Economic knowledge in general and macroeconomic knowledge in particular has become popular and so the translation of the terminologies in these fields. This paper tries to research the translation procedures applied in English – Vietnamese translation of macroeconomic terms in the 5th and 7th editions of the book called “Macroeconomics” by N.Gregory Mankiw basing on the translation theory of Newmark. This paper hopes to point out what procedures are applied and what is the most dominating one. First, this study provides some theoretical review of translation and translation procedures to function as the basis for the study. The translation procedures proposed by Newmark (1988) have been chosen for the analysis of application. Applying qualitative and quantitative for 252 terms selected, the researcher finds out that 11 translation procedures are utilized. They are literal translation, naturalization, through translation, transposition, synonym, recognized translation, componential analysis, paraphrase, transference, modulation, and couplets. The most dominating procedure is through translation. Although there remain some limitations, the researcher hopes that this paper will be useful for students and translators in dealing with macroeconomic terms. Economic knowledge in general and macroeconomic knowledge in particular has become popular and so the translation of the terminologies in these fields. This paper tries to research the translation procedures applied in English – Vietnamese translation of macroeconomic terms in the 5th and 7th editions of the book called “Macroeconomics” by N.Gregory Mankiw basing on the translation theory of Newmark. This paper hopes to point out what procedures are applied and what is the most dominating one. First, this study provides some theoretical review of translation and translation procedures to function as the basis for the study. The translation procedures proposed by Newmark (1988) have been chosen for the analysis of application. Applying qualitative and quantitative for 252 terms selected, the researcher finds out that 11 translation procedures are utilized. They are literal translation, naturalization, through translation, transposition, synonym, recognized translation, componential analysis, paraphrase, transference, modulation, and couplets. The most dominating procedure is through translation. Although there remain some limitations, the researcher hopes that this paper will be useful for students and translators in dealing with macroeconomic terms.
Trang 1VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION
GRADUATION PAPER
TRANSLATION PROCEDURES APPLIED IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF MACROECONOMIC TERMINOLOGIES
Supervisor: Tran Thu Ha, MA Student: Nguyen Tuan Minh QH2010
Hanoi, May 2014
Trang 2ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
PHƯƠNG THỨC DỊCH ĐƯỢC ÁP DỤNG TRONG
DỊCH ANH – VIỆT CÁC THUẬT NGỮ
KINH TẾ HỌC VĨ MÔ
Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Trần Thu Hà Sinh viên: Nguyễn Tuấn Minh Khoá: QH2010
HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2014
Trang 3DECLARATION
I hereby state that I: Nguyen Tuan Minh, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts(TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose s of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper
Hanoi, 2014
Nguyen Tuan Minh
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i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Tran Thu Ha, MA for her sound guidance, valuable comments and continuous encouragement right from the beginning to the end of this study Without her help, this paper would not have been completed
My sincere thanks also go to my classmates and friends who have provided enormous encouragement and enthusiastic help in giving comments and shar ing materials during the process of completing this paper
Finally, I would also like to express my special thanks to my family and my
roommates for their endless support throughout the development of this paper
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ABSTRACT
Economic knowledge in general and macroeconomic knowledge in particular has become popular and so the translation of the terminologies in these fields This paper tries to research the translation procedures applied in English – Vietnamese translation of macroeconomic terms in the 5th and 7th editions of the book called
“Macroeconomics” by N.Gregory Mankiw basing on the translation theory of Newmark This paper hopes to point out what procedures are applied and what is the most dominating one
First, this study provides some theoretical review of translation and translation procedures to function as the basis for the study The translation procedures proposed
by Newmark (1988) have been chosen for the analysis of application Applying qualitative and quantitative for 252 terms selected, the researcher finds out that 11
translation procedures are utilized They are literal translation, naturalization, through translation, transposition, synonym, recognized translation, componential analysis, paraphrase, transference, modulation, and couplets The most dominating procedure
is through translation
Although there remain some limitations, the researcher hopes that this paper will be useful for students and translators in dealing with macroeconomic terms
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Page Table 3.2.1 Quantity of translation procedures in English –
Table 3.2.2 Translation procedures employed in couplets in English
– Vietnamese translation of macroeconomic terms (Couplets
analysis)
34
Figure 3.2.1 Percentage of procedures applied in
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iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
ABSTRACT ii
LIST OF TALBES AND FIGURE iii
TABLES OF CONTENTS ………iv
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……… 1
1.1.Statement of problem and rationale……… 1
1.2.Aims and Objectives 3
1.3.Scope of the study 3
1.4.Significance of the study……… 4
1.5 Research questions 5
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW………5
1.1 Translation theory………5
1.1.1 Definition of translation………5
2.1.2 Translation procedures………9
1.2 An overiew of terminology………14
1.2.1 Definition of terminology 17
1.2.2 Characteristics of terminology 17
CHAP TER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOG Y 20
2.1 Selection of samples 20
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2.2 Procedures of data collection 20
2.3 Procedures of data analysis .20
2.3.1 Qualitative method 21
2.3.2 Quantitative method 21
CHAP TER 3: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 23
3.1.Data analysis 23
3.2 Findings……… 31
3.3 Further discussion 36
3.4 Suggestions for translation of macroeconomic terms 39
PART 3 : CONCLUSIONS 41
3.1.Overview of the study 41
3.2.Limitations of the study 42
3.3.Suggestions for further research 42
REFERENCES 44
APPENDIX 45
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PART 1 INTRODUCTION
In this part, the rationale for the selection of macroeconomic terms to be the object for analysis will be first presented followed by the purposes and scope of the study Finally, two research questions will also be presented
1.1 Statement of problem and rationale
The world is now witnessing changes in almost all aspects for every second passing Technology is making enormous breakthroughs, which never seems to expose any limits opening chances for bringing the world much more closely Moreover, the open and cooperative policies dominating leads to an interdependent world and also the flow of people, economic resources, and cultural trends constantly move from one country to another However, different languages are the most common barriers that people have to overcome to successfully integrate into an intercultural environment That situation creates great chances for the translation to have a pivotal stand and to exhibit its power
Perhaps, one of the most popular topics discussed on a regular basis nowadays around the world is the economy ranging from the domestic, foreign to global one How is the domestic price of goods and services changing now and in the future? How many workers are in the state of unemployment? What are the possible effects of global financial market crash that can affect the domestic economy, to what extend and
by what mechanisms? Whether the gross domestic product can experience a sustainable growth in the long run? What should be the appropriate policy response of the government under different circumstances of economic situations? The above questions are just some of the many common questions asked and discussed about the economy in general That is why it is reasonable to say there is a serious necessity to have knowledge about the economy so that as members of the ever changing world,
Trang 10of the two most important aspects of economics In Vietnam, books in those courses are introduced with terminologies either in English and Vietnamese, but mostly in Vietnamese Also, the economic information on the media is full of economic terms that readers of all ages and levels can come across, which means that macroeconomic terms have a greater frequency of presence than microeconomic ones That also means
a greater chance for translation to take place and deal with these terminologies in academic and non-academic environments
Translation is a complex task requiring the combination of knowledge from many areas In each area, translators need to understand what they are conveying from one language to another, especially when they encounter technical terms It is when they have to stop and read more about unfamiliar terminologies so that they can make sure the accuracy of what is translated as much as possible
Economics has been introduced into Vietnam for long Macroeconomic terms have been very similar for those who are concerned and work in economic areas and also for translators who are dealing with the words and messages in economic
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documents in projects, news and books Vietnam has never been considered the c radle
of economics without any important economic theories widely recognized The economic knowledge has been “imported” to Vietnam and after the work of translation, people simply accept and utilize the terms without questions There are a lot of studies that explore similar issues such as studies about terminologies in taxations, in finance and banking, in international finance and so on However they ignore what is considered to be present and obvious and what is regarded as the prerequisite The translation of macroeconomic terms should be carefully reviewed and explored to better understand the nature of the macroeconomic terminology translation
These above reasons set the basis for the study “The English – Vietnamese Translation of Macroeconomic Terminologies” to be chosen as the researcher’s thesis for graduation with the expectation that this paper will help to give a deeper insight into what has been ignored so far in the translation of one of the most important areas
in economics It will not only help the translators but also relating readers who are concerned with these terminologies and students, especially economic and linguistic ones
1.2 Aims and objectives
This paper has some purposes that have been thoroughly chosen to be appropriate with the research question First of all, this study is conducted to find out and analyze the translation procedures used in translating macroeconomic terminologies from English into Vietnamese Second, this paper will examine the most and the least dominating procedures applied when translating macroeconomic terms from English to Vietnamese Finally, to give some suggestions when encountering macroeconomic terms in English – Vietnamese translation is also an important objective of this study
1.3 Scope of the study
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Due to time limitation resources shortage and the length of this study, the researcher only focuses on the typical terms mentioned in the book “Macroeconomics” (5th and 7th Editions) by N Gregory Mankiw Because there are awful lots of terms appearing in the books, so not all of the macroeconomic terms in general but only terms with high frequency of presence will be chosen These terms are later classified into sub-categories for further analysis
1.4 Significance of the study
Translators often have difficulties in dealing with terms that are technical because these terminologies are almost new to them Translators may have the idea what the equivalent is, but do not understand what the term exactly means That is to say, vocabulary is always one of the most frequent challenges facing translators and interpreters when doing their jobs That is why this study hopes to deal with technical terms in translation and expects to help the unfamiliar translators and students to broaden their spans of knowledge into macroeconomics It will serve as the first step for those who have not translated the terms before or the students who just read macroeconomic books in English and wish to find Vietnamese equivalents That useful help will save a lot of time and energy searching and finding equivalents because this study can be considered a source of references of vocabulary in translation when translators do their job in the areas of macroeconomics terms in news, economic magazines and journals Also, the study of English – Vietnamese translation of macroeconomic terms is expected to help those who wants to deeply examine the translated meanings of these terms to see whether they are fully and suitably rendered
or not and, if possible, to see what nature of these terms is and whether there is something beyond what have already been translated Further more, the research can
be referred to by those who would like to translate or re -translate the government policies in macroeconomics for a better and fresher version or translating macroeconomic reports from international and independent organizations for useful
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information for domestic policy makers, economists and the government to review their performances if necessary
1 5 Research questions
The study is formulated to explore the answers for the following questions:
1 What are translation procedures applied in English- Vietnamese translation
In conclusion, it is essential to have some knowledge about economics in the time of globalization with economic information everywhere Also it is necessary to invest time and energy to conduct the analysis of macroeconomic terms as a means of acquiring economic knowledge as well as making a source of terms to refer to when necessary This paper’s main purpose is to conduct thorough analysis about procedures
in translating macroeconomic terms to find out the most dominating one and then to provide some suggestions for translators in dealing with macroeconomic terms by finding the answers to the two research questions of what are the procedures and which ones have the highest and lowest frequency
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PART 2 DEVELOPMENT
In this part, the researcher will present in details the theoretical basis for the analysis of translation procedures applied in the translation of macroeconomic terms After that, some scientific methods utilized in the course of analysis will also be presented and followed by the results of the analysis and some discussions
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, some academic theories in translation will be reviewed followed
by the literature on terminology to function as the basis for the study
1.1 Translation theory
1.1.1 Definition of translation
Translation can be either a product or a process In the former concept of product, translation is considered the text that has been translated The other view, which seems more commonplace, is that translation is a process of translating or the activity of translating The second point of view on translation as a process is going to
be discussed in details Translation can also be spoken or written In the spoken form, translation is called interpretation or spoken – spoken translation and with written form, translation is called translation or written – written translation and some other forms in between such as spoken – written, sight translation or written – spoken translation Here, the written – written form or simply called translation will be utilized for discussion in this study
Newmark (1988, p.5) in his work “A Textbook of Translation” defines that translation is “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in a way that the author intended the text” It means that the process of translating is to express or present the intended meaning of the source language by the author in the target
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language He also admits that the process can be complicated because to transfer the meaning intended in the way of the author from one language to another, the translator has to pretend to be someone else
Another definition is proposed by Dubois is “Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalence.” (Dubois, cited in Le & Nguyen 2008) This definition is almost the same as the previous one by Newmark but more details in the way that the intention of the author is specified by the equivalence
of style and semantic meaning
Hartman and Stork consider translation “the replacement of a representation of
a text in one language by an equivalent text in a second language”(Hartman and Stork, cited in Le & Nguyen 2008) This one is probably the most general one because the content of translation process is almost the same as what has been proposed in the two mentioned concepts but what is “equivalent text” is not clearly stated and therefore, somehow general compared to the second definition by Dubois
Larson also views translation as a process but presents it in a much more detailed level He explains the process in three sub-processes According to Larson, the first step to deal with a text is do research on the source text in terms of linguistic co-text elements and context (lexicon, grammar structure, communication situation and cultural context) The next step is to analyze the elements to absorb its meaning It
is followed by the final process when the translator reconstructs the meaning found in the second step using appropriate words and grammatical structures in the target language (Larson, cited in Le & Nguyen 2008)
In general, the authors’ insignificant difference can be found in the degree of details that each definition presents However, they reach some degree of unanimity that translation is viewed as the process of re-expressing an original text, source text,
in another text in a second language so that the meaning is equivalently and originally
Trang 16Various definitions of translation strategy are available from scholars in translation study Krings (cited in Ordudari 2007) considers translation strategy
“translator's potentially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task” Venuti (1998, p.240) indicates that translation strategies “involve the basic tasks of choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a method to translate it.” In his concept of translation strategies, he mentions domestication and foreignization as two approaches employed
by translators when dealing with a translation task
According to Banjar (2011), in his lecture on translation strategies, the global strategy is the general strategy the translator employed to deal with the text while the local strategy is the specific strategy for smaller parts of text such as words, grammatical constructions and idioms And the global strategy is called translation method and the local one is called translation procedures In this definition, the distinction between translation strategy, translation procedure and method is obvious Translation method and translation procedure are the components of translation strategies The difference between method and procedure can be found in the scale (global or local) that they can be applied Newmark (1988, p.81) also distinguishes between translation method and translation procedure in that “while translation methods relate to the whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language”
Vinay and Darbelnet with the proposal of some translation procedures in their translation model are mentioned by Munday (2001, pp.56-9) in his book “Introducing
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Translation Studies” In their opinion, there are two strategies applied in translation: direct or literal procedure and oblique procedure Direct strategy is employed when the meaning of the target text can be transferred without disturbing its conceptual and structural features Direct strategy includes borrowing, calque and literal translation
On the other hand, oblique strategy can be applied when the conceptual and structural
of the source text can not be directly translated without changing the meaning or upsetting grammatical and stylistic elements of the target language Oblique procedures consist of transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation
Among a variety of translation procedures presented, those proposed by Newmark in his book “A Textbook of Translation” may be considered one of the most popular with a high degree of application The researcher has decided to adopt Newmark’s translation procedures to serve as the theoretical basis for analyzing the translation procedures applied to translate macroeconomic terms
1.1.2.1 Literal translation
Literal or word-for-word translation is defined as one but where the translator has not needed to make any changes other than those that are obviously required by the target language In other words, the translator simply render the word from the target language into the target language because it is simply equivalent both culturally and meaningfully Some representative examples of literal translation are presented below
No English term Vietnamese equivalent Translation procedure
1.1.2.2 Transference
In this procedure, the no translation actually takes place when the source language word is directly taken into the target language In other words, the word in
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the translated version remains its original form, which is the same as it is in the original text This procedure is dominantly applied in translating proper names of newspaper, geographical locations, street names, etc
The advantage of transference is that it can retain the local taste of the words or the stylistic effect will be created through keeping the same original words Another reason for applying this procedure that appears rather passive is that there is no equivalent in the target language to make the replacements, which means borrowing the words to the target language Some examples are presented below
equivalent Translation procedure
1.1.2.3 Naturalization
In naturalization, the source language word is adapted to the target language in terms of pronunciation and morphology It is a special form of borrowing While the transference keeps the same pronunciation and morphology of the original words, naturalization makes the source language words more “natural”, which is to naturalize,
to the target language pronunciation and morphology system Sometimes, the borrowed words are too “natural” or “familiar” to the native speakers that they are not able to tell whether the word is native or borrowed Both the spoken and written forms
of the words are now readable and understandable for the native speakers Some illustrations are presented below
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equivalent Translation procedure
1.1.2.4 Through translation
When a word or phrase in the target language is literally translated into the target language, through translation procedure has been applied The words are rendered literally into the target language with some structural changes or adaptations
so that the translated version sounds reasonable in the target language Some other names of this translation procedure can be named as calque or loan translation by other translation theorists Through translation is advised to apply to translate the names of organizations or already recognized terms
procedure
1 Gross national product Tổng sản phẩm quốc dân Through translation
Organization Tổ chức Thương mại Thế giới Through translation
1.1.2.5 Transposition
Shift or transposition involves a change in the grammar or part of speech in the process of rendering from the source language to the target language It means that replacing one part of speech by another without disturbing the meaning the original word More specifically, for example, the verb in the source language can be come a noun in the target language or vice versa Or in other cases, a plural noun can be
Trang 21No English term Vietnamese equivalent Translation procedure
1 A quarter mile Khoảng 400 mét Cultural equivalent
1.1.2.8 Functional equivalent
In functional equivalent translation procedure, a cultural source language word
is translated into a target language word, which is non-cultural or culture-free
No English term Vietnamese equivalent Translation procedure
1 The Pentagon Bộ Quốc Phòng Mỹ Functional equivalent
2 The White House Chính phủ Mỹ Functional equivalent
For example, “Barbecue” is translated into “Bữa tiệc ngoài trời, đồ ăn thường được nướng trên bếp đặt ngoài trời” (Le & Nguyen, 2008) In this example, barbecue
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is rendered into Vietnamese by using sequence of words, which is much longer so that the term can be fully understood and retains its original meaning The conciseness is sacrificed for the meaning
1.1.2.10 Synonym
Synonym procedure is applied when there is no one-to-one equivalence for the word which is not important in the text However, when literal translation is not applied, the translator shouldn’t use synonym Abusing this procedure may result in poor translation
No English term Vietnamese equivalent Translation procedure
2 Compensation of
1.1.2.11 Recognized translation
When the any translation is recognized widely but the translator doesn’t agree, he/she should not use his translation because people are got used to with those words for a long time, therefore, the translator should use the familiar word to not cause confusion
This translation procedure seems too personal For a person who has to do the translation analysis as a researcher, it is almost impossible to know the translator agrees with the recognized terms or not but to directly interview the translator For example, when rendering the word “inflation”, the translator does not agree with the current and popular equivalent, which is “lạm phát” However, he still utilizes this equivalent because he does not wish to make confusions to readers and continue to use
“lạm phát” as the majority of people It is possible to say that he has applied recognized translation
1.1.2.12 Compensation
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When the information is lost in a sentence, it can be added in another sentence
to compensate for what is lost This procedure, perhaps, is more suitable to apply to the translation of text or sentences rather than terms, which can be a single word or a combination of a few words There is no way people can make compensation for a term
1.1.2.13 Componential analysis
The word is divided into its sub-components which are meaningful The term in the source language is one word only while the term in the target language can be two, three or four, etc words Componential analysis focuses only on the message and it skips cultural issues The following tables will illustrate the procedure
No English term Vietnamese equivalent Translation procedure
3 Macroeconometrics Kinh tế lượng vĩ mô Componential analysis
1.1.2.14 Reduction and Expansion
The procedure is based on the original text when the translator wants to add or
to reduce some necessary or unsuitable information An example of reduction is the translation of “Science linguistique” (French) into “Linguistics” (English) “Science”
is omitted and the term in English now has only one word instead of t wo as the original term in French
1.1.2.15 Paraphrase
The translator can explain further meaning of a term so that the important meaning is kept In the translation of “Indirect business tax” into “Thuế gián thu”, paraphrase procedure is applied when “Indirect” (Gián tiếp) is paraphrase into
“Indirect collection” (Gián thu)
1.1.2.16 Translation label
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When two or more translation procedures are applied simultaneously to translate a single source language word, then couplets is adopted Some examples of couplets are presented in the following table
No English term Vietnamese
In conclusion, there are quite many translation procedures available for translators to choose from Each procedure with its peculiar features will fit a word or
a term but may be unfit for others and some will be more appropriate than other in a certain situation The translation procedures appropriate for translating terms will
include: literal translation, transference, naturalization, through translation, transposition, modulation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, descriptive
Trang 25The above definitions have reach an agreement on the content of what terminology is in that term is the name given to an object belonging to the conceptual world to identify it in a particular profession
1.2.2 Characteristics of terminology
According to Do Huu Chau (cited in Khuat 2012), a terminology has some characteristics such as accuracy, systematicality, internationality, popularity and nationality The above features of term are discussed in details below
Accuracy
A term must be clear and exact in its form and meaning in order not to make readers confused or misunderstand From that standard base, polysemy and synonym should not be found in a term Regarding the semantics of terms, the meaning of a term must be constant and uniformed regardless of the contexts
Systematicality
The semantic value of terms is indicated in its relations to other terms in the same field If a person is unable to locate what field the term belongs, he (she) may have an awful lot of difficulties with numerous confusions in interpretation process of
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it That’s why terms must be systematic in its own meaning in its field Also, in regard
of form, terms should be short and concise
Internationality
Terminology means science Therefore, it should be uniformly understood by people of different countries and cultures In other words, international readers must be able to refer to the same concept when encountering the terms This identity of terms partly helps to distinguish terms from other types of language such as slang, etc
Popularity
Terms should be natural or close to the daily language so that they will help to facilitate the understanding and usage of the public, which will, in turns, strengthen the existence of the concepts and terms
Nationality
Although terms should be international, it should also be national in the sense that terms are part of the national language system of a particular country Therefore, it should bear the colors and the characteristics of the language, which will facilitate the naturalness of terms because terms will have the identities of lexicons, forms and grammar of the language
Obviously, translation and terminology are two different fields, though they are both related to language Baker (1998, p.251) admits that translators and terminologists have two distinctive working modes While the first one works with language in general, the second one deals with language as a conceptual system Baker (1998, p.252) adds that the role of terminologists and translator, therefore, are quite different And sometimes, translators have to work as a terminologist when they have
to make choice among “alternative expression forms or the creation of neologism or a paraphrase” Here, when dealing macroeconomic terms, translators also have to be terminology, to some extent, so that they can reproduce the terms correctly and fully into the target language Moreover, Newmark (1988, p.152) admits that “the central difficulty in technical translation is usually the new terminology”
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According to Newmark (1988, p.151), terms account for about 5 -10 % of a text
It seems a rather small amount, but crucial to understand the text because terms s erve
as fundamental link and tool for the mind to understand a particular professional field
Therefore, the translation of terminology has an essential role in moving the technical knowledge from one language to another so that readers can acquire corre ct and sufficient knowledge that is appropriate in their culture and especially, easy to understand
In conclusion, this chapter functioning as the theoretical background for the study presents some common translation procedures proposed by Newmark and t he 15 procedures out of 17 are discussed in details with examples, which are commonly applied to translate terminologies Then some characteristics of terminology such as accuracy, systematicality, internationality, and nationality are presented to functio n during the course of choosing and translating terms
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CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, methods for the data selection and data analysis are presented to serve as the scientific basis for the analysis of the application of translation procedures into macroeconomic terms Also, the source for the collection of macroeconomic terms in English and Vietnamese will also be included
2.1 Selection of samples
The samples of this study are taken from the book called “Macroeconomics” written by N George Mankiw, Professor of Economics at Harvard University Because of the researcher’s inability to get access to the English version of second edition, both the fifth and seventh edition of the book will be utilized to form the data source for the economic terms in English The Vietnamese version of the book called
“Kinh tế vĩ mô” is the translated version of the second edition of the book
This study only considers the economic terms in the book, not the expression in
it, so the usage of three different editions will not heavily affect the results The new terms are just a few while a large majority of terms remain unchanged in different versions
The terms selected will cover almost all aspects of macroeconomics from money, inflation, employment, business cycles, banking, the economic activities of the government, and economic outputs, etc The macroeconomic terms appearing in the glossaries of the books will be also discussed in this study
2.2 Procedures of data collection
In the very small scope of this study, the researcher does not hope to cover all
of the terminologies in macroeconomic fields but to study samples of terms that have a high frequency of appearance and the most common and important macroeconomic terms appear in the book The reading of the English versions is conducted first and the terms are selected and fill in a table (See the Appendix) The Vietnamese equivalents of the terms will be put respectively to the English term in the table
2.3 Procedures of data analysis
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In this study, the researcher will employ both qualitative and quantitative method of analysis After listing all the chosen terminologies in the book for the data pool, the researcher will be able to group the terms into categories that the translation procedure applied to translate them has already served as the basis The terms wi ll be identified the procedures in the translation process Further discussions and explanations will be provided along with each group of procedures identified Basing
on the groups, how frequent each translation procedures have been applied and the most dominant procedure used, which means the procedure that has been used to translate the biggest number of terms mentioned
2.3.1 Qualitative method
Step 1: English macroeconomic terms and their Vietnamese equivalents are
collected and grouped into categories with the standard of translation procedures used
to translate them
Step 2: Explanations and discussions will be thoroughly conducted to give
reasons for the categorization
2.3.2 Quantitative method
Step 1: The translation procedures applied in translating the terms will be
counted the frequency by counting the number of terms that have been translated using that procedure
Step 2: The percentage of the frequency of appearance of each procedure will
be calculated following the formula:
P = (X/ T) x100%
With:
X : The number of terms categorized into one single translation procedure
T : Total number of terms selected
P : The percentage of frequency of each translation procedure
After that, tables, column charts and pie charts will be employed to demonstrate the data after being calculated for the purpose of analysis From the chats and tables, it
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CHAPTER 3: RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the result of data analysis, the answers for the two previously set questions and some followed-up discussions will be presented in details The researcher is going to explain the data analysis in details by giving reasons why it is possible to say that the translation of macroeconomic terms employs the procedures After that, the results will be shown in tables by calculating the number and the percentage for each procedures followed by the visualization of the data with pie and column charts Finally, the explanation for why some procedures are more common than others is given together with other important information related to the concerned issue is presented at the end of this chapter
3.1 Data analysis
The paper covers 252 macroeconomic terms However, only common and interesting terminologies, which are typical representatives of their procedures, are discussed in this section The analysis is conducted based on the 15 translation procedures commonly employed, and presented in details in the literature review, for term translation proposed by Newmark
3.1.1 Literal translation
In this procedure, the translator simply put the meaning in the targe t language to create the needed equivalent Some examples below, which are taken from the book, will illustrate the procedure
First, “investment” is literally translated into “đầu tư” Investment consists of goods bought for future use Investment is also divided into three subcategories: business fixed investment, residential fixed investment, and inventory investment Investment (I) is a component of the national income accounting identity (Y = C + I +
G + Nx) “Investment” is a noun derived from the verb “invest” in the terms does not mean in the sense of buying property or shares in the hope of making profits, which is indirect investment But in this case, invest means direct investment, the investment in goods and facilities for future or better usage The latter involves the buying of goods
Trang 32“depress” – to make someone sad and without hope or enthusiasm (Hornby 2006, p.393) Therefore, the term is literally translated into “Khủng hoảng” in Vietnamese
3.1.2 Naturalization
As a special form of borrowing, naturalization adapts the source language word
to the target language in terms of pronunciation and morphology Some examples taken from the book are presented below
First, quota is translated into “Cô – ta” as a result of naturalization process Quota is the restricted the amount of goods and services that can be imported or exported “Cô-ta” and “Quota” has almost the same pronunciation and morphology but
“Cô-ta” has been adapted to the Vietnamese to sound more natural
Another example that can be counted is the naturalization of “check” into “séc” The pronunciation of the term in Vietnamese is almost the same as the original in English “Séc” sounds quite natural in Vietnamese and it is a loan word That’s why naturalization is utilized
3.1.3 Through translation
When a word or phrase in the target language is literally translated into the target language, through translation procedure has been applied Some examples from the book will illustrate this point
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First, “gross domestic product” is rendered into “tổng sản phẩm trong nước” Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all final goods and services produced within an economy in a given period of time The procedure is a combination of continuous literal translation First, “gross” (“being the to tal amount of something before anything is taken away – Hornby 2006, p.658) is translated into
“tổng” Second, “domestic” (“of or inside a particular country, not foreign or international” - Hornby 2006, p.434) is translated into “trong nước” and finally,
“product” is translated into “sản phẩm There is something interesting in this translation that it is possible to say the Gross Domestic Products of Hanoi but “Tổng sản phẩm trong nước của Hà Nội” is impossible In this case, the term is supposed to
be rendered into “Tổng sản phẩm nội địa” (của Hà Nội)
Second, “nominal interest rate” is translated into “lãi suất danh nghĩa” The interest rate that the bank pays is called the nominal interest rate It differs from real interest rate, which is the increase in your purchasing power (Mankiw, 2010) Interest rate can be interpreted as the cost of holding money or the cost of borrowing money
“Nominal interest rate” is through translated into “Lãi suất danh nghĩa” by a combination of continuous literal translation First, “nominal”, which means “being something in name only, and not in reality” (Hornby 2006), is translated into “Danh nghĩa” (ý nghĩa của tên gọi chỉ thuần tuý hình thức, không có quan hệ hoặc đối lập với nội dung, với thực chất) Second, “interest” is defined as “the extra money that you pay back when you borrow money or what you receive when you invest money” (Hornby 2006, p.778) It is translated into “Lãi” (Tiền lời) Finally, “rate”, defined as
“the measurement of the number of times something happens or exists during a period
of time” (Hornby 2006, p 1203), is translated as “suất”, (Tỷ số, tỷ lệ)
Third, “commodity money” is rendered into “tiền hàng hóa” Commodity money is a type of money that is intrinsically useful and would be valued even if it did not serve as money It is contrasted with fiat money, money that is not intrinsically useful and is valued only because it is used as money (Mankiw, 2010) “Commodity”
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means “a product or a raw material that can be bought or sold” (Hornby 2006, p.290)
It is translated into “hàng hóa” (Sản phẩm do lao động làm ra, dùng để buôn bán trên thị trường) And “money”, any medium of exchange that can be used to make transactions or for the settlement of debts, is translated into “tiền”
Finally, “menu cost” is translated into “chi phí thực đơn” Menu cost is one of the costs of inflation It arises because high inflation causes firms to change their posted prices more often Changing prices is sometimes costly: for example, it may require printing and distributing a new catalog Because the higher the rate of inflation, the more often restaurants have to print new menus (Mankiw, 2010, p 102) “Menu”,
“a list of the food that is available at a restaurant or to be served at a meal” (Hornby
2006, p.921), is translated into “thực đơn” And “cost”, which is “the amount of money you need to buy, to make or to do something” (Hornby 2006, p.330), is translated into “chi phí”
3.1.4 Transposition
Shift or transposition involves a change in the grammar or part of speech in the process of rendering from the source language to the target language Some examples taken from the book will demonstrate the point as follow
First, “treatment of inventories” is rendered into “xử lý hàng tồn kho” Treatment
of inventories serves as a rule when computing GDP If the inventories spoil some time after being stocked and not sold to anybody, which means no income received and no value is counted in the GDP and vice versa The translation of “treatment of inventories” is a good representation of transposition First, “treatment”, which is derived from the verb “Treat”, is rendered into “xử lý” (Treat), which serve as a verb Second, “inventories”, a noun which means “all the goods in a shop” (Hornby 2006, p 786) is translated into a singular noun “hàng tồn kho” instead of “những hàng tồn kho”
or “các hàng tồn kho” Therefore, the whole term in English is a noun phase and it becomes a verb phase after the translation
Trang 353.1.5 Synonym
Synonym procedure is applied when there is no one-to-one equivalence for the word which is not important in the text Abusing this procedure may result in poor translation
For example, “animal spirits” is translated by being paraphrased into “bản năng” This term is used by Keynes and defined in the book as “human emotion that drives consumer confidence self-fulfilling waves of optimism and pessimism.” It can be interpreted as “expectation” about future economic situations of firms It is a communicative way of translation in which only the message is passed “Bản năng” (Instinct) is comparatively synonymous to “Animal spirits” regarding the main idea or the message of the term It is not a well-translated term because bản năng is too general As presented in the literature review, synonym should not be used when there
is no involvement of literal translation “Tinh thần động vật” (Literal translation) seems to be more popular and appropriate
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money but fewer goods bought People say the price inflates or the price increases It
is derived from the verb “inflate” which means “to fill or become filled with air or gas” The term “lạm phát” in Vietnamese literally means “issuance abuse” Strictly,
“lạm phát” is coined following one of the reasons of inflation: Too much money is circulating in the economy or the money issuance/printing is abused It is the quantity theory of money that explains that “price level is proportional to the money supply” (Mankiw, 2010, p.90) or in other words, the price level will corresponds to the amount
of money in the economy However, “lạm phát” is widely and popularly used as a native term It is possible to assume that the translator with their knowledge of economics and language are competent in understanding the discussions above They may be aware that the translation is not equivalent but they continue to use “lạm phát”
as a translation because people have used it for long and they do not wish to make confusions
3.1.7 Componential analysis
The word is divided into its sub-components which are meaningful The term in the source language is one word only while the term in the target language can be two, three or four, etc words Componential analysis focuses only on the message and it skips cultural issues
For example, “macroeconomics” is rendered into “kinh tế học vĩ mô” The term macroeconomics can be componentially analyzed as Macroeconomics = Macro + Economics “Macro” is a prefix or a combining form, which means “large or on a large scale” (Hornby 2006, p.887) and it is translated into “vĩ mô” The second part of the term “economics” (the study of how a society organizes its money, trade and industry – Hornby, 2006) is translated into “kinh tế học” to indicate a branch of economics that studies of the economy at the macro level
In some books, the term is translated into “Kinh tế vĩ mô” “Economics” is
“Kinh tế học” - a subject at school or a social science, which is different from “Kinh
Trang 37to promote the economy, which leads to the rise of interest rate in the money market The rise in the interest rate, which is regarded as a cost of investment, makes firms cut their investment Then it is said that the government spending crowds out private investment “Crowd out” is defined as “to fill a place so that other people are kept out” (Hornby 2006, p.352) The English term is paraphrased during translation of “lấn át đầu tư” so that the message is passed
3.1.9 Couplets
When two or more translation procedures are applied simultaneously to translate
a single source language word, then couplets is adopted Some examples taken from the book will illustrate this point
First, “imputed value” is rendered into “giá trị quy đổi” Imputed value is the value attributed to goods and services not sold in the market places when counting GDP For example, police officers, firefighters, and senators provide services to the public Giving a value to these services is difficult because they are not sold in a marketplace and therefore do not have a market price The national income accounts include these services in GDP by valuing them at their cost Couplets procedure is applied to render the term, which is a combination of modulation and literal translation First, “impute” is defined as “to say, often unfairly, that somebody is responsible for something or has a particular quality” (Hornby 2006, p.751) And
“quy đổi” in this term can be understood as the value is “transfer into its corresponding market value” or “impute a market value for the unsold goods” The function or the message is the same More importantly, imputed is a passive word form (impute (v) +