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

In this study qualitative method andobservation are applied to find out the most common translation strategies,procedures and methods used in translating exhibit labels with the detail a

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 TỈNH THÁI NGUYÊN

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

MA MINOR THESIS

Supervisor: Assoc Prof.Lê Hùng Tiến

Ha Noi, November, 2017

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, HanoiUniversity of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) and that this thesis hasnot been submitted for any assessment in any other formal courses of studyelsewhere

Signature:

Date:

In the complement of my thesis, I have received generous advice and a greatdeal of support from a number of people Firstly, I would like to express my deepand sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Le Hung Tien, for hisenthusiastic guidance, constructive critical feedback and generous help in theprocess of completing my thesis

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

I would like to express my gratefulness to all the staff working at Museum ofVietnamese Ethnics‟ cultures in Thai Nguyen Province for their kind cooperationand valuable support, which considerably contributed to the completion of my work.Finally, I would like to acknowledge my dear family for their love, materialand spiritual support throughout this research I also wish to thank all my friendswho always stand by me with their consideration and encouragement

Ma Thị Bông

ii

Museum is the place where cultural and historical values are preserved andpopularized to the young generation and the foreigners One of the most importantissues in propagating Vietnamese culture to the oversea visitors is the translatingexhibits‟ names into foreign languages The research aims to investigate theVietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at the Museum of VietnameseEthnics‟ cultures at Thai Nguyen City In this study qualitative method andobservation are applied to find out the most common translation strategies,procedures and methods used in translating exhibit labels with the detail analysis ofeach strategy‟s advantages and disadvantages From the findings of the study, somesuggestions for the translators when dealing with cultural words are given Toanswer all the research questions, the research supplies readers with a foundationalknowledge of translation through literature review section Then the data areanalyzed 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

TL : 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 thesignificance, 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): Brieforganization 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 asthe place where cultural values are preserved and exhibited It collects andconserves cultural exhibits and the record of humanity which deepen people‟sunderstanding and appreciation of their history and culture Museum of VietnameseEthnics‟ Culturesbuilt in 1960 and situated at Thai Nguyen City center is thecultural site which exhibiting and preserving cultural and historical values of allethnic groups in Vietnam People visiting the museum not only amuse themselvesbut also study Vietnamese culture Among the visitors of the museum, there are alot of foreigners, scientists and students In order to welcome foreigners and bettertheir knowledge about Vietnamese culture, all the exhibit labels are written inVietnamese and then translated into English and French

There is no doubt that the translation process of exhibit labels is not easybecause many Vietnamese cultural concepts do not have equivalents in English Thetranslators have to apply numerous translation strategies to make all the conceptscomprehensible to the visitors So far, translation aspects have always been anoteworthy field for many researchers; however, little investigation on theVietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels has been conducted Therefore astudy on this aspect is really essential With the hope of investigating the mostpopular translation strategies, procedure and method used in exhibit labelstranslation as well as giving some useful suggestions in translating culturalconcepts, the author would like to carry out this minor thesis

2 Significance of the study

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

Practically, this study helps to determine the most common translationstrategies, procedures and methods used by translators in translating exhibit labelsfrom Vietnamese into English It also points out the benefits and drawbacks whenapplying each strategy in translating exhibit labels Furthermore, the research givessome suggestions and implication that would be useful for cultural conceptstranslation

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 itsage, material, collector, and artist The study limits itself to the analysis ofVietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels

5 Research questions

 What are the most common translation strategies in the Vietnamese- Englishtranslation of exhibit labels? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each strategyused?

 What translation procedures and methods are widely used in translatingexhibit 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 theoreticalbackgrounds of the study from a lot of published books written by many authorswere provided Then, the exhibit labels from Museum of Vietnamese Ethnic‟sCulture in Thai Nguyen city were collected as the data of the study From thesesources, we analysed and drew out the strategies, procedures and methods used inthe 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 Nguyenprovincenow becomes one of six national museums which preserves about 2000valuable documents, photographs and exhibits of fifty-four ethnic minority groups.Each exhibit is accompanied by a label showing its label, and a description oforigin, age, collector written in Vietnamese, English and French The Englishversion of the exhibit labels were translated by a group of four translators who havebeen working in the museum and have qualification specializing in English.Most ofthe exhibits are everyday life belongings, domestic tools, production tools andreligious belongings of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam Therefore, manyitems do not have equivalents in English

6.2 The data collection criteria

The focus of this study is the Vietnamese- English translation of exhibitlabels 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 selectedmostly 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 intranslating 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 proceduresused in the translation based on Vinay & Darbelnet‟s classification and Newmark‟sclassification

+ 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 andconclusion

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 thestudy

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 ofstudies Nguyen (2005) investigating the Vietnamese-English translation of exhibitlabels in Vietnam Museum of Ethnography She studied the strategies, translationprocedures and found out the difficulties facing the translators in translating processand pointed out some problems in the translation as well Her subject was objectlabels In her study, she mainly listed the strategies and procedures used intranslation without pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each strategyand procedure She did not synthesize and generalize the common cases in whichthese strategies and procedures were applied Bach (2007) conducted a studyinvestigating equivalence in the Vietnamese cultural words in the book “wanderingthrough Vietnamese Culture” by Huu Ngoc The objective of her study was findingout the equivalence type in the translation Most recently, Nguyen (2011) carriedout a research on Vietnamese-English translation of Vietnamese cultural words inthe book “Hanoi‟s ancient features” by Tran Manh Thuong The goal of theresearch was pointing out the typical type of equivalence used, the commonproblems in the translation and the common translation method applied intranslation process All of the studies mentioned above relate to the Vietnamese-English translation of cultural words; however they still left the gaps for the presentstudy to continue exploring the strategies, procedures and methods applied in theVietnamese- English translation of exhibit labels at Museum of VietnameseEthnics‟ cultures and finding out the most common and suitable method to dealwith translating cultural words

1.2 Definition of translation

Translation is a challenging process and it has appealed to many theoristsover 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) Histheory implies that the target text should be equivalent to its source text in both formand content; however he only focuses on written products

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

In contrast, Larson (1894) considers translation as a change of form Intranslation 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 communicativeprocess which takes place within a social context.”

In addition, Nida, E.A (1975:33) states“Translating consists of producing inthe receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the message of the sourcelanguage, 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 (interlingualtranslation), but also within a language (intralingual) and between semiotic system(intersemiotic translation)

Although there are numerous approaches to translation definition, all of thememphasize on the importance of equivalence in target language both in lexical andgrammatical structure

1.3 Translation equivalence

Equivalence has been considered the unique intertextual relation that onlytranslations are expected to show It is defined as the relationship between a sourcetext and a target text that allows the target text to be considered as a translation ofthe source text in the first place Therefore, it is no surprise that equivalence isalways 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 atranslational, or equivalence relation.”

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

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

Translation theorists tend to classify equivalence in accordance with differentcriteria and approaches Based on quantitative approach, Kade (1968) suggestedfive 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 thetarget language and source language have identical

 Connotative equivalence: is achieved when the TL preserves the

connotations in the source language text created by means of the word choice withrespect to level of style, social and geographical dimensions, frequency, etc.Achievement of connotative equivalence is the hardest problems of translation, and canseldom 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 achievedwhen the SL and the TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respectivelanguages

 Pragmatic equivalence: with readership orientation, the SL and the TL words

have the same effect on the respective readers In other words, seeking to achievepragmatic 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 befound 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, whentranslating from one language into another This means that the translator should payattention to a number of factors when considering a single word, such as number, genderand tense

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

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 closestpossible match of form and content The translator attempts to translate the text literallyword-for-word He/She attributes priority to the SL text, and tries to render the SL text asfaithfully as possible, not only in its content but also in its form including grammaticalunits, consistency in word usage, meanings in terms of the source context

 Dynamic equivalence is achieved when the SL and the TL words have thesame effect on their effective readers This kind of equivalence is “The closest naturalequivalent” of the SL text, more emphasis on “equivalent effect” Translators attempt toconvey 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 inmind 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!)

2 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 distinguisheseleven 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 religiousbelief, 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

10

mãnh” to refer to a man who dies young The people in other countries could notknow 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 simplynot 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 SLword is semantically complex

This is a fairly common problem in translation A single word which consists of asingle morpheme can sometimes express a more complex set of meanings than awhole 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 onelanguage 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” areall 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 wordfor “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, sinceeach language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to itsparticular environment For instance, to express the action of “wearing” in English itdepends on the context to understand its meaning, whereas, in Vietnamese there aremany 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 inform

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 thetarget language For example two words “sơn hào, hải vị” are two loan words fromChinese and they do not have equivalent loan in English

1.5 Translation strategies

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

as long as possible; (ii) correcting surface errors immediately; (iii) leaving themonitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage.Moreover, Loescher (1991:8) defines translation strategy as "a potentially consciousprocedure 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 indistinguishing strategies which are used by the learners or translators In this regard,Cohen (1998:4) asserts that "the element of consciousness is what distinguishesstrategies from these processes that are not strategic."

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

Mona Baker (1992: 26-42) lists eight strategies, which have been used byprofessional translators, to cope with the problematic issues while doing atranslation 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

(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 tohave a similar impact on the target reader The main advantage of this strategy isthat it gives the reader a concept with he/she can identify, something familiar andappealing

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 thedemanding gastronomist to those of the expert in pastry

In Britain, „cream tea‟ is „an afternoon meal consisting of tea to drink and sconeswith jam and clotted cream to eat It can also include sandwiches and cakes „Creamtea‟ has no equivalent in other cultures The Italian replaced it with „pastry‟, whichdoes not have the same meaning However, „pastry‟ is familiar to the Italian readerand 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 veryuseful when the word in question is repeated several times in the text Onceexplained, the loan word can be used on its own; the reader can understand it and isnot distracted by further lengthy explanations

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

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 islexicalised in the TL but in a different form, and when the frequency with which acertain form is used in the source text is significantly higher than would be natural

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

E.g Source text: ….the lower mixed broadleaf forests….are the areas mostassessible 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 someaspects of the source item and the equivalent item refers to a physical entity whichcan be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has toremain short, concise, and to the point

When dealing with culture-specific concepts, Harvey (2003:2-6) putsforward 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 theterm is formally transparent or is explained in the context, it may be used alone In othercases, 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 formalequivalence is considered insufficiently clear In a text aimed at aspecialized reader, it can be helpful to add the original SL term to avoidambiguity

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

1 6 Translation procedures

In contrast to translation strategies (the translators‟ global approach or plan ofaction on a given text, according to their intention), translation procedures are usedfor sentences and smaller units of language within that text (Newmark (1988:81)).Translation procedures are methods applied by translators when they formulate anequivalence for the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from the SourceText (ST) to the Target Text (TT) Vinay and Darbelnet first proposed sevenmethods 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 usedfor translation which involves using foreign phrasing in the target text The reasonfor the gap in the target language is usually metalinguistic Nowadays, it isfrequently caused by new technologies entering rapidly the surrounding reality andthe concept discussed in the source text is relatively unknown to the target audience.The most interesting aspect of using borrowings relates to creating specific stylisticeffects,Vietnamese is a language that has so many borrowings, especially in recenttimes when the influence of foreign cultures is stronger than ever Examples ofborrowings 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 toretain 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 expressionform the SL by translating literally each of the original elements The result createseither, a lexical calque, which preserves the syntactic structure of the TL, but at thesame time introduces a new mode of expression; or a structural calque, whichintroduces 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 translatingbetween two languages of the same family, such as French and Italian, and worksmost efficiently when they also share the same culture d Transposition

Transposition means the replacing of one word-class by another, withoutchanging the meaning of the message The procedure can also be applied within a

language For instance, “She announced she would resign”can be re-expressed by transposing a subordinate verbwith a noun, as “She announced her resignation”.

We call this second version the transposed form, and the original one thebase form In translation, two types of transposition can be distinguished: obligatoryand optional transposition The base and transposed forms are not necessarilyequivalent from the stylistic point of view Translators must, therefore, choose tocarry out a transposition if the resulting version fits better into the utterance, orallows a particular stylistic nuance to be retained The transposed form is generallymore literary in character

When translating from Vietnamese into English or vice versa, we have to usethis 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 agrammatically 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 theworld”which must be rendered in Vietnamese as “trên thế giới” It is because itwould sound unnatural to say “trong thế giới” A common example of an optionalmodulation takes place when a negative expression in the source language becomes

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

Eg It is not difficult dễ ợt

f Equivalence

Equivalence is also known as reformulationcreatesacorresponding text in thetarget language by using completely different stylistic and structural devices Mostexamples 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 differencesbetween the source language and the target language in which the situationexpressing messagesin source language does not function in the target languageculture In such cases, translator must recreate a new situation that can beconsidered as more or less equivalent Hence, adaptation is a specific kind ofsituational 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 ofMercy‟, 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 oflanguages” 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 sourcelanguage 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 valuebut 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

• Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure the translators have to explain orparaphrase the words in the target language by adding function or description in thesource 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 wordwhich has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, bydemonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components."