A study on common strategies to translate culture specific items in vietnamese festivals

ABSTRACT In the context of rapid and strong integration, the translation of books on Vietnamese culture to a global language as English plays an important role in promoting the image as

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG THỦ THUẬT PHỔ BIẾN TRONG CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ ĐẶC THÙ

VĂN HÓA CHỦ ĐỀ LỄ HỘI VIỆT NAM

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Ninh Bắc Sinh viên: Lê Hoàng Hải Anh

Khóa: QH2009

Hà Nội, tháng 5 - 2013

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Lê Hoàng Hải Anh, class QH2009.F.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University 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 purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date: 24/4/2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is my pleasure to thank those who make this thesis possible

First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyễn Ninh Bắc, M.A, lecturer of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement

I also would like to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers in the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge, especially on the major of translation and interpretation over the past four years My special thanks go as well to the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this thesis

Besides, I am heartily thankful to my classmates, who have enthusiastically supported and provided me with valuable suggestions

I am also deeply indebted to my family for their constant encouragement during the time

Lastly, I would like to offer my regards and blessings to all the readers of this paper I appreciate all the constructive comments on it and hope that my study will be useful for those who also take interest in this subject

Lê Hoàng Hải Anh

ABSTRACT

In the context of rapid and strong integration, the translation of books on Vietnamese culture to a global language as English plays an important role in promoting the image as well as cultural identity of Vietnam to the world However, translators who are trying to do this have usually encountered with problems of transferring Vietnamese culture-specific words and phrases; thus it has never been an easy task As a result, serious studies on how to accomplish and better this work are necessary and have certain significance

As one of many attempts to explore the translation of Vietnamese books on culture, this paper seeks to explore the strategies to deal with culture-specific items in the translation of Vietnamese festivals The study is conducted to find out the most common as well as effective strategies to help translators in general and those who take interest in translating Vietnamese festivals in particular To obtain the intended goal, the researcher firstly collects the samples from bilingual series

on festivals by Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton, including “Tết Nguyên đán – Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, “Tết Trung thu – Mid-autum festival” and “Lễ hội mùa xuân ở miền Bắc Việt Nam – Spring festivals in Northern Vietnam” Through the deep analysis and synthesis of the samples and data, the research identifies the strategies to deal with the stated problem, and bases on the calculated statistics to detect the strategies that are applied most frequently Each strategy presented is exemplified and analyzed carefully to facilitate readers‟ comprehension Lists of samples and their translation are also provided as a source of reference for those

who are interested in this subject

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.3.3 Common strategies to deal with culture-specific items 18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1.1 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Ecology” 24 4.1.2 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Material culture” 26 4.1.3 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Social culture” 32 4.1.4 Strategies applied to translate cultural items in “Organization,

customs, and ideas”

APPENDIX

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page Figures

Tables

Table 1: Quantity and ratio of culture-specific items in each sub-culture 23 Table 2: Translation of culture-specific items in sub-culture “Ecology” 25 Table 3: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Festive objects” of

the sub-culture “Material culture”

28

Table 4: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Housings” of the

sub-culture “Material culture”

30

Table 5: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Foods” of the

sub-culture “Material sub-culture”

31

Table 6: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Work” of the

sub-culture “Social sub-culture”

33

Table 7: Translation of culture-specific items in group “Leisure” of the

sub-culture “Social culture”

34

Table 8: Translation of culture-specific items in the sub-culture

“Organization, customs, and ideas”

35

Table 9: Translation of culture-specific items in the sub-culture “Gesture

and habits”

38

Table 10: The quantity of culture-specific items with existing English

equivalents and the frequency of strategies applied in the translation of

culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals

39

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the rationale as well as the aims and objectives of the study are stated In addition, the significance, scope as well as the organization of the thesis are also presented

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

Thanks to recent advances, particularly achievements in information technology revolution, international integration has become increasingly fast and strong, affecting all aspects of a country in both positive and negative ways The sound proactive integrating policies have brought us considerable attainments in various fields, including economy, politics, diplomacy and culture However, besides opportunities, integration also brings great challenges to our country; one among which is the fact that "boundaries are disappearing and distinctions are being lost" (Karamanian, 2002) To be more specific, it is the concern that Vietnamese culture - our national identity - might be dissolved in the flush of other cultures, which will intrude our country in the integration

Translation, since long time ago, has played an important role in the development of human race In the modern context of globalization, when the demand for international communication and cooperation become greater than ever, the position of translation accordingly increases as it serves as the bridge between cultures However, in our specific case, translation also has a much more vital implication In the need of culture preservation resulting from national identity concern, it holds true that the translators must convey as fully and exactly Vietnamese cultural values as possible This way translation will not merely be the language transfer but the conveyance of Vietnamese soul and culture - a powerful measure to preserve, introduce and ultimately develop the image of Vietnam to the outside world

As a result, the issue of how to translate Vietnamese culture-specific items has long been paid attention However, due to the subtle complexity of a 2000-

the translation of Vietnamese culture-specific terms into English with their fully communicative and cultural connotation has never been an easy task It is even more problematic in case of translating Vietnamese festival-culture items because

of the big gap in vocabulary and non-equivalence between two languages, causing many difficulties for translators and translators-to-be to transfer them

All these reasons bring this research into beings The aspiration for improvement, as well as to support translators, novice translators and those who interested in translating cultural issues serves as the inspiration of this research Besides, the interest in researching Vietnamese culture, here from a translation approach, partly encourages the researcher to conduct:

self-“A Study on Common Strategies to Translate Culture-specific Items in

Vietnamese Festivals"

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

By researching the methods and strategies to reach equivalent effects in the translation of culture-specific items of Vietnamese festivals, the study aims at identifying the strategies employed by the translator in dealing with culture-specific items of Vietnamese festivals The second purpose is to identify and attest the most common strategies in translating culture-specific items in of Vietnamese festivals Finally, from the picture of current issue, the researcher hopes to suggest some implications for translating culture-specific items in general

On this ground, the study seeks the answers for the following questions:

1 What are the strategies to translate culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals?

2 What are the most common strategies to translate culture-specific items in Vietnamese festivals?

1.3 Significances of the study

The research aims at supporting translators-to-be of Translation and Interpretation Division - ULIS - VNU as well as novice translators and anyone who has the same interest in culture translation

Firstly, the research is expected to provide readers with an insight into translation equivalence and translation of culture-specific words More specifically, readers can find here the characteristics, problems regarding culture translation of Vietnamese festivals as well as the effective strategies used by experiential translators to deal with them

Secondly, this study provides reliable reference of common problematic cultural words for translators and those who are interested in culture translation, especially in the field of festivals This, to some extent, supports the study of culture from translation approach and partially bridges the linguistic between cultures

1.4 Scope of the study

As can be seen in the title, the research is not going to investigate the translation of all culture-specific items but only ones relating to Vietnamese festivals

As well, it should be noted that the samples of the study are all taken from the book series on festivals by Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton, including three books:

“Tết Nguyên đán – Vietnamese Lunar New Year”, “Tết Trung thu – Mid-autum festival” and “Lễ hội mùa xuân ở miền Bắc Việt Nam – Spring festivals in Northern Vietnam”

1.5 An overview of the rest of the paper

The content of the study is presented as the following structure:

Chapter 1 - Introduction: provides an overview of the study with rationale, aims and objectives, significance and organization of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature review: constructs a theoretical background and summary of related studies

Chapter 3 - Methodology: states methods of the study, reasons for sampling and stages of data analysis

Chapter 4 - Results and discussion: discusses the results indicated by the answers

to research questions

Chapter 5 - Conclusion: summarizes discussed points, limitation of the study as well as suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 is a summary and also a review from a critical view of published literature, including books, journal articles and previous research related to the research topic The chapter starts with definition of translation and a close look at translation methods and equivalence, followed by focus on the relationship between culture and translation, and finishes with common strategies to deal with culture-specific items

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 Definition of translation

Though translation has a wide and rich history dated back to thousand years ago and the practice of translating has long proved its significance in the society, it was not until the fifteenth century did the earliest theories on translation appear; then the disciplines on translation has thrived prosperously up until now Since its birth, translation has been the subject of various research and conflicts between theorists, as each approaches it according to his own perspective and field of research Even the most seemingly basic matter of defining translation has always been problematic as there have been many definitions given out, in which one can

be quite different from the others For instance, in his famous essay, On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, Jakobson (1959) distinguished three types of translation as

follows:

(1) Intralingual translation, referring to the interpretation of verbal signs by means

of other signs in the same language

(2) Interlingual translation: an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other languages

(3) Intersemiotic translation: an interpretation of verbal signs of non-verbal system

In this case, the theorist has tried to describe the practice of translating in a fullest manner Translation in this definition does not merely concern linguistic units like words, sentences, and texts but also refers to non-linguistic measures

like non-verbal language system However, it still does not go into details of translating practice, thus remains surficial and abstruse

The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary – 3rd edition, defines that

"translation is a process of changing something from written or spoken form into another language", which is the analogue of the second type of translation in Jakobson's theory Though this definition is simpler and brighter than Jakobson's,

it still cannot meet the scholars' desire to achieve a content definition of translation

However, the situation changed as Newmark introduced a very clear and comprehensive definition of translation in 1995 According to him, translation is

"rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text" (p.5) By acknowledging implicitly the two stages of translation process: accurate comprehension and adequate representation, as well as the goal

of translation (achieving equivalence - "the way the author intended the text"), the concept by Newmark is apparently one of the most satisfactory definitions of translation

Another attempt to denote the concept of translation, which is of much

noteworthy, is by Hatim and Munday (2004) In their work Translation: An advanced resource book, they define translation from two perspectives First as a

process, translation is an act of taking a text from one language and transforming it into another; in this sense, Hatim and Munday (2004) center on the action of the translator Second as a product, translation focuses on the result achieved by the translator, which means the translator must convey the message as exactly and fully as possible from the source language to the target language

Besides, translation is also defined by Le & Nguyen (2008) as "the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalence" By this, translation in common sense is the talking or writing about one thing using a

different language The definition also clearly states two most significant criteria for translation: unaffected information and style of the source language text

In short, one can usually identify two different senses of translation One aims at transferring ideas and messages via rewording or paraphrasing; the other sees translation as an act of transferring messages from a source language into a target language for the sake of establishing equivalence to get appropriate meaning (Yowell & Lataiwish, 2000)

2.1.2 Translation methods

In the field of translation studies, the theory on translation methods suggested by Newmark (1988) is highly appreciated Since Peter Newmark has never given out an explicit definition of what a translation method is, we can perceive it generally as the way chosen by the translator to deal with the source text as a whole, distinguishing it from a translation procedure, which is used for

sentences and smaller units of languages In his well-known work A Textbook of Translation (1988), Newmark points out 8 translation methods, which are put in

the form of a flattened V diagram:

Source language emphasis Target language emphasis Word-for-word translation Adaptation Literal translation Free translation Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Figure 1: Translation methods in Newmark’s theory

Newmark (1988, p.45) explains word-for-word translation as "the interlinear translation" where "the source language word-order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meaning, out of context"

The factor that distinguishes literal translation from word-for-word translation is that "the SL (source language) grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL (target language) equivalents" (p.46) Apart from that, lexical words are still translated singly and out of context

Faithful translation "attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning

of the original within the constraints of the target language grammatical structures" (p.46); in other words, it transfers cultural words but retains lexical and grammatical unnaturalness

Adaptation, as located at the highest position of the right wing which emphasizing on the target language, is "the freest form of translation" (p.46), which mainly used for plays, poetry and songs Free translation "reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of original" (p.46) To some extent, it can be regarded as "intralingual translation", as "usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original" (p.46) Idiomatic translation also reproduces the message of the original text but "tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original" (p.47)

Among these eight translation methods, the most notable ones are semantic translation and communicative translation, which, according to Newmark, are the only methods fulfilling the two main aims of translation, accuracy and economy Besides, they also share the common feature that "treat the following items similarly: stock and dead metaphors, normal collocations, technical terms, slangs, colloquialisms, standard notices, phaticism, ordinary language" (p.47)

Though, there are still sharp disparities between these two translation

methods As in A Textbook of Translation, semantic translation is explained

through the comparison with faithful translation It not only renders the exact meaning of the source-language text in compliance with the grammatical structure

of the target language as faithful translation does, but also pays great attention on the aesthetic features of the source-language text Semantic translation is thus

more flexible and compromising than faithful translation and "admits the creative exception to 100% fidelity" (p.46), i.e helps the translator fully transfer the original ideas of the writer It's personal and individual, tends to over-translate; and since semantic translation closely renders metaphors, collocations, technical terms, slang, colloquialisms, unusual syntactic structures and collocations, etc it is often used for texts that have high status such as religious texts, legal texts, politicians' speeches, and expressive texts, e.g literature

Communicative translation differs from semantic translation in the sense that it gives priority to the effectiveness of the message and focuses on readability and naturalness; in other words, it renders the meaning of the source-language text

in such a way that "both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership." It is social, concentrates on the messages of the text, tends to under-translate, to be simple, clear and brief, and is always written in

a natural style As a result, communicative translation is used for informative and vocative texts

Despite identifying clearly the features of the two translation methods and stating which method will be applied in each type of document, Newmark (1988) also noted, "there is no one communicative nor one semantic method of translating

a text - there are in fact widely overlapping bands of method A translation can be more, or less, semantic - more, or less, communicative - even a particular section

or sentence can be treated more communicatively or less semantically" (p.48) This statement is the cornerstone in Newmark's translation method argument; the recognition of relativity between semantic and communicative translation, i.e there is no document in which merely semantic or communicative translation is applied, makes it a sound and practical theory

2.2 Equivalence in translation

2.2.1 Nature of equivalence

Equivalence is obviously the central concept in translation theories; it is a constitutive feature and the guiding principle of translation As Catford (1915) points out, "the central problem of translation-practice is that of finding TL (target language) translation equivalents” (p.21) Despite certain minor controversies on this concept in which some scholars deny its validity, the necessity of translation equivalence actually can be illustrated in many aspects Firstly, as stated in the previous part, no matter how translation is defined, the concept of equivalence is inseparable, just is implied in different ways It can be said that definitions of translation is built around the basic concept of equivalence Secondly, equivalence

is essentially required by the essence of translation From the beginning of its history, translation has always functioned as a bridge for people who do not know foreign languages to understand the source text As a matter of fact, translators and translation theorists have long realized the essence of translation as a kind of communication Since translation in nature is a kind of communication, the equivalence between the source text and the target text naturally becomes an essential requirement It is generally agreed that the fundamental requirement of any kind of communication is to transfer adequately the message from the source

to the receiver Similarly, in translation, the translators should try his best to reproduce the closest equivalent message of the original text, so that the target text readers can understand the source message exactly; otherwise, translation as a kind

of communication would end in failure Therefore, one can rightly assert that the essence of translation calls for the necessity of equivalence in translation Without equivalence, the process of translation cannot be successful; but a translator should still bear in mind that, as Baker (1992) stated, "it is [ ] always relative" because

"it is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors" Equivalence is necessary, but not always compulsory

Just like the definitions of translation, there are also various opinions concerning the concept of translation equivalence Catford (1915) explains the concept as "Translation equivalence occurs when an SL (source language) and TL

(target language) texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance." (cited in Broek & Raymond, 1978) As defined by Halverson (1997), equivalence is the relationship existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one of similarity in terms of any of a number

of potential qualities

The issue of equivalence is especially important when it comes to translation revision and quality assessment, because a good translation should not only satisfy the requirement of meaning but also other requirements, like styles, communicative values or aesthetic effects, etc For all these significances, translation equivalence continues to be an issue in need of profound discussions and researches

2.2.2 Typologies of equivalence in translation

Many scholars have studied translation equivalence from different perspectives and given out their own theory concerning this issue Some of them define their theories as a source-oriented theory, while others regard the target-oriented theories

a Function-based equivalence

With regard to equivalence, Nida (1975) maintains that there are two basic types of equivalence, including formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence Formal equivalence focuses attention on both form and content (as in Bible, international diplomacy, law and the like), unlike dynamic equivalence emphasizes the text readability

Formal equivalence consists of a target item that represents the closest equivalent of a source language word or phrase Nida stresses that there are not always formal equivalents between language pairs Dynamic equivalence is a translation principle in which a translator translates the meaning of the original text; producing the same impact on the original wording did upon the source text

audience It could be argued that Nida is in favor of dynamic equivalence since he considers it to be a more effective translation procedure

Nida (1975) believes that the main aim of equivalent effect is to achieve

"the closest natural equivalent to the source language" (p.126) He stresses that the adaptation of grammar, cultural references and lexicon of the source text will lead

to the translation naturalness while highlighting the preservation of the text meaning on its style as the root of the equivalent effects He argues that formal translators who focus more on forms are more likely to misinterpret the "intention

of the author" and "distort the meaning" (p 191-192)

b Form-based equivalence

Mona Baker (1992) proposes five levels of equivalence: equivalence at word level, equivalence above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, pragmatic equivalence Firstly, equivalence at word level is taken into consideration Baker defines the term “word” and notes that word sometimes have different meanings in different languages, also relates meaning of words with morpheme Baker introduces problems at word level and above word level before suggesting some strategies in dealing with them Secondly, grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages She affirms that grammatical rules across languages may differ, which lead to some problems in finding a direct correspondence in the target language Thirdly, textual equivalence refers to the equivalence between a source language text and a target language text regarding information and cohesion Whether the cohesive relations between target language and source language should be maintained depends on three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type Finally, pragmatic equivalence refers to implication

of the target language text The duty of a translator is recognizing the implied meaning of source language text, and then reproducing it in a way that readers of

the target language can comprehend clearly without any misunderstanding culturally

c Meaning-based equivalence

Werner Koller (1977) proposes five types of equivalence, namely

„denotative, connotative, text-normative, pragmatic and formal equivalence‟ It is noteworthy that Koller‟s formal equivalence is different from Nida‟s As cited in Munday (2001, p 47), Koller distinguishes five types of equivalence as:

Denotative equivalence refers to the case where the source text and the

target text have the same denotations that are conveying the same extra linguistic facts It is featured by referential, objective, and cognitive meaning; instead of associational and subjective meaning of connotative equivalence

Connotative equivalence, also referred to as stylistic equivalence, is

related to the lexical choices between near synonyms, aiming at evoking the same impressions and feeling in the mind of the target text readers For example, the phrase “bệnh nhân HIV” can be translated into English as “HIV patient” or

“people with HIV”, which are totally similar in denotative meaning However, the latter “people with HIV” is much more recommended because of its euphemistic effect (mitigating the seriousness) In practice, it is not easy to achieve connotative equivalence, as it requires the translator‟s competence in both source language and target language

Text-normative equivalence refers to text types, i.e., the description and

analysis of a variety of texts behaving differently For example, with administrative or legal documents, their conventional forms should be strictly followed in the translated version

Pragmatic equivalence, also called communicative equivalence, is

oriented towards the receptors of the text, as they should receive the same effect that the original text produces on its readers For instance, if the target readers are children, translation‟s vocabulary should be simple, bright and familiar As for

other readership like adult or educated laymen, the languages used can be more complicated

Formal equivalence, may also be referred to as expressive equivalence, is

related to the word-for-word rendition of forms, aesthetic and stylistic features of the source text Formal equivalence is particularly important for translating poems, song lyrics or expressive texts

In general, the final goal of translation is to blur the barrier and bring two or more languages to come closer As a result, to achieve “equivalence effect” – a concept termed by Peter Newmark (1988), i.e to produce same effect on the readership of the target text as on the one of the source text is the purpose of any translator However, Newmark notes that this “desirable result” (equivalence effect) might be unattainable if there is a cultural gap between the SL (source language) and the TL (target language) text This has long been a pivotal matter and in translation studies, and will be discussed in details in the coming parts of the research

2.3 Culture and translation

2.3.1 Culture-specific items

Because of disparities in geography, climate, history, social condition, etc., each culture consequently possesses its particular features, which are manifested through a linguistic system, resulting in particular expressions and language items Gambier (2007) mentions the “culture-specific references” which connote

“different aspects of everyday life such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of measurements, place names, foods, and drinks, sports, and national pastimes, as experienced in different countries and nations of

the world.” Newmark in A Textbook of Translation (1988) coins another term with

the same connotation – cultural words Adapting Nida, he classifies culture into several sub-cultures:

- Ecology: consists of geographical features that are usually value-free, politically

and commercially and can be normally distinguished from other cultural terms, for example, flora, fauna, plains, hills, etc

- Material culture: involves foods, clothes, houses and towns, and transport

- Social culture: work and leisure

- Organization, customs, and ideas: includes political, administrative, religious

and artistic features

- Gestures and habits

Newmark (1988) then comes with “cultural focus” – the topic that a speech community emphasizes, or the special cultural connotation embedded in a language item Generally, translating culture-specific items is not infeasible; but when cultural focus appears, there often emerges translation problems with the non-equivalence resulting from the cultural gap between source language and target language

2.3.2 Common problems in translating non-equivalences

The problem of non-equivalence has been drawing the attention of many researchers Jakobson (1959) claims "there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code units" (as cited in Munday, 2001) Jakobson also explains the differences between structure, terminology, grammar and lexical forms of languages are the main reasons of non-equivalence Jacobson states "equivalence

in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics." (cited in Munday, 2001) In his theory, the general principle of cross-language difference and the concept “semantic field” has been established

Catford (1915) finds that there are two factors that affect the equivalence, i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kinds of equivalents: linguistic and cultural equivalent This finding of Catford is very significant because it consists of both two important approaches toward equivalence, namely, linguistic

Not just figuring the causes of non-equivalence as existing theories, Baker (1992) makes great efforts in pointing out the problems in translating non-equivalence They are categorized as:

a Culture-specific concepts

It is not surprising that there are always concepts that cannot be translated from one language to another This phenomenon has been known as “cultural untranslatability” by many international researchers and scholars Cultural concept

is not the only but the most common case in which a translator is likely to introduce an exotic concept to people of the target language It is obviously difficult to translate a word or concept from English to Vietnamese and vice verse once it does not exist in the target language For instance, there is a concept of

“tiết hạnh” which indicates the morality and the faithfulness of a wife to her husband no matter he is alive or dead According to the convention, the married women must be totally loyal to their husband and cannot build up or express feelings to others Some can translate this concept into English as “chastity”, but obviously this word cannot fully convey its meaning

b The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language

One example for this case is the concept “quân tử”, which depicts a talented and straightforward man who possess good qualities in accordance with Confucianism There is no equivalent for this word in English One could translate

it into English using the word “gentlemen”, but the two words do not truly match with each other as “gentlemen” means a man who is polite and behaves well towards other people, especially women or a man of a high social class (Cambridge Advanced Learner Dictionary, 2008) So the reasonability of this transference is restricted to some certain extent

c The target language lacks a superordinate

One more problem with non-equivalence is the target lacks a superordinate, i.e it may have a specific word but own no general one “Problems” is an extraordinarily frequently used word in English but it might be a puzzle for English-Vietnamese translator since there are a great number of Vietnamese words nominated to be equivalents but each of them owns a slightly different connotation There is a list of Vietnamese words which can be thought of, such as

“vấn đề” (issue), “khó khăn” (difficulty), thắc mắc (queries), etc., but there is no general Vietnamese word that can be used to translate “problems” similarly in all cases

d The target language lacks specific terms

This phenomenon is quite the opposite of the above case, which means in the target language there are not enough specific terms to illustrate word in the source language In Vietnamese there are a great number of specific concepts such

as để (as in”để tóc”, “để râu”), đi (“đi giầy, vớ, tất, hài”), mặc (“mặc áo, quần, váy”), đội (“đội nón, mũ, tóc giả”), chít (“chít khăn”), đeo (đeo kính, nhẫn, dây chuyền”), đánh (“đánh phấn”), thoa (“thoa son, kem chống nắng”), etc that have

no specific equivalents in English but general words “to wear” or “to put on” depending on circumstances

e Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Baker (1992) notes that the target language may make more or fewer distinctions in meaning than the source language (p.22) A word in English might convey additional meanings compared to Vietnamese one, hence, it may confuse the translator of which word to be used properly The physical perspective concerns the location of things or people in the context with others For example,

in English, “come” means getting closer to the place where the speaker is, while

“go” means getting away from the speaker The same explanation goes for pair of

“take” – “bring” Vietnamese does not make such distinction

“Interpersonal perspective draws the attention to the relationship among participants in the discourse” (Baker, 1992) For example, with the word “to give”, Vietnamese makes a distinction on whom to be given If the receivers are of equal social status or age of the giver, the used words can be “đưa, vất, cho”; but if it is the case of a junior gives presents to his seniors, or the elderly, Vietnamese words that correspond with naturalness and politeness will be “biếu, tặng, cống, nạp”

f Differences in expressive meaning

Another common problem a translator may encounter is to translate a word which has different expressive meaning in source language and target language For example, the word “sexy” in English means “attractive” which generally has a positive, complimentary meaning Nevertheless, in Vietnamese it means “khêu gợi, gợi tình” (wearing erotically), which may turn a English compliment “You look so sexy today” into an insult or a sexual harassment if the sentence is translated into Vietnamese as “Hôm nay trông em thật khêu gợi/gợi tình”

2.3.3 Common strategies to deal with culture-specific items

Baker‟s contribution to the field of translation studies is widely acknowledged on the account of her providing a systematic approach to training translators through the elaboration of specific strategies that can be used to deal with the numerous translation problems relating to non-equivalence at word level These strategies are listed as:

Translate by a more general word (superordinate)

Baker (1992) evaluates this as “one of the most common strategies for dealing with many types of non-equivalence, particularly in the area of

propositional meaning” By applying this strategy, the translator will choose the word that is more general instead of a specific one In many cases this measure might be especially useful; however, the translator still need to be cautious to avoid potential overgeneralization or specific-meaning loss

Translate by a more neutral/less expressive word

It is generally not an easy task to convey the full meaning of an expressive word from one language to another Then if the translator encounters this problem, one recommended solution is to use a more neutral or less expressive word instead

Translate by a cultural substitution

This strategy allows the translator to reproduce a culture-specific word in the source text by a target text term that might not have the exactly same meaning but is likely to leave a similar effect on the readers of the target text This strategy

is especially applicable for words that are so exclusive for source language that they have no equivalence in the target language It helps the target language readers understand more easily as the familiar word/expression in their culture is employed

Translate using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

According to Baker (1992), this strategy “is particularly common in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words” It is commonly applied for translating concrete concepts that exist particularly in source language

culture and cannot be translated or else might cause misunderstanding or confusing

In addition, for words that come from a particular subject and have entered daily discourse, translators can transfer them directly without any supplementary note

“HIV” and “AIDS” serve as typical examples of this case

Translate by paraphrase using related or unrelated words

Translation by paraphrasing is also a fairly common way to help translators tackle the problem of non-equivalence It can be applied for words or expressions that do not exist in the target language or when the expression in the target language does not convey all necessary shades of meaning of the original term

Translate by omission

In some cases, translators may omit a word or an expression that is not essential to the text Omission is sometimes even required to ensure the naturalness and the smooth flow of the text

Translate by illustration

Due to non-equivalence, the translator may not find any suitable equivalent

in the target language; hence, one appropriate solution is to use illustration to make it comprehensible to readers This strategy is extremely useful to achieve conciseness and directness in translation

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Sampling

The main research material is the book series on Vietnamese festivals published by Thế Giới Publishers The publication, which is compiled by Hữu Ngọc and Lady Borton, is chosen for two main reasons

Firstly, this series of books are bilingual books prepared by a publisher that

is experienced in the field of foreign language publications For this publishing house, the final version of the book is checked carefully by native people, thus is trustworthy enough to be used as a source for translation samples

Secondly, after seeking and delving into dozens of books on the subject of Vietnamese festivals, the researcher decides to select this series among many other festival-centered pieces published in recent years, as its content is extensive and intensive enough for the research topic The emphasis is appropriately enough on festival and culture; not only providing the readers with detailed information of Vietnamese festivals, but also exploring the meaning of them in Vietnamese culture The content of the series is divided into three books in terms of different festivals, together with tables of glossary, which have facilitated the researcher in picking the culture-specific items and their translated version out for classifying and analyzing

3.2 Data collection procedure

The researcher scans the books thoroughly to identify the culture-specific items related to Vietnamese festivals, collating the English version of the books to find out their translation The next step is to categorize them into different sub-cultures in accordance with Newmark‟s theory, and then synthesize them into tables to facilitate the statistic and analysis