The diary of a cricket

The study willfocus on the translation strategies on words describing appearance of character inthe book and give out some comments and suggestions to audience... The study investigates

Because nowadays, more and more people understand English, so English hasbecome the most spoken language in over the world As most of the businesses areinternational so we need a common language to communicate in there, Englishprovides a medium for it In the context of integration and globalization, English isconsidered as the most popular language in the world Therefore, this foreignlanguage plays a very important role in the current era of globalization Humanrelationships as well as cooperation and investment in any field from business,commerce, transportation, technology, media and tourism to opportunities instudying, working, expanding relationships for cooperation are not limited toVietnam but also to other countries in the world English is one of the effectivetools, playing a great role in helping friends in Western understand the voice ofVietnam in the period of international integration

Also, literature provides essential knowledge for people It describes thephenomenal of daily life in the vivid manner From this point of view, people couldimagine the whole world with the diversity aspect of life In this study, I focus onthe daily life of insects who are very small and new Unlike human, the appearance

of insects is emerged with different colors and shapes that make me really into it.Thanks to the English version by Dang The Binh, the researcher and readers have

a chance expose to the book “Diary of a Cricket” in the other aspect The study willfocus on the translation strategies on words describing appearance of character inthe book and give out some comments and suggestions to audience

Besides, from bottom of my heart, I sincerely thanks to my family and friends fortheir solid support during the process of my research I would not have musteredenough motivation to finish this study if I did not receive their mental and financialassistance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES

1 The frequency of translation strategies 23

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale.

When it comes to English, people immediately consider it as a global language,which is currently the official language of more than 53 countries Moreover,English is used in a variety of fields from medicine, technology, services, education

to daily entertainments such as TV shows, comics and stories

Be aware of the importance of English, Vietnamese authorities have promotedand encouraged people to learn English, for example, the curriculum at all levelshas English as the main subject The fact that children who study English have moreopportunities to get good jobs in the future such as interpreting, translating andtravelling In this situation, translating is a difficult task, which requires thediversity of knowledge and the smooth style of content

Besides the aim of learning English for getting a job, English is also a way ofexchanging cultures by different means such as books, magazines and novels Manybooks translated from Vietnamese to English have drawn international’s attention sofar Thanks to English versions, foreigners have more understand about Vietnameseculture as well as the daily life of people in this country Therefore, translating plays

a vital role in transferring deep messages to readers through each word

Unlike interpreting, translating has its own standard of word expression with thehigh accuracy of transference Translators have to make it clear and faithful to theoriginal meaning

However, it is say that Vietnam has a complex language system so when itcomes to translation the target language partly did not in conjunction with thesource language In particularly, some sentences or paragraphs in the sourcelanguage are omitted when they are in the target language That is the reason whyreaders could misunderstand the author statements in his/her masterpiece

To deal with this problem, there are some strategies for translating from sourcelanguage to target language in order to reduce the language barriers as much aspossible Hence, I want to help people understand how translators convertVietnamese words to English words clearly without influencing the quality of

Besides, To Hoai (1920-2014) is a famous Vietnamese writer, playwright,screenwriter and journalist His works and books mainly concentrating on fivefollowing themes: Children, History and Present of Hanoi’ suburbs, Mountainousareas, Resistance and the Formation of Socialism and Autobiographies, memoirsand guides on creative writing, with about 150 works.

The most famous book for children and his best seller, “Dế mèn phiêu lưu ký”

1941 (Diary of a Cricket) has been translated in 37 languages and filmed For manyyears, one chapter of the book has continued to publish in textbook for elementarystudents nationwide

Under the excellent talent of To Hoai, a Cricket appears like a mischievous child

at first After a load of challenges in his adventure, he has learnt precious lessons ACricket represents younger Vietnamese people who want to take challenges andexplore the world

Therefore, I decided to select my own childhood masterpiece “Diary of aCricket” by Dang The Binh, not only for researching deeply on translation strategiesbut also for my interest in the story

1.2 Previous studies.

1.2.1 “A study of the English translational versions of Trinh Cong Son’s in terms of

semantic and syntactic features” by Luong Van Nhan.

This study provides insights into the Vietnamese songs into English, especiallythe translation strategies in handling the complication of semantic and syntacticfeatures of masterpiece written by Trinh Cong Son

The study investigates the usage of translation procedure about the semanticfeatures of lexicon and the syntactic features of phrases and sentences in Trinh CongSon’s song taken from Trinh Cong Son – The collection of everlasting songs (1977)

In general, the study has already met its own aims which analysis effectivelytranslation strategies in the Trinh Cong Son’s song and answers the two-question:

“How were the semantic features in Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs translated into English?”

“How were the syntactic features in Trinh Cong Son’s collection of song translated into English?”

The study researched the reality and practice of translating words and phrasesfrom Vietnamese into English in published translated Trinh Cong Son’s songs Itfinds all the methods suggested by Barker and Peter employed, and they overlappedeach other in translating words and phrases from Vietnamese into English It alsoshows that depending on concrete intention, the number of translation methods can

be combined or not

Besides, it is a chance to enrich skills of music translation and facilitatevocabulary learning along with developing their English vocabulary Moreover, theycan know how to choose words or phrases to go with musical melodies and soundbeats

It can be seen from the study that researcher has completed analyses theeffective of translating strategies in the 14-song from the collection of Trinh CongSon The study sorts out data into different strategies along with explaining theeffective of using translation strategies for each word After analyzing the effective

of strategies, musical features are the main reason impacting on the decision ofchoosing translated words Thanks to its influence, the sound beats of Englishversion songs become more understand and rhythm

However, the study also has some limitations Because the wide range of TrinhCong Son’s songs, the study cannot cover all the words and sentences in thecollection It only presents the typical words and sentences which illustrated thetranslation strategies clearly

Among the kind of semantic features classified by Newmark and Baker, thestudy only focus on researching the word-classes then translating these words fromVietnamese into English Regarding to syntactic features, the study paid attention tofour types of translation shifts classified by Catford who suggested strategies onlyfocus on grammatical structure Hence, it can prevent us from revealing the transfer

of patterns of experience in translating clauses or sentences if this part of the studyhad been conducted from the perspective of the systemic-functional grammar

1.2.2 “A study on translation of Vietnamese education terms into English” by Ngo Thi

Ngoc Lan

The study on translation of education terms aims to figure out an overview ontranslation strategies and procedures commonly employed in translation ofeducation terms in general In particularly, it collects and provides education terms

in Vietnamese and English in the equivalence or expression words, as well asanalysis translation strategies and also provides a draft and short reference ineducation and corresponding

Overall, the study has provided definitions and terms relating translation fullysuch as the translation strategies of Peter Newmark, equivalence in translation andESP in translation Moreover, it also shows various data of education terms inVietnamese and English

Regarding to education programs, researcher has provided a wide range ofeducation terms in both language from education programs (pre-graduationprograms, graduation programs, post-graduation programs and cooperativeeducation programs), education standards to types of education organizations (inVietnam, Singapore, United Kingdom and Canada) Totally, it has provided over 50education terms and 4 figures to illustrate the education system in differentcountries

Besides, the study gave some comments on each translation strategies of educationterms from Vietnamese into English and its difficulties along with somesuggestions It presented some equivalence of subjects, majors and levels ineducation system and non-equivalence of qualification systems in Australia andVietnam

Thanks to the detail of translating education terms in both language, it helpspeople can figure out how to using education terms in particular context anddifferentiate the education system of Vietnam to other countries In term of subjectsand majors, education system of Vietnam has the basic features with other educationsystems such as math, literature, history and so on in subjects and economic,science, technology in majors However, Vietnam also has its distinct characteristics

in academic title If primary in Vietnam has 5 years, the same level can be up to 6years in Australia and so on

However, there are some limitations existing in the study The study onlyconcentrates on giving out some examples without indicating obviously theeffective of each strategy or the translating education terms In comparison ofeducation systems between countries, the study presents hierarchy of educationsystems but does not indicate the difference of naming in the same level amongcountries The terms in education are very popular in society but very difficult tocatch the concepts so sometimes these terms make people confused.

1.2.3 “An analysis on translation procedures from Vietnamese to English for names of

higher education institutions in Vietnam.” By Dang Hong Thu.

The objective of research is identified the procedures in translating the currentnames of Vietnamese HEIs into English Therefore, analysis and discussion oftranslation procedures are implemented to draw out several implication intranslating of names of HEIs in Vietnam The study looks answers for the followingquestion below:

“What translation procedures are currently used in translating names of higher education institutes of Vietnam into English?”

The research conducted in 3 phases through qualitative and quantitativeapproach based on the theoretical framework of translation procedures proposed byNewmark (1988)

Phase 1: Analysis the collected data according to Newmark’s frame to identifytranslation procedures

Phase 2: A comprehensive table of translation procedure generated the trend and thedistribution of name translation of HEIs

Phase 3: Discussion on the trend of translation procedures and the comparison withnames of HEIs in the US in order to draw out the implications of the findings

In general, the study showed the translations of names of Vietnamese HEIs andalso compared translation products to English-speaking ones represented by UnitedState Regarding to the adopted purposive sampling, almost of 122 HEIs are chosen

as sample for researching The source data including original names and theircurrent English translation, is collected mainly from different official websites of

Vietnamese institutions and categorized into three groups following their types ofinstitution.

The comparison of names showed various dissimilarities which is reflected inthe attributes Firstly, the whole translation of names of Vietnamese HEIs objects tofulfill the criteria of similarity to target language’s readers As the result, the studyhas to minimize the distinctions in name structures and concepts of HEI types incountries In addition, the researcher also notices two major problems of variation intranslating science and proper name constitutions in English version of VietnameseHEIs name The discussion anticipates notifying the room for improvement in thefield of institutional translation based on the findings of this study

The finding of the study is considered as a beneficial reference for all translators

in order to improve the translation quality of names of HEIs Translators aresuggested to have a thorough reference from different reliable sources Moreover, italso helps foreigners access to Vietnamese HEIs easily, as well as improvesreputation of Vietnamese HEIs and presents to other countries all over the world.However, there are some disadvantages indicated in the study The researcheronly investigates HEIs and generalizes the implications for other English-speakingcountries But the educational system of countries may be different which couldcause the differences in their name structures of HEIs Therefore, it is impossible toachieve absolute equivalence name structure for all HEIs because of subtle allusionshidden in proper names or specific aspects in the languages Even though theframework of Newmark has provided clear classification of translation proceduresalready, qualitative discussion on the findings of the study relies upon subjectiveanalysis of the researcher

1.3 Aims of the study.

In general, this study concentrates on analyzing which strategies has used forconverting source language into target language and the effective of its inexpressing the author’s implication

In detail, my graduation paper aims at collecting and presenting someVietnamese words describing appearance In general, these words are adjective.Besides, the study also concentrate on providing the equivalent English words

which used by the translator Because “Diary of a Cricket” is a bilingual version ofVietnamese and English, it has had available descriptive words of appearancealready In addition, I do indicate and analysis translation strategies which havebeen used in the translation from Vietnamese to English Finally, evaluating theeffective of these translation strategies and giving some possible suggestions forbetter translation strategies.

I hope that my graduation could provide readers with overall comprehensionabout how to use these strategies for translating in the most effective manner, aswell as enhance the quality of messenger transmission

1.4 Research Subjects.

The graduation paper is going on researching strategies for translatingdescriptive word relating to appearance, almost of them are adjective, which comefrom different characters in “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh Characters inthe stories are several insects, thus, words describing appearance are a little bitstrange and misunderstanding unlike human being

Moreover, Vietnamese words are flexible, diverse and even vague in somecases, especially the words describing appearance depict facial expression and bodylanguage almost are non-equivalent the in target language Hence, it is difficult totranslate those words into English For these reasons, I want to study whichstrategies are used to translate those words in each concrete situation

1.5 Scope of the study.

In the context of study, I limit the scope of the study in the book called “Thedairy of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh The book wrote about the adventure of aCricket who, together with his friends, travels throughout the world, in ninechapters Because the version of “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh is bilingual(Vietnamese and English) so that Vietnamese and international readers of the bookwill gain insights into the character easily by comparing the sentences between twoversion of Vietnamese and English

In general, the translator has tried to make the story clearer by enriching it withmore details However, it also curtains some details to make the story becomes

more understand Thus, it could be confusing in several paragraphs that exist inVietnamese but appear in English version.

1.6 Research methodology.

There are so many research methodologies In this study, however, I mainly useresearch methodology of material collection and contrastive analysis on wordsdescribing appearance in “The diary of a Cricket” following to 3 phases

In the first phase, I collected and selected the words describing appearance in thebook “Diary of a Cricket” in both Vietnamese and English version The book hastotally ten chapters with many insect characters

Next, analyzing these data on the translation strategies used in each context inorder to help readers more understand how to use translation strategies and itseffective in description appearance of characters I sorted these words out intodifferent translation strategies and then ranking these words from the best to theworst of translation strategies

After the second phase, giving other better translation strategies of wordsdescribing appearance if it is necessary As I mentioned, better words are suggested

to replace the worst one following the translation strategies respectively Finally,make comments on the effective of translation strategies

Besides, I focus on describing the process collection the data, kinds of datacollected, the number of data collected from translated words in Vietnamese andEnglish versions of “Diary of a Cricket” Therefore, the study procedures are clearlymentioned, which have a good foundation to carry out research in the properdirection

1.7 Organization of the study.

According to the objective of the study, as well as the research methodology, thegraduation paper is divided into four chapters:

Chapter 1: AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY: States rationale, previous studies,aim of study, research subjects, scope of study, research methodology andorganization of study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: Presenting some definitions, terms andtheoretical background relating to translation and description words

Chapter 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS: Providing Vietnamese words and its Englishwords describing appearance and analyzing the strategies used in the story,presenting some difficulties and explanation.

Chapter 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS: Summarizing the studymentioned above, presenting some limitations of the study and providing somepossible suggestions

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation definitions.

There are so many concepts of translation which are developed by differentlinguistics of translation The simplest way is the transfer of text from sourcelanguage into target language Yet, going through the time, the definition oftranslation has become wider and wider depending on the position of study.Thereupon, to be details, I believe that the following translation definitions beloware useful for my study:

(1) Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/orstatements in one language by the same message and/or statement in anotherlanguage by Peter Newmark (1981:7) In a book called “Translation Theory”,Translation is rendering a written text into another language in the way that theauthor intended the text Translators are concerned with the written word Theyrender written texts from one language into another They are also required toundertake assignments which range from simple items to more complex writtenmaterial

(2) Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source language)

by equivalent textual material in another language (target language) by Catford(1965)

(3) Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of a written SLtext into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic, thesemantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the SL.(Wilss - 1982: 3)

According to the objective of my study, I consider the definition of translation in

by Newmark (1981:7) as a main direction In order to ensure the cohesion andcoherence, the study is almost based on from definitions, theories to strategies ofNewmark mainly Besides, the definition of Catford is also used in the study, thus,the study sometimes could research forward to Catford’s definition as well

2.2 Translation Strategies.

2.2.1 What is strategy?

The word “strategy” is used in many context of fields In business, “strategy”refer to help the company determines the direction and scope of an organizationover the long term, and it should determine how resources should be configured tomeet the needs of markets and stakeholders (Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes inExploring Corporate Strategy) Unlike business strategy, in translation studies,many theorists have used the term translation strategies widely but with someconsiderable differences in the meaning and the perspective from which they look

at A list of more general definitions of the word strategy is given below:

(1) A systematic plan, consciously adapted and mentioned, to improve one’s learning

performance (Instruction Curriculum Reading Glossary n.d)

(2) A strategy is a planned, deliberated, goal-oriented (has an identifiable outcome)procedure achieved with a sequence of steps subject to monitoring and modification

(Curriculum Learning Literate-Futures Glossary n.d).

(3) A set of explicit mental and behavioral steps used to a specific outcome (Deep Trance n.d).

I choose the definition of Curriculum Learning Literate-Futures Glossarybecause it provides a good point of view of translation strategy

2.2.2 Translation strategies.

Strategy 1: How to deal with non-equivalence of word level.

a Translation by a more specific word

In some cases, it may be appropriate or necessary to use a more specific word totranslate source language word into target language word This usually involveschoosing among several different words, as there may be many Vietnamese wordsthat correspond to the general category or meaning expressed by the English terms.There are so many words is not enough to determine the appropriate in anotherlanguage when translating, and it is necessary to examine the English context indeciding which target language word is to be used

b Translation by a more general word.

This is one of the commonest strategies for dealing with many types of equivalence, particularly in propositional meaning In other cases, it may beappropriate to use a more general word to translate an English word with no specificVietnamese equivalent and vice versa Due to the complex of Vietnamese, it doesnot work well in expressing meaning of English version

non-c Translation by cultural substitution

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with one ofdifferent meaning but similar impact in the translated text Because of their self-described “respect” for the original text, most Vietnamese translators object to thisstrategy and tend to translate directly, even when it may be highly inappropriate.Though some translations argue that it is not the responsibility of the translators tochange the text in this way, the translators is in fact an important role here.Translators should be encouraged to question the appropriateness of the documentthey are translating and suggest change to make them more culturally appropriate

d Translation using a loan word plus explanation

There is some resistance to this strategy in Vietnam, as many translators prefer

to create new Vietnamese words rather than borrow English words However, thisstrategy can be useful when dealing with concepts or ideas that are new to Vietnam,cultural specific items, and proper names of diseases or medicines that are widelyknown by their English names Following the loan words with an explanation isvery useful when the word in questions repeated many times in the content Whenexplained the loan word can be used on its own; the reader can understand it as well

as not distracted by further explanation

e Translation by paraphrase

This strategy can be used when translating an English word or concept that doesnot exist in Vietnamese, or when Vietnamese term for it does not include all themeanings conveyed by the English term for the same concept There are two types

of translation by paraphrase

The first one is using a related word This strategy tends to be used when theconcept expressed by the source item is lexicalized in the target language but in a

different form Besides, the frequency with a certain form is considerable higherthan would be natural in the target language.

In contrast, using unrelated words when the source item is not lexicalized at all

in the target language However, this strategy can still be used in several contexts Itmay be based on modifying the superordinate or simply on unpacking the meaning

of the source item

f Translation by omission

Though some translators maybe reject this strategy as too drastic, it isappropriate to omit words or phrase that is not essential to the meaning or impact ofthe text This is especially true for words that would need lengthy explanations,awkward paraphrases, or literal and unnatural translations, which would interruptthe flow the text could distract the reader from overall meaning

These words like “physically” cannot easily express the slight emphasis implied here

by the author and would not do so by emphasizing the physicality of the sentence

g Translation by illustration:

If the word lacks an equivalent in the target language, this strategy is a useful option

to deal with it The strategy refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated,particularly if there are restrictions on space or the text has to remain short andconcise

Strategy 2: How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions.

a Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form

It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or examples with a similarmeaning to an English idiom or expression, which is expressed in the same way

It is ideal if such a match can be found, but this kind of correspondence is notcommon, and it is usually necessary to use other strategies in dealing with idiomsand fixed expressions

b Using an idioms or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form

It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with a similarmeaning to an English idiom, but which is expressed differently

The meaning is clearly the same but idioms – to bring something to a place thatalready has abundance of that thing – but the way in which each language expresses

c Translation by paraphrase.

When Vietnamese equivalents cannot be found, paraphrasing may be the bestway to deal with an idiom or fixed expression It would be difficult to re-stateconcisely in English

d Translation by omission

As with single words, whole phrases may be omitted if they are not essential tothe meaning or impact of the text This may be done with phrase that would requirelengthy explanations, awkward paraphrase, or literal and unnatural translations Thismay also be done when a phrase has two meanings, and one of the meanings must

be sacrificed for the other

Strategy 3: How to deal with voice, number and person.

a Voice

The passive voice is used very frequently in English and poses some problems fortranslation into Vietnamese Passive voice can be translated from English intoVietnamese and vice versa in the following ways:

The positive and negative connotation is not often conveyed It can be difficult

to know which verb to use in the Vietnamese

On the other hand, when the positive or negative connotation of the sentence isclear, it is more appropriate to retain the passive voice in the Vietnamese

b Number

Though both languages have similar notions of number and counting, eachlanguage expresses this in very different ways In Vietnamese, number is often notexpressed at all while in English, number is expressed as a grammatical category.There are different grammatical forms for the singular and plural nouns InVietnamese, however, no such distinction is made grammatical

In Vietnam, the number for counting, order and frequency are the same name.But in English, counting refers to one, two, three and go on; first, second, third fororder and once, twice for frequency Therefore, translating number from Vietnameseinto English, translators should take into consider whether number expressed for

In Vietnamese, some plural markers such as “các, những, tất cả, mọi, mỗi” can

be used in addition to the noun It is clear from the English context which of theseplural markers should be used in the Vietnamese, then the translator should choseaccordingly

c Person

Participant roles and forms of address are expressed in Vietnamese through avery complicated system of personal pronouns based largely on kinship terms.Unlike their English counterparts, Vietnamese pronouns convey many differentdistinctions, depending on relationship within the family, familiarity, social status,and even one’s particular mood or attitude in a given situation

These distinctions are not always clear in English and can usually be determined

by the context, if at all If it is not possible should be based on consideration of toneand overall purpose of the document

Strategy 4: How to deal with proper names.

Geographical terms: either translated into another word in target language ortranslated phonologically (“s” becomes “x”) or remained unchanged

Name of organizations: translated into English or unchanged or only stable partsare translated or omit the word.

It also using reverse order or adjective + noun or noun + preposition + noun.Proper names in medical texts: Tests, symptoms, diseases, syndromes, part ofbody are named after one “scientist” in one language community and a differentone, are given a more general term, in another

Strategy 5: How to deal with non-subject sentences

In Vietnamese-written passage, some non-subject sentences come across In thiscase, it is possible to apply the following techniques of translation in many ways.Number 1, it can use passive voices to translate non-subject sentences into otherlanguages Instead of determining subject, the writer can switch object to subjectand omit the undefined subject

Besides, the structure “It + to be +adjective + to do something” is also usedfrequently to deal with this problem The structure use for expressed the importance

Strategy 6: How to deal with newspaper headlines.

Headlines serve to get reader’s attention so that it has to summarizes or tellabout the article To deal with newspaper headlines, translators can use some maincharacteristics of newspaper headlines Remarkably, newspaper headlines,sometimes, are not fully grammar, it could be omitted “to be” or “do/does”

In English, newspaper headlines usually using “To + V” refer to future events,using past tense for present events Moreover, present participle will be convertedinto event in progressive while past participle goes to future events It means thatthe translated sentence will be omitted “be”

In addition, some articles could only have nouns or verb nouns as long as thenouns and verbs nouns transfer fully the content of newspaper meanwhile the article

“a, an, the”, adjective and date are hardly used in headlines

In conclusion, because the subject research of my study is words describingappearance, thus, I focused on dealing with the strategy 1 “How to deal with non-equivalence of word level” which has seven different types However, in this study,

I only research on the first six translation of strategy 1 It is the most suitabletranslation strategy that helps my study go further into researching words describingappearance

2.3 Words describing appearance.

Generally speaking, words describing appearance are words which provide thedetail and clear look of character without image Through these words, readerscould imagine how the character looks like

2.3.1 In English

In English, the words describing appearance are existed under the form ofadjective Because adjective is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to orgrammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it

It also make documents and speaking much more specific and a whole lot moreinteresting Besides, adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual peopleand unique things, so they are usually located before noun and pronoun which theysupport

or pronoun In addition, Vietnamese adjective also attribute to verb positionedbehind verb as it does with noun and pronoun.

Noun + adjectiveVerb + adjective

In general, Vietnamese words describing appearance are used for illustrating theunique and feature status and look of person Moreover, it also helps the speakerand writer transfer his/ her message to listeners and readers in the most effectivelyway In some cases, they also use words describing appearance for addressing theother such as call the outstanding features of body

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 3.1 Frequency of translation strategies.

By using the translation strategies in the book “Translation Theory”, I examinedthe words describing appearance in “Diary of a Cricket” by Dang The Binh Afterexamining the parallel corpus of Vietnamese and English version of “Diary of aCricket”, containing 45 words describing appearance were found In this part, thepercentage table of each translation strategies will be presented:

Table 1: The frequency of translation strategies

According to the table, the strategy “translation by omission” appears 15 timesand get the highest percentage with 34% while two strategies “Translation by amore general word” and “Translation by paraphrase” stand on the same rank which

is the second, with 23% The third goes to “Translation by a specific word” with16% for 7 data Following that is “Translation by a cultural substitution” which has

2 words, accounts for 4% Finally, “Translation by a loan plus explanation” does notappear in this book

It can be seen from the table that omission strategy is mostly used with 33%.Besides, the frequency of using a more general word and paraphrase strategy areequally which about 23% The figure for translation by cultural substitution is only

2 words, ranked at the least percentage of the chart However, there is no data oftranslation strategy by a loan word plus explanation In general, the first three