Câu nhấn mạnh trong tiếng anh và cách dịch sang tiếng việt

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI THANH TAM EMPHATIC SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND WAYS TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE CÂU NHẤN MẠNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI THANH TAM

EMPHATIC SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND WAYS

TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(CÂU NHẤN MẠNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ CÁCH DỊCH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT)

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

Hanoi, 2018

Hanoi, 2018

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI THANH TAM

EMPHATIC SENTENCES IN ENGLISH AND WAYS

TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(CÂU NHẤN MẠNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ CÁCH DỊCH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT)

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: DO TIEN DUC, M.A

Hanoi, 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Do Tien Duc, for the continuous support of my study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge in all four academic years I appreciate all his contributions of time, ideas, and funding to make my experience productive and stimulating, without whose valuable comments and guidance, my thesis would not have been accomplished

I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, especially the lecturers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages for their dedicated instructions during years of university work

Finally, I would like to express my deep love and appreciation to my parents, brothers and sisters, who always encouraged me with love and spiritually supported me throughout my life

ABSTRACT

Emphatic sentences aim to emphasize a point or establish a focus to make the sentence more prominent and important than others This reasearch is conducted to explore some kinds of emphasis in English and find out effective ways to translate English emphatic sentences into Vietnamese

Translation from English into Vietnamese in general is the highest level of using English as a foreign language, and the translation of English in particular requires lots

of There are a lot of translation methods used to tranlsate emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese However, there has not been a useful method to translate them Usually, translation versions of emphatic sentences are produced without emphasis, as it is not considered or translatorsdo not know how to produce it

Therefore, this research work aims to contribute an investigation of emphatic sentences in English and prove the researcher’s view that communicative translation and semantic translation are effective methods for translating emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese

DECLARATIONS

I hereby certify that the graduation paper entitled:

Emphatic sentences in English and ways to translate them into Vietnamese

(Câu nhấn mạnh trong tiếng anh và cách dịch sang tiếng việt)

is my own research work and not coppied from any other person’s work without acknowledgements and that it is originally done by myself under my supervisor’s instructions

Date submitted: May 2018

Student

Tran Thi Thanh Tam

Supervisor

Do Tien Duc

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Reasons for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF TRANSLATION 4

1.1 Definition of translation 4

1.2 Translation process 4

1.3 How translation is conducted 6

1.4 Methods of translation 7

1.4.1 Some approaches to translation 7

1.4.2 Some translation methods 8

1.4.2.1 Comments on the methods 8

1.4.2.2 Equivalent effects 9

CHAPTER 2: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EMPHATIC SENTENCES IN CONTRAST 11

2.1 Definitions of emphasis 11

2.2 Devices of English and Vietnamese emphases 12

2.2.1 Lexical device 12

2.2.2 Syntactic device 14

2.2.2.1 Announcements 14

2.2.2.2 Fragments 14

2.2.2.3 Imperative sentences 15

2.2.2.4 Inversion 15

2.2.2.5 Rhetorical questions 17

2.2.2.6 Interuption (Isolation) 18

2.2.2.7 Restatement 18

2.2.2.8 Exclamations 19

2.2.2.9 Repetition 19

2.2.2.10 Cleft Sentences 21

CHAPTER 3: THE ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF EMPHATIC SENTENCES 23

3.1 Translation methods 23

3.2 Stages in the translation of emphatic sentences 24

3.2.1 Discovering the meaning in the source language (English) 25

3.2.2 Re-expressing the meaning in the target language (Vietnamese) 25

3.2.2.1 Rough transformation 26

3.2.2.2 Restructuring 26

CHAPTER 4: SOME SHORTCOMINGS AND MISTAKES IN THE ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF EMPHATIC SENTENCES - CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS 37

4.1 Shortcomings and mistakes 37

4.1.1 Emphasis absent from the Vietnamese sentence 37

4.1.2 Incapability of producing more than one structural equivalent 38

4.2 Causes 38

4.3 Solutions 40

CONCLUSION 42

1 Review of study 42

2 Suggestion for further studies 42

REFERENCES 44

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INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for the study

Language is our primary source of communication, which is the method through which we share our ideas and thoughts with others It is said that language is what distinguishes us from other animals and makes us human There are a lot of languages

in the world, each country has its own native language in addition to a variety of local dialects spoken and understood by their people in different regions Some languages are used by millions of people, others by only a few thousand Among those languages, English is the most widely used, which has become more and more popular

in the world today It has been widely used in many different walks of life Translation

in general is fairly important in Vietnam nowadays, which has resulted from not only requirements of country’s renovation in general but also its necessity in learning foreign languages in particular

In the process of renovation, translation acts as a factor that helps integrate Vietnam into the region and the word Since open-door policy was started, owning the knowledge of the economy, politic mechanism, culture, etc of other countries has become an indispensable need for most Vietnamese people, particularly the intellectual class Moreover, an increasing number of foreigners have shown a great desire to get an insight into Vietnam- the country and the people What is essential is

to create a body of professional translators and interpreters who specialize in foreign languages, now most commonly in English, with a view to enabling others to understand foreigners and make themselves understood by foreigners As a result, only with translation can be the above demands of Vietnamese people and foreigners be met perfectly

Translation viewed from the aspect of studying foreign languages is seen indispensable as well And this leads to the important role of mother tongue in learning and teaching another language in which translation has proved to be an important activity However, translation works have revealed many disadvantages such as slow acquisition of the foreign language as well as lack of unstanding of the culture of that language English is a typical case in this point In learning and teaching new words and grammatical items of English, using Vietnamese- our mother tongue- in combination with English, i.e employing translation will greatly accelerate those processes Also, it is imposible to ignore the translation of emphatic sentences, though

in some cases the translation may fail to reproduce part of the intended emphasis of the source language writer

An emphatic sentence is a special way of utterance in which an element or a part of the sentence or the whole sentence is made more prominent than others And the variation

of the emphatic elements can enable our ideas to be expressed with various nuances Neither English or Vietnamese proves an exception For example, in English, the idea

that Jane phoned me yesterday can be expressed by either:

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It was Jane who phoned me yesterday (Jane herself, not somebody else, phoned me) or Jane didn‟t write but phoned me

Or

It was me that Jane phoned (Jane phoned me not somebody else)

In Vietnamese, to denote an offer of one more coffee people can say:

Em hãy uống thêm một tách cà phê nữa đi! (Normal invitation)

Em hãy uống thêm một tách cà phê nữa đi nào! (The speaker‟s insistence is stressed)

Em hãy uống thêm một tách cà phê nữa đi nhé! (The speaker‟s persuasion)

Note: đi, đi nào, đi nhé are some of the elements giving emphasis in Vietnamese

Obviously, emphasis both in English and Vietnamese helps us understand precisely what we hear and be able to feel the speaker (writer)’s attitude (surprise, respect, friendliness,etc ) For that reason, Vietnamese writers also need to resort to emphasis and Vietnamese readers need to understand that the emphasis has been used so that they could not only feel what the English writer emphasizes but also comment on the aesthetic values of his literary works, particularly in poetry It would be better to say it

is very necessary to translate emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese and vice versa

Finally, the item of emphasis in English and Vietnamese has not been studied thoroughly in grammar books and how to translate English emphatic idea into Vietnamese one has not been considered before Therefore, it is the desire for something new and adventurous that has made her concerned with the study of the translation of English emphatic sentences into Vietnamese

In short, these above-mentioned reasons are both objective and subjective And it is them that have given her an impetus to her study- the study on translation of sentences with emphasis from English into Vietnamese and problems facing learners of English

in dealing with the translation of emphasis

2 Aims of the study

The aims of study are as follows:

• To give an overview of English and Vietnamese emphases as well as emphatic sentences in the two languages

To introduce different translation methods and those possibly used for translation of emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese

• To suggest concrete steps in how to translate emphatic sentence from English into Vietnamese

•To point out some mistakes and shortcoming to which Vietnamese translators sometimes make when they are to render emphatic sentences, by the way, suggesting solutions for them

3 Research questions

As far as it is considered, this research is conducted to answer the following questions:

1 What are some effective methods to translate English emphatic sentences into Vietnamese?

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2 What may be the limitations of translating emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese and how to overcome them?

4 Scope of the study

As the name of the paper suggest, what is chosen to be studied in here is the way of translating English emphatic sentences into its Vietnamese equivalents Like translation in general, this also goes from discovering the meaning in the source language (SL) to re-expressing the meaning in the target language (TL) That is to say, the translator, with her comparison between English and Vietnamese emphatic sentences, will have to apply an appropriate translation method to transform emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese Therefore, the scope of the study is limited to issues concerning how to achieve emphasis in both English and Vietnemese, ways to translate emphatic sentences from English into Vietnamese and shortcomings faced by Vietnamese translators when dealing with emphasis Other expressions, sentences types and structures will not be mentioned in this study

5 Methods of the study

The method applied for the research paper is analysis of materials related to emphatic sentences in both English and Vietnamese to see how they are formed and used On the other hand the author generalize the use of emphatic sentences in the two languages with specific examples collected from various reliable sources, base on which the translation methods used to translate them from english into Vietnamese are studied and suggested

6 Design of the study

The study consists of 4 chapters Chapter 1 gives an overview of translation Chapter 2 presents contrasts between emphases in English and Vietnamese and how they are formed in the two languages Chapter 3 deals with how to translate English emphatic sentences into Vietnamese Chapter 4 reveals the shortcomings in English-Vietnamese translation of emphatic sentences as well as the causes and solutions to overcome them

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DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: AN OVERVIEW OF TRANSLATION

1.1 Definition of translation

It is common that there are always various concepts of the same thing Therefore, there exist different definitions of one thing viewed from different perspectives Translation would serve as a good example; it is differently defined in dictionary and by authors The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary (Hornby et.al, 1993) defines translation as the work to express something spoken or especially written in another language or in simpler words, an as something that is translated Whereas, the Vietnamese Dictionary defines translation as the work of expressing a message spoken

or written in one language in another language It can be deduced that the two dictionaries do not have the same definition of translation The former considers translation both as a process and a product when the latter describes if only as a process or an effort

Similarly, many famous translation theorists do not reach unanimity on the work of defining translation In his book “Approach to translation”, Newmark (1981) defines translation as a craft consisting an attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language Nida, another famous theorist, holds the view that translation is both an art, a skill and

a science

Taking some definitions of translation into consideration, the author would like to prove that there are different definitions of translation, thus there are different ways in which it is conducted However, the ultimate aim of translation is to produce the best version of a written or spoken message in another language Therefore, it involves activities, efforts, techniques and skills Besides, translation has something to do with art, as it requires creativeness as well as imagination to make good choices of words,

to fill the semantic gap between the two languages and to tackle various cultural factors, etc

In conclusion, translation can be viewed both as a process and a product, an art and a science That definition would not be a comprise among, but a good combination of the definition mentioned above

1.2 Translation process

Translation as a process, as discussed in 2.1, is defined as the work to express a written

or spoken message in another language Expressing a message in another language does not mean mere linguistic substitution but a rather complex process that requires activities, techniques, skills, creativeness and, certainly, knowledge

According to Pomonti (1998,pp.84-89), translation process is divided into three stages: 1) understanding the meaning of the text 2) Re-expressing the meaning in the target

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language 3) Correcting the target language text Hervey and Higgins (1992) state that translation process can be broken into two types of activities: Understanding a source language (SL) text and formulating a target language (TL) text They stress that these two types of activities do not occur successively but simultaneously and that one may not even realise that one has imperfectly understood the SL text until he comes up against a problem in formulating or evaluating a TL text In such a case, he may need

to go back to square one, so as to reinterpret and reconstruct the SL text in the light of his new understanding of it Thus SL text interpretation and TL text formulation go hand in hand But it is useful to think of them as different, mutually separate process

The interpretation process can help the translator to know the topic and the type of the

SL text as well as the intention of the author in order to find the suitable translation method and identify particular and recurrent problems Interpretation process requires both general and close reading General reading is essential for the translator to get the gist of the text Here she may have to read encyclopaedias, textbooks, or specialist papers to understand the subject and the concepts mentioned Close reading helps the translator to grasp the meaning of the words both out of and in context The meaning

of a given word is governed not only by the external object or idea that particular word

is suppose to refer to, but also by the use of that particular word or phrase in a particular way, in a particular context, and to a particular effect Consequently, given different shades of meaning of the same words, a text can be understood with varying degrees of precision Therefore, the translator has to work out the meaning of words the author intended, to find out whether the whole or part of the text is straight (means what it says) or ironical (slightly or entirely opposite in meaning) or non-sensical The following example illustrates how a sentence can be differently translated:

English version: She really likes him

She: cô ấy, cô ta, bà ấy, ả, thị, nàng

Him: anh ấy, anh ta, ông ấy, chàng, hắn, gã

Possible translation:

Cô ấy/ cô ta rất thích anh ấy/ anh ta

Bà ấy rất thích ông ta

Thị/ ả rất quý (thích) gã/ hắn

Nàng mà lại thích hắn? (The speaker raises his/her voice)

Cô ta ghét hắn lắm.(The stress is put on him)

In short, that contextual meaning of the words in the SL text which reflects the author’s attitude and intention is always of importance and requires special efforts of the translator

In interpretation process, the translator attempts to get the gist of the text , the message

of the author, but she may be faced with complex structures To tackle the problem, she can adopt intralingual paraphrasing The complex structures would be broken into components in the SL to clarify all obscurities This is an example:

“Indeed, in unveiling her 33-man cabinet – complete with a market friendly economic team and surprisingly few politicians – she delivered the strongest message yet that she is intent not only on reinventing her own public persona, but on resurrecting

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Indonesia‟s presidential system, weakened by her deposed predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid”

(Far Eastern Economic Review 23.8.2001)

This sentence can be reduced to simpler sentences:

“Indeed, she unveiled her 33-man cabinet The cabinet is complete with a friendly economic team and surprisingly comprise few politicians Her act to unveil that cabinet delivered her strongest message The message is that she is intent not only

market-on reinventing her public persmarket-ona, but market-on resurrecting Indmarket-onesia‟s presidential system The presidential system had been weaken by her deposed predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid”

Intralingual paraphrasing may make the text of a component much longer However, it helps to remove obscurities in the text and improve the translator’s comprehension of the text

The SL interpretation and TL formulation process go hand in hand In the second stage, it is the work of the translator to re-express in the TL what he has got from the

SL text In this stage the translator may focus on the search of TL to find equivalents

of concepts to be re-expressed However, according to Newmark (1988), there exist two cases of rendering words or terms With text considered by Newmark as an amalgam of standardized language, there should be only one correct equivalent, thus requiring the accuracy That is the science of translation As for text considered to be

on non-standardized language, there is rarely only one correct equivalent , requiring the translator’s creativeness and imagination That is the art or craft of translation The TL text formulation stage includes the correcting mistakes of the transferred text

He can replace or remove what she considers to be absurd or unnatural to the readers

In conclusion, translation process comprises two intertwined stages: SL text interpretation and TL text formulation These two stages required the translator’s intelligence, creativeness, mental efforts and efforts and linguistic skill, a close knowledge of the subject matter of the SL text, a careful examination and analysis of its content and significantly, mastery of the TL

1.3 How translation is conducted

As Nida (1964) states, translation is both an art and a science It means translation involves both scientific and artistic activities However, Ludskanov (1975), a semiotist, considers translation as mere science He claims that translation could be done by machines or computers On the contrary,Nida and Malinowski (2003,pp.79 - 80) state that translation could only be successful done by human beings The dispute lies in whether translation can or cannot be done out of context, whether the problem

of translation can be solved solely on the basis of lexical meaning of words in the text without the context to be considered

In effect, the rigorous developments in science and technology over the past decades, especially in information technology, have nourished many people’s hope of

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computerized translating machines There have been natural language-processing software and even website on the Internet offering translations of inserted sentences or texts The initial successes have led to increasing efforts to produce perfect translating machines that can translate any type of text

That seems, however, impossible or a too far future The software’s now can translate only simple sentences or structures and mainly deal with lexical meanings rather than contextual meanings They can hardly “understand” the text contextually, thus fail to discover the author’s intention, attitude, so as to distinguish between straight or ironical meanings Such software also fail to assess the reader’s knowledge and interest, which are important issues to be considered in translation process Furthermore, they cannot deal with idiomatic expressions, let alone to process cultural factors Therefore, when applied to translating highly literary texts, these softwares would produce absurd translations full of exoticism strangeness

Then, it is possible to state that, as translation is both an art and a science, it cannot be conducted by machines It is only the human beings that can do translation successfully

1.4 Methods of translation

1.4.1 Some approaches to translation

As the author points out in 1.1, there exist different definitions of translation, although its ultimate aim is to produce the best version of a message in another language, thus there are different methods to achieve that aim

It should be noted that the translator does not spend much time thinking about which translation method he should use to process the text; translation method is more of habitual use As Hervey and Higgins (1992) state, the SL text interpretation and TL text formulation process occur simultaneously, so the translator would define translation mehthod as soon as he starts reading the text

Newmark (1984,1988) points out that the central problem has always been where to translator to translate literally or freely The argument has been going on since at least the first century BC Opinions swung between literal and free, faithful and beautiful, exact and natural translation, depending on whether the bias was in favour of the author or the reader, the SL or the TL of the text Up to the nineteenth century, some writers favoured some kind of free translation, the spirit, not the letter; the sense not the words; the message rather than the form; the matter not the manner That is the revolutionary slogan of writers who wanted the truth to be read and understood Then

at the turn of nineteenth century, when the study of culture anthropology suggested that the linguistic barriers were insuperable and that language was entirely the product

of culture, the view that translation is impossible gain some currency and with it that,

if attempted at all, it must be as literal as possible Since the rise of modern linguistic, the general emphasis, supported by communication-theorists and non-literature translators, has been placed on the reader, informing the reader effectively and appropriately In addition, the boom of mass media in the twentieth century has generated a huge volume of “informative” and “vocative” text Translation, as a means

of communication, then focuses more on the reader In other words, translation

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emphasizes more on transferring the message, the contextual meaning of the text Consequently, although there are arguments among translators about translation methods, they now centre on communicative and semantic translation

1.4.2 Some translation methods

Newmark (1988) compare a text to be translated as an article in an electronic field It

is attracted by the opposing forces of the two cultures and the norms of the two languages, the idiosyncrasy of one writer (who may infringe all the norms of his own language), and the different requirement of its readers, the prejudice of the translator and possibly it publisher Therefore, Peter Newmark states, translation methods could

be grouped in two opposing categories: one emphasises the SL, the other TL He puts them in the following flattened V diagram:

Free translation Idiomatic translation Communicative translation

Literal translation

The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context As a pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved

Faithful translation

A faithful translation attempts to reproduce the contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures It “transfers” cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical “abnormality” (deviation from the

SL norms) in the translation It attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realisation of the SL writer

Semantic translation

Semantic translation differs from “faithful translation” only in as far as it must take more account of aesthetic value (that is, the beautiful and natural sound) out the SL text, compromising on “meaning” where appropriate so that no assonance, word-play

or repetition jars on the finished version Further, it may translate less important cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms but not by cultural

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equivalents and it may make other small concessions to the readership The distinction between “faithful” and “semantic” translation is that the first is compromising and dogmatic, when the second is more flexible, admits the creative exception to 100 percent fidelity and allows for the translator’s intuitive empathy with the original

Adaptation

This is the “freest” form of translation It is used mainly for plays (comedies and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL culture and text and written The deplorable practice of having a play or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established drammatist or poet has produces many poor adaptations but other adaptations may rescue period plays

Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original Ussually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a so so-called “intralingual translation”, often prolix and pretentious, and not translation at all

Idiomatic translation

Idiomatic translation reproduces the “message” of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialism and idioms where these do not exist in the original

Communicative translation

Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

According to Newmark (1984), there are more translation methods besides the eight methods mentioned above, such as cognitive translation, service translation, academic translation, etc However, they are of no importance to this paper, so they are not mentioned

1.4.2.2 Equivalent effects

Newmark (1988) states that there that there is wide but not universal agreement that the main aim of translation is to achieve as nearly as possible the same effect on his readers as was produced on the readers of the original Therefore, Peter Newmark points out, translators should make effort to achieve “equivalent effect” (or as close as possible) In other words, Newmark points out his “equivalent effect” princinple in conducting translation But it is noted that there have been long-lasting debates on

“equivalence” among meaning closest translation theorists Nida distinguishes “formal equivalence” Meaning closest possible match of form and content between SL text and TL text, and “dynamic equivalence”, which is the principle of equivalence of effect on TL reader As a result, a translator may pursue “formal equivalence” or

“dynamic equivalence” But one can deduce that “equivalent effect” principle pointed out by Newmark refers to the efforts to achieve “dynamic equivalence”

In addition, the background, shared knowledge, cultural assumptions and learnt responses of monolingual TL speakers are inevitably culture-bound Given this fact,

SL speaker’s responses to the SL text are never like to be replicated exactly by the effects on members of a different culture As a result, Hervey and I.Higgins assert, the transfer of meaning from a SL text to a SL text necessarily involves certain degree of

Then, in such cases, it is the work of the translator to attempt to reduce the dissimilarities rather than to try to improve “sameness” between the SL text and the

TL text By doing so she would be able to produce an effect as close as possible the same effect on her readers as was produced on the readers of the original

In conclusion, “equivalent effect” is an important concept which has a degree of application to any type of text that translator should take into consideration in her work This principle is not always of the same importance but it is necessary to consider that the “equivalence effect” principle is tending to rule out all the others, particularly the predominance of any formal elements such as word or structure

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CHAPTER 2: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EMPHASTIC

SENTENCES IN CONTRAST 2.1 Definitions of emphasis

Since the paper is about the translation of emphatic sentences from English into Vietnames, it is neccesary to take into consideration how English and Vietnamese emphases are defined by the research of these languages

With a regard to English emphases, let us consider the definition given by Swan (1995):

Emphasis is giving special importance to one part of a word or sentence ( for example,

by pronouncing it more loudly, by writing it in capital letters; or by using do in an

affirmative clause or by using special word order)”

As to Vietnamese emphasis, a definition can be taken from Vietnamese- Vietnamese

dictionary, (Da Nang Publishing House, 1997) which says: “Emphasis is making something more prominent and important than others”

The dictionary’s definition does not include ways of establishing emphasis as Michael’s does The importance is, however, these two definitions are the same in that what to be emphasized is given special importance or prominence

Investigations of English and Vietnamese emphases show that they have many things

in common in terms of the ways to achieve, such as pronouncing more loudly in speech, using emphasis-giving words, fronting or rhetorical question in writing etc For example, emphasis in both English and Vietnamese can be achieved with fronting:

Điều các anh muốn nghe tôi đã nói hết

(All what you want from me I have said already)

Thông minh thì cô ta có thể chứ còn thông suốt mọi việc thì cô ta không có đâu (Intelligent she may be but ommiscient she is not)

Or with emphasizing words:

Bộ phim đó hay không chịu được

(The film is bloody interesting)

Uống cà phê đi

(Do drink coffee!)

Or with a rhetorical question

Sao anh không về chơi thôn vỹ?

(Why don‟t you come to visit Vy Village?)

(Hàn Mặc Tử,1939) And so forth

This is only a brief note of how to create emphasis For more details, let us consider the next part/devices of English and Vietnamese emphases- in this chapter which lays main foundation to discover how to render English emphatic sentences into their Vietnamese equivalents

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2.2 Devices of English and Vietnamese emphases

Because the thesis is not on linguistics but translation, this section is only a general introduction of how emphasis in the two languages is established There may be concepts and terms readers do not understand That is reason why the symbol of the materials in use is available so that readers can consult these materials for more details about the matters of their concern

The forms of the devices for emphasis in English and Vietnamese are basically the same, thought there is not the device of the so-called “cleft sentence” in Vietnamese Therefore, most of these devices for emphasis will be presented mixedly

2.2.1 Lexical devices

Lexical device consists of certain words which themselves can give emphasis to the element or part of sentence which immediately follows them or make the sentence containing it emphatic

The word of that kind in English can be focusing adjuncts (Nguyễn Ba, 1999,p.26) as shown below:

I merely asked his name

You can get B-grade just for that answer

I love the country, especially in spring

You know even less about it than I do

Or an intensifier (Nguyễn Ba,1999,p.27) as in the following examples:

He loves you in deed

Certainly, that can not be true

We absolutely agreed with you

She may well cry when she hears this news

Trafic accidents are partly due to the poor condition of roads

or a swear word(Nguyễn Ba,1999,p.22), for instance:

It is bloody rainning again (= heavily)

What a sodding mess! (=verry annoying)

Or interjection (Nguyễn Ba, 1999, p.22), as follows:

Oh, what a girl!

Aha, these books are exactly what I was looking for!

Ouch, my foot!

Ugh, what a mess!

Yipee, this is fun!

Or the auxiliary “do” (Nguyễn Ba, 1999,p.62)

I do agree with you (=really, definitely)

Do have another cup of coffee (Indicating a polite offer)

Or a reflexive pronoun (Swan,1935,p.485)

We ourselves will lead the discussion (= we and no one else)

We spoke to the victims themselves(= the victims not other)

Or question + ever/on earth/ the hell (Nguyễn Ba,1999,pp28-29)

Why ever could you marry such a beautiful and rich girl? (Stressing the surprise) What the hell are you doing here? (Stressing anger)

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How on the earth could you find him? (Stressing surprise)

In Vietnamese, there are also the words used to lay emphasis on an idea or the words which immediately follow them or make the sentence containing it emphatic The word of such kind can be a particle (Diệp Quang Ban,1996,pp.147-150) for example:

Anh ấy đúng là người tốt bụng

Chính qua anh cán bộ huyện Nam biết được tin đó

Tôi tự động viên mình như thế

Con lại không nghe lời bố rồi

Đi đâu mà cậu vội thế

Ai mà xinh thế?

Nhịn nhục quá là đê tiện

Giàu thì giàu thật nhưng ông ấy không bao giờ cho ai tiền vì lòng từ thiện

Sao nó có thể lấy được cô gái đó cơ chứ?

Mày làm gì thế hả?

Cậu nói nhiều rồi đấy!

Uống thêm một cốc sữa đi nào!

Or an adverb (Diệp Quang Ban,1996,pp.131-132), as shown in the following examples:

Giữa bữa ăn, ánh mắt mẹ bỗng dưng xa xôi hẳn đi

(Diệp Quang Ban & Hoàng Văn Thung,1991, p.75)

Bây giờKeng nhất quyết lấy lạt

(Diệp Quang Ban & Hoàng Văn Thung,1991, p.69)

Among the adverbs emerge those known as exaggeration words which are particularly used to establish emphasis or an exaggerating word of a special adverb (Đinh Trọng Lạc,1995,p.47), such as:

Bộ phim đó hay hết chỗ nói

Việc đó làm anh bực không chịu được

Con bé này nghịch quá trời

Or a pronoun used to repeat the subject or object to make the idea concrete ie to

emphasize it The common pronouns used like this are “nó” and “đó” ( Đinh Trọng

Lạc,1995,pp.99-100 ), as the examples below:

Anh Cốc ơi, Tây nó đánh chết thằng Năng rồi

(Nguyễn Đình Thi,1951)

Tôi nom cái cười ấy nó mới chua chát làm sao

(Nguyễn Công Hoan)

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Lao động, đó là nghĩa vụ của mỗi người công dân

Or a colloquialism ( Đinh Trọng Lạc,1995,p.25 ) for example:

Dân chúng bây giờ họ ghê lắm, họ không để bác yên đâu

Thì làm đếch gì được tao

(Đào Vũ,1972)

Mày đang làm cái quái gì vậy?

Thằng ấy trông thế mà dại gái

or part which immediately follows it:

Finally,the last point about the man: he is in trouble

Now, let me tell you the worst news today: our beloved director has been killed in an

Going off her diet, she gained back all the weight she had lost Aslo her friends

What do those manual labourers really do?

~Worry Constantly For a living

Where and when are we going?

~London Tomorrow

In Vietnamese, this way of establishing emphasis is called “ sentence splitting” which

is to separate a component of a sentence apart from it so that it becomes another

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sentence (The fragment) and focus is laid on his fragment (Nguyễn Thanh Tú & Trần Châu Hoàn,1999,p.84)

Bóng họ ngả vào nhau Ở cuối đường

Mọi người nga hôm nay đều thích làm giàu Tiền, đó là mục đích Duy nhất, cao nhất, đẹp nhất

Báo chí dạo này toàn đăng tin giật gân Giết, cướp, hiếp

2.2.2.3 Imperative sentences

Being strong by nature, imperative sentences are used in both English and Vietnamese when a speaker or writer wishes to show emphasis (Thomas, 1938,p.149)

At its simplest an imperative sentence is a command, for example:

Come here! (Đến đây!)

Listen to me! (Lắng nghe tôi nói!)

Its distinguishing feature, usually, is that it drops the subject and begin with the verb and ends with an exclamation mark or a full stop, which sometimes, however, causes reader to mistake the command for a normal statement, particulary some commands use a noun of address or an actual subject:

John, come here! (John đến đây!)

You listen to me! (Các bạn lắng nghe tôi!)

It is notable that the Vietnamese command (imperative sentences) often begins with

“hãy, hẵng, đừng, chớ” or ends with “đi, nào,đã‟‟, especially when the writer does

not use an exclamation mark but a full stop (Diệp Quang Ban,1996,p.129)

Hẵng ở lại uống nước đã

Cậu làm việc đi

2.2.2.4 Inversion

In English, “Inversion means putting the main elements in an order other than the

formula Subject-Verb-Object Some patterns of emphasis signal question (“Are you going to town today?”); some signal condition to the fact (“Had I only been there”)

Other inversion patterns indicate emphasis (Thomas,1938,p.21)

The most frequent inversion is seen in the sentence that opens with an adverbial word

or phrase (to which futher modification may be attached) and follows it with the verb and subject:

The bus comes here (The bus always come here)

 Here comes the bus (Ah, the bus has come here!)

The thief runs away (A normal statement without any feeling)

 Away runs the thief ( Look out! The thief is running away!)

He comes there (coming there is his habit.)

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 There he comes (Ah, he is coming there!)

And the sentence in the form “Adverbial phrase of place + Verb + Subject” is emphatic due to resulting in more impression or feeling than the normal one

There, at the summit, stood the castle in its medieval splendor

The palace is heavily guarded because inside its walls sit European leaders

Less commonly, emphatic inversion is in the form of fronting an element of a sentence That is to say, the element is moved to the front position of the sentence for emphasis The frontable parts of sentence are object, subject-complement, and predication

 Fronted object;

Wrangles he advoiced, and disagreeable persons he usually treated with a cold

and freezing contempt (Thomas,1938,p.50)

Not a word did he say.(Leech & Swartik,1990,p.178)

 Fronted subject-complement:

Intelligent she may be but omniscient she is not ( Sinclair,1990,p.420)

Rich as he is, he never offers his money to anyone for charity

Ở tù thì hẳn coi là thường ( Nam Cao,1936 )

Những cuộc vui ấy, chị còn nhớ rành rành ( Ngô Tất Tố, 1937)

 Averbial:

Chưa bao giờ cô ta xúc động như thế

Thường thì anh ấy đến nhà bạn gái cùng lớp chơi

In addition, Vietnamese inversion can be to change the order Subject-Verb-Averbial into the order Averbial-Verb-Subject so that the sentence will be turned from a normal

statement into a special sentence which can be:

- A more expressive description of something quiet (ĐinhTrọng Lạc,1995:115)

Trong nhà lô nhô mấy ông cụ già khăn áo chỉnh tề

( Ngô Tất Tố,1941)

- A good reproduction of the apperance or vanishing of something to be described ( Đinh Trọng Lạc,1995, p.116)

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Đằng xa trong mưa mờ đã hiện ra những nhịp cầu sắt uốn cong, vắt qua dòng sông lạnh

( Nguyễn Đình Thi,1957 )

- A note of the events as fixed as in a photograph ( Đinh trọng lạc,1995,p.117)

Anh xuân lướt cỏ xuân tươi,

Bên rừng thổi sáo một hai kim đồng

( Thế Lữ,1935)

2.2.2.5 Rhetorical questions

Questions are generally used to ask for information Howerver, in many languages including English and Vietnamese, there is a kind of question which requires no answers and which can be used simply as a way of drawing attention to something, or expressing a strong feeling, opinion or impression It would be better to say the rhetorical question is used to establish emphasis

As a matter of fact, in English, this question carries emphasis for the reason that it functions as a forceful statement A positive rhetorical question is like a strong negative assertion, while a negative rhetorical question is like a strong positive one, as can be seen below

 Positive

Can anyone doubt the wisdom of this action?

(= Surely, no one can doubt the wisdom of this action)

What is the use of offering him some money? What he needs is a job

(= It is no use offering him some money )

 Negative

Who doesn’t know Ho Chi Minh?

(= Surely, everyone knows him)

Have I not asked you again and again to be here on time?

(= I have asked you again and again to be on time)

Like its counterpart in English, a Vietnamese rhetorical question is the kind of question aiming at making the conveyed idea more persuasive or expressive, that is It functions as a forceful statement employed either to stress something positive, negative or to put forward something for consideration Let us have a look at some examples below

Hồ Chí Minh nổi tiếng như thế ai là người Việt Nam không biết cơ chứ? (= Người

Việt Nam ai cũng biết Hồ Chí minh vì người quá nổi tiếng)

Sao anh không về chơi thôn Vỹ? (= Anh hãy về chơi thôn Vỹ.)

(Hàn Mặc Tử,1939)

Địa vị ư? Rồi sẽ mất

Tiền bạc ư? Rồi sẽ hết

Sắc đẹp ư? Rồi sẽ tàn

Chỉ có tình yêu là tồn tại mãi mãi với thời gian

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2.2.2.6 Interuption (Isolation)

In English, “normally a sentence moves from a subject to verb to complement Interuption breaks that flow by inserting constructions between the main elements and forcing pauses (Thomas,1938,p.150) The interuption makes a particular word and the whole sentence emphatic For example:

And finally, stammering a crude farewell, he departed

(E.Skipp&Francis, 1987)

Leibritz, it has sometimes been said, was the last man to know everything

In Vietnamese, interuption, as stated by Đỗ Việt Hùng (1997,p.47) is called “chêm xen” which is putting an extra appropriate word or phrase ( sometimes as cluster of words as a complete sentence) in the middle of a sentence in the way that the sentence

is separated into two meaningful clusters of words

Bởi vì bởi vì- San cúi mặt và bỏ tiếng ta, dùng tiếng Pháp- Người ta lừa dối anh

(Nam Cao,1944)

Có gì đâu, anh cười bẽn lẽn, mấy thứ lặt vặt mà

Thơ Hồ Chí Minh trong tập “Nhật Kí Trong Tù” – nói như Quách Mạc Nhược, một nhà phê bình văn học Trung Quốc-có thể sánh ngang với các bài thơ Đường nổi tiếng

This syntactic means is aimed at causing a short pause to the listener’s or reader’s perception of information which results in psychological effect on him That is to say

he will be curious and excited about the information expressed by the cluster of words which follows The achieved emphasis, therefore, falls on this behind-cluster

~I am not joking; I am telling the truth

(The idea to be stressed: it is very serious)

Why do you eat beef?

~I am an ordinary man; I am not a Hindu

(The idea to be stressed: I have the perfect right to eat beef)

Khai đi rồi cậu sẽ được tự do

~Anh có thể giết tôi nhưng anh không thể moi được thông tin gì ở tôi đâu

(The idea to be stressed: no matter how badly you treat me, I won’t reveal anything)

Sao em lại đối xử thờ ơ với anh như vậy?

~ Tôi không còn yêu anh nữa mà tôi yêu người khác rồi

(The idea to be stressed: It is not surprising that I behaves to you in such a cold way)

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2.2.2.8 Exclamations

Exclamations are words and structures that are used show a certain degree in feelings

In other words, they are to strongly express something Therefore, they are considered

to be one means of emphasis

In English, people can show this in writing by the use of an interjection (oh, ah, ouch,etc.) at the beginning of exclamation and an exclamation mark at its end ( full stops can be used instead) For example:

Ouch, my foot!

Ugh, what mess!

What a lovely evening we‟ve had

Ohdear, I am so sorry!

She has such a marvellous voice she has!)

Isn‟t the weather nice!

How nice the weather is!

In Vietnamese, they make an exclamation is made in the same way It is neccesary to pay more attention to Vietnamese interjections as the position of these elements is not fixed in the exclamation (Nguyễn Thanh Tú & Trần Châu Hòa,1999,p.95) Let’s have

a look at the examples below:

Thế thì tốt quá!

Thương thay cũng một kiếp người!

Ô hay bà cứ tưởng con đùa

2.2.2.9 Repetition

Repetition is an expressive means of language used when the writer wishes to say she

or someone else is under the stress of strong emotion or to show his excited state of mind In other words, repetition is for deliberate emphasis

Repetition in both English and Vietnamese languages takes two basic forms: restating the same idea in different terms (called tautology by Greek rhetorician) and repeating the same words

a, Tautology

As Thomas (1938,p.160) states:

“In tautology, the synonym are frequently stronger than the original term, though, a second term need not be strictly synonymous with the first, and often is not” Let us

consider the follơing examples:

- That‟s camouflage, that‟s trickerly, that‟s treachery, window-dressing (Thomas,

1938,p.160)

(To emphasize that something is untruthful)

- I want you, I need you, I love you

(To emphasize the fact that I love you so much)

- “I want to live while I am alive.”

(Jon Bon JoVi etall,2000)