Investigating vietnamese english translation of exhibit labels at museum of vietnamese ethnics’ cultures, thai nguyen province

The research aims to investigate the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ cultures at Thai Nguyen City.. In this study qualitative metho

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

MA THỊ BÔNG

INVESTIGATING VIETNAMESE- ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF EXHIBIT LABELS AT THE MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE ETHNIC

CULTURES, THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH VIỆT- ANH TÊN CÁC HIỆN VẬT TẠI BẢO TÀNG VĂN HÓA CÁC DÂN TỘC VIỆT NAM TỈNH THÁI NGUYÊN

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

MA MINOR THESIS

Ha Noi, November, 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

MA THỊ BÔNG

INVESTIGATING VIETNAMESE- ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF EXHIBIT LABELS AT THE MUSEUM OF VIETNAMESE ETHNIC

CULTURES, THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH VIỆT- ANH TÊN CÁC HIỆN VẬT TẠI BẢO TÀNG VĂN HÓA CÁC DÂN TỘC VIỆT NAM

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

-***** -

I hereby certify that the thesis enlabeld

Investigating Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics’ Cultures, Thai Nguyen provinceis the result of my own

research for the Degree of Master of Arts at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) and that this thesis has not been submitted for any assessment in any other formal courses of study

elsewhere

Signature:

Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the complement of my thesis, I have received generous advice and a great

deal of support from a number of people Firstly, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Le Hung Tien, for his enthusiastic guidance, constructive critical feedback and generous help in the process of completing my thesis

My special thanks approve to all my respected lecturers in the M.A course for their informative and valuable lectures and the administrative staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, for their help, guidance, enthusiasm and valuable support during my course of study

I would like to express my gratefulness to all the staff working at Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ cultures in Thai Nguyen Province for their kind cooperation and valuable support, which considerably contributed to the completion of my work

Finally, I would like to acknowledge my dear family for their love, material and spiritual support throughout this research I also wish to thank all my friends who always stand by me with their consideration and encouragement

Ma Thị Bông

ABSTRACT

Museum is the place where cultural and historical values are preserved and popularized to the young generation and the foreigners One of the most important issues in propagating Vietnamese culture to the oversea visitors is the translating exhibits‟ names into foreign languages The research aims to investigate the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ cultures at Thai Nguyen City In this study qualitative method and observation are applied to find out the most common translation strategies, procedures and methods used in translating exhibit labels with the detail analysis of each strategy‟s advantages and disadvantages From the findings of the study, some suggestions for the translators when dealing with cultural words are given To answer all the research questions, the research supplies readers with a foundational knowledge of translation through literature review section Then the data are

analyzed for the conclusion of the study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1

SL 1

TL 1

: Source language 1

: Target language 1

PART A: INTRODUCTION 2

1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study 2

2 Significance of the study 3

3 Aims of the study 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Research questions 3

6 Methodology of the study 4

6.1 The current context of translation of exhibit labels at the Vietnamese Ethnics‟ Culture Museum 4

6.2 The data collection criteria 4

6.3 Research methods 4

6.4 Data collection procedure 5

7 Organization of the study 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 Previous studies 6

1.2 Definition of translation 6

1.3 Translation equivalence 7

1 4 Problems with non-equivalent at word level 10

1.5 Translation strategies 13

1 6 Translation procedures 17

1.7 Translation method 23

CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 27

2.1 The strategies used in the translation of exhibit labels 27

2.1.1 Translation by a more general word 27

2.1.2 Translation by a more neutral/ less expressive word 28

2.1.3 Translation by cultural substitution 28

2.1.4 Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation 29

2.1.5 Translation by paraphrase using related words 30

2.1.6 Translation by omission 31

2.2 Translation procedures and methods used in translating exhibit labels 31

2.2.1 Transference 31

2.2.2 Literal translation 32

2.2.3 Transposition 33

2.2.4 Cultural equivalent 33

2.2.5 Descriptive equivalent 34

2.2.6 Reduction 34

2.2.7 Couplets 35

2.3 Some suggestions for translating cultural words 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

REFERENCES 41

APPENDIX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SL

TL

: Source language : Target language

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part presents the rationale for the study which consists of 7 sections:

(1) States the problem and the rationale of the study (2) and (3): Clarify the significance, aims, and objectives of study as well (4): Provides the scope and limitation of study (5): Proposes the research questions (6) Methodology of the study (7): Brief organization of study

1 Statement of the problem and the rationale of the study

In Vietnam as well as every country in the world, museum is considered as the place where cultural values are preserved and exhibited It collects and conserves cultural exhibits and the record of humanity which deepen people‟s understanding and appreciation of their history and culture Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ Culturesbuilt in 1960 and situated at Thai Nguyen City center is the cultural site which exhibiting and preserving cultural and historical values of all ethnic groups in Vietnam People visiting the museum not only amuse themselves but also study Vietnamese culture Among the visitors of the museum, there are a lot of foreigners, scientists and students In order to welcome foreigners and better their knowledge about Vietnamese culture, all the exhibit labels are written in Vietnamese and then translated into English and French

There is no doubt that the translation process of exhibit labels is not easy because many Vietnamese cultural concepts do not have equivalents in English The translators have to apply numerous translation strategies to make all the concepts comprehensible to the visitors So far, translation aspects have always been a noteworthy field for many researchers; however, little investigation on the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels has been conducted Therefore a study on this aspect is really essential With the hope of investigating the most popular translation strategies, procedure and method used in exhibit labels translation as well as giving some useful suggestions in translating cultural concepts, the author would like to carry out this minor thesis

2 Significance of the study

Theoretically, investigating of Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at Vietnamese ethnics‟ culture museum in Thai Nguyen city can be a theoretical foundation for the latter studies related to this field The outcome of this investigation raises the interest and curiosity of other researchers to deal with the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels in other museums

Practically, this study helps to determine the most common translation strategies, procedures and methods used by translators in translating exhibit labels from Vietnamese into English It also points out the benefits and drawbacks when applying each strategy in translating exhibit labels Furthermore, the research gives some suggestions and implication that would be useful for cultural concepts translation

3 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

 Analyzing the most common translation strategies, procedures and methods used in the Vietnamese-English translation of exhibit labels

 Analyzing the advantages and the shortcomings of each strategy in the translation

 Giving some suggestions for translators when dealing with cultural concepts

4 Scope of the study

Each label of exhibit consists of the label and a description telling about its age, material, collector, and artist The study limits itself to the analysis of Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels

5 Research questions

 What are the most common translation strategies in the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy used?

 What translation procedures and methods are widely used in translating exhibit labels from Vietnamese into English? What are their benefits and

shortcomings when applying in the translation?

6 Methodology of the study

This study was conducted with qualitative method First, the theoretical backgrounds of the study from a lot of published books written by many authors were provided Then, the exhibit labels from Museum of Vietnamese Ethnic‟s Culture in Thai Nguyen city were collected as the data of the study From these sources, we analysed and drew out the strategies, procedures and methods used in the translation

6.1 The current context of translation of exhibit labels at the Vietnamese Ethnics’ Culture Museum

Built in 1960, the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ Cultures in Thai Nguyen provincenow becomes one of six national museums which preserves about 2000 valuable documents, photographs and exhibits of fifty-four ethnic minority groups Each exhibit is accompanied by a label showing its label, and a description of origin, age, collector written in Vietnamese, English and French The English version of the exhibit labels were translated by a group of four translators who have been working in the museum and have qualification specializing in English.Most of the exhibits are everyday life belongings, domestic tools, production tools and religious belongings of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam Therefore, many items do not have equivalents in English

6.2 The data collection criteria

The focus of this study is the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels in the Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ Cultures in Thai Nguyen province; therefore only labels of exhibitsare collected as the subject of this research The

documents and descriptions are not chosen There are about 300 labels selected for

the study, a majority of which are two to four words in length The exhibits selected mostly are working tools, everyday belongings, outfits and religious belongings

6.3 Research methods

In the research, qualitative methods, observation and document study are

used to analyze the uses of translation strategies, procedures and methods applied in translating exhibit labels from Vietnamese into English

6.4 Data collection procedure

In order to conduct this study, we will manipulate the following steps:

+ First, we will identify and gather the translation of exhibit labels from the Museum

+ Next, we classify the data according to the strategies, methods and procedures used in the translation based on Vinay & Darbelnet‟s classification and Newmark‟s classification

+ Then, we analyze the purpose, the effectiveness and the shortcomings of each strategy, method and procedure that the translators used

+ Next, we observe the exhibits in the museum and evaluation the translation of their labels to find out some problems in translation

+ Lastly, after analyzing the data and evaluate the translation of exhibit labels we draw out some suggestions in translating culture- specific concepts

7 Organization of the study

This thesis consists of three parts, namely introduction, development and conclusion

Part A is introduction which provides an overview of the study including the

rationale, the significance, the aims, methods, the scope and the methodology of the study

Part B, Development, includes two distinguishable chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews theoretical background on which the whole

study is based on

Chapter 2, findings and discussion, presents findings and discusses on the

translation strategies, procedures and methods used in exhibit labels translation

Part C, Conclusion, provides a summary of the study; suggests some implications,

limitations of the study; and states some suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Previous studies

Translation is an interesting topic to many authors through a numbers of studies Nguyen (2005) investigating the Vietnamese-English translation of exhibit labels in Vietnam Museum of Ethnography She studied the strategies, translation procedures and found out the difficulties facing the translators in translating process and pointed out some problems in the translation as well Her subject was object labels In her study, she mainly listed the strategies and procedures used in translation without pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy and procedure She did not synthesize and generalize the common cases in which these strategies and procedures were applied Bach (2007) conducted a study investigating equivalence in the Vietnamese cultural words in the book “wandering through Vietnamese Culture” by Huu Ngoc The objective of her study was finding out the equivalence type in the translation Most recently, Nguyen (2011) carried out a research on Vietnamese-English translation of Vietnamese cultural words in the book “Hanoi‟s ancient features” by Tran Manh Thuong The goal of the research was pointing out the typical type of equivalence used, the common problems in the translation and the common translation method applied in translation process All of the studies mentioned above relate to the Vietnamese- English translation of cultural words; however they still left the gaps for the present study to continue exploring the strategies, procedures and methods applied in the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at Museum of Vietnamese Ethnics‟ cultures and finding out the most common and suitable method to deal with translating cultural words

1.2 Definition of translation

Translation is a challenging process and it has appealed to many theorists over years Therefore, it was defined variously We start with Catford‟s classical

definition of translation: “The replacement of textual material in one language (SL)

by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) (Catford: 1965: 20) His theory implies that the target text should be equivalent to its source text in both form and content; however he only focuses on written products

Having the same idea with Catford, Bell(1991) defines: “translation is the expression in another language of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.” (Bell (1991:5)

In contrast, Larson (1894) considers translation as a change of form In translation the form of the source language is replaced by the form of the receptor (target) language (Larson, M.L (1984:3))

Hatim & Mason (1990:3) affirms that “Translation is a communicative process which takes place within a social context.”

In addition, Nida, E.A (1975:33) states“Translating consists of producing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the message of the source language, first in meaning and secondly in style.”

In the book “On linguistic aspects of translation” Roman Jakobson (1959) suggests that translation may occur not only between languages (interlingual translation), but also within a language (intralingual) and between semiotic system (intersemiotic translation)

Although there are numerous approaches to translation definition, all of them emphasize on the importance of equivalence in target language both in lexical and grammatical structure

1.3 Translation equivalence

Equivalence has been considered the unique intertextual relation that only translations are expected to show It is defined as the relationship between a source text and a target text that allows the target text to be considered as a translation of the source text in the first place Therefore, it is no surprise that equivalence is always taken for granted as a prescriptive criterion, as Koller (1995:196) says:

“Translation can be understood as the result of a text-reprocessing activity,

by means of which a source-language text is transposed into a target-language text Between the resulting text in L2 (the target-language text) and the source text in L1 (the source-language text) there exists a relationship which can be designated as a translational, or equivalence relation.”

Then the question to be asked is not whether the two texts are equivalent, but what type and degree of translation equivalence they reveal Therefore, it is possible

to say that equivalence is “Any relation characterizing translation under a specified set of circumstances.”, and “Equivalence was a relationship between two texts in two languages, rather than between the languages themselves” (Dr Tien‟s lectures-2007)

Translation theorists tend to classify equivalence in accordance with different criteria and approaches Based on quantitative approach, Kade (1968) suggested five types of equivalences

 One-to-one equivalence: A single expression in target language (TL) is equivalent to a single expression in source language (SL)

 One-to-many equivalence: More than one TL expression are equivalent to a single SL expression

 Many-to-one equivalence: There is more than one expression in the SL but there is a single expression in TL which is equivalent to them

 One-to-part-of-one equivalence: A TL expression covers part of a concept designated by a single SL expression

 Nil equivalence: No TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression

So loaned/borrowed equivalents should be used

With meaning-based approach, Koller (1979) proposes five types of equivalence:

 Denotative equivalence: The kind of equivalence oriented towards the

extralinguistic content transmitted by a text Denotative equivalence is achieved when the target language and source language have identical

reference

 Connotative equivalence: is achieved when the TL preserves the

connotations in the source language text created by means of the word choice with respect to level of style, social and geographical dimensions, frequency, etc Achievement of connotative equivalence is the hardest problems of translation, and can seldom be absolute (Koller, 1979)

 Text-normative equivalence: its aim is to translate in accordance with text

and language norms for given text types so that the communicative effect of the SL text is preserved in the TL text To make it simple, text-normative equivalence is achieved when 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 the TL words

have the same effect on the respective readers In other words, seeking to achieve pragmatic equivalence is translating for a particular readership

 Formal equivalence: to achieve it in a TL text is to produce an analogy of

form in the translation, preserving such formal-aesthetic features of the SL texts as word play, meta-linguistic aspects and individual stylistic features

An extremely interesting discussion about the notion of equivalence can be found inBaker (1992) who seems to offer a more detailed list of condition upon which the concept of equivalence can be defined She distinguishes between:

 Equivalence that can appear at word level and above word level, when translating from one language into another This means that the translator should pay attention to a number of factors when considering a single word, such as number, gender and tense

 Textual equivalence, when referring to the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in terms of information and cohesion It is up to the translator

to decide whether or not to maintain the cohesive ties as well as the coherence of the SL text His or her decision will be guided by three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text

type

Nida (1964) distinguishes formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence as

basic orientations rather than as a binary choice:

 Formal equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have the closest possible match of form and content The translator attempts to translate the text literally word-for-word He/She attributes priority to the SL text, and tries to render the SL text as faithfully as possible, not only in its content but also in its form including grammatical units, consistency in word usage, meanings in terms of the source context

 Dynamic equivalence is achieved when the SL and the TL words have the same effect on their effective readers This kind of equivalence is “The closest natural equivalent” of the SL text, more emphasis on “equivalent effect” Translators attempt to convey the meaning in a way that has the same influence on the target audience as it does on the source language To produce a “natural” translation, the translator has to bear in mind 3 important factors:

 The receptor language and culture as a whole

 The context of the particular message (intonation, rhythm of sentences, style)

 The receptor language audience (translation should produce the same effect

in the receptor language readers as the original piece did in the SL audience!)

1 4 Problems with non-equivalent at word level

According to Baker (1992:20), non-equivalence at word level means that the

TL has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the SL She distinguishes eleven types of non-equivalence

(a) Culture-specific concepts

The SL word may express a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture The concept in question may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food Such concepts are often referred to as

„culture-specific‟ One example taken for granted, Vietnamese use the word “ông

mãnh” to refer to a man who dies young The people in other countries could not know what “ông mãnh” is if they do not know Vietnamese culture

(b) The SL concept is not lexicalised in the TL

The SL word may express a concept which is known in the target culture but simply not lexicalised, i.e not allocated a TL word to express it.The word “quân tử” refers

to a talented and straightforward man who has numerous good qualities in accordance with Confusion thought In English sometimes it can be translated as

“gentleman”; however its meaning is restricted in a certain circumstance

(c) The SL word is semantically complex

This is a fairly common problem in translation A single word which consists of a single morpheme can sometimes express a more complex set of meanings than a whole sentence For instance, in Vietnamese “tôi tiễn anh ta”, the word “tiễn” means I take him out the door and say goodbye

(d) The SL and TL make different distinctions in meaning

The TL may make more or fewer distinctions in meaning than the SL What one language regards as an important distinction in meaning another may not perceive

as relevant For example, in Vietnamese the words “cô, dì, mợ, thím, bác gái” are all translated into English by one word “aunt”

(e) The TL lacks a superordinate

The TL may have specific words (hyponyms) but no general word (superordinate)

to head the semantic field For instance, Vietnamese doesn‟t have the general word for “rice” It is translated as “mạ, cơm, lúa, thóc, gạo, cốm”

(f) The TL lacks a specific term (hyponym)

More commonly, languages tend to have general words but lack specific ones, since each language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to its particular environment For instance, to express the action of “wearing” in English

it depends on the context to understand its meaning, whereas, in Vietnamese there are many hyponyms for it: mặc( quần áo), đi(tất, giày), để( râu), đội( mũ), bôi( son) and so on

(g) Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective may be of more importance in one language than it is in another Physical perspective has to do with where things or people are in relation to

one another or to a place, as expressed in pairs of words such as come/go, take/bring Come: means getting closer the speaker + Go: means getting away from

the speaker -Interpersonal perspective: drawn the attention to the relationship among participants in the discourse Ex: English: “to give”- present voluntarily and without expecting compensation Vietnamese: biếu, tặng, cống, nạp, đưa, cho… (h) Differences in expressive meaning

There may be a TL word which has the same propositional meaning as the SL word, but it may have a different expressive meaning This is often the case with items which relate to sensitive issues such as religion, politics and sex For example: In English the word “sexy” has positive and complementary meaning, whereas in Vietnamese it means wearing erotically and has negative meaning

(i) Differences in form

There is often no equivalence in the TL for a particular form in the source text Prefixes and suffixes in English often have no direct equivalents in other languages

English has many couplets such as employer/employee, trainer/trainee, and payer/payee

(j) Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms

Even when a particular form does have a ready equivalent in the TL, there may be a difference in the frequency with which it is used or the purpose for which it is used

English uses the continuous –ing form for binding clauses much more frequently

than other languages which have equivalents for it

(k) The use of loan words in the source text

The source text uses loan word; therefore it is difficult to find loan word in the target language For example two words “sơn hào, hải vị” are two loan words from Chinese and they do not have equivalent loan in English

1.5 Translation strategies

Krings (1986:18) defines translation strategy as "translator's potentially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task," and Seguinot (1989) believes that there are at least three global strategies employed by the translators: (i) translating without interruption for

as long as possible; (ii) correcting surface errors immediately; (iii) leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage Moreover, Loescher (1991:8) defines translation strategy as "a potentially conscious procedure for solving a problem faced in translating a text, or any segment of it." As

it is stated in this definition, the notion of consciousness is significant in distinguishing strategies which are used by the learners or translators In this regard, Cohen (1998:4) asserts that "the element of consciousness is what distinguishes strategies from these processes that are not strategic."

Venuti (1998:240) indicates that translation strategies "involve the basic tasks of choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a method to translate it." He employs the concepts of domesticating and foreignizing to refer to translation strategies Jaaskelainen (1999:71) considers strategy as, "a series of competencies, a set of steps or processes that favor the acquisition, storage, and/or utilization of information." He maintains that strategies are "heuristic and flexible in nature, and their adoption implies a decision influenced by amendments in the translator's objectives."

Mona Baker (1992: 26-42) lists eight strategies, which have been used by professional translators, to cope with the problematic issues while doing a translation task:

(a) Translation by a more general word (superordinate)

This is one of the most common strategies to deal with many types of equivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning It works equally well

non-in most, if not all, languages, snon-ince the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is

not language-specific

(b) Translation by a more neutral /less expressive word

Baker (1992:29) gives an example to illustrate this

Source text: the shamanic practices we have investigated are rightly seen as an archaic mysticism

Target text (back-translated from Japanese): the shamanic behaviour which we have been researching should rightly be considered as ancient mysticism

The translator could have used a Japanese phrase which means „behind the times‟ and which would have been closer to both the propositional and expressive

meanings of archaic This, however, would have been too direct, that is too openly disapproving by Japanese standards The expressive meaning of archaic is lost in

the translation

(c) Translation by cultural substitution

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a language item which does not have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader The main advantage of this strategy is that it gives the reader a concept with he/she can identify, something familiar and appealing

target-E.g Source text: The Patrick Collection has restaurant facilities to suit every taste – from the discerning gourmet, to the Cream Tea expert

Target text (back translated from Italian): to satisfy all tastes: from those of the demanding gastronomist to those of the expert in pastry

In Britain, „cream tea‟ is „an afternoon meal consisting of tea to drink and scones with jam and clotted cream to eat It can also include sandwiches and cakes „Cream tea‟ has no equivalent in other cultures The Italian replaced it with „pastry‟, which does not have the same meaning However, „pastry‟ is familiar to the Italian reader and therefore provides a good cultural substitute

(d) Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

This strategy is particularly common in dealing with culture-specific items, modern

concepts, and buzz words Following the loan word with an explanation is very useful when the word in question is repeated several times in the text Once explained, the loan word can be used on its own; the reader can understand it and is not distracted by further lengthy explanations

E.g Source text: Morning coffee and traditional cream teas are served in the conservatory

Target text (back-translated from Japanese): Morning coffee and traditional afternoon tea and cream cakes can be enjoyed in the conservatory (green house) The underlined word in the ST is used as loan words in the Japanese text, not because they have no equivalents in Japanese but because they sound more modern, smart, high class

(e) Translation by paraphrase using a related word

This strategy tends to be used when the concept expressed by the source item is lexicalised in the TL but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is significantly higher than would be natural

(f) Translation by paraphrase using unrelated words

If the concepts expressed by the source item are not lexicalised at all in the TL, the paraphrase strategy can still be used in some contexts Instead of a related word, the paraphrase may be based on modifying a superordinate or simply on unpacking the meaning of the source item, particularly if the item in question is semantically complex

E.g Source text: ….the lower mixed broadleaf forests….are the areas most assessible to and disturbed by Man

Target text (back-translated from Chinese): …the mixed broadleaf forests of the lowland

area …are the places where human beings enter most easily and interfere most

The main advantage of the paraphrase strategy is that it achieves a high level of precision in specifying propositional meaning One of its disadvantages is that a paraphrase does not have the status of a lexical item and therefore cannot convey expressive, evoked, or any kind of associated meaning Another advantage of using this strategy is that it is cumbersome and awkward to use because it involves filling

a one-item slot with an explanation consisting of several items

(g) Translation by omission

This strategy may sound rather drastic, but in fact it does no harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question

(h) Translation by illustration

This strategy can be useful when the target equivalent item does not cover some aspects of the source item and the equivalent item refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point

When dealing with culture-specific concepts, Harvey (2003:2-6) puts forward the following four major techniques for translating them

 Functional Equivalence: It means using a referent in the TL culture whose function is similar to that of the source language (SL) referent

 Formal Equivalence or 'linguistic equivalence': It means a 'word-for-word' translation

 Transcription or 'borrowing' (i.e reproducing or, where necessary, transliterating the original term): It stands at the far end of SL-oriented strategies If the term is formally transparent or is explained in the context,

it may be used alone In other cases, particularly where no knowledge of the

SL by the reader is presumed, transcription is accompanied by an

explanation or a translator's note

 Descriptive or self-explanatory translation: It uses generic terms to convey the meaning It is appropriate in a wide variety of contexts where formal equivalence is considered insufficiently clear In a text aimed at a specialized reader, it can be helpful to add the original SL term to avoid ambiguity

It is obviously seen that each theorist offers his/her own strategies according to his/ her perspective; however, Baker‟s (1992) taxonomy of translation strategies include the most applicable set of strategies, which are used by most professional translators

1 6 Translation procedures

In contrast to translation strategies (the translators‟ global approach or plan of action on a given text, according to their intention), translation procedures are used for sentences and smaller units of language within that text (Newmark (1988:81)) Translation procedures are methods applied by translators when they formulate an equivalence for the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from the Source Text (ST) to the Target Text (TT) Vinay and Darbelnet first proposed seven methods or procedures (loan, calque literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence, adaptation) in 1958

The first three, called direct translation procedures, are used when there are structural and metalinguistic parallelisms that occur between languages , therefore it

is possible to overcome the gaps between the source language and the target language by transposing the SL message piece by piece into the TL The other four, called oblique translation procedures, are used when structural and conceptual elements of the source language cannot be directly transposed without altering meaning or upsetting the grammatical and stylistic elements of the target language Oblique translation procedures require that the translator have an in-depth knowledge of both languages involved in the translation process

a borrowing

It can be said that borrowing is relatively the simplest of all procedures used for translation which involves using foreign phrasing in the target text The reason for the gap in the target language is usually metalinguistic Nowadays, it is frequently caused by new technologies entering rapidly the surrounding reality and the concept discussed in the source text is relatively unknown to the target audience The most interesting aspect of using borrowings relates to creating specific stylistic effects,Vietnamese is a language that has so many borrowings, especially in recent times when the influence of foreign cultures is stronger than ever Examples of borrowings in Vietnamese are: Internet, vitamin, live show, hormone, axit, virus, dollar, email… (English), toilette, cravate, fromage, savon (French), etc

Similarly, when translating from Vietnamese into a foreign language, we have to retain some culturally distinctive words that cannot be replaced by foreign words

Eg Ao dai, pho, xich lo…

b Calque

Calque is a special kind of borrowing in which the TL borrows an expression form the SL by translating literally each of the original elements The result creates either, a lexical calque, which preserves the syntactic structure of the TL, but at the same time introduces a new mode of expression; or a structural calque, which introduces a new construction into the language

Eg Global warming vs sự nóng lên toàn cầu; Cold war vs chiến tranh lạnh; Trade mark vs nhãn hiệu thương mại (thương hiệu); Superman vs siêu nhân; Call girl vs gái gọi; The White House vs Nhà trắng; The summit conference vs hội nghị thượng đỉnh; suicide bombing vs ném bom tự sát

c Literal translation

Literal translation or word for word translation relies on the direct transfer of

a text from SL into a grammatical and meaningful text in TL Using this procedure, the translator focuses primarily on adhering to the linguistic rules of the target

language For instance: Who broke the window?  Ai đã làm vỡ cửa sổ?; open the book  mở sách

In practice, literal translation occurs most commonly when translating between two languages of the same family, such as French and Italian, and works most efficiently when they also share the same culture

When translating from Vietnamese into English or vice versa, we have to use this procedure very often The reason is English tends to have more noun phrases

whereas it sounds more Vietnamese to use verb phrases For example: He is a big liar  Hắn rất hay nói dối

e Modulation

This procedure involves changing the form of the message through a change

in perspective, seeing something in a different light An alteration of this kind may

be required in contexts where a literal or transposed translation being a grammatically correct but still sounds unnatural or awkward in the target language

As with transposition, in some cases modulation may be optional, while in others it

is obligatory A good example of an obligatory modulation is the phrase “in the world”which must be rendered in Vietnamese as “trên thế giới” It is because it would sound unnatural to say “trong thế giới” A common example of an optional modulation takes place when a negative expression in the source language becomes

positive in the target language, although this is also closely linked to language specific stylistic features

Eg It is not difficult dễ ợt

f Equivalence

Equivalence is also known as reformulationcreatesacorresponding text in the target language by using completely different stylistic and structural devices Most examples are thus fixed, they belong to the phraseological repertoire of idioms, clichés, proverbs, nominal or adjectival collocations, etc proverbs typically provide

perfect illustrations of the procedure: when the cat’s away, the mice will play 

vắng chủ nhà gà vọc niêu tôm; the early bird catches the worm  trâu chậm uống nước đục And the same is true of idioms: as like as two peas  giống nhau như hai giọt nước; kill two birds with one stone  một mũi tên trúng hai đích

g Adaptation

This procedure refers to those situations when there are cultural differences between the source language and the target language in which the situation expressing messagesin source language does not function in the target language culture In such cases, translator must recreate a new situation that can be considered as more or less equivalent Hence, adaptation is a specific kind of situational equivalence

Eg Bụt The Goddess of Mercy; Johnny English  Điệp viên không không thấy

In Vietnamese culture, But is understood as an old fairy man, but when „Tam Cam‟

is translated into English by an English author, „But‟ is translated as „The Goddess

of Mercy‟, a female fairy figure, which is popular in English folklores

Sharing the same idea with Vinay and Darbelnet , Peter Newmark in his

well-known work A Textbook of Translation (1988, pp 81-93) pointed out various

translation procedures which are applied to “sentences and smaller units of languages” He proposed these translation procedures below

• Transference: the SL word is directly taken into TL without any alteration

or translation, and the outcome is a “loan word” This procedure fits best with

cultural, new technical terms, name of newspapers, geographical names, or proper

names to create certain stylistic effects, modernity For instance: Hollywood, web,

MC, etc

• Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then

to the normal morphology of the TL For example the word “kangaroo” is

naturalized into “kăng-ga-ru” in Vietnamese; coffee  cà phê; turbine  tua bin

• Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in the source language with a target language one however, "they are not accurate" (Newmark, 1988) They share the same stylistic function but possibly different meanings, for

example “Don Juan” in English can be translated by “Sở Khanh” in Vietnamese English people say “Each bird loves to hear himself signing” but Vietnamese people say “Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi” That “bird” in English becomes “mèo” (a

cat) in Vietnamese results from the substitution of an idiom with another with corresponding communicative value but different meaning

• Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a culture-neutral word or

replacement of cultural word with a cultural-free one, in order to ensure readabilityand comprehensiveness of the translation Such words as “the White House” or “the Pentagon” can be rendered by “Dinh cơ Tổng thống Mỹ” or “Bộ Quốc Phòng Mỹ” respectively

• Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure the translators have to explain or paraphrase the words in the target language by adding function or description in the source language word For instance, the word “bút lông” can be translated as

“brush pen, used to create calligraphic works or ideograms”

e.g: To attend the barbecue, you must have a student ID

= Để được dự tiệc barbecue (cuộc liên hoan ngoài trời có nướng hoặc quay thịt), anh phải mang theo thẻ sinh viên

• 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."