A study on pragmatic equivalence in the english vietnamese translation of the story confession of an economic hit man by john perkins

DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIESVŨ THỊ THANH HOA A STUDY ON PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF THE STORY “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” BY JOHN PERKIN

DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THANH HOA

A STUDY ON PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF THE STORY “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT

MAN” BY JOHN PERKINS (Nghiên cứu tính tương đương ngữ dụng trong bản dịch Anh- Việt tác phẩm “Lời thú tội của Một sát thủ kinh tế” của John Perkins)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English linguistics Code: 602215

Hanoi, 2009

DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ THANH HOA

A STUDY ON PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF THE STORY “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN”

BY JOHN PERKINS (Nghiên cứu tính tương đương ngữ dụng trong bản dịch Anh- Việt tác phẩm “Lời thú tội của Một sát thủ kinh tế” của John Perkins)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr LÊ HÙNG TIẾN

Hanoi, 2009

ABSTRACT

2.2.1 Opening segment boundary marker 23

2.3 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Inferential Structure 24

3.2 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Sequential Structure 29

3.3 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Inferential Structure 29

pragmatic markers through a written discourse completion task.

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Much ink has flown on discussing the term equivalence in translation It is therelationship between a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) that allows the TT to

be considered as a translation of the ST It signifies any relation characterizingtranslation under a specified set of circumstances Equivalence was a relationshipbetween two texts in two languages, rather than between the languagesthemselves It can be said that success of a translation is determined not only bythe equivalence of meaning The degree of success also depends on some otherfactors like stylistic equivalence, pragmatic equivalence or textual equivalence.The neglect of any equivalence for any possible reasons may affect or reduce thetarget readers‟ reception of a translation Therefore, it is required for a consideratetranslator to be aware of the SL text‟s pragmatic peculiarities and reproduce them

in the target language one In practice, an important assumption which translatorsentertain seems to be one epitomized by something Eugene Nida said many yearsago, echoing Jakobson (1959): “Anything which can be said in one language can

be said in another, unless the form is an essential element of the message (Nidaand Taber 1969:4).”

The focus of the study will be put on pragmatic equivalence between the sourceand target language texts, which is indicated by taking pragmatic markers in bothtexts into consideration

Accordingly, the book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” (published in 2004)

is chosen John Perkins lifted the veil on a world rarely seen by most people Hetook us on a tour of the costs and consequences of American corporate hegemony,dispelling myths of the „free market‟, and forcing us to peer deep into our ownsouls As Perkins states in his earlier works, "The world is as you dream it," so thequestion is, “what will you dream?” This book is translated into Vietnamese by agroup of translators headed by Lê Đồng Tâm and has caught a great interest ofcertain Vietnamese readers

2 Purposes of the study

The study sets out to obtain the purposes as follows:

- To investigate the numerous functions of pragmatic markers in the ST as well as the treatment of these markers in the TT

- To study the dynamic equivalence between the original text and its translation

- To suggest some implications for teaching and learning of English in general and translation studies in particular

3 Scope of the study

The study is focused on dynamic equivalence between “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” & its “Lời thú tội của một sát thủ kinh tế” More specifically,

the study is confined to the relationship between pragmatic effect of pragmaticmarkers valid for different receiver groups and habits of using these markers aswell as of choosing language style in different language pairs The ground for theinvestigation in this study is the notion of dynamic equivalence proposed by Nida

& Taber (1969), Koller (1989), Baker (1992), Newmark (1981), Hatim and Mason(1990) and Monia Bayar (2007) and the conception of pragmatics and pragmatic markerssuggested by Levinson (1983), Richards J.C, Platt J & Platt H (1992) and Fraser (1999)

4 Methodology

4.1 Research Questions

- What are pragmatic features of the source text and the receptors‟response to the translation text?

- What are functions of pragmatic markers demonstrated in John Perkins‟s original

work? Are these markers treated equivalently in the translation text?

- To what extent are the original text and the translation pragmatically equivalent?

4.2 Methods

On the one hand, this study will be conducted under the corpus-based analysis.The aim of this method is to attempt to outline the existing territory occupied by anew field of research in translation studies. The research techniques are gatheringquantitative data via a survey questionnaire and presenting the results throughstatistics and tables On the other hand, the qualitative method will be resorted to

as a supplementary one and not officially employed It will help understand themeaning of the numbers produced by quantitative methods Using quantitativemethods, it is possible to give precise and testable expression to qualitative ideas.This combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathering is often referred to

as mixed-methods research

4.3 Data collection procedures

To investigate the pragmatic equivalence between the original text “Confessions

of an Economic Hit Man” and its Vietnamese translation, the following steps will

be taken to collect data for the study:

- doing document analyses to build up a strong theoretical framework for the study

- conducting a survey according to DCT method to identify and collect all

pragmatic markers explicit in the SL and TL texts

In the DCT the discourse is structured so that part of it is left open and part

closed A space is provided for subjects to supply speech act under investigation,but the response is provided in order to cue the respondent as to the appropriatenature of the speech act realization, i.e., the level of formality, and a description ofthe roles and relationship of the interlocutors

Also the DCT is an effective means of studying the stereotypical perceivedrequirements for a socially appropriate response and is a good way to gain insightinto social and psychological factors that are likely to affect speech and

performance i.e it avoids those very context specific constraints that influenceauthentic data.

Cohen (1996, p.25) concludes that “discourse completion tests areeffective means of gathering a large amount of data quickly, creating an initialclassification of semantic formulas, and ascertaining the structure of speech actunder consideration.”

- holding discussions with colleagues in the field to investigate their viewpoints and experience in translating pragmatic markers

4.4 Data Analysis

To facilitate the process of analyzing data, the inductive method has beenemployed Then, comparison and contrast between the original and its translationare made as well as detailed analyses are carried out so that a conclusion on thelevel of pragmatic equivalence between the original and translation can bereached

5 Design of the study

The study is composed of three main parts: the introduction, thedevelopment and the conclusion

The introduction states the rationale, purposes, scope, methodology and design ofthe study

The development consists of three chapters:

Chapter one: Theoretical background

Chapter two: Pragmatic markers in the original text

Chapter three: Treatments of pragmatic markers in the Vietnamese translation Theconclusion summarizes the main points discussed in the previous parts and puts forwards some implications for translation learning and practice

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 What is pragmatics?

Some linguistics tend to take into consideration intensional definitions ofpragmatics which are: "the study of the relations of signs to interpreters" (Morris,1938: 84); "the study of indexical rules for relating linguistic form to a givencontext" (Bates, 1976: 3); "a theory that has as its subject matter the relationshipbetween a language, its subject matter, and the users of the language" (Martin,

1971 : 138); "the theory of the relation between the language users and thelanguage structure" (Apostel, 1971: 33); "the science of language use" (Haberland

and Mey, 1977: 1) Others deal with extensional definitions: " Pragmatics is the study of deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and aspects of

discourse structure" (Levinson, 1983:27); "Pragmatics, for a natural language,

concerns 'illucutionary force', 'implicature', 'presupposition', and 'contextdependentacceptability'" (Gazdar, 1979: 2)

Richards J.C, Platt J & Platt H (1992:284) regards Pragmatics as the study of theuse of language in communication, particularly the relationships betweensentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used Pragmaticsincludes the study of:

a how the interpretation and use of UTTERANCES depend on knowledge of thereal world

b how speakers use and understand SPEECH ACTS

c how the structure of sentences is influenced by the relationship between thespeaker and the hearer

1.2 Pragmatic markers

Pragmatic markers are polyfuntional cues that predicate changes in the speaker‟scognition, attitudes, and beliefs and facilitate the transmission of illocutionary

force and intentions The speaker makes use of markers to segment, recover,organize and reformulate the information provided to the hearer, but also to sharecommon ground, assumptions and presuppositions with him/her Behind the use of

a particular marker, there are therefore not only ideational, rhetorical and structuralpurposes, but a strong inferential component as well that is reflected in certainparts of the pragmatic structure of the discourse

Brinton (1996:33-5) provides an exhaustive list of basic features of pragmaticmarkers that, although not fully manifested by all units that could be consideredpragmatic markers, suggest a range of properties that most markers display One

of these features is that makers have little or no propositional meaning, whichmight make us conclude that the presence of a device of such characteristics istotally unnecessary in the message we are trying to convey This is basically true

as far as informational value of the message, that is, a marker is not strictlyobligatory for the full understanding of a sentence or segment, but, as Schiffrinsuggests (1987:318), it is probably necessary to make the type of relationshipbetween preceding and following propositions explicit and clear In a similar line

of argument, Fraser (1999:946) claims: “a marker reinforces a relationshipbetween segments by virtue of discourse marker meaning, while on the other hand,the context, both linguistic and non-linguistic, elaborates and enriches therelationship based on the details present” The attempts to clarify the status ofmarkers have been varied (similar to the numerous labels attached to them).However, although there seems to be a general agreement among scholars thatmarkers have a strong procedural meaning, that is, that they are key traces for theright interpretation of a given piece of discourse, there is no consensus on the sort

of relationship that these units signal

In this study we proposed four groups of pragmatic markers (Fraser,1999:946)

First, there are basic pragmatic markers, which specify more or less the potential

force (type) of the basic message conveyed by the sentence: the message conveyedwith the propositional content of the sentence as the message content Everysentence has at least one basic pragmatic marker This group includes sentencemood (declarative, interrogative, and imperative structures) and lexical

expressions, for example, performative expressions such as I promise, I claim, and

I regret, and certain forms such as please and kindly These markers are illustrated

by the examples in (3)

(3) a) I regret that he is still here b) Admittedly, I was taken in c) The cat is sick By

virtue of the I regret in (3a) the speaker is conveying an expression of regret (more

accurately, the sentence has the potential when uttered of conveying an expression of

regret) While in sentence (3b) the speaker is conveying an admission Sentence (3c) has

no lexical basic pragmatic marker, as do the first two, but its declarative mood signals that the speaker is expressing belief (a claim, an admission, a report) towards the state of the world expressed by the propositional content

Second, there are commentary pragmatic markers, which signal an entire message

which provides a comment on the direct basic message These markers areoptionally present but when they do occur, their message is typically very general,with a single word often signaling both the message force and content Obviously,they constitute pragmatic idioms The sentences in (4) illustrate this type ofmarker

(4) a) Stupidly, Sara didn‟t fax the correct form

b) I‟m not an expert, but shouldn‟t we be there by now

In (4a), the basic message is (arguably) a report that Sara didn‟t fax the correct

form, while the commentary message, signaled by stupidly, is that the speaker believes Sara‟s failure to act to have been stupid In (4b), the I’m not an expert, but signals that the basic message which follows is, in the speaker‟s opinion, not

going to be well received by the addressee and the speaker is trying to reduce theface loss involved

Third, there are parallel pragmatic markers, also optional, which signal an entire

message separate from the basic and any commentary messages The sentences in(5) are illustrative of parallel markers

(5) a) John, take off your dirty shoes b) In God‟s name, what are you doing now? In(5a), in addition to the basic message of a directive that John take off his dirty shoes, the

speaker is conveying a message, signaled by John, that it is John who is being addressed.

In (5b), in God’s name signals exasperation on the part of the speaker which may or may

not be related to the hearer‟s activities

Finally, there are discourse pragmatic markers, again optional, which signal a

message specifying how the basic message is related to the foregoing discourse

context The sentences in (6) illustrate these markers.

(6) a) Jacob was very tired So, he left early

b) Martha‟s party is tomorrow Incidentally, when is your party?

Here, in (6a), the so signals that the speaker views the report that he left early

should be treated as a conclusion based on the message conveyed by the preceding

sentence, while in (6b) the incidentally signals that the following basic message

should be treated as a shift in topic

To summarize, a basic marker signals the force of the basic message, acommentary marker signals a message which comments on the basic message, aparallel marker signals a message in addition to the basic message, and a discoursemarker signals the relationship of the basic message to the foregoing discourse.This may be shown schematically in (7)

(7) Discourse PM (Parallel PM (Commentary PM (Basic PM (Propositional

In the similar line, the proposal here presented (Gonzalez, 2004) builds uponRedeker‟s (1990) discourse coherence model and following classification of

markers according to the model First, markers found in the ideational structure

are considered those that set up logico-semantic argumentative relations (of cause,reason, result, concession, contrast, time, etc.) They have descriptive or lexicalmeaning and have been traditionally called in the literature argumentativeconnectors Lexical units that fully fall under this category (units such as therefore,

in contrast, on the other hand, nevertheless, because, etc.) will therefore beexcluded from this study and only markers whose functions fall under therhetorical, sequential and inferential components will be considered and discussed

Markers whose main functions are rhetorical signal the speaker‟s intentions and

goals and basically convey the illocutionary force of the story Markers found in

the sequential structure delimit segments boundaries and sustain the discourse

network; they highly facilitate the in-and-out shift of the narrative segments In the

case of markers that have dominant inferential role, the link that is set up between

the cognitive domain of the speaker and hearer is fundamental to understand andgrasp the point of the story

1.3 What is Equivalence in Translation?

• It is the relationship between a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) that allows the TT to be considered as a translation of the ST.

• Any relation characterizing translation under a specified set of circumstances

Equivalence is relative and not absolute, it emerges from the context of situation by the interplay of (many different factors) and has no existence outside that context, and in particular it is not stipulated in advance by an algorithm for the

conversion of linguistic units of L1 into linguistic units of L2” (House, 1977)

1.4 Pragmatic equivalence: (Nida (1964) calls it “dynamic equivalence”).

The pragmatic level is generally concerned with language that is tied to socialcontext in a different way Pragmatics is the study of language used in a specificsocial context 'do things' rather than 'say things' Language used in this way will

often have a force that goes against what seems to be its literal meaning The SL

and TL words have the same effect on the reader or mainly aiming at the receiver,

to whom the translation is directed

In extreme cases, where linguistic and cultural materials are inextricably blended,

no very close equivalent is available In these cases, the translator needs to seek asolution, probably situated on a different linguistic level compared with the SL, inorder to produce an effect on the reader of the TT that should be as close aspossible to that produced on the reader of the ST

Contexts of use match in this case, and so does the effect on the TT reader thatwill here be sufficiently close to that experienced by the ST reader To achieve

similarities of effect and cater for reader expectations is to attain full pragmatic or dynamic equivalence.

The aim of this discussion is to shed as much as possible light on readers Thereadership is a group of readers that the text is aimed at with such followingfeatures as: the level of education, the class and age and sex (if marked)

There is a tendency to make the translation for educated, middle-class readership

in an informal, colloquial style There are three types of readership: expert,educated layman and the uninformed

However, the more cultural (the more local, the more remote in time and in space)

a text is, the less equivalent effect even conceivable unless the reader isimaginative, sensitive and stepped in the SL culture

Koller’s (1989) categories establish a descriptive framework which involves

various types of equivalence, among which are: denotative, connotative, normative, pragmatic and formal equivalence

text-According to Koller, pragmatic equivalence, which is synonymous with Nida‟sdynamic equivalence (Kenny 1998b:77), “means translating the text for aparticular readership” (Koller 1989:103) The expectations of the target readershave to be considered It is also called “communicative equivalence”.

This utterance “Hi, how are you?” shows an illocutionary meaning of greeting in

English-speaking countries

Pragmatic equivalence (Baker:1992) is considered the most complicated level of

equivalence, which requires the translator to understand the underlining message

of the ST Pragmatic equivalence is associated with implicatures and strategies of

avoidance during the translation process She claims that the translator needs to

work out implications of the ST in order to get the ST message across The role

of the translator is to recreate the author‟s intention in another culture in such away that help the audience in the target culture understand it clearly

Texts which may have implicatures can be poems, songs, idioms, literature ortexts involving much culture-specific understanding

Baker‟s concept well matches the definition of pragmatics by Levinson

It should also be noted that Newmark's distinction between 'communicative

translation' and 'semantic translation' in his book Approaches to Translation

(1981) is similar to Nida's types of equivalence For 'communicative translation',which tends to create the same effects on the reader of the TT as those obtained byreaders of the ST, resembles Nida's notion of dynamic equivalence, whereas,'semantic translation', which focuses on the rendition of the contextual meaning ofthe ST according to the syntactic and the semantic characteristics of the TT, issimilar to Nida's formal equivalence

However, many critics of the 'equivalent effect' by Newmark come in his

Textbook of Translation (1988) Newmark sees Nida's 'equivalent effect' as: The desirable result, rather than the aim of any translation It is an unlikely result in

two cases: (a) if the purpose of the SL text is to affect and the TL translation is toinform (or

vice versa); (b) if there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and the TLtexts.

We infer from this quotation that the 'equivalent effect' is a result which alltranslators long to achieve However, this result can be unachievable if the ST andthe TT do not share the same goal; i.e., to inform or to affect, or if they do nothave the same cultural equivalents The possession of cultural references, togetherwith the remoteness in time and space reduce the possibility of achieving'equivalent effects', except in case the reader is imaginative, sensitive and has agood knowledge of the SL culture

According to Levinson‟s notion of pragmatics, we realize Newmark referredpragmatic equivalence to the same purpose of the both texts (corresponding to theprimary text‟s implicature& presupposition) and cultural contexts (affectingdirectly communicative effect in terms of deixis as well as aspects of discoursestructure)

Additionally, the development in equivalence research is also characterized by the

work of the Syrian theorist Monia Bayar (2007) In her book To Mean Or Not To Mean, Bayar distinguishes between formal equivalence, semantic equivalence,

cultural equivalence and pragmatic equivalence As far as 'pragmatic equivalence'

is concerned, Bayar (2007) points out that this type tends to reproduce the contextand text goals of the SL She also shares the same idea with Hatim and Mason(1990: 236-8) that "pragmatic equivalence subsumes all of the semio-pragmatic-communicative layers of communication." Examples of these semiotic andcommunicative dimensions are genre, field, mode, tenor, text type and translationpurpose

Nida and Taber: Formal Equivalence and dynamic Equivalence

In his work on Bible translation, Nida concentrates on studying meaning in bothits semantic and pragmatic natures He breaks with the old stories, which regardmeanings of words as fixed and unchanged, to give meaning a more functional

nature For him, words get their meanings according to the context and can bechanged through the culture in which they are used.

Nida argued that there are two different types of equivalence, namely formal equivalence—which in the third edition by Nida and Taber (1982) is referred to as formal correspondence—and dynamic equivalence Formal correspondence

'focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content', unlike dynamic

equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect' (1964:159).

Formal correspondence consists of a TL item which represents the closestequivalent of a SL word or phrase Nida and Taber make it clear that there are notalways formal equivalents between language pairs They therefore suggest thatthese formal equivalents should be used wherever possible if the translation aims

at achieving formal rather than dynamic equivalence The use of formalequivalents might at times have serious implications in the TT since the translationwill not be easily understood by the target audience (Fawcett, 1997) Nida andTaber themselves assert that 'Typically, formal correspondence distorts thegrammatical and stylistic patterns of the receptor language, and hence distorts themessage, so as to cause the receptor to misunderstand or to labor unduly hard'.Concerning dynamic equivalence, Nida mentions that this type is based on "theprinciple of equivalent effect", in which "the relationship between receptor andmessage should be substantially the same as that which existed between theoriginal receptor and the message." Dynamic equivalence is defined as atranslation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning

of the original in such a way that the TL wording will trigger the same impact onthe TC audience as the original wording did upon the ST audience They arguethat 'Frequently, the form of the original text is changed; but as long as the changefollows the rules of back transformation in the source language, of contextualconsistency in the transfer, and of transformation in the receptor language, themessage is preserved and the translation is faithful'

One can easily see that Nida is in favour of the application of dynamicequivalence, as a more effective translation procedure This is perfectlyunderstandable if we take into account the context of the situation in which Nidawas dealing with the translation phenomenon, that is to say, his translation of theBible Thus, the product of the translation process, that is the text in the TL, musthave the same impact on the different readers it was addressing Only in Nida andTaber's edition is it clearly stated that 'dynamic equivalence in translation is farmore than mere correct communication of information'.

Despite using a linguistic approach to translation, Nida is much more interested inthe message of the text or, in other words, in its semantic quality He thereforestrives to make sure that this message remains clear in the target text

Nida & Taber‟s conception is in line with aspects of language studied inpragmatics

In brief, it is clear from the above diversifying views and theories that the notion

of pragmatic equivalence is arbitrary and relative as well It is, in fact, difficult todetermine since no one could objectively define the point at which the TTbecomes equal to the ST Thus, to be moderate as much as possible, we will notdefine pragmatic equivalence as a point of translation proficiency or reject itsexistence in translation as some wished

1.5 E A Nida’s response-based approach on Translation Quality Assessment

Before Nida, most scholars writing about translation applied a particular linguisticapproach to the topic, taking translation to be a type of applied linguistics ButNida‟s concern centered on a systematic approach to translation He saw inlinguistics the necessary tools of analysis, and he drew on what at the time was anew science to develop an overall approach to translation that had solid theoreticalunderpinnings yet was entirely practical

Although Catford and Nida are important theorists of Linguistic approaches Theyhave many differences in their measurement of Translation equivalence ForCatford, translation equivalence occurs when a Source text and a target text oritem both related to those features of the situation in which the texts are usedwhich are relevant to the communicative function of the text in that situation Hedoes not provide extensive discussion of larger texts, or reader reactions to texts.

In contrast, Nida‟s fundamental measure of translation equivalence is readers‟response Whereas Catford bases his theory of translation firmly on an earlyversion of Halliday‟s systematic grammar, Nida takes his own point Chomsky‟sgenitive view of language

Three criteria suggested by Nida (1964: 182) for assessing quality of a translation are programmatic and general: general efficiency of the communication process; comprehension of intent; equivalence of response The third and most important

criterion is, of course, closely to Nida‟s well-known basic principle of “Dynamic(or Functional) Equivalence of a translation”; the manner in which receptors of thetranslation text respond to the translation text must be equivalent to the manner inwhich the receptors of the source text respond to the source text Nida and Taber

(1969) suggested three similar criteria: the correctness with which the receptors understand the message of the original, the ease of comprehension and the involvement a person experiences as a result of the adequacy of the form of the translation Again, these behavioral criteria need to be further explained and put to

the practical tests Nida and Taber themselves suggested the following practicaltests:

1.5.1 The close technique, in which the degree of comprehensibility of a text isrelated to its “degree of predictability” The reader is provided with a translationtext in which, for example, every fifth word is deleted, and asked to fill inwhatever words seem to fit the context best The greater the number of correctguesses, the easier it is to comprehend the text because its predictability is greater.However, for any detailed qualitative judgment of a translation‟s strength and

weakness, the cloze technique seems to be too rough an instrument; the criteria ofintelligibility and ease of comprehension surely cannot be equated with overallquality of a translation Further, such a test merely compares several translations,but fails to undertake the more basic task of judging a translation against its sourcetext.

1.5.2 Elicitation of respondents‟ reactions to several translation alternatives Aswith the close text, such a test cannot establish true criteria for translation qualitybecause of the non-inclusion of the original text as a yardstick for quality

1.5.3 Reading aloud of the translation text to some other person who will then beasked to explain the contents to several other individuals who were not present atthe first reading of the text This test, which boils down to giving and comparingprécis of different translations, relies entirely on the individual who reports on thetranslation rather than on the translation which is to be tested

1.5.4 Reading aloud of a translation by several individuals before an audience.Any places in the text at which readers clearly have difficulties in reading the textare taken as indications of translation problems Again, this test completely lacksreference to the source text and suffers from the relativity of any judgment thatlacks a norm (which could be provided by the source text)

The criteria suggested by Nida are programmatic and general; the practical testssound objective The researcher will select the second practical test: elicitation ofrespondents‟ reactions to several translation alternatives via a pragmaticquestionnaire Nida‟s basic principle of Dynamic equivalence, which has beendemonstrated above causes the researcher to base the translation qualitymeasurement on Nida‟s own response-based approach with the view to achievingthe study‟s objectives

1.6 Pragmatic features of the source text and the receptor of the target text

1.6.1 The author‟s expectation and implication towards primary receptors

This book is excellently written and a riveting exposé of international corruption—

and what we can do about it, from the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list First, the

engaging style is highly reminiscent (nhớ lại, có xu hướng hồi tưởng) of sciencefiction author Roger Zelazny- a prolific American writer of fantasy and science

fiction short stories and novels In his stunning memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins detailed his former role as an “economic hit

man” in the international corporate skullduggery of a de facto American Empire

Mr Perkins reveals the dark side Therefore, this riveting, behind-the-scenesexposé unfolded like a cinematic blockbuster told through the eyes of a man whoonce helped shape that empire Picking up where he left off, Perkins continuesdown the path of redemption Once serving the masters of modern slavery, Perkinsnow works tirelessly to free those who have been oppressed by the corpratocracy.His thesis? Our planet cannot survive ruthless consumerism at the expense of theworld and its people When all the trees are gone, and all the oil is tapped, whatwill be left? Does your shirt still feel nice when you understand the sufferinginvolved in its production? The world John Perkins envisions is one in whichpersonal participation is crucial, and power does not rest in the hands of the few

We have everything we need to create a sustainable global society We have theresources, the technology, and viable social models What we need now is avision, and the inspiration to create such a world Perkins provides us with theinspiration to fearlessly question ourselves, and the power structures that existaround us

Furthermore, traveling through countries like Indonesia, Ecuador, Panama, Iraq,Iran, and so on, Perkins paints a picture so vivid about its life-altering John made

us feel we had traveled with him around the world and would never forget theplaces and people and truths we had learned

In addition, with this book, we will understand how corporations, the government,the World Bank, and IMF use third world countries to expand financial enterprises

in USA- some of it is legal but dirty; some of it is deceptive, and other dealings aredown right illegal It is a book that should be read by the people of the third worldcountries, they will know exactly why they are third world countries But the goodnews is: life can change We can change Deep down inside, we all share commonvalues We all want to live peacefully, we all want to prosper, and we all want tofeel love.

One American reader says: “Even though I always suspected that the killings,resource-grabbing, and bankruptcy of the third world were somehow related, I hadnever had seen anyone articulate it in such moving and profound way I admire thecourage he has demonstrated in exposing the corporocracy”

Here are some typical endorsements of this book:

"A gripping tell-all book " The Rocky Mountain News

"This riveting look at a world of intrigue reads like a spy novel Highly

recommended " Library Journal

"John Perkins has written a book that shakes one's confidence in the ethics of theprevailing economic system We are in troubling times and need to understandrealistically the price we are paying for the 'free' market we enjoy Perkins haswritten an extraordinary tale." Jim Garrison, author of America as Empire,President of the State of the World Forum

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man Is a unique book, brave because it ispersonal With unflinching honesty, John Perkins narrates his moral awakeningand struggle to break free from the corrupt system of global domination he himselfhelped to create This book possesses an immediacy that separates it from thenumerous studies we already have of American Empire It comes from the heart Ihighly recommend it." Michael Brownstein, author of World on Fire

"John Perkins has told a thrilling story But what makes it even more relevant isthat his tale is the true account of a deeply dedicated and courageous man whoexposes information that is crucial for the survival of many people in the world Icouldn't put it down and now want all my friends to read it Read this book!" Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., cofounder, CEO, Omega Institute and author ofTimeshifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life

1.6.2 Vietnamese receptors‟ response to the TT

After this translation book came into beings under the publication of VietnamCulture and Information Publishing House in 2006, it drew a great attention fromVietnamese readers, especially critics in some popular newspapers They read thistranslation text and revealed their different comments on it According to Saigon

Economics News: “There is no doubt that Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is

as stunning as a spy story: mysterious deaths, incefraudulent financial reports,rigged elections, extortion, sex, and murder, tropical cities seemingly strange withWesterners, narrow escapes…However, there are many unusual things about boththis work and the author This book‟s new thing is that Perkins reveals diplomatsand economists‟ conspiracy as a stunning memoir and a thrilling spy story and full

of questions about mysteries of President Kenedy, Panama‟s President Torrijosand even the parson Martin Luther King”

In addition, these professional readers also put various questions about the vadility oftypical events in this work Although they were suspicious of either the author‟s ability

of writing about correct information or his own imagination, they were impressed by theauthor‟s vivid and detective stories that open their mind to the current situation of theworld they are living in It is said that this work somehow changed their attitudes towardstheir own life and surrounding world

CHAPTER 2: PRAGMATIC MARKERS IN THE ORIGINAL TEXT.

The primary aim of this part is to show how certain lexical units, found in specificsegments of a narrative discourse, help create the intended meaning of the story.The idea is that pragmatic markers are not arbitrarily used in oral speech but are,

to a certain extent, context and genre-dependent The hypothesis that follows fromthat aim is that markers help in the organization of the narrative segments This

involves taking into consideration the way a given structure reflects the speaker‟s

illocutionary intentions and attitude, the discourse organization and thesemanticopragmatic meaning of the units in question

2.1 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Rhetorical Structure

Under this structure, we have included the following functions

2.1.1 Emphasizer: by means of this marker the speaker reinforces the

propositional value of the utterance The speaker seems to be using the marker

“You know” as a metalinguistic monitor with a modal function emphasizing the

force of the speech-act and as a social monitor eliciting a reaction from theaddressee

S1: "In any case, you know we have a big project in Kuwait It'll be a while beforeyou leave for Indonesia I think you should use some of your time to read up onKuwait The Boston Public Library is a great resource, and we can get you passes

to the MIT and Harvard libraries." (I, 2,13)

2.1.2 Comment marker: by means of this marker the narrator steps out of the

narrative‟s world to introduce a personal comment or a piece of information thatshe/he considers is relevant for the full understanding of the story, not necessarilyrelated directly to the events

S2: "It's okay," Fidel chuckled gently "He didn't hurt me I just asked him whatyou guys were shooting at I think I used to play the same game." (II,12,67)

2.1.3 Evidential Marker: The speaker makes use of this marker to make a fact or

a situation salient By means of it, she/he highlights the illocutionary force of the

utterance or segment and indicates that the information provided is highlysignificant for the interpretation of the story.

Evidential markers signal a message which specifies the strength of commitment

by the speaker towards the force the basic message

S3: He looked at me incredulously "Of course, The Canal Zone is U.S territory."(II,11,64)

As reflected by the examples above, these markers occur only with declarativesentences This is consistent with the fact that these markers comment on thestrength of the speaker‟s belief and this is expressed only in declaratives

2.1.4 Resumption Marker: by means of this marker the speaker recovers or

regains the argumentative thread or line of thought usually broken up by aprevious narrative segment

S4: "She lowered the spoon into her cafe con leche, stirred, and then slowly licked

the spoon."What else can they do? They need to learn about modern weapons andhow to fight the soldiers who've gone through your schools Sometimes they sellcocaine in order to raise money for supplies How else can they buy guns? They're

up against terrible odds Your World Bank doesn't help them defend themselves

In fact, it forces them into this position." She took a sip of coffee “I believe theircause is just The electricity will help only a few, the wealthiest Colombians, andthousands will die because the fish and water are poisoned, after you build thatdam of yours." (III,22,126)

2.1.5 Addition Marker: by means of it, the speaker adds more detailed

information that she/he considers relevant for the full understanding of the story Itserves to expand, explain and support previous discourse and informationprovided

S5: "Let's just say you need to come up with a very optimistic forecast of theeconomy, how it will mushroom after all the new power plants and distribution

lines are built That will allow USAID and the international banks to justify theloans You'll be well rewarded, of course, and can move on to other projects inexotic places The world is your shopping cart”.

2.1.6 Concluding Marker: this marker introduces important information to bear

in mind or take into consideration It sometimes works as a linguistic tool forrounding off used by the speaker to go straight to the main point, to the bottomline of the issue

S6: “…You're the one who predicts the future Your forecasts determine themagnitude of the systems they design — and the size of the loans You see, you'rethe key."

2.1.7 Evaluator: by means of this marker the speaker introduces a personal

evaluation or comment of the event being told

S7: "Surely," I protested, "you can't believe that the United States is anti-Islamic"(II,7,45)

2.1.8 Topic Shifter: used by the speaker to shift topic See an instance of „then‟

with this function in these examples

S8: "I'll be very frank with you, teach you all I can during the next weeks Thenyou'll have to choose Your decision is final Once you're in, you're in for life."(I,2,14)

2.1.9 Clarifier: thanks to this marker the speaker clarifies previous discourse,

sometimes providing examples that justify the given argumentation

S9: "You mean just keep quiet?"

"Exactly Don't give them an excuse to come after you In fact, give them everyreason to leave you alone, to not muddy the water." (III,22,129)

2.2 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Sequential Structure.

As discourse structuring devices, pragmatic markers have a relevant role in thesequencial structure: most markers have a primary segment delimiting function,opening and closing narrative segments and story Polanyi (1988) calls suchoperational move pop and push, so she refers to push maker if the unit signals thecreation of a new constituent, and pop marker if it signals the recovery of aprevious constituent Thus, well would be a push marker because it has asignificant segment opening function, whereas so wouls be a pop marker becauseone of its primary functions is recovering of train of thought

2.2.1 Opening segment boundary marker: also referred to as “opening frame

marking device” (Jucker, 1993): the speaker makes use of such a marker to initiate

a narrative segment, whether it is the first of the account or another

S10: "Well, John, he knew he had no cause," he said of Hall, "so I demanded avery good severance package, and I got it Mac controls a huge block of votingstock, and once he made his move there was nothing I could do." Bruno indicatedthat he was considering several offers of high-level positions at multinationalbanks that had been our clients (III,25,146;147)

2.2.2 Closing segment boundary marker: by means of a closing “frame marking

device”, the speaker closes the narrative segment

S11: "Speaking of oil," he said He took another puff on his cigar and flipped past

a couple of the note cards "We all know how dependent our own country is on oil.Indonesia can be a powerful ally to us in that regard So, as you develop thismaster plan, please do everything you can to make sure that the oil industry and allthe others that serve it—ports, pipelines, construction companies—get whateverthey are likely to need in the way of electricity for the entire duration of thistwenty-five-year plan " (I,4,25)

2.3 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Inferential Structure.

There are some pragmatic functions that are linked to the role of markers asinference facilitators and restrictors Although not explicitly shown in thediscourse structure, inferencing is present as a cognitive principle of humancommunication Markers become interpretative signals of dixcourse since theyhelp listener understand the intended message, bridging text to cognitive context

In this sense, they have procedural meaning (as opposed to the descriptive orreferential meaning of connectors) because they listener interpret and thereforeprocess the given message

2.3.1 Contextual Constrainer: by means of this marker the speaker constrains the

contextual effects that the proposition may have on the hearer It stops, softens ornarrows down the range of inferences and effects that the account may have on thelistener

S12: "We must win the Indonesians over If they join the Communist bloc, well

"She drew a finger across her throat and then smiled sweetly

2.3.2 Monitoring Marker: the speaker makes use of this sort of marker to show

proximity with the interlocutor, in an attempt to look for understanding andcomplicity It highly facilitates the sharing of common ground and mutualbackground knowledge

S13: "You see, it is the same here," he said "The desert is our environment TheFlowering Desert project threatens nothing less than the destruction of our entirefabric How can we allow this to happen?" (III,18,111)

2.3.3 Justification Marker: thanks to this marker the speaker introduces a

justification of the propositional content of the previous or following utterance.S14: “Fortunately, she kept her eyes on the coffee cup."Demonstrating outside theoffices of an oil company—Occidental, I think He was protesting drilling on

indigenous lands, in the forests of a tribe facing extinction — him and a coupledozen of his friends…”(III,22,127)

2.3.4 Face-threat mitigator: by means of this marker the speaker mitigates the

effects that the proposition she/he going to introduce may have on the hearer.S15: Bruno summoned me to his office and said, "You'll get loads of grief overthis MAIN'S a pretty conservative place But I want you to know I think you'resmart Torrijos will love it; I do hope you're sending him a copy Good Well,these jokers here in this office, the ones who think Torrijos is a Socialist, reallywon't give a damn as long as the work flows in." (III, 17,104)

CHAPTER 3: TREATMENTS OF PRAGMATIC MARKERS IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION.

We argued that to insist on full translatability across languages and cultures is torisk being incomprehensible (i.e producing TTs that are confusing at best).Similarly, to insist on full comprehensibility in translation is to perpetuate themyth that there is no real difference between translation and other forms ofcommunication “Anything which can be said in one language can be said inanother, unless the form is an essential element of the message (Nida and Taber1969:4).”

The focus in this „universalist‟ orientation to language use in translation is on theneed to respond to the communicative requirements of the text receivers and, byimplication, to the purpose of the translation, without necessarily losing sight ofthe communicative preferences of the original message producer or the function ofthe original text That is in the translator‟s judgment a form of words that is notsufficiently transparent in the TT is likely to pose a threat to comprehensibility andtherefore result in unintended and unmotivated, intervention in the part of thetranslator becomes inevitable In such cases, the translator would need to resort tomore „dynamic‟ forms of equivalence

The translator of this work is loyal to the author‟s expectation and implication,which is somehow demonstrated in his way of dealing with translating pragmaticmarkers in the original utterances into Vietnamese ones To some extent,pragmatic markers are not as common in Vietnamese speech acts as in English.This maybe accounted for by appealing to the syntactic, semantic and stylisticdifferences of the two languages, a fact which often makes the one-to-onecorrespondence among markers extremely difficult and sometimes evenimpossible According to Diep Quang Ban (2004), pragmatic markers are modalfactors which can be divided into two kinds: disjuncts (biệt tố) and conjuncts (liêntố) Disjuncts consist of modal expressions, vocatives (phần gọi đáp), parenthesis(phần phụ chú) and exclamation (phần cảm thán)

3.1 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Rhetorical Structure.

3.1.1 Treatment of Emphasizer

"In any case, you know we have a big project in Kuwait It'll be a while before youleave for Indonesia I think you should use some of your time to read up onKuwait The Boston Public Library is a great resource, and we can get you passes

to the MIT and Harvard libraries." (I, 2,13)

“Dầu sao đi nữa , thì anh cũng nên biết rằng , chúng ta hiện có một dự án lớn ở Côoét Vẫn còn thời gian trước khi anh phải đi Inđônêxia Tôi nghĩanh nên dành thờigian đó để nghiên cứu về Cô oét Thư viện Công cộng Boston (BPL) có nguồn tư liệu rất lớn , và chúng tôi cũng có thể giới thiệu anh đến các thư viện của MIT và Harvard” (I, 2,18)

3.1.2 Treatment of Comment marker

"I think I should go," I said to Rasy (II,7,44)

“Tôi nghĩtôi nên rời khỏi đây”, tôi nói với Rasy (II,7,60)

3.1.3 Treatment of Evidential Marker

He looked at me incredulously "Of course, The Canal Zone is U.S territory."(II,11,64)

Anh ta nhìn tôi với vẻ ngờ vực : “Tất nhiên rồi , khu vực kênh đào là địa phận củanước Mỹ mà.” (II,11,88)

3.1.4 Treatment of Resumption Marker

“I believe their cause is just The electricity will help only a few, the wealthiestColombians, and thousands will die because the fish and water are poisoned, afteryou build that dam of yours." (III,22,126)

“Em tin đó là lý do khiến họ làm những việc như vậy Điện chỉđem lại lợi ích chomột số ít những người Côlômbia giàu có , và hàng nghìn người khác sẽ chết vì nguồn nước và cá bịnhiễm độc sau khi các anh xây xong đập.” (III,22,178)

3.1.5 Treatment of Addition Marker

"Let's just say you need to come up with a very optimistic forecast of theeconomy, how it will mushroom after all the new power plants and distributionlines are built That will allow USAID and the international banks to justify theloans You'll be well rewarded, of course, and can move on to other projects inexotic places The world is your shopping cart” (I,2,16;17)

“Thôi, chỉ cần biết là anh phải đưa ra được một dự báo cự kỳ lạc quan về nền kinh

tế, rằng nó sẽ lớn mạnh đến thế nào khi mà tất cả các nhà máy , mạng lưới điện được xây dựng Dự báo đó sẽ khiến USAID và các ngân hàng quốc tế đồng ý chonước này vay tiền Tất nhiên, anh sẽ đư ợc trả công xứng đáng , anh có thể tiếp tục đến với những dự án khác ở những nơi mới lạ Thế giới sẽ là của anh” (I,2,23)

3.1.6 Treatment of Concluding Marker

“…You're the one who predicts the future Your forecasts determine themagnitude of the systems they design — and the size of the loans You see, you'rethe key." (I, 2, 17)

“…Còn anh có nhiệm vụ dự báo tương lai Các dự báo của anh sẽ quyết định quy

mô của những hệ thống mà họ thiết kế - và vì thế cả q uy mô của khoản vay Anh thấy đấy anh là người quan trọng nhất”.(I, 2, 23)

3.1.7 Treatment of Evaluator

"Surely this economy will boom,"… (I,5,30)

“Chắc chắn nền kinh tế này sẽ phát triển rất nhanh” ,… (I,5,43)

3.1.8 Treatment of Topic Shifter

"I'll be very frank with you, teach you all I can during the next weeks Then you'll have to choose Your decision is final Once you're in, you're in for life." (I,2,14)

“Tôi sẽ rất thành thật với anh , trong những tuần tới , tôi sẽ dạy an h tất cả nhữnggì tôi biết Sau đó anh phải lựa chọn Quyết định của anh là cuối cùng Một khiđã dấn thân vào, anh sẽ không có có đường lùi.”(I,2,19;20)

3.1.9 Treatment of Clarifier

"You mean just keep quiet?"

"Exactly Don't give them an excuse to come after you In fact, give them every reason to leave you alone, to not muddy the water." (III,22,129)

“Ý của em là chỉ giữ im lặng?”

“Đúng thế Không tạo cho họ bất cứ lý do nào để theo dõi anh cả Tức là, hãy tạo

ra một lý do khiến họ để anh yên , không khuấy động mọi thứ lên” (III, 22,182)

3.2 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Sequential Structure.

3.2.1 Treatment of Opening segment boundary marker

"Oh, I've been around too," he said mockingly (I,5,31) => initiating utterances and relating them to the foregoing interaction

“Ồ, tôi cũng đã đi rất nhiều nơi”, ông ta nói một cách chế giễu (I,5,44)

3.2.2 Treatment of Closing segment boundary marker

“…All of us will put our heads together then So, before we leave we gotta be absolutely certain we have all the information we'll need….” (I,5,29)

“…Tất cả chúng ta sẽ phải cùng bàn bạc với nhau Vậy là, trước khi rời khỏi đây chúng ta phải hoàn toàn chắc rằng chúng ta đã có đầy đủ tất cả các thông tin cần thiết….”.(I,5,42)

3.3 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Inferential Structure.

3.3.1 Treatment of Contextual Constrainer

"We must win the Indonesians over If they join the Communist bloc, well ." Shedrew a finger across her throat and then smiled sweetly (I, 2, 16)

“Chúng ta phải lôi kéo người dân Inđônêxia về phía mình Chà, họ mà không theochúng ta thì ” cô ta đưa ngón trỏ lên vạch ngang qua cổ và mỉm cười ngọt ngào (I, 2, 23)

3.3.2 Treatment of Monitoring Marker:

"You see, it is the same here," he said "The desert is our environment TheFlowering Desert project threatens nothing less than the destruction of our entirefabric How can we allow this to happen?" (III,18,111)

“Anh thấy đấy , tình hình ở đây cũng y như vậy” , ông ta nói “Sa mạc là môi trườngcủa chúng tôi Dự án Sa mạc nở hoa đe dọa phá hủy toàn bộ nền văn hóa của chúng tôi Làm sao chúng tôi có thể để điều đó xảy ra được chứ ?” (III,18,154)

3.3.3 Treatment of Justification Marker

It did not, but I thought I remembered "About eighty million in the world, Ibelieve." (IV, 32,193)

Nó không chỉ ra , nhưng tôi nghĩlà tôi đã nhớ ra “Khoảng 80 triệu người trên thếgiới, tôi e là vậy” (IV, 32,271)

3.3.4 Treatment of Face-threat mitigator

Bruno summoned me to his office and said, "You'll get loads of grief over thisMAIN'S a pretty conservative place But I want you to know I think you're smart.Torrijos will love it; I do hope you're sending him a copy Good Well, thesejokers here in this office, the ones who think Torrijos is a Socialist, really won'tgive a damn as long as the work flows in." (III,17,104)

Bruno cho gọi tôi vào phòng và bảo : “Anh sẽ gặp rất n hiều phiền phức vìbài báo

đó MAIN là một công ty cực kỳ bảo thủ Nhưng tôi nghĩlà anh rất khôn ngoan Torrijos sẽ thích bài báo đó ; tôi cũng hy vọng anh sẽ gửi một bản sao bài đó cho ông ấy Những kẻ thích đùa trong côn g ty, những người nghĩlà Torrijos theo chủ