Translation quality evaluation of ankit panda’s article “why did china set up an oil rig within vietnamese waters why now and why vietnam ” by four various translators

This thesis is an attempt to assess the quality of four different versions of for an online English article on The Diplomat basing on the schema of Translation Quality Assessment propos

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

************

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S

ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG

WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?”

BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS

(Đa ́ nh giá chất lươ ̣ng các bản di ̣ch bài báo “Why Did China Set Up

an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?”

của Ankit Panda bởi bốn dịch giả khác nhau)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

************

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S

ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG

WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?”

BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS

(Đa ́ nh giá chất lươ ̣ng các bản di ̣ch bài báo “Why Did China Set Up

an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?”

của Ankit Panda bởi bốn dịch giả khác nhau)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến

HANOI - 2016

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled “Translation quality evaluation of Ankit Panda‟s article “Why did China set

up an oil rig within Vietnamese waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by four

various translations” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, February 2016

Nguyễn Thu Hằng

A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post -

Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course Without their support and encouragement, it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my parents,

my husband and my younger brother for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

There is a fact that in the current era of information explosion, daily contents published on the Internet have neglected strict censorship in advance in terms of quantity and quality It can be seen that many English - Vietnamese translations cannot ensure enough precise information or convey emotion and intentions of the author in the source language text appropriately Even some of them have modified

on purpose by adding individual opinions or comments of the translators Therefore,

it is necessary to control the quality of the translations before publication so that the readers can enjoy the best edition This thesis is an attempt to assess the quality of

four different versions of for an online English article on The Diplomat basing on

the schema of Translation Quality Assessment proposed by Newmark By this way, the writer has found that the translations have obtained a certain success However,

it still reveals some mismatches between the source text and the target text, especially in terms of reflecting the intention of the author accurately In addition, some other mistakes in terms of word choice and structure arrangement which may affect the conciseness of the translations are also pointed out From the basis of the findings, some implications are made along with suggestions for further studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS vi

A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 4

3 Scope of the study 4

4 Significance of the study 5

5 Research methodology 5

5.1 Research questions 5

5.2 Research approach 5

5.3 Research method 5

5.4 Data analysis 6

6 Design of the thesis 6

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 8

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

1.1 Translation theory 8

1.1.1 Translation definition 8

1.1.2 Translation methods & procedures 9

1.1.3 Translation equivalence 13

1.1.4 Translation assessment 16

1.1.5 Contrastive Analysis 21

1.2 Previous studies 21

1.3 Summary 22

CHAPTER 2: APPLICATION OF NEWMARK’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT 24

2.1 Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its functional aspects 24

2.2 Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his translation method and the translation‟s likely readership 25

2.3 Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with the original 27

2.3.1 Word choice & expression 27

2.3.2 Structures 30

2.4 Step 4: An evaluation of the translation 38

2.4.1 An evaluation of the translation in the translator‟s terms 38

2.4.2 An evaluation of the translation in the critic‟s term 45

2.4.3 Assess the translation as a piece of writing, independently of its original 46

2.5 Step 5: An assessment of the likely place of the translation in the target language culture or discipline 47

PART C: CONCLUSION 48

REFERENCES 51 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B IV APPENDIX C XVII

V1: Version 1 (the first version)

V2: Version 2 (the second version)

V3: Version 3 (the third version)

V4: Version 4 (the fourth version)

TQA: Translation Quality Assessment

P: Paragraph

S: Sentence

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

Table 1 Comparing versions in terms of words and expression 28

Table 3 Comparing versions in terms of separation and combination 30

Table 5 Comparing versions in terms of complex sentences and

relative clauses

33

Table 6 Comparing versions in terms of passive and active forms 38

Diagram 2 A scheme for analyzing and comparing original and translation

texts

19

A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In human history, cultural exchange commenced along with the emergence

of culture Translation, a cultural phenomenon and a means of cultural exchange, has brought a community beyond its spatial and temporal dimensions as contended

by Kelly (2004): “Without translation, there is no history of the world.” Without

translation, our world would encompass secluded oases, which would develop separately and their own histories without contributing to the world history In fact, translation not only brings new knowledge horizons for humanity, but translation activities can also promote exchange of civilization and culture among the people and the nations worldwide Therefore, it can be said that since its beginning days, translation has played a very important role for years

In Vietnam, after 1945, translation industry has developed and had great contribution to economic, cultural, and social development of our country As a result, the demand for translation is increasingly diversified An enormous number

of books and documents need to be translated The mass media such as radios, televisions, newspapers are also required to transfer information from foreign languages into Vietnamese to convey to the public The contracts, project documents, data in need of translation in the administrative transactions, trade, and international cooperation also surged The foreign movies should have captions or subtitles in Vietnamese In addition, training sessions of professional interpreters are also being conducted at many universities in Vietnam to train a large team of people working in the translation field

Generally, neither translation nor interpretation in our country has not become a professional job Sharing the same point, Ms Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, former Deputy Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of Vietnam‟s National Assembly said in the event "International Conference on Translation and Language" (Translator Day) held on December 13, 2013, “Translation in Vietnam has not

really been developed into a profession with high professionalism because of the lack of formal standards; then, the discipline in this work is not high and it is difficult to distinguish the level of translation.”

It is a fact that this has led to bad even serious consequences Sadly, Vietnam has been listed one of countries with the worst quality of translated

versions Tùy Phong, the author of the article “Bao giờ mới hết những chữ vô hồn”

on the vietnamnet expressed his own opinions about “translation disasters” According to him, besides rather successfully-translated masterpieces such as

“Wuthering Heights” (Đồi gió hú), “Harry Porter”, “The Centaur in the Garden”

(Con nhân mã ở trong vườn), some classic works such as “Lolita” translated by

Dương Tường, “The Da Vinci Code” (Mật mã Da Vinci) by Đỗ Thu Hà and some

other textbooks have been called “translation disasters” with dozens of mistakes These works have received a lot of negative criticism and opinions from the public and on mass media This has become great concern for critics, translators, and linguistics

However, unfortunately, until now, we have had no works specialized in theory and method of translation between English and Vietnamese in our country, but only focusing on the study of translation practice while foreign countries have many relevant works between English and other languages by such famous authors

as Nida, Newmark, Campbell, Baker, Bell, Hatim and Mason These projects have contributed greatly in the development of theory as well practice of the translation and promoted the quality of translated versions more efficiently and professionally

Translation is indeed a challenging job In order to produce a high-quality translation, translators are required to have both talent and flexibility in every circumstance In addition, they also have to hone their skills regularly, their love for translation, as well as abundant knowledge of culture, society, human beings and even equivalent languages Sometimes, because of lacking certain understanding or translators‟ carelessness, translated versions may not be concise and clear enough Even more seriously, they can transfer messages which writers or authors want to

try to convey to readers in a wrong way Such errors will have bad effect on the public for long time, especially the information on the mass media such televisions and newspapers Therefore, the usage of vocabulary on the mass media in general and translation in particular requires both high quality and professionalism

An M.A theses review at universities in Vietnam shows that many assessment works related to literature, and some specialized terms, including law, economy, health care, and culture have been conducted These are preliminary studies on applying a new theory of translation evaluation and criticism into the assessment of translated versions from English into Vietnamese with remarkable results in terms of theory and practice However, the number of political versions is still limited, especially sensitive political issues

Since information technology developed fast, the right of free press has been promoted Correspondents, journalists, writers have had a big playground on the Internet, especially online newspaper pages or websites Every day, they can easily provide the latest information for readers without considering contents or vocabularies strictly before publishing them In addition, some bad elements also took advantage of the Internet to distort and communicate false information to the readers This can be reflected clearly through contents in tabloid newpapers Remarkably, so far, many stories, talks, interviews and articles have kept discussing

a hot topic - oil rig HYSY-981 on the mass media, especially on some famous

newspapers and magazines Among them, “The Diplomat”, a premier international

current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region is known by many scholars and

readers Since 2002, “The Diplomat” has been dedicated to quality analysis and

commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world So, news on this press is very abundant and comprehensive Many Vietnamese translators have used this useful source to explore information and try to transfer equivalent meanings of articles However, it is regretful that many of them are incorrect and incomplete versions with grammar and vocabulary mistakes, even with wrong messages to the

readers This made meaningful articles become difficult for everyone to understand and in one way have negative impacts on the readers as well

From the above-mentioned reasons, the author decided to find out a typical article with various translated versions, and then finally chose the topic

“Translation quality evaluation of Ankit Panda‟s article “Why Did China Set Up an

Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by four various translators” for her thesis

2 Aims of the study

In this research, an attempt will be made to review the quality of Vietnamese versions in terms of conveying the intention of the author, and then recommend some criteria for better translation of political articles

English-3 Scope of the study

The chosen English article “Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within

Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by Ankit Panda on “The Diplomat” consists of nine paragraphs in total

In the limitation of a thesis, the author only selects some representative examples to analyze the intention of the author expressed in the original in translations with a clear study framework - Newmark‟s TQA model

Four respective translated versions are also selected including:

 1st version: “Vì sao Trung Quốc thiết lập giàn khoan trong vùng biển Việt

Nam? Vì sao là lúc này và vì sao Việt Nam?” by Đàm Hà Khánh on

http://nghiencuulichsu.com;

 2nd version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc đưa giàn khoan vào vùng biển Việt Nam?

Tại sao lại vào lúc này, và tại sao lại là Việt Nam?” by Vũ Thị Phương Anh on

http://tiasang.com.vn;

 3rd version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc đặt giàn khoan vào vùng biển Việt Nam?

Tại sao lại vào thời điểm này và tại sao lại là Việt Nam?” by C.K on

http://tinmoi.vn;

 4th version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc lại triển khai giàn khoan trong vùng biển

Việt Nam? Tại sao diễn ra vào thời điểm này và tại sao mục tiêu lại là Việt Nam?” by Văn Cường on http://nghiencuubiendong.vn

These sources are available on the Internet and main websites to share

information as well as propaganda on islands and waters of Vietnam

4 Significance of the study

- Theoretical aspect: This research helps readers have a general overview of translation theory meanwhile they can know how to apply TQA model by Newmark

in evaluating translated versions

- Practical aspect: Factually, this study is somehow useful for translators and translation critics in translating materials from English into Vietnamese in general; whereas it also gives some tips for them to handle problems arising during translation process, especially issues related to sensitive political contents Moreover, it is also hoped that the results of this study will contribute to assessing the translation of press works based on a specific model

5 Research methodology

5.1 Research questions

In the research, the author focuses on 2 following research questions:

 Question 1: To what extent do the translations convey the intention of the author?

 Question 2: What are the recommendations for the translation of political articles?

5.2 Research approach

During evaluation process, Contrastive Analysis approach will be applied to compare and assess translated versions against the original one

5.3 Research method

Firstly, the original text will be read thoroughly and comprehensively based

on Newmark‟s reading procedures After that, the source text will be compared to its respective translations

5.4 Data analysis

The author evaluates the Vietnamese translated versions based on the 5-step

model of Peter Newmark:

 Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its functional aspects

 Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his translation method and the translation‟s likely readership

 Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with the original

 Step 4: An evaluation of the translation: (a) in the translator‟s terms, (b) in the critic‟s terms, (c) assess the translation as a piece of writing, independently of its original

 Step 5: Where appropriate, an assessment of the likely place of the translation in the target language culture or discipline

6 Design of the thesis

The thesis is divided into 3 main parts

 Part A: Introduction (This part provides readers an overview of the

thesis including the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the methodology, and the organization of the study)

 Part B: Development (This part consists of 2 chapters)

Chapter 1: Literature review

This part discusses the theoretical background knowledge related to translation including definition, translation methods, translation procedures, translation equivalence, translation assessment, and contrastive analysis Then the author reviews previous related studies, explains clearly the reason why she has decided to choose TQA of Peter Newmark and contrastive analysis approach to assess versions

Chapter 2: Application of Newmark’s model for TQA

This is the main part of the study In this chapter, the author applies comparison and analysis between original texts and translation versions, and discusses about five-step TQA model by Newmark mentioned above to assess Vietnamese versions

 Part III: Conclusion

This part will summarize the main ideas and findings of the study Then, some conclusion will be drawn

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Translation theory

1.1.1 Translation definition

“Since human beings speak different tongues, translation exists.” (Steiner,

1975: 51) The activity of translation has a long-standing tradition and has been widely developed throughout the history In our rapidly changing world with widening cultural exchanges, its role has become of paramount importance

Undoubtedly, the twentieth century has been called “the age of translation”

(Jumpelt, 1961)

However, it is not easy to find out a general definition of the translation Until now, about 200 various concepts can be mentioned They are different angles, from the general to the more specialized In the limit of this thesis, the author only mentions some key opinions to help readers have some general overview about the real nature of translation and related knowledge

Originally, translation comes from “translation” or “traduce” in Latin, meaning “to carry across” or “to lead across” Translation is like the bridge to

give instructions and connect In fact, it is a process of transformation of terms and meanings from one language into another language, from the original language, the source language to the target language So, it can be understood that translation is encryption of meaning and form of the target language through deciphering the meaning and form of the source language

As Hatim and Munday (2004) pointed out in a similar definition, translation

can be analyzed from two different perspectives: that of a „process‟, which refers to the activity of turning a ST into a TT in another language, and that of a „product‟,

i.e a translated text

Catford described it in these terms: “Translation is the replacement of

textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in other

language (TL).” (Catford, 1965:20) Apparently, he was much concerned about

maintaining a kind of “equivalence” between the ST and the TT

Sharing the same point, Hartman & Stock (1972) considered translation to be the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of another equivalent in a second language

One of the rather detailed definitions with the most remarkableness was

proposed by Peter Newmark (1988: 7) In his opinion, translation is “a craft” that attempts to replace a message in a written form by the “same” message in another

message

Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997) see that translation is a very broad notion which opens the way to be understood in various ways This broad notion enables one to talk about translation as process and a product In addition, one can recognize sub-types of translations such as literary translation, technical translation, subtitling and machine translation

Clearly, no matter how diverse these definitions can be, they all share the same feature which emphasizes the importance of finding the closet equivalence in meaning by the choice of appropriate target language‟s lexical and grammatical structures, communication situation, and cultural context

1.1.2 Translation methods & procedures

According to Lê Hùng Tiến (2006), to be successful in evaluating the translation quality, the critic must have the knowledge of basic matters of translation theory such as the nature, procedures, methods and equivalence of translation In order to translate a text from a SL into a TL, the translator must use some certain methods and procedures, sometimes a combination of them While translation methods relate to the whole text, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language

1.1.2.1 Translation methods

The eight different translation methods suggested by Newmark can be shown through the following diagram:

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Diagram 1: Translation methods

(Newmark, 1988: 45)

From the diagram, it is clear that the relationship of each method with the SL and the TL is different The position of each method (higher to lower in comparison with the SL or the TL) reflects not only the distance with the SL and the TL but also the features of the translation product created by a respective method: whether it is more alike to the SL or the TL (Lê Hùng Tiến, 2006) For example, word-for-word translation method creates the product characterizing the most features of the SL and adaptation give birth to a translation version which is the most alike to the TL Each method can be explained briefly, as follows:

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

translated singly by their most common meaning, out of context

 Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their

nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are translated singly, out of context

 Faithful translation: It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual

meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures

 Semantic translation: It takes more account of the aesthetic value of the SL

text than faithful translation, compromising on „meaning‟ where appropriate so

that assonance, word-lay or repetition jars in the finished version Therefore, it is more flexible, allows for the translator‟s intuitive empathy with the original

 Adaptation: The themes, characters, plots are preserved, and the SL culture

is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten

 Free translation: It is usually a paraphrase much longer than the original, a

so-called „Intralingual translation‟, often prolix and pretentious, and not translation at all

 Idiomatic translation: 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

 Communicative translation: It 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

(Newmark, 1988: 45)

Among these methods, Newmark put emphasis on only two methods, semantic and communicative translation In his opinion, they are appropriate to any text Semantic translation focuses on primarily upon the semantic content of the source text, whereas communicative translation focuses essentially upon the comprehension and response of the receptors

Some translation researchers and theorists say that how Newmark classifies translation methods is too complicated and theoretical and not practical However, others support Newmark‟s own translation methods In fact, application of translation methods is required to be flexible Translators can apply Newmark‟s translation methods and others creatively during translation process of texts in general and terms in particular effectively

1.1.2.2 Translation procedures

In terms of translation procedures, there still exist some controversial about what name to call this category Some authors use the term “procedure” while some others prefer the term “techniques” or “strategies” Whatever it is called, we can

understand them as methods applied by translators when they formulate equivalence for the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from ST to the TT

In this thesis, the author would like to use the term “procedure” suggested by Newmark in 1988 In fact, different authors have different classifications of translation procedures However, in fact, the terms used in their classifications sometimes overlap Therefore, here the writer just wants to mention 14 translation

procedures proposed by Newmark in his book “A textbook of translation” (1995)

They include:

 Transference: It is the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text It

includes transliteration and it is somewhere called "transcription."

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

to the normal morphology of the TL

 Cultural equivalent: It means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL

one however, "they are not accurate"

 Functional equivalent: It requires the use of a culture-neutral word

 Descriptive equivalent: In this procedure the meaning of the SLT is

explained in several words

 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 and components of compounds It can also be 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

 Modulation: 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

(Newmark, 1995)

In general, the translation procedures are useful to the translator As can be seen, in this classification, each procedure is distinguished quite clearly from each other However, in the real situation of translating a text, the translator may apply them flexibly by combining two, three or four procedures (couplets, triplets, quadruplets) to deal with a single problem

1.1.3 Translation equivalence

1.1.3.1 Definition

Translation equivalence is the fundamental concept of translation theory and also the main criterion in assessing the quality of a translation A translation is generally said to be „good‟ if it can maintain a certain degree of equivalence to the

ST Nevertheless, the concept remains controversial and opinions vary radically as

to its exact meaning

Basically, „equivalence‟ is a term used by many writers to describe the nature and the extent of the relationships which exist between SL and TL texts (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997: 49)

Newmark (1995: 48) states: “The overriding purpose of any translation

should be to achieve „equivalent effect‟, i.e to produce the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of translation as was obtained on the

readership of the original” ” He also sees the equivalence effect as the desirable

result rather than the aim of any translation except for two cases: (a) If the purpose

of the SL text is to affect and the TL translation is to inform or vice versa; (b) If there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and the TL text

Baker has another way to define this term by pointing out three levels of translation equivalence basing on the linguistic forms, that is, equivalence at word level, sentence level and text level To be more concrete, she explores the notion of non-equivalence at different levels and in relation to the translation process, including non-equivalence at word level, non-equivalence above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence and pragmatic equivalence

As can be seen, translation equivalence is still a complex and controversial concept In order to have better understanding of this term, it is necessary to have a look at how translation equivalence is classified into different types

1.1.3.2 Types of translation equivalence

Similar to the case of the notion of “translation equivalence”, until now,

there are various ways to classify translation equivalence based on different factors

In “Lý thuyết và thực tiễn dịch thuật Anh-Việt: Một số vấn đề về lý luận và phương

pháp cơ bản”, four common ways of classifying translation equivalence can be

identified, as follows:

 Form-based equivalence: equivalence at word, sentence, or text level

 Meaning-based equivalence: denotative, connotative, pragmatic, formal equivalence

 Function-based equivalence: dynamic equivalence, formal equivalence

 Quantitative equivalence: one-to-one equivalence, one-to-many equivalence, one-to-part-of-one equivalence, nil equivalence

Basing on a quantitative approach (quantity-based), Munday (2001) suggests five types of translation equivalence: One-to-one equivalence, one-to-many equivalence, many-to-one equivalence, one-to-part-of-one equivalence, nil

equivalence From this categorization, it is noticeable that Munday mainly focused

on the quantity of equivalence rather than meaning equivalence

Baker (1992) who is in favor of form-based equivalence classifies translation equivalence into equivalence at the word level (number, gender, tense) and above word level and textual equivalence (equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in terms of information and cohesion)

On the contrary, Nida (1964), who supports function-based equivalence, distinguishes formal equivalence and dynamic translation as basic orientations According to him, formal equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have the closest possible match of form and content and dynamic equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have the same effect on their effective readers In his opinion, a translation is successful if it can achieve an equivalent response in the two languages, which means dynamic equivalence is the goal of translation To be

„good‟, a translation must meet these four basic requirements:

 making sense

 conveying the spirit and manner of the original

 having a natural and easy form of expression

 producing a similar response

o Each author has his own reasons for classifying different types of translation equivalence However, with respect to three basic factors in translating: the nature of the message, the purpose of the author and the translator and the type of audience, the kind of equivalence by Koller (1979) can

be considered a satisfactory approach He classified equivalence in translation into five categories as follows:

 Denotative equivalence: the SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in

the real world

 Connotative equivalence: In addition to denotative value, source and target

language words should also produce the same communicative values in the mind of native speakers of the two languages

 Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the

same or similar context in their respective languages

 Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words

have the same effect on their respective readers

 Formal equivalence: In this type of equivalence, source and target language

have the same formal aesthetic features, orthographic or phonological features For Newmark, despite sharing similar ideas of translation equivalence with Nida, he uses „semantic translation‟ and „communicative translation‟ for „formal equivalence‟ and „dynamic equivalence‟ respectively Communicative translation aims at producing “the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of the translation as was obtained on the readership of the original” Semantic translation, on the other hand, attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original

In brief, this classification can be used as basic criteria to assess the equivalence of the translated version in comparison with the original As mentioned above, translation equivalence is a very important and difficult aspect Translation means to find equivalence between two languages The translator has to find and choose appropriate TL equivalents to SL words

1.1.4 Translation assessment

1.1.4.1 Definition

In fact, this term has many other alternative names such as “Translation quality assessment” as in the study of Malcolm Williams (2009), or “Translation

criticism” in the book “A textbook of translation” by Newmark (1995) or

“Translation evaluation” by Julianne House

According to Hatim and Mason, “The assessment of translator performance

is an activity which, despite being widespread, is researched and discussed” (Hatim and Mason 1997:199, cited in Williams, 2001) From this

under-definition, it can be seen that Hatim and Mason have not given a concrete definition

of “translation assessment” but mainly emphasize the fact of assessing translation

text at that time and the necessity of paying more attention to assess the translation text seriously and more critically

Newmark (1995) also gives his own definition However, similar to Hatim and Mason, his focus is not really on what translation assessment actually is but

rather on the importance of translation evaluation as followed: "Translation

criticism is an essential link between translation theory and its practice."

(Newmark, 1995: 184)

Among famous researchers, Malcolm William‟s definition can be said to be much clearer He defines the term “Translation Quality Assessment” (TQA) in several aspects Just like evaluation in the broad sense, TQA can

be quantitative or qualitative: it can be based on mathematical/statistical

measurement (as in the case of most academic instruments) or on readers‟ responses, interviews and questionnaires (e.g Nida) TQA can

be diagnostic (determining areas for improvement at the beginning of a course of study), formative (measuring progress and giving feedback during a course of study) or summative (measuring the results of learning) It can be seen that in

Williams‟s view, TQA cannot and should not be values-free: to be useful, it must be based on criteria of goodness Otherwise, all we do is describe defects and strong

points in translations: “Whether our focus is on products, performance or

competence, we are essentially trying to determine degrees of goodness when we perform TQA The approach can be prescriptive, assessing translation against criteria of aesthetic effect, usability, and intrinsic compliance with standards of target language correctness and fidelity.”

1.1.4.2 Translation Quality Assessment Models

There are different Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) models Each of them introduces new ideas and ways to assess the quality of a translated work

The concept “Models of TQA” is not new because it has been initiated by many authors such as Wilss, Koller, or Reiss However, according to Lê Hùng Tiến (2006), the models suggested by Koller, Wilss and Reiss, in spite of being very

potential, lack concrete steps to be applied in reality In fact, Peter Newmark and Julianne House are two outstanding researchers who create their own models to repair these shortcomings of the previous authors Therefore, we will have deeper insight into their models

 Julian House and her model

Julian House is a German linguist She first proposed her model for

translation quality assessment in 1977 in “A Model for Translation Quality

Assessment” The original model attracted many criticisms which are said to have

been tackled in her revised model in 1997 – “Translation Quality Assessment: A

Model Revisited”

As written in House‟s report on Meta (2001: 247), the assessment model is

“based on Hallidayan systemic-functional theory, but also draws eclectically on Prague school ideas, speech act theory, pragmatics, discourse analysis and corpus- based distinctions between spoken and written language” After being revised,

House‟s model still aims at providing for “the analysis and comparison of an

original and its translation on three different levels: the levels of Language/Text, Register (Field, Mode and Tenor), and Genre” (House, 2001: 247), or for the

discovery of „mismatches‟ between the TT and the ST on the same three levels She also gives a clearer scheme for analyzing and comparing original and translated texts, as follows:

Diagram 2: A Scheme for Analyzing and Comparing

Original and Translation Texts

Function, Register and Language

According to Lê Hùng Tiến (2006), House‟s model has a clear linguistically theoretical base and concrete, detailed steps However, this model also requires linguistic knowledge and high occupational skills of the critics and the criticism mainly aims at researching languages and translation Therefore, this model has not

+ author‟s provenance and stance

+ social role relationship + social attitude

Mode

+ medium (simple/complex) + participation (simple/complex)

been applied widely and just at experimental level in translation studies In addition, House‟s model seems to be a promising one to assess literary translation

Therefore, we will have a look at another model of TQA by Peter Newmark

 Peter Newmark and his model

In 1998, in “A textbook of translation”, Newmark gives his own model of

TQA called “comprehensive criticism of a translation” including five obvious steps:

 Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its functional aspects

 Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his translation method and the translation‟s likely readership

 Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with the original

 Step 4: An evaluation of the translation: (a) in the translator‟s terms, (b) in the critic‟s terms, (c) assess the translation as a piece of writing, independent of its original

 Step 5: Where appropriate, an assessment of the likely place of the translation in the target language culture or discipline

These steps are initiated from the practical experiences of the translators It can be seen that they are specific and easy to follow, especially Step 1 and Step 2 with main focus on analyzing the SL text This is the first stage of translation and the basis of the useful discipline of translation criticism Through these steps, the translators will understand what the article is about and determine the intention of the SL text

Moreover, press translation requires high accuracy in terms of information and ideas The translated articles must provide enough information, respect the truth and convey the message of the author to the readers accurately Hence, it is necessary to evaluate the translation based on a concrete model in order to make the assessment fairer and more objective

For such reasons, the writer decides to apply Newmark‟s model in quality assessment of the translated versions in this thesis

1.1.5 Contrastive Analysis

It can be said that it is necessary to find out similarities and differences between the source and target texts in the evaluation of the quality of a translation version Therefore, it is also essential to understand contrastive analysis According

to Carl James, “CA is a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted (i.e

contrastive, not comparative) two-valued typologies (a CA is always concerned with

a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared” (James, 1980: 3) In short, contrastive analysis is the systematic study of

a pair of languages to identify their similarities and differences It is also rather useful in studying problems in translation and language types

1.2 Previous studies

Until now, in Vietnam, several MA theses have discussed on translation assessment and equivalence Among them, some typical works can be listed, as follows:

 A Study on the Stylistic Equivalence between “The Old Man and the Sea” by Hemingway and Its Translated Versions in Vietnamese by Văn Thị Thanh Bình (2000);

 A Study on the Translation of Idiomatic Expressions in some TV Dramas by Tôn Thiện Quỳnh Trâm (2001);

 A Study on Textual Equivalence between some Australian Short Stories and their Vietnamese Translations by Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Hồng (2006);

 Application old House‟s Model for translation Quality Assessment in Assessing the English Version of The Vietnam Law on Investment by Lương

Tố Lan (2007);

 A Study on the Equivalence Between English and Vietnamese in US Health Insurance Plans by Vũ Thị Thanh Yến (2007);

 Evaluating the translation of the Guidebook “Du lịch Hạ Long” Based on J House‟s Approach by Nguyen Thùy Yên (2007);

 A Translation Quality Assessment of the Vietnamese Version of Part 7

“Nightmare” in the Novel “Twilight” Using J House‟s model by Lê Mỹ Hạnh (2010);

 An evaluation of the Vietnamese translated version of “The call of the wild”

by Nguyễn Cung Ái and Vũ Tuấn Phương by Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền (2012);

 A translation quality assessment of the Vietnamese version of the book

“Harry Porter and the philosopher‟s stone” in the series Harry Porter using Newmark‟s model by Hoàng Thị Hằng Nga (2014)

These are initial studies on application of new theories in assessment and criticism of translation as well as quality evaluation of English - Vietnamese works with remarkably successful results in terms of theory and practice They are diverse

in both styles and contents based on different models by House and Newmark

However, it is a fact that translation works related to politic issues are not popular In addition, theses on TQA models tend to primarily concentrate on literary field, regardless of non-literary one Hence, in the scope of the minor M.A thesis, the researcher intends to focus on analyzing the intention of the author expressed in the original Then, some criteria to translate political articles can be withdrawn

Clearly, translation studies in general as well as translation evaluation and criticism in particular are being paid more attention Hence, it is also required to have more systematic and serious researches in various areas

1.3 Summary

In conclusion, translation is an activity that is growing phenomenally in today‟s globalized world The study of translation has developed enormously in the past years In Chapter II of this thesis, by reviewing general background knowledge

of translation and related content, the author wants to help the readers to have some understanding about the nature of translation as well as main concepts

After introducing some different TQA models and mentioning basic features

of House‟s and Newmark‟s models, the author comes to a conclusion that she chooses Newmark‟s model to apply in her thesis On one hand, this model is a combination of different authors, from Savory, Nida, Wills, Koller, Reiss to House How Newmark carries out is similar to the way which a translator often does during

a translation process On the other hand, House‟s model seems to be more suitable for assessing literary works

CHAPTER 2: APPLICATION OF NEWMARK’S MODEL

FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT

In this chapter, the data collected from the English article (the SL text) and four corresponding Vietnamese translations (the TL texts) will be analyzed practically based on the five-step Newmark‟s TQA model which the author suggested in the previous chapter to assess the quality of the TL texts Then, the intention of the author expressed in the original will be made clearer This study is mainly a library research, combined with contrastive comparison in terms of the quality

Soon after this act, Vietnam resolutely protested the move as an infringement

of its sovereignty because this rig was located on its continental shelf In a

statement by Vietnam‟s Foreign Ministry, an official said, “All foreign activities in

Vietnam's seas without Vietnam's permission are illegal and invalid.” Locally,

Vietnam actively propagated and explained its stance as well as updated on the latest issues so that international countries and friends could understand aggression and unruly of China in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam In addition, communities in the world also objected fiercely against the behaviour of China on the South China Sea A number of nations like the US, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India condemned the action regardless of international law, causing instability and increased tensions in the Beijing area Thousands of articles called China‟s behaviour “unacceptable”

Among them, The Diplomat, with many talented pen names, had many

articles related to this issue This is a premier international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region, launched in 2002 to dedicate to quality analysis and commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world It reaches an influential audience of commentators, policymakers, and academics with its in-depth treatment of regional issues

Ankit Panda is an Associate Editor of The Diplomat with expertise in

international relations, political economy, international security, and crisis diplomacy His analysis and reports have been widely cited and reprinted by many

famous journals, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, Reuters blogs, Foreign Policy, Newsweek His articles have

been translated into various languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Urdu, Thai, and Russian

On this occasion, he also wrote an article on The Diplomat - “Why did China

set up an oil rig within Vietnamese waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” His work

combined ideas raised by famous professors such as Carl Thayer and M Taylor Fravel His purpose aimed at showing a general statement about this issue based on actual actions and explaining reasons why China set up an oil rig within Vietnamese waters He did not tend to give biased opinions for parties The article was written with neutrally political genre of newspaper articles Its readers can be commentators, researchers, policymakers, and almost academics all over the world who are interested in issues in the Asia-Pacific region generally and relationship between China and Vietnam particularly

2.2 Step 2: The translator’s interpretation of the SL text’s purpose, his translation method and the translation’s likely readership

Normally, the first aim of news is to report factual events Its phrases show that the writer is concealing his propaganda purpose behind words and sentences Hence, the translator has to be faithful to the author and not to his own view of point so that the translation has the same emotional and persuasive charges, and

affects the readers in the same way as the original In fact, translation of press articles requires skills of a translator as well as a journalistic talent The translators

of the journalistic texts must deal with multiple choices of translation strategies Besides, the news is not very complicated because it was written for readers of different backgrounds As a result, free translation is often used as a translation method for this type

The above mentioned article was written by Ankit Panda and was translated into many different languages In terms of Vietnamese, it has been studied and explored by many websites on the Internet, especially popular pages categorized in the South China Sea which are being taken care of by many readers from the young

to the old in many areas and regions inside and outside the country

The English article “Why did China set up an oil rig within Vietnamese

seas? Why now and why Vietnam?” consists of one headline and nine paragraphs

Comparing the translated versions with the original, it is easy to recognize that most

of the writer‟s ideas are transferred into the second language comprehensively and successfully The language used in the translated versions complies with the original one closely The translators tried to keep main contents of the SL text to convey the message of the author to the readers accurately and smoothly

However, in some translations, the translators have misinterpreted the author

by adding or cutting certain sections of the ST intentionally It can be inferred that

in some situations, sentences and ideas of the ST can become understandable through such addition or omission These details are not so important that the readers can still understand the whole message On the contrary, in some cases, addition or omission will transfer non-equivalent contents, even wrong information

to the readers

2.3 Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the translation with the original

In this step, in a scope of this thesis, only some typical examples are chosen for contrastive comparison between the SL text and four different TL texts based on two classified specific criteria More details can be seen in Appendix C

2.3.1 Word choice & expression

It was found that proper names were used in every type of news because they were generally known by most people In other words, these names were significant ingredients of news

In terms of proper names, it can be seen that almost of the proper names in

the origin were translated similarly in English versions, for example, HD-981 oil rig

- giàn khoan (dầu) HD-981; PLAN - tàu hải quân; the Communist Party of

Vietnam - Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam; the Communist Party of China - Đảng Cộng

sản Trung Quốc; the South China Sea - Biển Đông; the Paracel Islands - quần đảo Hoàng Sa; the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) - vùng đặc quyền kinh tế

However, in some cases, the translators used different interpretations for the

same name such as CNOOC - Công ty dầu khí viễn dương quốc gia Trung Quốc in V1, Công ty China National Offshore Oil Company in V2, Tổng Công ty Hải

Dương Trung Quốc in V3, and Công ty Dầu khí Xa bờ Quốc gia Trung Quốc in V4

or ASEAN Heads of Government/State - lãnh đạo ASEAN in V1, những người

đứng đầu Chính phủ/Nhà nước của các nước ASEAN in V2, Bộ trưởng các Chính phủ ASEAN in V3, and các nguyên thủ quốc gia ASEAN in V4

In addition, the translator‟s choice of words is another section that needs to

be compared between the ST and the TT There is a fact that in many cases, the choice of words and expression can make a deep impression on the readers, whereas

in other cases, the readers find it not easy to understand

In order to convey exact messages from the ST to the readers, the translators tried to choose appropriate words and expression to show ideas in the original

Table 1 demonstrates several typical examples of such translation Although the words were translated in different ways, they still show a fact and an act Other similar illustrations can be referred in Appendix C

hành động khiêu khích

động thái khiêu khích

hành động khiêu khích

tàu bảo vệ

bờ biển Trung Quốc

Tàu cảnh sát biển

tàu hải cảnh

5 to catch the

world off-guard

gây bất ngờ với thế giới

làm cho

cả thế giới

bị bất ngờ

khiến thế giới sững sờ

khiến thế giới ngạc nhiên

đáp trả bằng lời nói và bằng sự kiềm chế - chứ không phải là

vũ lực

đáp lại bằng các phương pháp ngoại giao và giảm căng thẳng - chứ không phải bằng vũ lực

kiềm chế trong phản ứng và lời nói, không

sử dụng vũ lực

Table 1: Comparing versions in terms of words and expression

Furthermore, in many situations, the words and phrases in the ST are far different with the TT in terms of denotative meaning They can be illustrated in the following evidences:

V1 những quyết định nội bộ của Trung Quốc

V3 những động thái đơn phương của Trung Quốc

3 II-1 As Carl Thayer points

out on this blog and M

Tayler Fravel said in an interview with The New York Times

V3 Tác giả dẫn ý kiến của các chuyên gia trên New York Times

V4 đã viết trên blog của mình

4 III-4 suddenly risk a relatively

5 III-4 an underlying rivalry V4 hành động mang tính đối đầu

6 V-1 only Chinese coast guard

V2 Trung Quốc chỉ cho tàu bảo vệ bờ biển đâm vào tàu Việt Nam và tấn công bằng vòi rồng

V4 không chỉ các tàu hảnh cảnh Trung Quốc đâm và tấn công bằng vòi rồng vào các tàu Việt Nam

7 V-1 PLAN remained in a

support function

V2 quân đội chỉ giữ chức năng hỗ trợ V3 các tàu quân sự của Trung Quốc còn sẵn sàng yểm trợ

8 VI-1 Whereas vith the

Philippines, South Korea, and Japan, the United States is treaty-bound to take action, in the case of other disputes

in the South China Sea

V3 Trái ngược với Philippines, Hàn Quốc

và Nhật Bản, Mỹ bị ràng buộc bởi các hiệp ước quốc tế để can thiệp vào các trường hợp tranh chấp khác ở biển Đông

9 VII-4 the “internationalization”

of disputes that China dreads has not yet come

to pass

V1 “quốc tế hóa” các tranh chấp trong khi cho rằng mối nguy từ hành động của Trung Quốc vẫn chưa quá giới hạn

10 IX-1 the East China Sea V3 biển Đông

11 IX-3 what ultimately sets this

episode apart from any other

V1 rốt cuộc điều khác biệt duy nhất trong khủng hoảng lần này

V3 điều cốt lõi nhất V4 điều cuối cùng trong sự kiện này

Table 2: Comparing versions in terms of denotative meanings

2.3.2 Structures

* Arranging the structure of the article and paragraphs

It can be found that one difference between the original and the translated versions is about the format Commonly, the translators can transfer messages and ideas of the writer while rewriting the article in their own languages Sometimes,

the translators make their own choices to start a new paragraph, which is different from the original format

Basically, four translations reproduced essential details in the message of the author to the readers However, in some cases, the translators rearranged the article structure intentionally This can be seen clearly in the second and third translations Specifically, in V2, the author omitted the sixth paragraph and separated the first paragraph into two smaller parts For V3, some more sentences which are private opinions were added to serve for his own political intention

In addition, as can be seen in the following examples, in some translations, original sentences were combined into one sentence or separated into two sentences This phenomenon has little effect on sentence meanings and aims at making sentences more understandable and clearer

1 VII-3: However, as the ASEAN Summit

statement demonstrates, China still has an

assurance that regional leaders are

insufficiently united to put forth a joint

front against Chinese coercion in the

South China Sea

V2: Tuy nhiên, như các phát biểu tại Hội nghị thượng đỉnh ASEAN cho thấy, mặc dù các Bộ trưởng Ngoại giao ASEAN cũng đã đưa

ra một tuyên bố riêng và điều này

là có ý nghĩa, nhưng việc "quốc

tế hóa" các tranh chấp ở Biển Đông mà Trung Quốc lo sợ vẫn chưa xảy ra (và rất có thể sẽ không xảy ra sớm)

VII-4: While it is significant that ASEAN

Foreign Ministers issued a separate

statement, the “internationalization” of

disputes that China dreads has not yet

come to pass (and likely will not anytime

soon

2 VI-1: Whereas with the Philippines, South

Korea, and Japan, the United States is

treaty-bound to take action, in the case of

other disputes in the South China Sea,

V3: Trái ngược với Philippines, Hàn Quốc và Nhật Bản, Mỹ bị ràng buộc bởi các hiệp ước quốc

tế để can thiệp vào các trường