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 20

2.1 Overview 20

2.2 Research design 20

2.3 Research questions, method for collecting data and data analysis 20

2.3.1 Decision on the research questions 20

2.3.2 Decision on method for collecting data 20

2.3.3 Method for data analysis 20

2.4 Study procedures 21

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 22

3.1 Ways of translating infinitive clauses 22

3.1.1 In the form of a verb when they are subjects, complements, objects and attributives 22

3.1.2 In the form of a noun when they are subjects, objects and adverbs 25

3.1.3 In the form of an adverb when they are subjects and adverbs 26

3.1.4 In the form of a finite clause when they are subjects, objects and adverbs 27

3.2 Ways of translating participle clauses 28

3.2.1 In the form of a verb when they are complements, attributives and adverbs 28

3.2.1.1 In the form of a noun 30

3.2.1.2 In the form of an adverb 31

3.2.1.3 In the form of a finite clause 31

3.3 Ways of translating of gerund clauses 33

3.3.1 In the form of a verb to denote actions when they are subjects, objects and complements 33

3.3.2 In the form of a noun when they are subjects, complements and objects 34

3.3.3 In the form of an adverb to denote time when they are subjects and objects 35

3.3.4 In the form of a finite clause when they are objects 35

PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 37

1 General summary of the study 37

2 Conclusion 38

3 Recommendations 38

3.1 Recommendations for the learners 38

3.2 Recommendations for the further researches 39

4 Limitations of the study 40

REFERENCES 41

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The summary of the ways of translating Infinitive clauses 27 Table 2: The summary of the ways of translating Participle clauses 32 Table 3: The summary of the ways of translating Gerund clauses 35

A STUDY ON THE VIETNAMESETRANSLATION OF

ENGLISH NON-FINITE CLAUSES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English usage is a subject as wide as the English language itself It is not difficult for native speakers of English to use However, there are sometimes certain problems for learners of English as a foreign language, in its constructions as well as they do not have deeply understanding about translation from English language into Vietnamese language or vice versa Particularly, translation is an activity of increasingly vital importance in the educational, political, economic and cultural fields of human endeavors Moreover, in fact,

we usually use non-finite clauses, which often occurs in translation Hence, in

my study, I would like to choose this topic: “A Study on the Vietnamese Translation of English Non-finite Clauses.”

In linguistics, a non-finite clause is a dependent clause or subordinate clause whose verb is non-finite Its form and meaning are various and diverse Therefore, it is very difficult to use accurately and practice for the learners, especially Vietnamese learners of English at the levels of elementary and pre-intermediate Some of them often fail to recognize kinds of non-finite clauses and get confused how to translate into target language In addition, there are a number of problems, which are remarkable ones occur in translating non-finite clauses All of the students, who use non-finite clauses; however, they do not concern about the meanings of non-finite clauses in translating

For instance, to translate the follow English sentence into Vietnamese: “It

took me a long time to learn where she came from.”, many students translated it

as follow: “Nó lấy mất của tôi một thời gian dài để biết em đến từ đâu” In a

simple way, we just only say: “Phải rất lâu tôi mới biết em từ đâu đến.”

2 Aims and objectives of the study

2.1 Aims

The above-mentioned background shows that the status of non-finite clauses in English needs more detailed study not only in their structure and forms but also in uses as well That is the aim of the study Moreover, it is also helping Vietnamese learners, who are learning English have a deeply understanding about English non-finite clauses and provide students with knowledge of the translation of English non-finite clauses

2.2 Objectives

- Describe English non-finite and how to translate them into Vietnamese

- Improve skills in translation

-Suggest some recommendations to have the effective way in English- Vietnamese translation of English non-finite clauses

3 Scope of the study

In this thesis, I would like to concentrate on translating English non-finite clauses, because of the time-limited and my ability I will study on the Vietnamese equivalents, which are used to compare and analyze to English non-finite clauses After that, there will be some recommendations in English-Vietnamese translation

To clear thesis, there will be some samples sentences, which are non-finite clauses taken from bilingual non-literary and literary works for analysis

4 Research questions

1, How many ways of translating non-finite clauses? What are they?

2, What are the suggestions for learning and translating non-finite clauses?

5 Methods of the study

Being a student of Foreign Language Department, after years of learning English, studying translation, I was equipped with many skills or techniques for translation This graduation paper is carried out with the view to help learners have general understanding about translation and translation of English non-finite clauses To successfully complete this topic, I will carry out a number of methods:

- Consult my supervisor, my friends

- Method for collecting data to search documents and the sources of information such as on internet, TV, reference books, newspapers, universities, etc…

- Method for data analysis

6 Design of the study

My graduation paper is divided into three parts and the second,naturally, is the most important part

*The first part is the Introduction, including the rationale, aims, scope, research

questions and method and design of the study

*The second part is the Development that includes three chapters:

+ Chapter I: Theoretical background: It focuses on the concepts oftranslation, and non-finite clauses, translation methods, forms of non-finite clauses, syntactic features of non-finite clauses, Functions of non-finite clauses, position of non-finite clauses, Semantic meanings of non-finite clauses

+ Chapter II: Methods and Procedures

+Chapter III: Findings and Discussions: It focuses on the ways of translating infinitive clauses, ways of translating participle clauses, ways of translating of gerund clauses

*The last part is the Conclusion in which I summary the study and

recommendations

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definition of translation

Translation has been variously defined and ideas on translation are diversified and contradictory The following quotes taken from different sources provide an overview of range of diversity of opinions on the concept of translation:

* Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closet natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style (Nida & Taber 1974:12)

* Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language) (Catford 1965:20)

* Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statements in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language (Newmark, 1981:7) Also, according to Newmark, translation

as the attempt to produce approximate equivalence or respectable synonymy between two chunks of different languages on various levels of which two main ones are thought and linguistic form Newmark adds that translation is partly an exercise in the art of writing as well as a field of comparative applied linguistics (1988, p.26) Newmark believes that grammatical meaning is more significant, less precise, more general and sometimes more elusive than lexical meaning Since syntactic differences existing among languages may cause problem in translation, due tosome characteristics of the Vietnamese language, which differ

from English and should beconsidered in order to produce an acceptable translation

In short, translation is a creative intellectual activity, denoting the transmitting of information from a source language in a form of target language These definitions clearly affirmed that the goal of translation is the transformation of one language into another language but the content of the message should be unchanged despite the translator’s creation in using equivalent words or restructuring sentence structures The common goal of translation is that translator change equivalently semantics, grammatical structures, lexis, cultural context and communication situation into target language to help reader understand the content of the source language

1.2 Translation methods

There are many different methods of translation: literal, word -for -word,

faithful, free, idiomatic, semantic, communicative…

- word-for-word translation: preservation of word order and as literal

translation as possible of individual words, including cultural words

- literal translation: apart from as literal as possible translation of

individual words, grammatical structures are converted into the nearest target language equivalents

- faithful translation: stays, if possible, within the constraints of the

grammatical structures of the target text, but draws on certain contextual factors

- semantic translation: more emphasis on naturalness than in faithful

translation, and translation of certain cultural words into neutral equivalents in the TL

- communicative translation: aims at reproducing the exact message of the

source text content-wise and context-wise but with emphasis on

naturalness and acceptability/comprehensiveness to the target text readership

- idiomatic translation: makes use of idioms and colloquialisms that are not

present in the source text

- free translation: focuses on the content of the target text rather than the

form, which means that the same content is expressed in the target text but with very different grammatical structures if need be

- adaptation: the freest form of translation and more of a target

language/culture based interpretation of the source text than a translation

as such, this is sometimes called document design

However, the translator can choose the best one, depending on the context Semantic and communicative translation are used most because they are easily acceptable and comprehensible to the readers or listeners and have high accuracy as well as naturalness in translation

1.3 Definition of non-finite clauses

* Non-finite clauses contain a verb which does not show tense We usually use non-finite verbs only in subordinate clauses We usually understand the time referred to from the context of the main clause (Cambridge dictionaries)

We often use a non-finite clause when the subject is the same as the subject in the main clause:

clause serves a grammatical role-commonly that of a noun, adjective, or

adverb-in a greater clause that contaadverb-ins it (FromWikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

* According to Peter Collins and Carmella Hollo in “English Grammar –

an Introduction” (18), A finite clause is a subordinate clause with a

non-finite verb as the first or only verb: an infinitive, a present participle or a past participle and gerund

1.4 Forms of non-finite clauses

1.4.1 The infinitive

a- The Present Infinitive clauses

For example:

It was not a very difficult question to answer

(Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll)

He tried to get up

He did not want to look at the fish

(The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway)

He was very anxious to see the effect of the birthday letter…

(The Rocking-Horse Winner by D H Lawrence)

b- The Present Continuous Infinitive clauses

For example:

He seemed to be listening

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

The sound of the mortar-fire seemed to be closing in, or perhaps it

was the enemy at last replying

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

He seemed to be looking for words on his desk with which to

convey his meaning as precisely as I had done

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

Scarlett seemed to be paying little attentionto what they said,

although she made the correct answers

(Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

c- The Perfect Infinitive clauses

For example:

It seemed a long enough journey to have made with the killing of

those two as the only result

Even the two soldiers seemed to have relaxed a little

We seem to have talked about pretty nearly everythingexcept God

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

This time the poor Gnat really seemed to have sighed itself away…

(Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll)

d- The Perfect Continuous Infinitive clauses

For example:

I’d like to have been sitting there when she walked in

e- The Present Infinitive Passive clauses

For example:

Eighty percent of Britain’s sewage works are breaking pollution

laws, according to a report to be published this week

(Carthy M.M., 1993)

It amazes me that average, ordinary people eagerly trade in the

serenity of the ground for the chance to be tossed through the air like

vegetables in a food processor

f- The Perfect Infinitive Passive clauses

For example:

He ought now to have been at school

I never thought thus to have declared aloud

(Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)

1.4.2 The gerund

a- The Present Gerund clauses

For example:

Would you mind identifying him?

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

Do you mind stopping at the cable office?

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

Children like playing computer games

b- The Perfect Gerund clauses

I don’t remember being told of the decision to change the

company policy on vocations

The children enjoyed being taken to the zoo

d- The Perfect Gerund Passive clauses

The safe showed no signs of having been touched

1.4.3 The participle clauses

Like infinitive and gerund clauses, participle clauses can appear in various aspects and voices

a- The Present Participle Clauses

Do you know the person being arrested?

(Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)

Seated with Stuart and Brent Tarleton in the cool shade of the

made a pretty picture

(Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

c- The Perfect Participle clauses (Active)

For example:

she went back with interest to their immediate situation

(Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell)

music “in his head”

d- The Perfect Participle Clauses (Passive)

For example:

to say

wife would often complain about anything, as she was tired of saving every penny to buy a "dream home"

1.5 Syntactic features of non-finite clauses

The participle and full infinitive clauses can be used to combine two clauses

1.5.1 The present participle clause

- A present participle clause replacing a relative clause:

For example:

The girl who is drinking coffee is Mary Allen

= The girl drinking coffee is Mary Allen

- A present participle clause can replace an independent clause:

For example:

= Walking into the room and I saw him sitting alone

- A present participle clause can replace a subordinate clause:

For example:

= Not knowing the way to the airport, he asked a policeman

1.5.2 The past participle clause

-The past participle clause is used when the verb in the main clause or relative clause is passive:

For example:

He was given a medal by the judger, he returned to his seal

= Given a medal by the judger, he returned to his seal

1.5.3 The full infinitive clause

- The full infinitive used to replace a relative clause:

For example:

He was the first man who left the burning house

= He was the first man to leave the burning house

1.6 Functions of non-finite clauses

- A non-finite clause may function as an integral sentence element

For example:

To take an Annamite to bed with you is like taking a bird: they twitter and sing on your pillow

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

- A non-finite clause may function as a separate subordinateClause

For example:

Speaking of food , it’s time to head home and light the grill

house

and even now I had to think of my paper and to ask her

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

1.7 Position of non-finite clauses

*English non-finite clauses can be at initial, medial and final positions in the sentence

- Initial: All non-finite clauses can be at the beginning of the sentence

For example:

Walking up the street , I heard a bell ring

approach and stand before him

(Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)

men riding at breakneck speed

- Medial: All non – finite clauses are in the middle of the sentence

For example:

But the little prince, having now completed his preparations for

(The Little Prince)

I came up out of the floor, talking to reassure them, telling them that my

car was outside , that I had run out of petrol

(The Quiet American by Graham Greene)

You are, to put it in English, very much in error

- Final

For example:

The thief wore gloves so as to avoid leaving any fingerprints

In fact, I should distinctly warn ingenious youth to avoid imitating my

example

1.8 Semantic meanings of non-finite clauses

* Semantically, English non – finite clauses have three main types: Elaboration, Extension and Enhancement

Besides offering incense at Princess Huyen Tran Temple and Emperor

activities such as praying for the safety of people, flower garlands…

(Festival pays tribute to devoted individuals’ /Wednesday, 17 February 2016/ Vietnam news)

promotion programme to attract depositors at this occasion

(Banks offering post-Tet holiday promotions to attract depositors/ February, 18 2016/ Vietnam news)

- Adversarive