English vietnamese translation of proper names and personal pronouns in howl’s moving castle novel

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI University of Languages and International Studies FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION Graduation paper PROPER NAMES AND PERSONAL PRONOUNS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

University of Languages and International Studies FACULTY OF

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

Graduation paper

PROPER NAMES AND PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE NOVEL

Supervisor: Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan Student: Trinh Lan Anh

Year of enrolment: QH2009

Ha Noi, May 2013

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CÁCH DỊCH ANH-VIỆT ĐỐI VỚI DANH TỪ RIÊNG

VÀ ĐẠI TỪ NHÂN XƯNG TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

GVHD: Vương Thị Thanh Nhàn

Sinh viên: Trịnh Lan Anh

Khoá: QH2009

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Trinh Lan Anh, class QH2009.F.1.E23, 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

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher wishes to express deepest gratitude and warmest appreciation towards these following people, who have contributed and inspired the researcher to the overall success, in spite of time limitation and working under the pressure:

To Mrs Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan, for her guidance and support in the duration of the study Without her enthusiastic help, the researcher would not finish this work

To Author Diana Wynne Jones for writing such a marvelous novel that keeps the researcher curious and entertaining all the time, and to the two translators Dang Kim Tram and Mit Hong Dao (mhd) for their good quality translations—all of these help the researcher survive through the hardest of data analysis

To Ms Van Thi Thanh Binh, lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, for providing the researcher with meaningful insights into the topic when necessary

To Ms Ngo Ha Thu and Ms Nguyen Thi Cam Linh for their enthusiasm and tolerance

To my valuable friends, who are always by my side, sharing with me laughters, warmth and happiness

And, last but not least, to my beloved family members, who never fail to ensure

me care, encouragement and support since the very beginning of my being

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examining the English-Vietnamese translations used for two different linguistic phenomena (proper names and personal pronouns) found in Howl‘s Moving Castle by Diana Wayne Jones The study goes into analyzing the way how two translators – Dang Kim Tram and Mit Hong Dao (mhd) – fulfilling the task of choosing Vietnamese equivalences for the objects mentioned After the research is done, determinants of finding equivalences are revealed

At its best, the research wishes to be a helpful material for students majoring translating and interpreting at Faculty of English Teacher Education, University of Language and International Studies to find a reasonable approach when dealing with literary texts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii

1.5 Organization of the Research 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2 1 Translation 5 2.2 Proper names and Personal pronouns 12 2.3 The novel and its Vietnamese translations 12

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Selection of subjects 19 3.2 Research instruments 20 3.3 Procedure of data collection 20 3.4 Procedure of data analysis 21

Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Proper names 22

4.3 Determinants of equivalence formation 40

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of the findings 42 5.2 Limitations of the current research 42 5.3 Suggestions for Further Researche 43

APPENDIX

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1 mhd‘s translation of proper names indicating places 23 Figure 2 Dang Kim Tram's translation of proper names indicating places 24 Figure 3 Translations of proper names indicating peoples 27 Figure 4 Calcifer‘s image in the novel and movie 32

Table 1 Translations of proper names indicating events 25 Table 2 Translations of proper names indicating objects 26 Table 3 Howl refer by characters living in the castle 29 Table 4 Howl referred by other side characters 30 Table 5 Sophie referred by characters living in the castle 31 Table 6 Miss Angorian – personal pronouns ‗she‘ and ‗her‘ 33 Table 7 Female characters – personal pronoun ‗she‘ and ‗her‘ 34 Table 8 Male side characters – personal pronouns ‗he‘ and ‗him‘ 36 Table 9 Howl and Sophie – personal pronouns ‗I‘ and ‗you‘ 37 Table 10 Sophie and Calcifer – personal pronouns ‗I‘ and ‗you‘ 38 Table 11 Sophie and Michae – personal pronouns ‗I‘ and ‗you‘ 39 Table 12 Howl and Michael – personal pronouns ‗I‘ and ‗you‘ 39

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research

Imagination, according to Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all times, is

―more important than knowledge‖, as imagination has no limitations and can even open new horizons for inventions A notable product of human imagination is fantasy literature From ancient myths to recent fictions which are well received, the genre has proved its intense vitality and irresistible attractiveness Also, these stories share authors‘ opinions or messages on friendship, morality, and so on According to Phan

Hon Nhien on Sai Gon tiep thi magazine, because of these features, fantasy novels

receive enthusiastic responses from youngsters – those who have unlimited imagination as well as the eagerness to discover the world, those who believe in miracle and good things in life Hence, this kind of literature is very important in nourishing young adults‘ spiritual life

As a matter of fact, in the context of Vietnam society, there is a shortage of authors writing fantasy literature for our young generation Only few names of fantasy

novel authors can be mentioned: Nguyen Nhat Anh with the Lang Biang series ( huy n x ang Biang), and Phan Hon Nhien with Rare Blood ( u hi ), Cold

Eyes ( h ng i t l nh), The Azoth Necklace ( hu i h t zoth and Penetration

( uy n th ) Still, looking on the bright side, translation is present to fix the situation

Several fantasy novels have been translated into Vietnamese, mostly from English—

for example, lice‟s dventures in Wonderland, Coraline, Peter Pan, or series like

Harry Porter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Charlie Bone, Chrestomanci, and much more

Indeed, this proves the importance of English-Vietnamese fiction translations as well

as their translators However, due to the difference between these two languages, the translating process is difficult, even for professional translators On the other side, for translator trainees, studying this process can shed light on the process itself as well as its difficulties and how to overcome them

In a scale of a graduation paper, this research will only focus on the Vietnamese translations of proper nouns and personal pronouns, from a particular novel ―Howl‘s Moving Castle‖ Firstly, Howl‘s Moving Castle is a famous fantasy novel among not only literature but also anime (Japanese animated movie) lovers as it was written by Diana Wynne Jones (the author whose writing style caused great impact

English-on J K Rowling) and was adapted into an anime of the same title by renowned Director Hayao Miyazaki Secondly, the personal pronouns of English and Vietnamese show distinctive features: while English personal pronouns are quite neutral, Vietnamese ones can show speakers‘ attitude to the ones mentioned In the case of literature, Vietnamese personal pronouns can directly express author‘s or other characters‘ attitude towards a particular character Hence, there is an extra task for translators: they must read between the lines to find out these attitudes and convey them properly and appropriately in target language In addition, for a fantasy novel, proper names are indeed interesting and sometimes ‗attractive‘ as they need to push readers‘ imagination to the limit As a result, researching these aspects can provide translators-to-be with lots of precious lessons

1.2 Aims and research questions

1.2.1 Aims

This research has two main aims The first one is to provide trainee translators

in particular and English learners in general the theoretical background on translation, proper names as well as the pronoun system, especially personal pronouns Secondly, the research would like to compare and show differences between two translations of the original novel that are available in Vietnamese: one by translator Dang Kim Tram (issued by Nha Nam Publishing and Communications JSC) and one by an amateur

translator with nickname mhd (appeared on truyentranh.com) In addition, the research

also wants to discuss the determinants of translators‘ choices in translation

1.2.2 Research questions

There will be two questions to address in this research, which are:

 What are the similarities and differences in the way proper names and personal pronouns from the novel ―Howl‘s Moving Castle‖ are translated in its two Vietnamese versions?

 What are the determinants of equivalence formation?

1.3 Scope of the study

Due to time limitation, the study only pays attention to the proper nouns and personal pronouns translated in two different Vietnamese versions of the original novel Specifically, the thesis aims at evaluating the translators‘ choices of English – Vietnamese equivalences for those two linguistic factors and may even explain the reasons why these translators made their choices

1.4 Methodology

1.4.1 Design

As the study is about intangible factors (proper names and personal pronouns) and related to cultural and social aspects, it is a qualitative research paper (according to the definition of qualitative research)

1.4.2 Data collection instruments

Instruments for the research‘s data collection process are the collection and analysis of relevant documents (proper names and personal pronouns extracted from

the original novel Howl‟s oving Castle) Firstly, by documents analysis, the

researcher hopes to understand the translators‘ experience when translating proper names and personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese In addition, small interviews with professional translators will be made to validate the researcher‘s evaluation and also to find out suggested translations

1.5 Organization of the graduation paper

There are five chapters included in the research

Chapter 1: Introduction This is the general overview about the research:

reasons, aims and methods of doing the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review This part presents a review of relevant research

associated with the addressed issues, namely: the definition of translation, translation equivalence, translation procedures, and linguistics features of proper names and personal pronouns

Chapter 3: Methodology includes research instruments, data collection process,

as well as the reasons for choosing those and then provides the process of analyzing qualitative data extracted

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion This part gives in-depth answers to the

research questions and provides insightful analysis of translating personal pronouns and proper names from the Howl‘s Moving Castle novel

Chapter 5: Conclusion is a summary of all aspects written in the research as

well as connectedness to future researches which are in the same field

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter explores the present state of knowledge regarding the topic under discussion An investigation from different viewpoints of several key concepts such as translation, translation equivalence, proper names and personal pronouns is included

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 The concept of translation

Nowadays, the demand for communication between human beings has become more and more essential With the speedy development of communication media, it has not stopped at a national scale but an international one It is translation that brings nations, languages, and cultures closer to one another The concepts regarding theories

of translation have been developed until present to suggest an acceptable and satisfactory definition of translation

According to Munday (2001:4), the term ―translation‖ can be identified into two

meanings: a translated text (product), or the act of producing that text (process) As the

history of translation studies continues, theorists put great emphasis on defining translation as a process, and this approach is reasonable because as soon as the process

is done, there comes the product

Most translation researchers – for example, Newmark (1988a:7), Nida (1982:12), Catford (1965:20), and Hartman and Stock (1972:713) – share the same view that translation is the act of replacing or reproducing a writing material in one

language (called source language) by an equivalent text in another language (called

target language) However, their views on the word ―equivalent‖ are varied: equivalent

may be in terms of meaning (conveying the same message as the source text) as in Newmark‘s opinion or regarding both meaning and style (with more focus on meaning)

as in the view of Nida

Moreover, as described by Larson (1984), the process of translation consists of studying the source language text (lexicon, grammatical, structure, communication

situation, and cultural context); analyzing it in order to determine its meaning; then

reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammar which are appropriate

in the target language and its cultural context Three steps including ―studying‖,

―analyzing‖ and ―reconstructing‖ the source language text should be taken so as to create a good translation

Due to the difference among ideas of translation as a process, an adequate translation is also defined in different ways For example, as Hatim and Mason (1990:3) considered translation as a communicative process which takes place within a social context, they acknowledge a proper translation is one that communicates well with the readership in target language; in other words, it must make sense to them Similarly, Peter Newmark (1988b:5) stated that good translations should render their original versions‘ meaning in the same way that authors ―intended‖ the texts; that is, translators need to convey not only the meaning of source texts but also authors‘ intention behind those in the target language Meanwhile, apart from this communicative function of translation (including delivering messages and making sense to target readers), other criteria such as keeping the original form or authors‘ writing style are added by other theorists As far as this paper is concerned, the most efficient definition of a successful translation is by Nida (1964:164), in which translations must meet four requirements: making sense, conveying the original text‘s spirit and manner, having an easy and natural form of expression, and producing a similar response toward target readership

Undoubtedly, translation is of great importance because it is an exceptionally inevitable task of making those whose education and cultures are different able to learn about one another Translation can be considered a bridge to link countries to countries, societies to societies, despite their geographical distances Indeed, translation plays a vital role in transmitting cultures Without translation, it is really hard to overcome the language barrier and cultural restriction between the people all over the world Thanks to translation, people who have no knowledge of foreign languages are

able to approach information of all types written in different languages, both technical ideas like in exact and applied sciences and social as well as cultural ones such as in religion, philosophy, literature Hence, it can be said that translation makes the impossible possible

For translators, they are also in charge of being linguists, especially in translating literature They does not only provide readers with the translated version of

a certain novel but also have to make them understand authors‘ thought, emotion, intention, and even style

2.1.2 Literature Translation

As there are types of text which translators cannot just merely transfer authors‘ messages and deliver information – in this case, expressive texts like poetry and prose – the researcher would like to discuss literature translation in this section

As described by Newmark (1988b:162), to some extent, literature is allegorical, meaning denotative and figurative Newmark divided literature works into three forms: poetry, short story or novel, and drama – in which the translation of short stories and novels is the second most difficult towards translators Being free from the hard task of recreating rhyme when translating poetry, the translators can pay lesser attention to sound effect and also can make the translated text longer or shorter than the original, though Newmark stated that ―the shorter the better‖

Newmark (1988b:192) also proposed his opinion on a good translation for expressive text that apart from transferring meaning accurately, the text‘s expressive and aesthetic aspects should also be well attended, and this task may require translators

to be ―exceptionally sensitive‖ This point of view is similar to Trinh Y Thu‘s in his article ―Some thoughts on translation‖ in that the essence of a literary work is its style – its spirit, and this is also the factor determining a work‘s vitality However, capturing this ―spirit‖ and then recreating it in another language requires a unique talent (in terms

of language sensitivity or ways of using language) as well as an incredible workload

Generally, in order to successfully deal with a literary work, the translator must

be good at his or her own language (target language), maintain considerable source language proficiency and deep understanding of cultures

2.1.3 Translation Equivalence

Looking at the way the word ―equivalent‖ is repeated over and over again in different definitions of translation, it can be said that translation equivalence is a central and principle concept in translation theory As Catford (1965:21) pointed out,

―the central problem of translation-practice is that of finding TL equivalents A central task of translation theory is that of defining the nature and conditions of translation equivalence‖

One definition of translation equivalence is given by Halverson (1997:207-10),

in which equivalence is the relationship existing between two entities, and this relationship is described as similarity or equality in terms of any of a number of potential qualities

Since the fifties of the twentieth century, many translation theorists have involved and elaborated their respective theories on translation equivalence However, their opinions are not the same and sometimes even opposite to one another The reason for this might be the fact that even the nature of translation has been seen in too many different ways

Le Hung Tien et al (2006:54) has generalized the different theories of translation equivalence into four main kinds as followed:

 Form-based equivalence: equivalence at word, sentence, or text level [theory by Baker (1922)]

 Meaning-based equivalence: denotative, connotative, pragmatic, formal equivalence [theory by Koller (1977)]

 Function-based equivalence: dynamic equivalence, formal equivalence [theory

by Nida (1964)]

 Quantitative equivalence: one-to-one equivalence, one-to-many equivalence, one-to-part-of-one equivalence, nil equivalence [by Kade (1968) and Hann (1992)]

As a matter of fact, each language reflects its own culture and has its own specialties in terms of phonology, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, ways of denoting experiences, etc Since translation involves at least two languages, any translation must involve a certain degree of loss or distortion of the source text‘s meaning In other words, it is impossible to establish absolute identical value between the source text and the target text As a result, equivalence in translation should not be approached as a search for sameness, but only as a kind of similarity or approximation

According to Nida (1977), translation in essence is a kind of communication, and hence equivalence between ST and TT naturally becomes essential Generally, the fundamental requirement of communication is to guarantee that the message is transmitted adequately from the source to the receptor Similarly, in translation, the translators should try their best to reproduce the closest equivalent message of ST into

TT so that readers of TT can understand the source message adequately—or else, translation as a kind of communication would end in failure

 The Issue of Translatability

Throughout the history of translation, the question whether translation is possible or impossible has been asked and debated repeatedly among philosophers, linguists, translators, and translation theorists There has come the term

―translatability‖ When a certain degree of equivalence of an original text can be achieved in one target language, the text is translatable On the other hand, when no equivalence of the source text can be found in the target language, the text is untranslatable As stated by Catford (1965:93), if translation were not to seek equivalence, there would be no limitations of translatability, and hence any text in target language can be regarded as a correct version of the original text That is to say, the limitations of translatability (i.e., the difficulty in translation) are caused and demonstrated by the necessity of equivalence in translation Because of the

requirement of translation equivalence, it is generally agreed that translation is more difficult than original creation In original creation, authors are free to say whatever they want to, in whatever ways they like On the other hand, in translation, translators

do not have such freedom, because they have to say what the authors have said originally and say it in nearly the same manner as the original authors have done

2.1.4 Translation Procedures

In order to evaluate the translation of proper names, a language unit that is

smaller than sentences, the research utilizes theories on translation procedures by Peter

Newmark (1988b), in which he maintained a considerably different standpoint from other theorists that literal translation is a translation procedure

Literal translation and Through translation

The most important translation procedure, in Newmark‘s opinion, is literal translation, and he even wrote a separate chapter to discuss it

In literal translation, normally a word or expression in the source language is literally translated into the target language This type of translation procedure can be widely used—to translate one word to another word, one group of words to another, collocations to collocations, and sentences to sentences However, the longer the unit

of language, the more difficult translation—―above the word level, literal translation becomes increasingly difficult‖ Newmark‘s explanation for this is that the more specific or technical a word is, the less it is likely to be affected by context and the more it is likely to be translated by literal translation Hence, literal translation has become a common procedure in technical translation in general, and terminology translation in particular

In addition, the literal translation used for ―already recognized terms‖—common collocations, phrases, names of organizations, and components of compounds—is recognized by Newmark as ―calque‖ (loan translation) or ―through-translation‖

Transference

Transference is merely the process of transferring a word from one language to another Still, the translators need to decide whether or not to transfer a word because generally it is a cultural word in its source language and therefore might be unfamiliar

in target language Being chosen to be transferred simultaneously means that the cultural concepts or objects that words and expression bring are about to give local colors, to attract readership, or to give a sense of intimacy between readers and texts as well Also, most acronyms and eponyms are translated by transference, for example: WTO (World Trade Organization) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)

Naturalization

This type of translation procedure comes after transference in that when a normal pronunciation is adapted first by the SL word, it is then followed by the normal morphology of the target language

Shifts or transpositions

The translation procedure of shift or transposition involves a change in grammar from the source language to target language, including four main types: the change from singular to plural form, or in the position of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs; when

a grammatical structures in source language does not exist in the target; when literal translation is grammatically possible but may not match with the natural usage in target language; and the replacement of a virtual lexical gap by a grammatical structure As far as the thesis is concerned, transposition is the only type of translation procedure that is concerned with grammar, and ―most translators make transpositions intuitively‖

Cultural equivalent

This procedure is a proximate translation translating the SL cultural word to TL cultural word, and Newmark (1988b:82) clearly indicated that supplement of another translation process in a couplet is the procedure‘s main function

Functional equivalent

Newmark (1988b:83) said that the procedure is normally applied to cultural SL words; however, TL words can be unrelated to culture Sometimes, new term may be invented Hence, this generalizes or removes the cultural influence in the SL word This method is ―the most accurate way i.e neutralizing a cultural word.‖

Descriptive equivalent

In translation, sometimes translators need to balance between description and function because they are core elements in explanation as well as in translation Therefore, functional equivalent and descriptive equivalent can be employed at the same time when translating words or expressions In addition, in translation debates, functions were used to be overlooked, and now they seem to be dominant

Synonymy

By using the word ―synonym‖, Newmark (1988b:84) meant a near TL equivalent to an SL word in a context, where the exact synonym may or may not be available ―Where there is no precise alternative for a SL word, or this word isn‘t crucial, this method is used, especially for adjectives or adverbs of quality‖ Only when precise translation is not possible and when the word isn‘t notable enough for extensive research should this method be used ―Here, economy precedes accuracy.‖

Paraphrase

In this procedure, the translator explains the meaning of a section from the original text which is poorly written or possesses significant implications and omissions

2.2 Proper names and Personal pronouns

2.2.1 Proper names

 Definition

According to the Oxford Advanced earner‟s Online Dictionary, proper name is

―a word that is the name of a person, a place, an institution, etc and is written with a capital letter‖

 Proper names in fantasy novels

Generally, when dealing with proper names, translators usually just transfer them into target language, i.e., keeping their original form However, in terms of literary work, according to Nord (2003), the translation of proper names is not quite as simple as it may seem Nord (2003) argued that in the real world, proper names may not be descriptive, but they may be in fiction An example is The Importance of Being Earnest – a play written by Oscar Wild, in which Earnest is not only one character but also his characteristic, and this can be considered as a kind of wordplay Another one is the Hatter family in Howl‘s Moving Castle who work as hat-makers It can be seen that descriptive names like this can be translated, although the translation may also perform the function of a culture marker Even when the translators decide not to translate them, they must think about some ways of compensation (like providing this piece of information in the context)

2.2.2 Personal pronouns

 Definition

According to John Langan (1997:416), as pronouns are words used as substitutions for nouns or noun phrases, personal pronouns are used to replace the person or people mentioned

 English personal pronouns

As stated by Quirk et al (1985), English personal pronouns have various cases (forms) classified according to their grammatical role in sentences:

 Subjective: used as the subject of a verb, e.g.: I, we

 Objective: used as the object of a verb or of a preposition, e.g.: me, us

 Reflexive: used to refer back to a noun or pronoun (i.e., its antecedent) within

the same clause, for example: She cut herself

 Possessive: used to indicate something‘s possessor of something, including two groups: The first group is used as determiners, e.g my, our The second group is used as pronouns, e.g mine, our

Also, English personal pronouns are divided into three persons, which are: first, second, and third

English personal pronouns can be summarized in the appendix of this paper

 Vietnamese personal pronouns

Nguyen Quang (1996) has found that in general, Vietnamese personal pronouns also have single and plural forms and refer to first, second, or third person/people However, Vietnamese personal pronouns have more forms than English ones do because they include terms of address and kinship terms – different from English as English personal pronouns exclude these units (Nguyen Quang ,1997) As a matter of fact, in English, terms of address which can express feeling, attitudes, social status and relationship between parties cannot be referred to as personal pronouns Apparently, thanks to this feature, by paying great attention to the terms of address appearing in the original novel, personal pronouns can be translated appropriately

In addition, by including kinship terms and terms of address, Vietnamese personal pronouns do not only have neutral meaning like English ones but also express the relationship among people involved in conversations as well as speakers‘ attitude and feeling As explanation, Nguyen Quang (1996) stated that being employed by society‘s members, kinship terms no longer keep their original meaning as those referred do not have any blood relationship Hence, these terms can express feelings such as respect, intimacy and solidarity

As listed by Le Dinh Tu in i t ch ng i ti ng i t on Trang chuyên ngôn ngữ

học‘s Wordpress site, in Vietnamese, terms of address can be divided into three types

as followed:

 Superior: ng i, c , etc

 Neutral: ông, b , ch , b c, etc

 Inferior: h n, ch m y, cô em, etc

This way of classification refers to different relationships which are: family

relation (e.g.: cô, c u, ch , th m) and social relation (e.g.: ch t ch, hi u trƣ ng)

 Similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English personal

pronouns

From the descriptions above, it can be seen that while the only similarity between the same linguistic devices of the two languages is the function they serve, the differences are varied As stated in the article ―Đại từ nhân xƣng trong d ch thu t Anh-

Vi t‖ on asentranslation website, in English, there is no concept of ―politeness‖,

―impoliteness‖ and hierarchy As a result, it is quite impossible to define people‘s ages, genders (except for the case of personal pronouns ‗he‘ and ‗she‘) as well as their relationship, position or social status through English personal pronouns However, the information about a person‘s age, gender, feelings and attitudes can be found via Vietnamese personal pronouns Also, the number of personal pronouns in Vietnamese

is much larger than English due to the fact that they also consist of terms of address and kinship terms The last difference between two languages is that in Vietnamese, personal pronouns vary from one region to another, for example: ‗tui‘ and ‗tôi‘

2.3 The novel and its Vietnamese translations

2.3.1 Howl’s Moving Castle

Howl‟s oving astle is a young adult fantasy novel written by the same author

with the Chrestomanci chronicles, Diana Wynne Jones In Howl‘s Moving Castle, there lies the story of Sophie Hatter, the eldest among the three Hatter daughters As being the eldest, Sophie resigns herself to the fact that she has to run the family‘s hat shop and has no chance of seeking her fortune One day, the Witch of the Waste casts a spell on Sophie, turning her into a 90-year-old woman Panicking, Sophie decides to leave her house and enters the castle of Wizard Howl who is rumored to eat young beautiful women‘s hearts Gradually at this castle, Sophie breaks the spell on herself as well as the one which ties Howl and the fire demon Calcifer and finds out her own fortune of being a powerful wizard

With an unlimited imagination as well as a unique sense of humor, Jones is considered as one legendary writer in fantasy literature Similarly, the novel Howl‘s

Moving Castle has received good comments from critics, like the one from The Horn Book: ―Wit and humor glint from the pages‖

 Characters in the novel

Sophie Hatter: An 18 year old girl who is the eldest daughter in a hat making

family; she has two younger sisters In the world she lived, normally the eldest children continue family‘s profession and are less likely to pursue their own dreams Because of her shyness, Sophie endured such a constrained and gloomy life Once, as the Witch of the Waste casted a spell on Sophie, she turned to be an old granny of 90 years old Leaving her home, Sophie went to Howl‘s moving castle and started a new life there Actually, Sophie was quite fond of her new identity as she can express her emotions and feelings more comfortably as well as reveal more about herself For example, she

‗bullied‘ Calcifer – the fire demon in the Castle, protested Howl, and went counter the Witch of the Waste

Wizard Howl: A powerful wizard of about 27 years old At the beginning of

the novel, rumors had it that Howl is the ‗bluebeard‘ who often ate up girls‘ hearts However, it turned out that Howl is the one spreading the rumor; he wanted to receive bad reputation so that he could live a life free of responsibility Howl himself admitted that he was a coward; still, he was a good guy

Calcifer: He is the fire demon who kept the castle moving According to his

words in chapter 7, Calcifer is ‗a good million years‘ older than Sophie, making him the second oldest character in the novel He was connected to Howl by a mysterious contract He made Howl‘s castle move, but he himself could not get away from the fireplace As described by Howl, Calcifer is one of his weakest points Calcifer often whine and was relatively cunning Calcifer was the first one noticing Sophie‘s ability

of talking life into things, so he let her into the castle He made a bargain to Sophie that

as long as she broke his contract with Howl, he would remove the spell on her

Michael Fisher: An orphanage child who came to the castle and became

Howl‘s apprentice He was 15 years old and a boy of good manner

The Witch of the Waste: The oldest human in the story whose real age was

unknown Still, she kept her young by magic, and whenever Sophie met her again, her look changed According to Mrs Penstemmon – Howl‘s teacher, her talent was in the same order to that of Howl Similar to Howl, she also made a contract with her fire demon

Lily Angorian – the Witch’s fire demon: At first, she was the teacher of Neil,

Howl‘s nephew Also, she seemed to be the reason drawing Howl to Wales – Howl‘s hometown and also the Wales in our world At the final chapter of the novel, she revealed to be the Witch of the Waste‘s fire demon She was a lot older than Calcifer

Fanny Hatter: Sophie‘s step mother who used to be the youngest apprentice in

the hat shop Because of Mr Hatter‘s death, Fanny became widowed but was still

‗young and pretty‘ She married a wealthy man named Sacheverell Smith soon after Sophie left the shop

Lettie Hatter: Sophie‘s first younger sister of 17 years old Like Sophie, Lettie

was the child of Mr Hatter‘s previous wife Originally when her father died, Fanny arranged her to train in Cesari‘s – a pastry shop, but she switched this role with Martha – her younger sister and started to learn magic at Mrs Fairfax‘s house

Martha Hatter: The youngest among the three Hatter sisters, daughter of

Fanny She was thought to be the smartest of the three and hence was sent to Mrs Fairfax to learn magic As she only wished to marry and have ten children, she happily switched role with Lettie to work in Cesari‘s She was in love with Michael

Mrs Fairfax: one of Fanny‘s friends, a witch who lived in Upper Folding She

quickly recognized Martha and Lettie‘s trick but still accepted Lettie as her apprentice – as long as Lettie wanted to study and was herself, she was willing to teach her

Mrs Pentstemmon: an eighty six year old witch which was the teacher of Mrs

Fairfax, Wizard Suliman, and finally Howl She realized Howl‘s magic talent as well

as the good nature in him and afraid that he would go bad When Sophie pretended to

be Howl‘s mother and met her, she encouraged Sophie to break the contract between Howl and Calcifer

Wizard Suliman: originally named Benjamin (Ben) Sullivan, he also came

from Wales like Howl He was the Royal Wizard of Ingary but got caught by the Witch

to the Waste She cut off his head and mixed his body with the head of Prince Justin Before that, he transferred most of his power to a scarecrow which Sophie turned to life later on in the story

Prince Justin: the King‘s younger brother The Witch wanted to make a perfect

man to run Ingary with her, and she made this man by combining parts of Prince Justin and Wizard Suliman She needed Howl‘s head to complete this

Gaston/Percival: the combination of Wizard Suliman‘s body and Prince

Justin‘s head After using him to get information about Howl, the Witch turned him to

a dog-man He ran to and lived in Mrs Fairfax‘s house and did not understand why he had memories about Lettie even though he never met her before

2.3.2 English-Vietnamese translated versions

Two translations selected for the thesis are:

 ―Lâu i bay c a Ph p sƣ Howl‖, by Đ ng Kim Trâm, Nha Nam Publishing and Communications JSC

 ―Lâu i bi t i‖, by mhd, an amateur translator, originally appeared on the

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This section provides readers with an overview of the methods deployed in the study Areas covered consist of selection of subjects, research methods, research instruments, procedure of data collection, and procedure of data analysis

3.1 Selection of subjects

The study involves evaluating the choices for English-Vietnamese translations

of proper nouns and personal pronouns from the novel Howl‘s Moving Castle in two

Vietnamese versions: one by a professional translator (Dang Kim Tram, Nha Nam

Publishing and Communications JSC) and the other by an amateur one from an online

forum (truyentranh.com) with nickname mhd In broad terms, as these two linguistic

phenomena are distinctively different between English and Vietnamese, evaluating the translation of them indeed can bring valuable experience as well as lessons to trainee translators

The first thing to bear in mind is the selection of proper names As stated in the literature review, in literature works, proper names may be descriptive, meaning they reveal facts and features of the people, places, or objects referred As there are two separated worlds in the story, a magical and a non-magical one, the researcher paid more attention to the names of places, people, and events appearing in the magical world as they are more likely to be descriptive With the non-magical one where Howl originally came from, the researcher only chose proper names which are already descriptive (for example: Rugby Club Reunion) as parts of her subjects In addition, English terms of address are also included in this list

In terms of personal pronouns, the graduation paper excludes the cases of possessive and reflexive as they in fact revolve around the subject and object cases Finding the suitable subject and object personal pronouns is the most challenging task, and after this task is done, choosing Vietnamese equivalence for possessive and reflexive personal pronouns is much easier as the translators only need to add the word

―c a‖ in front of a subject or object personal pronoun to make it possessive, and add

―ch nh‖ in the same position to make it reflexive

3.2 Research instruments

Clearly, instruments for the research will be selected to be relevant with its design and to achieve the objectives set out by the researcher As the study is about intangible factors (namely, proper names and personal pronouns) related to cultural and social aspects, it is concerned with finding out why the above translator made their selections for English-Vietnamese equivalence – qualitative methods are employed for the research to reach a conclusion They are examination of documentary evidence and interviews with professional translators Document analysis will be used to answer the first and the second research questions

On the other hand, quantitative methods can contribute a great assistance to the thesis because they make procedure of data analysis become clearer

3.3 Procedure of data collection

The focus of study is on choices and perception; hence, the importance of primary data (proper nouns and personal pronouns) should be well-attended Apparently, reading through 21 chapters of the novel in its three versions (one original

in English and two translated in Vietnamese) to find out those language devices is a time-consuming process However, this is worth pursuing in order to obtain an adequate illustration for the varied selections of the two mentioned translators In this process, soft copies of three versions of the novel were collected and examined Each chapter of three versions was put into three-column table, together with an additional column for the researcher‘s note Plus, the main data for the research, proper nouns and personal pronouns, were marked by Microsoft word‘s highlight function

In order to validate the researcher‘s evaluation and provide suggested translations of the above linguistic devices, interviews with professional translators who are also lecturers at ULIS were arranged

3.4 Procedure of data analysis

In a qualitative research, data analysis seems to be a continuous and repetitive process Ideas and insights that the researcher learned from qualitative data collected from three versions of the novel were recorded in reflective notes Also, the data were divided into meaningful analytical units

By reading thoroughly the original text along with its two translations, proper names and personal pronouns are listed out Proper names used in the thesis were sorted into four distinctive groups indicating people, events, places, and objects When list process was done, there were 67 proper names extracted, consisting of 42 for people, 17 for places, 4 for events and another 4 for objects Meanwhile, personal pronouns were classified into two categories – in terms of the way other characters as well as the narrator call a single character, and those employed in conversations, an

essential part of Howl‟s oving astle

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After carefully analyzing data, this paper comes to meaningful findings Similarities and differences in the two translations towards proper names and personal pronouns as well as determinants for finding equivalence for these two objects are discussed

4.1 Similarities and differences in the translations of proper names by two

translators

4.1.1 Proper names of places

Towards proper names denoting places, translator mhd usually keeps them in

the original form, and later she will or will not add some other words indicating their function For examples:

Market Chipping  Market Chipping, and refer it later as ―th trấn‖ because

Market Chipping is originally referred to as a ―prosperous town‖

Market Square  Market Square

This makes transference the dominant translation procedures used by translator mhd By using this procedure, in some cases, when the proper names re-appear, mhd translated them using the procedure of functional equivalent

For instances:

esari‟s (a pastry shop)  esari‟s

Ti m Cesari

Porthaven Marshes  Porthaven Marshes

ầm lầy ở Porthaven or Bãi ầm lầy ngoài Porthaven The ways translator mhd used to translate proper names indicating places are

summarized by the two charts below