Application of j house’s model for translation quality assessment in assessing the english version of the novel “dumb luck” by vu trong phung

ABSTRACT The study aims at evaluating the Vietnamese English translation of the book „Dumb Luck” by Zinoman and Cam 2002 using House‘s 2015 model of translation quality assessment.. The

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG

APPLICATION OF J HOUSE‟S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION

OF THE NOVEL „DUMB LUCK‟ BY VU TRONG PHUNG

(Áp dụng mô hình đánh giá chất lượng bản dịch của J House vào việc

đánh giá bản dịch tiếng Anh của tiểu thuyết “Số Đỏ”

của Vũ Trọng Phụng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Lê Hùng Tiến

Hanoi, 2019

DECLARATION

I, Nguyen Thi Nhung, hereby declare that the work in this thesis is the result

of my own research It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary actions could be taken and penalties could be imposed in accordance with university policies and rules

Hanoi, April 2019

Nguyễn Thị Nhung

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien, who inspired me to conduct this research and spent his time giving me invaluable suggestions, corrections and improvement, without which I would have been, no doubt, unable to finish the thesis

I also send my gratitude to my family, who have always been supporting me during the completion of this study

I also give sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues for their great support and encouragement

Without the help of those people, this study has not been completed

ABSTRACT

The study aims at evaluating the Vietnamese English translation of the book

„Dumb Luck” by Zinoman and Cam (2002) using House‘s (2015) model of

translation quality assessment The study is designed to seek answers whether the translation meets the standard of quality according to House‘s (2015) model and to draw some implications from the translation In the study, basic concepts of translation theory in general and literary translation in particular were revealed House‘s (2015) model was introduced and applied to analyze and compare Vietnamese source text and its English target text to assessing the quality of the translation Finally, conclusions on findings with some limitations as well as recommendations for further research were proposed

Keywords: translation, quality assessment, translation model, literary translation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Purposes and significances of the study 1

1.3 Method of study 1

1.4 Organization of the thesis 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 Translation theory 3

2.2 Translation Quality Assessment 10

2.3 Previous studies applying House‘s models on translation quality assessment 12

2.4 Literary translation 15

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 The data 18

3.2 Method 20

3.3 Research Design 20

3.4 Analytical Framework 21

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Source text analysis 25

4.1.1 Field 25

4.1.2 Tenor 31

4.1.3 Mode 35

4.1.4 Genre 37

4.2 Statement of functions 37

4.3 Comparison of target text and source text 38

4.3.1 Covertly erroneous errors 38

4.3.2 Overtly erroneous errors 45

4.4 Statement of quality 46

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 47

5 1 Key findings 48

5.2 Implications 50

5.3 Limitations and recommendations for further research 50

REFERENCES 51 APPENDICES I

TABLE OF TABLES

Table 1: Table of reduplicative words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck (See more in

Appendix 2) 25

Table 2: Figures of speech in ‗Số Đỏ‘ and Dumb Luck 26

Table 3: A world of characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 27

Table 4: Upper-class characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 28

Table 5: Lexical cohesion in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 30

Table 6: Language of homeless people in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 32

Table 7: Language of the impudentness in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 32

Table 8: Fashionable language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 33

Table 9: Administrative language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 33

Table 10: Miscellaneous words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 34

Table 11: Borrowing miscellaneous words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 34

Table 12: Informal style in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 35

Table 13: Spoken language in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 36

Table 14: Syntactic means in Số Đỏ 36

Table 15: Descriptive adjectives translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 38

Table 16: Reduplicatives translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 38

Table 17: Figures of speech translation in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck 38

Table 18: Lexical mismatch 39

Table 19: Not-translated reduplicative words 40

Table 20: Syntactic mismatch 40

Table 21: Textual mismatch 41

Table 22: Translation of proper names 42

Table 23: Parody changing 43

Table 24: Colloquial words 44

Table 25: Sharp words 44

Table 26: Slight change in meaning 45

Table 27: Summary of ST and TT comparison 49

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

There are various literary works which have been translated from English to Vietnamese and vice versa However, the quality of these translations seems not to get much attention from linguistics and readers In order to create a good literary translation, the translator has to deal with many challenges such as finding equivalences not just for lexis, syntax, or concepts, but also for features like style, genre, figurative language, historical stylistic dimensions, polyvalence, connotations

as well as denotations, cultural items and culture-specific concepts and values

Translation theorists developed their own models of translation quality assessment However, House‘s model is widely used for its applicability This paper

is conducted based on her model to assess the English translation of the novel “Số Đỏ” written by Phụng (1938) The English translation by Peter Zinoman and

Nguyễn Nguyệt Cầm was published in 2002 in the USA

1.2 Purposes and significances of the study

The study aims at investigating the translation quality of the novel ―Dumb luck‖ (Zinoman & Cầm, 2002) in full comparison with the source text, based on House‘s (2015) model

The study is designed to seek answers for the following research questions:

1 To what extend does the English version of the novel “Số Đỏ” meet the standard of quality according to House‟s (2015) model?

2 What might be some implications from the translation to literary translation in general?

1.3 Method of study

The method employed in the study is case study method, using the source

language (The Novel – ‗Số Đỏ‘) to support the whole procedure of translation

quality assessment The researcher also combines both qualitative and descriptive contrastive approaches, which is the key to analyze data and provide the readers

with deeper insights into the distinctions and value in the source translation (ST) and target translation (TT) Some important conclusions can be drawn from these

analyses

Qualitative method: This research is a qualitative evaluation; hence, the source of data is documentary, 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 (Creswell, 2013)

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

1.4 Organization of the thesis

The first chapter of the study will be Introduction with the research questions, study methods as well as organization of the thesis

The second chapter is Literature review in which some related concepts of translation theory and typical models of translation quality assessment are discussed Also, in this chapter, characteristics and challenges of literary translation will be mentioned Besides, previous studies related to this research problem are also reviewed in order to formulate the gaps and the research questions

The third chapter is Research Methodolody In this chapter, the data collection procedure was discussed along side with the method employed in the study The research design and the analytical framework are presented in the two last subsections of this chapter

In the fourth chapter, the researcher applies House‘s (2015) model to analyze and compare Vietnamese ST and its English TT to evaluate the quality of the translation

The last chapter is Conclusion The researcher summarizes the findings of the study; hence provide implications, some limitations as well as recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, section 1 presents the translation theory including definition, procedures, method of translation and translation equivalence Section 2 mentions translation quality assessment Section 3 describes the previous study applying House‘s model on translation quality assessment Section 4 discusses about literary translation

2.1 Translation theory

a Definitions of translation

There have been many definitions of translation so far One of the first definitions of translation is presented in the book ―A Linguistic Theory of Translation‖ by Catford (2005) He defines translation as ―the replacement of textual material (SL) in one language by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)‘ (Catford, 2005, p 20)

In another work, Nida and Taber (1982) shares the view that translation is to produce in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence to the message of the source language, first in meaning and second in style

Newmark (1988) defines translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language

According to Hatim and Mason (1990), translation deals with the signs and attempts to preserve semiotic, as well other pragmatic and communicative, properties which signs display

House (1977, p 29) defines translation specifically the written translation is the ―replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language‖

Those definitions above though differ from their expressions They all share the same essence of translation which lies in the preservation of semantic, pragmatic, and textual aspects of meaning across two different languages As Vân

(2005) concludes in his book about the nature of translation, ―Translation is both an art and a science It is an art in the sense that it is performed by human beings and human beings are creative It is a science in the sense that it is a process going through different stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring…‖

b Translation procedures

Translation is the field of various procedures In addition to word-for-word and sense-for-sense procedures, the translator may use a variety of procedures that

differ in importance according to the contextual factors of both the ST and the TT

According to Newmark (1988), there are fifteen translation procedures as follows:

Functional equivalent Shifts or transpositions Couplets

- Transference: it is the procedure of deciding use an SL word in his TL text

because there is no appropriate term This procedure is used in certain situations such as names of all living and dead people, geographical and graphical names, names of periodicals and newspapers, titles of literary works, plays, and films, names of companies and institutions, street names, and addresses, etc

- Naturalization: It adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then

to the normal morphology of the TL

- Cultural equivalent: It is called an approximate translation where an SL

cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word This procedure is used when a brief explanation to readers who are ignorant of the relevant SL culture is needed

- Functional equivalent: It is applied to culture words and requires the use of a

culture-free word, sometimes with a new specific term It, therefore, neutralizes or generalizes the SL word This procedure, which is a cultural componential analysis,

is the most accurate way of translating

- Descriptive equivalent: In this procedure the meaning of the original word is

explained in several TL words It is often used with transference to translate a cultural word or expression

- Componential analysis: It means "comparing an SL word with a TL word

which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components."

- Synonymy: It is a "near TL equivalent." Here economy trumps accuracy

- Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations,

names of organizations, components of compounds and perhaps phrases It is used for already recognized terms It is also called calque or loan translation

- Shifts or transpositions: It involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL,

for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth It is used when a SL grammatical structure does not exist in the TL or where literal translation is grammatically possible but may not accord with natural usage in the TL

- Modulation: It is a variation in the message when it is translated into a TL

due to a change in the point of view It occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the original text in the TL text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in terms of perspective

- Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator "normally uses the

official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term."

- Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is

compensated in another part

- Paraphrase: in this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained Here the

explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent

- Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two different procedures to

deal with a single problem It is common for cultural words, where transference

may be combined with a functional or cultural equivalent

- Notes: notes are additional information in a translation

As depicted by Nida (1964), translation procedures consist of two smaller

procedures: Technical procedures and Organizational procedures

c Translation methods

Concerning the translation methods, there are many different classifications Based on Newmark‘s (1988) classification, there are eight methods in translation which are divided into two main groups named semantic translation and communicative translation They are put in the form of a flattened V diagram as below:

Literal translation Free translation

Figure 1: V-diagram of Translation method (Newmark, 1988, p 45)

- Word-for-word translation: The SL word-order is preserved and words

translated singly by their most common meaning, out of context This method is used to understand the mechanics of SL or to explain a difficult text as a pre-translation process

- Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to

their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are translated singly, out of context It is used to translate general styles texts with few cultural differences such

as manuals, news, etc It is also called borrowing translation

- Faithful translation: The translator attempts to reproduce the precise

contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures Cultural words are transferred but the degree of grammatical and lexical abnormality is maintained in the translation

- Semantic translation: This translation method is closer to the TL than

other method in the semantic group It takes more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text and does not rely on cultural equivalence and make small concessions to the readership Therefore, it is more flexible, allows for the translator‘s intuitive empathy with the original

- Communicative translation: The translation units dealt with are word,

paragraph, and text The translator attempts to render exact contextual meaning of the original Both the content and the language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the reader

- Idiomatic translation: This method deals with translation unit of sentence

and paragraph It reproduces the ‗message‘ of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original The outcome is a lively and natural translation

- Free translation: It is used for translation unit of sentence and paragraph

This method reproduces the matter without the manner and the content without the form of the original It is usually a paraphrase so the translation is much longer than the original

- Adaptation: The method is the freest form of translation and deals with

text unit It is mainly used for plays, poetry, and songs In adaptation, the themes, characters, plots are preserved, and the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten (Newmark, 1988: 45-7)

Among all above-mentioned translation methods, semantic and communicative translations are the two most common ones which are often used in literary translation by translators Newmark (1988) stated that a semantic translation

is written at the author‘s linguistics level and used for ―expressive‖ texts, a communicative translation at the readership‘s and used for informative and vocative texts, therefore, they are able to fulfill the two main aims of translation, namely accuracy and economy

d Translation equivalence

In translation theory, equivalence is regarded as a central concept The domain of equivalents covers linguistic units such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, idioms, and proverbs Hence, finding equivalents is the most problematic stage of translation

According to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), equivalence is viewed as a procedure in which the same situation is replicated as in the original but different wording is used They consider a necessary and sufficient condition for equivalent expressions between language pairs to be acceptable to be listed in a bilingual dictionary ―as full equivalents‖ (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995, p 255)

Jakobson (2000, p 114) introduces the notion of ―equivalence in difference‖

and ―sameness in difference‖ (in other words: 'unity in diversity') He states that

there can be no full equivalence between two words (Jakobson, 2000) He does not propose that translation is impossible but rather pinpoints the differences in the structure and terminology of languages There are three kinds of translation: intralingual, within one language, that is rewording or paraphrase; interlingual, between two languages; intersemiotic, between sign systems There are some similarities between Vinay and Darbelnet‘s theory of translation

Nida (1964) maintains that there are two basic types of equivalence: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence Nida argues that in formal equivalence the

TT resembles very much the ST in both form and content whereas in dynamic equivalence an effort is made to convey the ST message in the TT as naturally as possible

Lefevere (1993) holds that equivalence is still focused on the word-level whereas Broeck (1978) wonders how it is possible to measure the equivalent effect since no text can have the same effect or elicit the same response in two different cultures in different periods of time

Catford (2005) claims that translation equivalence (TE) occurs when SL and

TL texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of

situation substance Catford‘s main contribution in the field of translation studies lies in the introduction of his idea of types and shifts of translation Shifts refer to the changes that take place during the translation process Catford describes very broad types of translation according to three criteria: full translation, partial translation, distinguishes between rank-bound translation and unbounded translation Catford was severely criticized for holding a largely linguistic theory of translation Snell-Hornby (1995) put forward the claim that linguistics should not be considered as the only discipline which enables translation to take place, but that cultural, situational and historical factors should also be taken into consideration Catford‘s definition of textual equivalence is ―circular‖, his reliance on bilingual informants ―hopelessly inadequate‖ and his example sentences ―isolated and even absurdly simplistic‖ (cited in Leonardi, 2007, p 87)

Adopting pragmatic theories of language use, House (1997) has come up with a translation model in which the basic requirement for equivalence of ST and

TT is that the original and translation should match one another in function.The translation is only, therefore, considered to be adequate in quality if it matches the

―textual‟ profile and function of the original

According to Koller (As cited in Panou, 2013), examination of the concept of equivalence and its linked term correspondence involves the comparison of two language systems where differences and similarities are described contrastively, whereas equivalence deals with equivalent items in specific ST-TT pairs and contexts Koller distinguishes five different types of quivalence:

(a) Denotative equivalence involving the extralinguistic content of a text

(b) Connotative equivalence elating to lexical choices,

(c) Text-normative equivalence relating to text-types,

(d) Pragmatic equivalence involving the eceiver of the text or message,

(e) Formal equivalence relating to the form and aesthetics of the text

Newmark (1988) replaces Nida‘s (1964) terms of formal and dynamic

equivalence with semantic and communicative translation respectively The major

difference between the two types of translation proposed by Newmark (1988) is that semantic translation focuses on meaning whereas communicative translation

concentrates on effect (Panou, 2013)

According to Baker (2011), issue of equivalence by adopting a more neutral approach is a relative notion because it is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors: grammatical, textual and pragmatic equivalence come up; a distinction is made between word-level and above-word-level equivalence; adopting

a bottom-up approach

Pym (2014) makes his own contribution to the concept of equivalence by pointing out that there is no such thing as perfect equivalence between languages and it is always assumed equivalence Equivalence is a relation of ―equal value‖ between an ST segment and a TT segment and can be established on any linguistic level from form to function (p.7) There is a difference between natural and directional equivalence

According to House (2015, p.6), equivalence means ‗of equal value‘ and that

it is not at all about sameness or, worse still, identity, but about approximately equal value despite some unavoidable difference – a difference, that stems from the (banal) fact that languages are different

The notion of equivalence is undoubtedly one of the most problematic and controversial areas in the field of translation theory However, equivalence is the relationship between a source text and a target text that allows the TT to be considered as a translation of the ST (Baker, 1998) Equivalence is a relationship between two texts in two languages, rather than between the languages themselves

2.2 Translation Quality Assessment

There have been many researchers who attempted to work out criteria for evaluating the translation quality

In his book, Benjamin (2002, p.260) makes a rather abstract statement on the characteristics of a ―real translation‖, which is ―transparent‖ and ―does not cover the

original, does not block its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced

by its own medium, to shine upon the original all the more fully‖

Newmark (1988, p.195) uses the term―translation criticism‖ for translation quality accessment (TQA) and considers TQA as a link between translation theory and practice and as the ―keystone of any course in comparative literature, or literature in translation, and a component of any professional translation course with the appropriate text-types as an exercise for criticism and discussion‖ According to him, TQA is important because of three main reasons Firstly, TQA helps translators to improve themselves in terms of competences and professional experiences The second reason is to hold translator expand their knowledge and understanding of linguistics And TQA also contributes to sharpen translators‘ comprehension of translation theories

According to Newmark (1988), a comprehensive TQA must cover 5 topics:

1 A brief analysis of the souce language (SL) text stressing its intention and its functional aspects;

2 The translator‘s interpretation of the SL text‘s purpose, his translation method and the translation‘s likely readership;

3 A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with original;

4 An evaluation of the translation – in the translator‘s terms, - in the critic‘s terms;

5 Where appropriate, an assessment of the likely place of the translation in the target language (TL) culture of discipline

His model has been evaluated as having practical basis and thus adopted widely However, it ‗is quite prescriptive than descriptive It gives guidelines but is not really a reliable tool to assess an exiting translation‘ (Aladwan, 2011, p.78) Furthermore, Tiến (2006) notes that the theoretical background that Newmark‘s model was established on is not as firm as in the case of House‘s (1997) model

2.3 Previous studies applying House‟s models on translation quality assessment

According to House (1977, p 28), translation would be "the replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language‖ This type of equivalent, an underlying concept in House‘s model, is related to the preservation of meaning across two different languages and cultures The model proposed by House (1977) is applied to decide whether a translation text has a function equivalent to that of its source text The function mentioned here consists of ideational and interpersonal functional component and it

is defined as the application or use of the text in a particular context of situation or situational dimensions Functions of texts vary from languages to languages So, a translation is functionally equivalent to its source text if it does not only match its source text in function, but also employs equivalent situational-dimensional means

to achieve that function

House‘s model (1997), for its plausibility, can be found in a number of studies of TQA A brief summary of such works is as follows

Almeida, L & Nascimento, S (1996) tested the applicability of House‘s (1988) model to the translation of legal contracts and verified the usefulness of the model in the assessment of different translations of the same source text The application of the model to the corpus of this study revealed that it proved useful in the assessment of contract translations from English into Portuguese although the utilization of the model had some shortcomings

Nazhand and Mohebbipur (2011) applied House‘s model to evaluate the Persian translation of William Faulkner‘s ―The Sound and the Fury.‖ The conclusion drawn was that the translator wrongly translated some parts of the deemed sentences while the possible method for this work's translation The findings supported the claim that House‘s model (1997) was capable of predicting the types of errors which were covertly and overtly erroneous errors

Another study by Jun and Yan (2011) based on House‘s model (1997) and its procedure of operation was conducted to analyze and assess Zhang Peiji's translation of

―The Sight of Father's Back‖ by Zhu Ziqing Through the analysis and assessment, it was indicated that the translation is overt translation with a few overt and covert inappropriateness which have no influence on the entire function of this text The authors, hence, came to conclusion that the translation text corresponded to the source

text to a great extent Accordingly, the quality of the translation text was quite high

In Vietnam, on her thesis, Hạnh (2013) evaluated the Vietnamese version

of the book ‗Chicken soup for mother and daughter soul‘ by Jack Candifield and Mark Victor Hasen using House‘s model (1997) She concludes that the translation is an overt translation, which complies with the theory of House (1997) although there are still a number of overtly erroneous errors

Lan (2007) employed House‘s model (1997) to assess the translation quality

of the English version of the Law on Investment 2005 of Vietnam It was found out that there are mismatches between the two texts on eight parameters of House‘s model (1997) and that the translation text was of poor quality because it did not completely match the ST‘s functions as well as failed to employ similar means to perform the two functions of the text Luong also proposed four implications for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English

House‘s model (1997) is also found in a study of the translation quality of the travel guidebook ―Du lich Ha Long‖ by Yên (2007) The results of the study indicated that though there were some mismatches between the ST and TT, the TT meet the requirements for equivalence of the ST and it had a function consisting of

an ideational and interpersonal functional component

Another work based on House‘s model (1997) was conducted by Hạnh (2010) The findings stated that both covertly and overtly erroneous errors are found

in the TT; however, the TT was claimed to convey both the ideational and interpersonal features of the ST At the end of the study, several implications for literary translation are put forward

In another work, Hằng (2012) applied House‘s model (1997) to assess the Vietnamese translation of Mark Twain‘s ―The adventures of Huckleberry Finn‖- Chapter XX by Xuan Oanh On her thesis, she found out that the Vietnamese translation in overall has conveyed accurately the author‘s intention by means of brief and concise target language of an experienced translator However, there still exist some shortcomings that affect the quality of the translation It is the mismatch

on dimension of FIELD and TENOR and a considerable number of overt errors which influence the ideational function of the translation text

Hoà (2014) on her thesis evaluated English translation of the short story ―The general retires‖ by Nguyen Huy Thiep based on House‘s model (1997) She found out that the translation contains both covertly and overtly erroneous errors, resulted in the reduction of original‘s textual functions that are expected to perform fairly

In another work by Hằng (2015), she conducted a study named ‗A Vietnamese-English translation quality assessment on the Great Gatsby by F Scoot Fitzgerald,‘ in which she applied House‘s model (1997) The major methods used

in the study were both quality and quantitative approaches, which was designed under case study method The findings showed a number of mismatches in comparison with the source text

In her lastest model of Translation Quality Assessment (House, 2015), she modifies her classification of approaches to TQA and recognizes them as follows: psycho-social approaches, response-based approaches, text and discourse-oriented approaches This is also a new integrative model that emphasizes on contrastive pragmatics and globalization in her awareness of cultural filtering and of cognition

in translation quality assessment

In her 2015 edition, House (2015) focuses on the test case using the 1997 model: an English children‘s book translated into German, and applies her new model onto: Excerpt from Ulilever Annual Report Prominantly, she revises the

‗unnecessary overlaps‘ of the categories of field, tenor and mode, which are found

as a result of extensive research and she describes her modifications: ‗within Field

the analysis now focuses only on lexis, the granularity of lexis, lexical fields and Hallidayan processes (Material, Mental, Relational) Within Tenor, only lexical and syntactic choices are examined along the subcategories of Stance, Social Role Relationship, Social Attitude and Participation And along Mode, the analysis will focus as before Medium (spokenness versus writtenness), Theme – Rheme and Connectivity (Coherenceand Cohesion) (House, 2015, p 126)

Applying House‘s model (2015), Anari and Varmazyari (2016) aimed at pinpointing the developments in the revised model and applying it to a Persian translation of Chomskey‘s Media Control to test its viability The findings show that the translation has fallen short of fulfiling the functions of the source text and that this new model is practical in assessing political translation

2.4 Literary translation

a Characteristics of literary translation

According to Reiss (1989), literary texts belong to expressive text type in which the authors use the aesthetic dimension of language In literary translation, the typical features of the source literary text not only need to be considered carefully but also are the influential elements In Jone‘s (2009) summary of a wide range of viewpoints from Stockwell (2002), Venuti (1996), Pilkington (2000), and Berman (2000), a set of typical features of literary text are indicated As in the scholars‘ viewpoints, literary texts are in written-form, although sometimes they can

be spoken Besides, they fulfill affective or aesthetic function rather than transactional or informational function They focus on the expression of emotions and entertain rather than influence or giving information Moreover, they are considered to be fictional Whether being fact-based or not, they feature words, images, etc with ambiguous or indeterminable meanings Last but not least, they are characterized by poetic language use

Recognizing the characteristics in a literary text will enable the translator to be at least partly qualified to fulfill his task with much more accuracy The first characteristic

of literary translation is rhetorical and aesthetic value which distinguishes a literary text

from a non-literary one and is the essence expected to be captured and maintained in a literary translation Literary works are created artistically by increasing the difficulty and length of perception, which leads to defamiliarization (Shklovsky, 1917, as cited in Pilkington, 2000, p.18) Once the defamiliarization is comprehended by the translators or readers, a unique sensation is created Moreover, in literary translation, the form connects with the content meanwhile in non-literary translation the content may be considered detachable from the form or structure In poetry, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, verse, metre, and rhyme are sometimes used to achieve musical

or incantatory effects Likewise, in prose a certain linguistic feature or level can also have

a certain textual function Another characteristic of literary translation is that literary translators‘ choices of wording highly depend on the TL and target culture Therefore, literal translation may be unacceptable because of linguistic or cultural differences What‘s more, in literary translation, target audiences are taken into consideration Literary translation always has a readership which is likely to be quite different from the one the writer originally had in mind So, a good translation of any text from any period will, to some extent, only be good in the context of a particular audience at a particular time and place Finally, there is no definite correct translation in literary translation However, there is still a proper or an appropriate translation according to certain criteria

or from a certain perspective

b Challenges in literary translation

Literary translation is challenging to any translators due to special characteristic of literary texts The first challenge of literary translation lies in the differences between cultures Literary translation bridges the delicate emotional connections between cultures and languages and furthers the understanding of human beings across national borders In the act of literary translation, the soul of another culture becomes transparent, and the translator recreates the refined sensibilities of foreign countries and their people through the linguistic, musical, rhythmic, and visual possibilities of the new language In the process of translating literary texts, there are problems in the translation of cultural words in a literary text

due to the cultural gaps between the SL and the TL It is not enough for a translator

to know what words are used in the TL He must also make the reader understand the sense as it is understood by the reader of the SL

Another problem of literary translation is the process of finding equivalents not just for lexis, syntax or concepts but also features likes style, genre, figurative language, historical stylistic dimensions, etc (Sachin, 2003) Therefore, the translator‘s choices whether to retain stylistic features of the SL text or historical stylistic dimension are important For example, when translating poetry, it is vital for the translator to decide whether the verse should be translated into verse, or into free verse or into prose

Moreover, poetic language is non-standard so the translation is under the risk of being unfamiliar Bassnett points out that ―Again and again, translators of novels take pains to create readable TL texts, avoiding ST effect that can follow from adhering too closely to source language syntactical structures, but fail to consider the way in which individual sentences form part of the total structure‖ Bassnet (2002, p.115) She then suggests that ―what the translator must do, therefore, is to first determine the function of the SL system and then to find a TL system that will adequately render the function‖ (Bassnett, 2002, p.199), which shows her view of giving priority to the aesthetic function Determining the function of the source language requires the translators‘ knowledge of ST, which guides the translators to ―consider the way in which individual sentences form part of the total structure‖ (Bassnett, 2002, p.115)

Summary of chapter 2

Chapter 2 presents theories of translation definitions, procedures, method of translation and translation equivalence Nida (1964) and Newmark (1988)‘s procedures are discussed In terms of translation methods, the researcher focuses mainly on V-diagram of translation method of Newmark (1988) Different viewpoints including House‘s view on translation equivalence are also illustrated After that TQA and previous studies applying House model (1977, 1997 and 2015)

on TQA are presented In the last part, the researcher describes the characteristics of

literary translation and challenges in literary translation

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, section 1 presents the data of the present research project Section 2 depicts the methods used in this study Section 3 describes the research design to show how this project was carried out Section 4 discusses ways in which the findings were analyzed and achieved

3.1 The data

Given the aforementioned research aims and objectives, this present research

is a case study in order to compare and contrast the Vietnamese sourse language with its translation, in which the data is a case of a translation from Vietnamese (SL) into English (TL) Case study is a bounded system focusing on the wholeness of the system, or is a story of about a bounded system (Stake, 1995) As Yin (2013) defined case study as ‗an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident It copes with the technically distintive situation in which there will be many more variables of interest than data points, and as one result relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data deeding to converge in a triangulation fashion, another result benefits from the prior development of theoretical propositions to guide data collection and analysis‘ (p 13)

In other words, case study method is employed to describe a single case in its context and provide rich information about an individual Thus, this present research study needs to be a thorough investigation as well as the richness in the data so as to understand an entity and from which point to compare and contrast between cases

The novel ‗Số Đỏ‘ by Vũ Trọng Phụng was collected as the case study of this research ‗Số Đỏ‘ which was published in 1938, was acknowledged as the masterpiece of Vũ Trọng Phụng because of its satirical manner with many instances

of humor This novel contains numerous examples of non-marked and cultural elements of humor

On the Việt Nam Daily Newspaper, VNNB (2003) wrote the translation

of ‗Số Đỏ‘ (Phụng, 1938) was praised by American readers as one of the most

50 interesting books of 2003 According to Vietnamnet newspaper, the

translation of “Số Đỏ” (Phụng, 1938) was a big success and contributed to the

prestige of Vietnam Literature, brought Vũ Trọng Phụng‘s fame to readers to English speaking countries Therefore, the answers for the above research questions may help to explain whether the translation ―Dumb luck‖ (Zinoman

& Cầm, 2002) was successful or not or there are any mismatches between the

ST and TT

The work was translated into English as ‗Dump Luck‘ in 2002 and the translators, Peter Zinoman and Nguyễn Nguyệt Cầm were successful in reflecting Phụng‘s (1938) temporal, geographical and social provenance Peter Zinoman is an Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History, University of California, Berkeley and Nguyễn Nguyệt Cầm is a Vietnamese Language Instructor at University of California, Berkeley The translators had spent considerable amount of time to study the ST, and then transferred into English Peter Zinoman even wrote an introduction

of about 30 pages at the beginning of the book to help readers understand more about Vietnamese economic, social and political background at the time of ‗Số Đỏ‘ (Phụng, 1938) The translation was considered as the clash between the old and the new as Prasso (2003) writes ‗it is this clash between tradition and modernity that Phung brings to light with amusingly biting satire: the dress shop tailor who creates plunging necklines and short skirts for his sophisticated Vietnamese clientele as part

of his dedication to the "Europeanization" movement, yet forbids his wife to wear anything but the traditional ao dai tunic and white slacks; the old grandfather who repeatedly shouts, "I know! I know, what a pain! Shut up already!!!" whenever confronted with evidence of how the world is changing; the police who, forced to collect a quota of fines, turn to fining each other; the plump widow who was so faithful to her two consecutive, senior bureaucrat husbands that she "sexed" them both to death.‘

3.2 Method

This paper used the descriptive and qualitative method of writing and quantitative description of the data Qualitative methods (Creswell, 2013) offers the opportunities to gain insight into the data during the analysis process Descriptive and contrastive methods were to adapted in this study to have in-depth data analysis and to compare and contrast the strategies used for dealing with non-equivalence problems (Given, 2008) And contrastive analysis method is applied to systematically study a pair of languages with a view to paying attention to the differences and similarities between languages compared

3.3 Research Design

As a case study research design, the cases are decribed in their contexts to understand the complexity and dynamic nature of an entity as well as provide rich information about an individual learner, processes and strategies he uses to learn and communicate, his own personalities, attitudes, goals interacting with the learning environment and precise nature of his linguistic growth In so doing, the following steps were taken to conduct this present research study

The first step was to define the research problem and justify its selection, as well as explain the motivation to conduct this present study inductively

The second step taken in the process of writing of this research was to search and review the literature deductively Besides, this step was also to concentrate on related previous works that were done by the other researchers to reveal the literature gaps and formulate the research questions

The third step was to describe the data (O‘Dwyer, 2004) which will be necessary for an adequate testing of the thesis aims and objectives and explain how the data were to be collected

The fourth step was to describe the methods of analysis to be applied to the data in connection with the research questions

The fifth step was to analyse the data and state the findings as well as discuss the findings and recommend the applications

3.4 Analytical Framework

The model of House (2015) for TQA serves as the analytical framework of this study

The situational dimensions can be classified into two sections: Dimensions

of Language User and Dimensions of Language Use

A Dimensions of Language User

1 Geographical origin (regional dialect)

2 Social class (social class dialect)

3 Time (the feature which provides clues to a text‘s temporal provenance)

B Dimensions of Language Use

1 Medium (simple or complex)

2 Participation (simple or complex)

3 Social role relationship

4 Social attitude

5 Province

Each of the dimensions is realized through syntactic, lexical, and textual

means which refer to:

Theme-dynamic: thematic structure and cohesion

Clausal linkage: additive (and, in addition), adversative (but, however),

alternative, causal, explanatory, illative relations, etc

Iconic linkage: parallelism of structures

According to House (2015), in order to make qualitative statements about a target text, the textual profile of target text must be compared with that of source text The operation of House‘s model (2015) for translation quality assessment is as

3 A statement of function of ST is made, including the ideational and

interpersonal component of that function

4 A similar profile and statement of function is made of TT

5 TT profile is compared to ST profile (using the schema below) and a statement of ‗mismatches‘ is produced, categorized according to genre and to the situational dimensions of register and genre These dimensional errors are distinguished from denotative mismatches or target system errors

6 A ‗statement of quality‘ is made of the translation

As mentioned before, a text must refer to a particular situation Therefore, in order to analyze a text, House (2015) broke down the broad notion of the context of situation into manageable parts in terms of features of context of situation or situational

dimensions which are Field, Mode and Tenor

House (2015) summarized her model as in the schema for analyzing and comparing original and translation texts as belows:

Figure 2: House‟s (2015, p 65) Model

(Generic Purposes)

Ge FIELD

 Participation (simple/complex)

LANGUAGE/TEXT

INDIVIDUAL TEXTUAL FUCTION

Corpus studies

In this model, each text is an individual text embedded in a unique situation, and in order to characterize the text's function it is necessary to refer the text to the situation To accomplish this, the notion of situation has to be broken down into the following specific situational dimensions (register) analysis: (House, 2015)

A Field

Subject Matter: It can be a Novel, Poem, Play, etc

Social Action: It can be Specific, General, Popular, etc

B Tenor: Writer's or Translator's Provenance and Stance

Social Role Relationship: Symmetrical means the text contains features indicating solidarity and equality between addresser and addressees; and, asymmetrical means the text contains features indicating authority relationship

between addresser and addressees

Social Attitude: The text contains features indicating the degrees of social distance or proximity – or in other words, five styles of formality: frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate

for research purposes However, it also has limitations regarding to its complexity

in its categorization

Summary of chapter 3

This thesis is a case study in which the data is the translation of ‗Số Đỏ' from Vietnamese (SL) to English (TL) Steps of the research study are presented in this chapter The researcher combines qualitative methods and descriptive and contrastive methods to have in-depth data analysis and to compare and contrast between the ST and TT House‘s model (2015) is also introduced and analyzed as the main analytical framework of the study There are six steps in assessing the translation quality according to House‘s model (2015): firstly, the ST is analyzed basing on dimensional situations which are Field, Tenor and Mode Field deals with subject matters and social action Tenor deals with writers or translator's provenance and stance, social role relationship and social attitude And Mode is characterized

by medium and participation The next step is to provide statement of function of

ST Then TT is also analyzied the same as the ST After that, ST and TT are compared to find mismatches which are also analyzed basing on Field, Tenor and Mode Finally a statement of quality is made of the translation

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the findings and discussion in which section 1 is the analysis of source text Section 2 presents statement of function Section 3 compares target text and source text in terms of covertly erroneous errors and overtly

erroneous errors Section 4 depicts statement of quality

4.1 Source text analysis

4.1.1 Field

According to House‘s model (2015), ―field‖ is the field of activity, topic, content or subject matter (House, 2015) Số Đỏ illustrated the life of Red-haired Xuan, who was a poor orphaned child, grew up as a ball-boy, a jack of trades and luckily became famous first as tennis professor then as a doctor, and lastly as a national hero, all in the name of the Movement for Social Reform

a Lexical means

Descriptive adjectives

It is very common in both English and Vietnamese novels to use a variety of descriptive adjectives They are used to describe the appearance, the behavior, the state… of the figures in order to show the attitude or the implication of the author

For example: bà bán bún chả ―đa tư lự‖, và vợ chồng con cái người ăn mày bắt chấy cho nhau ―rất nên thơ‖, etc

The use of descriptive adjectives especially reduplicative adjectives is a typical characteristic in Số Đỏ Reduplicate adjectives can be found in all chapters Here are

some examples in chapter 1: uể oải, bồm bộp, chồm chỗm, sấn sổ, cong cớn, lải nhải,

1

Hai đứa trẻ nhỏ tuổi uể oải đi nhặt

những quả bóng để ném cho hai người

Tây./ Hai người này chơi uể oải (5)

A pair of ball boys ambled lethargically back and

forth, retrieving and returning loose balls /The

players swung their rackets lazily (p.33)

2 Một người bán nước chanh ngồi chồm chỗm trên càng xe (5) A lemonade vendor squatted against the handles of his cart (p.33)

3 Là vì Xuân tóc đỏ cứ sấn sổ đưa tay

toan cướp giật ái tình.(6)

Extending his hand rudely, Red-Haired Xuan

requested a little love (p.34)

4 Chị hàng mía lườm dài một cái,

Table 1: Table of reduplicative words in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck (See more in Appendix 2)

Reduplicative words are expressive and various, which contribute to the outstanding arts of the work and shapes Phụng‘s satirical writing style

Figures of speech

Like other literary works, Phụng (1938) used numerous figures of speech (Vân, 2014) In Số Đỏ, Phụng (1938) used different ways of comparisons a long with a variety of descriptive adjectives Means of comparisons are used flexibly and

diversifiedly Comparing words include: “như, bằng, kém, hơn, khác, giống, có vẻ,

là, bao nhiêu…bấy nhiêu‖ In which ―như” is used 168 times throughout the

novel (See more in Appendix 1)

Mồ hôi ướt đầm áo, hai người này cùng

chơi uể oải như những nhà thể thao bất đắc

dĩ khác (5)

The players swung their rackets lazily, their shirts soaked through with perspiration (p.33)

Cái quạt trên trần quay tít làm cho những thớ

thịt ở những bộ quần áo mỏng gần bằng giấy

hút thuốc lá cứ mấp máy như gợn sóng (66)

Gusts from the ceiling fan rustled the cigarette paper-thin clothes covering the white skin of the two fashionable ladies (p.75)

Cửa xe mở, một bà ngoại tứ tuần mà y phục

còn trai lơ hơn cả các thiếu nữ, mặt bự ra

những son và phấn (10)

The back door opened, and out stepped a hefty woman in her mid-forties, made up like a fashionable young seductress (p.37) Ông ấy nói thế một cách sốt sắng chẳng

kém những người gầy gò ốm yếu không tập

thể thao bao giờ chỉ xúi giục kẻ khác (13)

He spoke with an enthusiasm characteristics

of numerous skinny and sickly men who celebrate the merits of sports without ever actually playing them (p.39)

Cáo áo lụa mỏng dính bên trong lại không

có cóoc-xê, cái quần lạ mỏng dính làm cho

bà chẳng khác gì một tín đồ của chủ nghĩa

khỏa thân và làm cho thằng Xuân cảm thấy

mình là một đứa vô giáo dục (31)

She had taken off her gown, brassiere, and head-dress and had put on an utterly transparent silk shirt and paper-thin pants This made her seem like a passionate adherent of nudism, while it made Xuân feel dirty and uncouth (p.52)

Ở tủ kính ngoài cùng có ba “hình nhân” tác

bằng gỗ, chính là của Tây phương gửi sang,

giống hệt mĩ nhân Tây phương (38)

Three wooden ma nơ canh imported from Europe stood poised behind its large plate-glass window Although they had been made to resemble beautiful European women…(p.57)

Này, quái nhỉ! Trông bà chủ có vẻ vợ Tây

lắm! (30) But it‟s strange The mistress seems like a Frenchman‟s wife (p.51)

Vâng, chính thế, tôi là một người chồng

mọc sừng/ (60) - Tôi chỉ mới đáng tuổi là

mẹ anh (13)

Yes, it‟s true I am a horned husband (p.71)

- I‟m no older than your mother (p.39)

Vậy là mĩ thuật càng khó hiểu bao nhiêu

càng có giá trị bấy nhiêu.(40)

Of course, the more difficult a work of art is

to understand, the more valuable it is (p.59)

Table 2: Figures of speech in „Số Đỏ‟ and Dumb Luck

Among these comparing words, ―như‖ is used the most often By using precise comparison, Phụng (1938) described characters intelligently, not only the appearance but also their personality and characteristics

Phụng (1938) created a world of characters full of diversified characteristics, who could be representatives for people of different ranks and social status at the temporary society

- Characters represented for authorities:

- Người Tây, quan Tây: Mồ hôi ướt áo,

hai người này cùng chơi uể oải như những

nhà thể thao bất đắc dĩ (5)/ Vì người bước

vào là một ông quan Tây ăn mặc lễ phục

rất uy nghi, kiểu nhà binh, cái lon ở tay và

có gươm đeo ở thắt lưng kim tuyến Ông

Tây ấy, nói tiếng ta như Tây lai (236)

The Frenchman: The players swung their rackets lazily, their shirts soaked through with perspiration (p.33) /Everybody looked out the window and saw a uniformed Frenchman enter the house He had stripes

on his sleeves and wore a sword hanging from a gold belt The Frenchman greeted the guests politely in a kind of Franco- Vietnamese (p.186)

-Vua Xiêm, Vua na-pô-lê-ông: Tuy vận Âu

phục, vua Xiêm cũng đội cái mũ bản xứ

bằng Kim ngân Châu báu, trông như một

cái tháp cao vì nó có đến chín tầng gác, cứ

lên cao thì lại nhỏ lại, một thứ biểu tượng

của cái đất nước một triệu con voi (228) /

Như Nã Phá Luân đánh Đông dẹp Bắc

như thế, lại đẹp giai như thế mà cũng mọc

sừng thì ngài bảo sao? (119)

The king of Siam; Napoleon King: Although he wore a European suit, the king of Siam also wore

a traditional crown made of gold and pearls It looked like a tower because each of its nine levels became progressively smaller toward the top It was supposedly a symbol of the land of a million elephants (p.181)/ Take Napoleon, for example Not only did he win great victory in the North and the East, but he was extremely handsome And yet

he too sprouted horns (p.109)

- Cảnh sát: Thành thử, mỗi khi bắt phạt được

một đám thì nhân viên sở cẩm sướng như

trúng số độc đắc (17)/ Giữa lúc không có ai

đáng phạt, đương buồn rầu như nhà buôn sắp

vỡ nợ, mấy ông cảnh binh này có được đam

thuê thì sung sướng đến cực điểm (175)

Police: violations of the law were as rare as winning lottery tickets (p.43)/ They were pleased to get the work, since there had been few people to fine as of late, and they had begun to resemble businessmen on the verge

of bankruptcy (p.146) Table 3: A world of characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck

- Characters who are representatives for upper class society

- Bà Phó Đoan: Bà Phó Đoan ngẩn người

ra như người bằng gỗ Lúc ấy vì vừa ngủ

dậy, bà chỉ mặc có quần áo ngủ mỏng

manh, nó có thế làm cho thân thể bà lại lộ

ra rõ hơn là chủ nghĩa khỏa thân (199)

Mrs Deputy Customs Officer was struck dumb like a wooden statue Her sleeping gown, however, revealed as much as if she had actually been nude (p.161)

-Chồng bà Phó Đoan: Ăn ở với nhau độ

mười năm, ông Phó Đoan chết, chết trung

thành với Nhà nước, chết chung tình với vợ,

chết như những người yêu vợ quá sức (15)

Mrs Deputy Customs Officer‟s husband: His death was not only a function of his fidelity to the state but of his unswerving fidelity to his wife – she literally screwed him to death (p.40)

- Cụ Cố Hồng: Sau khi rón rén ngồi xuống

ghế một cách lật đật như một cụ Cố chính

hiệu – có thứ Cố chính hiệu cũng như có

thứ giả hiệu – Cụ bèn hỏi…(69)

Grandpa Hong: With her assistance, he took his seat – but gingerly, like a genuine great-grandpa (p.77)

Table 4: Upper-class characters in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck

- Characters represented for common people:

Red haired Xuân is typical character Phụng (1938) uses comparison to talk about Xuân more than 30 times in Dumb Luck It helps to indicate that among common people, Xuân is very lucky to change his fate, steps into upper class world rapidly and finally becomes a great man, a national hero

In regard to figures of speech, idioms are also used in the source text

Example of idioms can be: ―nuôi ong tay áo”, ―con gium xéo lắm cũng quằn”,

“nhiều thầy thối ma, etc

b Syntactic means

Phụng (1938) uses different types of sentences, in which the most common and prominent are exclamation sentences, defining sentences or comparative sentences (Vân, 2014)

- Còn lai lịch của bà Phó Đoan, thì kể ra cũng hay hay (14)

- Rồi những quả quần bay đi bay lại như đàn dơi bắt muỗi trên không gian (15)

- Thì ra nó bị bắt quả tang nhìn trộm một cô đầm (15)

- Mà báo chí thỉnh thoảng không đăng tên, đăng ảnh chúng ta lên trang nhất

thì thật là không thể nào tha thứ được cho báo chí (21)

- Mà trước kia bị bắt về bóp chính cơ! (23)

Lexical cohesion

As a satirical master in using words and making sentences, Phụng (1938) brought to ‗Số Đỏ‘ words of strange and humorous meanings The writer used the method ―changing concept‖ to create ―truth‖ which was irrational It also represents the lexical cohesion of ‗Số Đỏ‘ (Vân, 2014)

- Some examples are as follows:

-“Sau cuộc hiếp trái phép đến ngay cuộc

hiếp đúng luật, nghĩa là cuộc làm phép

cưới” (15)

The soldier followed this unlawful rape with years of lawful rape (p.40)

-“tam giác là là cái thẹo! Mà cái thẹo thì

là chữ A”; “Cái thẹo lộn xuôi thì mới là chữ

U, còn cái thẹo chổng ngược thì chính là

chữ A.(39)

A triangle…with a hole, damn it And the triangle shape here is supposed to be the letter A The right-side up triangle is a U The upside down one is an A (p.58)

-“bao giờ cả xã hội này biết thưởng thức

cái đẹp về bộ đùi của người đàn bà thì

mới hiểu giá trị của những bức vẽ khỏa

ST TT

chứ không phải để che đậy Bao giờ mà y

phục tiến bộ đến cực điểm, đi đến chỗ tận

thiện tận mỹ, thì nghĩa là y phục phải không

còn che đậy cái gì của người đàn bà

nữa!”(46)

one‟s natural beauty, not cover it up Soon clothing will progress to that extreme, exquisite, perfect point where it will no longer cover up anything at all.”(p.62)

„Tight waist, wide chest and ass is Promise‟.(p.67)

-“Phụ nữ nghĩa là vợ con chị em người

khác, chứ không phải vợ con chị em của

tôi”(58)

When we campaign for the reform of women, we mean other people‟s wives and sisters, not our own (p.70)

-“ đồng bóng cũng là một lối thể thao,

nhưng lối ấy đã bất hợp thời trang”(124)

The traditional practice of spirit possession might be considered a kind of sport, although a rather dated one (p.113)

-“gọi là sân quần thì ai mà chả tưởng là để

phơi quần”(128)

It looked like a good place to hang laundry (p.115)

-“mọc sừng là một cái xấu của cấp tiến chứ

không phải của bảo thủ”(138)

Horns were more a sign of progress than conservatism (p.121)

-“Tôi là một trang bán sử nữ, nghĩa là còn

trinh một nữa, nghĩa là demivierge”(109)

I plan to remain a partially pure girl In other words, a demi vierge I will maintain half of my virginity (p.103)

-„ra vì cái vú cao su mà thành ra chúng

mình hiểu rõ cái bụng dạ thực thà của

nhau! Nếu chúng ta sung sướng, ấy cũng

chỉ vì đôi vú cao su của cuộc cải cách xã

hội vậy.”(193)

Thanks to those rubber breasts, we came to appreciate each other‟s honesty! Our happiness is the result of those rubber breasts – the rubber breasts of social reforms.(p.158)

-“bà đã lẳng lơ theo đúng nghĩa lý sách vở

của thánh hiền, nghĩa là bà được mừng

thầm rằng mình đã trót hư hỏng một cách

có tính chất khoa học”(226)

Her flirtatiousness now had a legitimate place in the sacred books of saints and sages She was glad, in fact, to know that she had misbehaved in such a scientific way.(p.179)

Table 5: Lexical cohesion in Số Đỏ and Dumb Luck

These are ways to define the nature of social reformers, or civilized citizens The writer uses the combination and mixture of words; put this concept together with the meaning of other concept to make new meaning which is modern, civilized (Vân, 2014) The ironical laughter of the author on the affectedness and ridiculous fashionable style was hidden behind the lexical cohesion of the words By intentionally using words in a boasting and exaggerating manner, Phụng (1938) creates satirical conflicts which lead to laughter in Số Đỏ For instance, Mr Deputy Customs Officer – a lustful woman is called with a beautiful name ―a genuine Vietnamese woman married

to a Frenchman‖; ―a naturism follower‖, ―keeping her virginity to two husbands‖ Or Grandpa Hong who knows nothing but always says ―I know! I know! What a pain! Shut up, already!‖ Or Đanh Pagoda‘s high-ranking monk has battles of words on different kinds of scabies, which shows that he lacks of morality However, he considers himself a person who understands thoroughly ―deep, lofty and mysterious Buddhism‖ The most contrasting words are given to Red-haired Xuan – the main characters of the novel Xuân, a tricky vagabond, is named as Doctor Xuân, ―the hope

of the Donkin‖, ―national salvation hero‖

4.1.2 Tenor

a The authors‟ temporal, geographical and social provenance

The novel was written by Phụng (1938) who was born and grew up in the North of Vietnam, Hanoi, Tonkin It contains features of unmarked, contemporary, standard Vietnamese Phụng (1938) lived at the time when Vietnam was obsessed with Europeanization Therefore, Vietnamese language partly was affected by French language

There is a presence of loan words: ken cờ ban – Quelques balle (đánh một vài quả); Au revoir (tạm biệt); Xanh ca (Cing-quatre); Xanh xit (Cing-six); Sapristis (damn it); Mề đay (medal); Đề bô (phòng giam); Anbom (album); Gu; Văng đơ; Tay ơ; Ma nơ canh; ô ten (hotel)…