EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.

EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.EQUIVALENCE IN THE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX.

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains

no material previously published or written by another person

I, Tạ Trí Đức, hereby state that this thesis is the result of my ownresearch and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, beensubmitted for any degrees to any other universities or institutions

Author’s Signature

Tạ Trí Đức

Approved bySUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Hữu Đức

Date:………

The completion of this thesis is credited to many people’s contributions and support I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all most sincerely, knowing that my thanks are never adequate.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Hữu Đức, my supervisor, for his helpful and warm encouragement as well as his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to the end of the study.

In addition, I would like to thank all of the lecturers who gave me interesting lessons, dedication and advice during my study at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences.

I also offer my special thanks to my beloved friends whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished.

Last but not least, I must express my gratitude to my family It is their endless love and expectations that have motivated me to complete this thesis I

am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me.

2.3.1 Different approaches to translation equivalence 13

CHAPTER 4 TRANSLATION UNIVERSALS AND TRANSLATION LAWS IN

4.1.5 Exaggeration of Target Language Features 52

APPENDIX: SAMPLES OF ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT AND VIETNAMESE

This study evaluated the equivalence in the Vietnamese translation ofSherlock on Netflix Most previous studies used the formal equivalenceapproach, which focused mainly on the form and content relationship betweensource text and target text This study uses dynamic equivalence approach,which describes functional relationship in translation Dynamic equivalence isconsidered to be a more suitable approach for evaluating equivalence in filmsubtitle translation because of the specific characteristics of subtitle translating.Subtitle translators must ensure that the translated text can be read within theexact duration of the scene as well as ensure that the audience still has time towatch the images while preserving the meaning and effect Descriptivetranslation study of translation universals and laws is used as a theoreticalframework applied to evaluate the dynamic equivalence in subtitle translation.The Vietnamese subtitles of Sherlock on Netflix were analyzed on the basis of atheoretical framework derived from Baker's hypotheses on translation universalsand Toury’s translation laws

Research has shown that there are translation universals and laws inVietnamese subtitles, through which functional relationship between the originaland Vietnamese subtitles of Sherlock on Netflix are found Most of thetranslation universals is used to shorten or minimize the subtitles in order tomeet the constraints of subtitle translation The parts that are omitted are mostlyrepetitive words or can be understood through images on film This shorteninghardly affects the content that the audience needs On the other hand, sometranslation universals and laws are used to normalize grammar as well as explaincultural features that can be confusing to the audience However, this researchalso pointed out some of the audience’s experiences are sometimes lost due tocircumstances such as repetition or lack of grammar is intended by thefilmmaker to create humor or represent the character

There have also been a few studies on translation and equivalence in thetranslation of subtitles in Vietnam such as the study by Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà onsubtitles for translating some selected films from the website kst.net.vn, the

research by Lê Thị Nhung about the equivalence in translating English subtitles

of some documentary films However, there are no research studies ontranslation and dynamic equivalence based on descriptive translation study inthe translated subtitles by Netflix, an American service, as well as a famous TVseries like Sherlock Therefore, I chose to do a thesis on “EQUIVALENCE INTHE VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF SHERLOCK FROM NETFLIX”

1.2 Aim(s) of the Study

The thesis goal is to examine the dynamic equivalence in the Vietnamesesubtitles of Sherlock series on Netflix To achieve the goal of this thesis, threemain targets need to be implemented include finding out the existence oftranslation universals and laws in translating subtitles of Sherlock on Netflix,investigating the behavior of translation universals in Vietnamese subtitles,evaluating the relationship between English and Vietnamese subtitles ofSherlock based on the descriptive translation study theory

1.3 Research Questions

This thesis is implemented to answer the following questions:

- What are the translation universals and laws used in translating subtitles

1.4 Scope of the Study

This thesis focuses on equivalence of original English transcript andVietnamese subtitle version of Sherlock on Netflix Samples were taken from 9episodes throughout 3 seasons of the series The research only focuses ondynamic equivalence, which is evaluated based on translation universal and lawanalysis of descriptive translation study Therefore only the most outstandingrepresentative samples were selected for dynamic equivalence analysis

1.5 Significance of the Study

Theoretical significance: This thesis gives an overview of subtitletranslation This thesis also strengthened the theory of descriptive translationstudy and the theory of dynamic equivalence

Practical significance: This thesis supports subtitle translators by giving thetranslation universals and laws used for subtitle translation as well as providingthe behavior of translation universals, which draw the relationship, equivalent,

in translating movie subtitles This thesis also aims to arouse the interest ofEnglish translation students with subtitle translation in particular and translationstudy in general

1.6 Research Methods

Qualitative methods were applied to implement this thesis The dataobtained were evaluated on the basis of a theoretical framework derived fromBaker's hypotheses on translation universals and Toury’s translation laws.Subtitle translation equivalence assessment would be explored by using dynamicequivalence framework combining with descriptive translation study in subtiles.One-by-one translation universals and laws will be discussed by looking at theirbehaviors in nine episodes of Sherlock Only the most striking instances of each

translation universals or laws will be investigated because the scope of this thesis does not allow a detailed examination of every single occurrence.

1.7 Structure of the Study

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 is the Introduction which describes the reasons for the choice ofthe topic, the aims, the scope, method, significance, and organization of thestudy

Chapter 2 provides the literature review of subtitle translation, equivalence

in translation and descriptive translation study

Chapter 3 gives the translation universals used in translating Sherlock onNetflix

Chapter 4 gives the translation laws used in translating Sherlock on Netflix.Chapter 5 is the Conclusion and suggestion for further study

CHAPTER 2 LIRTERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Sherlock from Netflix

Netflix, an American streaming application with over hundred millioninternational subscribers, becoming one of the world's largest entertainmentservices Sherlock, a modern adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes storieswritten by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a 90-minute, incredibly fast-pacedtelevision show created and written by Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss andoccasional guest writers Sherlock Holmes is a brilliant consulting detective whoexcels in solving crimes by deducing clues from apparently insignificantmatters His brilliant intellect, however, is countered by his poor social skills.The stories are narrated by his friend, Dr John Watson, a general practitionerwho was injured when he was an army doctor Sherlock has been praised for thequality of its writing, acting, and direction It has been nominated for numerousawards including Emmys, BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, winning severalawards across a variety of categories Sherlock has been sold to 180 territories

On Netflix, Sherlock is translated into many languages in the world includingVietnamese Out of all the odd habits of Sherlock, deductions are likely to givethe most trouble to a subtitle translator They are littered with marked words.The sentences are remarkably long, and they are delivered at an impressive pace.Since the word count in these deductions is extremely high, the subtitles willmost likely be forced to omit details Most likely, important information thatdrives the story forward will be retained in the subtitles, while non-essentialinformation will be the first to be removed Sherlock's companion, John Watson,

on the other hand, seems to be a simpler man than Sherlock He is humble and

thoughtful, and he aims to change people’s lives by healing the sick as a generalpractitioner.

The “opposites attract” language certainly refers to these two men because,despite their obvious disagreements, Sherlock and John are best friends JohnWatson, unlike Sherlock, can be seen as a “normal man” His personality willprobably hardly influence his language, and so the subtitler would have no extratrouble to contend with However, John is the storyteller, and so the viewer issimply John Watson It will be fascinating to see if John's position in thenarrative will lead to subtitling issues Therefore, this thesis selects the famousseries Sherlock on the world’s largest service platform Netflix as one of themost typical examples in subtitling translation to evaluate the equivalence insubtitle translation

2.2 Subtitle translation

Subtitling is a form of literary translation that deviates significantly fromother types of translation In order to achieve a satisfactory result, more attentionmust be paid to the subtitle than just the source text The visual images andsound effects of the original product, together with the space and timeconstraints that are inextricably linked to subtitling, are just a few issues that asubtitled translator must keep in mind According to Henrik Gottlieb, a subtitletranslator needs to have a variety of skills in order to produce a decenttranslation: “Apart from being an excellent translator of foreign-language lines,

a good subtitler needs the musical ears of an interpreter, the no-nonsensejudgment of a news editor, and a designer's sense of esthetics In addition, asmost subtitlers do the electronic time-cueing themselves, the subtitler must alsohave the steady hand of a surgeon and the timing of a percussionist” (Gottlieb2004) This idea certainly sets high standards for every subtitle translator

2.2.1 Subtitle and subtitle translation

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “subtitles” as “a subtitles thatappear across the lower part of a cinema screen, or in the frame of a televisionprogram, video recording, etc., and typically provide a translation of a dialog or

a version of it for the benefit of the deaf or the hard of hearing” Thus, thespoken dialog is changed into a written text that must be read from the screeninstead of being heard by the audience This is what Henrik Gottlieb calls

“diagonal translation” because the subtitle deals with “diagonal” translationfrom spoken to written, rather than “horizontal” translation from written towritten or spoken to spoken (Ying-Ting 2006) Gottlieb expands this notion byexplaining that subtitling uses a set of channels other than the translation of awritten text

An example of a monosemiotic text is a book without pictures or drawings.The only channel used in this book is a written channel No other channels, such

as visuals or sounds, are present and the translator is therefore able to translate100% of the source text The translation of this book is an example of anisosemotic translation because there is no channel switching; the written sourcetext is translated into the written target text Therefore, this form of translationcan be included in what Gottlieb calls “horizontal translation” (Ying-Ting2006) Films and other forms of multimedia can be found in polysemiotic texts.These texts use a variety of channels, such as visuals and audio, to convey thestory to the audience Subtitles created in film and television translation fallwithin the category of diasemiotic translation The spoken dialog is transferred

to the written text in the form of subtitles

Films and other forms of multimedia contain four channels that play a keyrole in their translation:

1. The verbal audio channel, including dialogue, background voices, and sometimes lyrics.

2. A non-verbal audio channel, including music, natural sound and sound effects

3. The verbal visual channel, including the superimposed titles and the written sign on the screen

4. Visual non-verbal channel: image composition and flow

In a non-translated television program or film, the verbal audio channeltakes the most prominent position The audience follows the course of thenarrative by listening to the characters on the screen in a spoken dialog Whensubtitles are added to the program, the priority of this channel is shifted to thepriority of the verbal visual channel However, unlike dubbing where the sourcelanguage is completely replaced by the target language, the subtitling leaves thecomplete verbal audio channel exactly as it does in the non-translated version ofthe program The only difference is that the verbal auditory channel loses itsprimary position on the verbal visual channel However, since the source text isstill present in the translated version, the translator must be aware that theaudience may have knowledge of the source language

Today, in the 21st century, the exposure of people in the world to English

is so high that people understand English more or less It is therefore importantthat the translator should try to remain as close as possible to the original text interms of how the text is constructed If grammatical and linguistic structuresdeviate too much from the original text, the audience may be distracted from thenarrative These inconsistencies remind the audience “that they read atranslation, and feel that something is missing or wrong, and thus loseconfidence in the subtitles” (Sanchez 2004) If the audience noticesinconsistencies that are too striking, the translator will not only be criticized for

his or her work, but the emphasis will also be drawn on the subtitles rather than

on the film or the program itself

As we have seen, Gottlieb argues that subtitling is a diagonal translation byshifting channels from the oral to the written channel However, Ying-TingChuang argues that this notion of diasemiotic translation does not entirely coverthe field of subtitles of translation She explains that other features of themultimedia are capable of conveying information that can be of paramountimportance in the creation of subtitles

Thus, Ying-Ting argues that a subtitle translator should not only payattention to spoken dialogue but also consider other modes when creatingsubtitles For this form of translation, the term “intersemiotic translation” is used

by Roman Jakobson This term is defined as “an interpretation of verbal signs bymeans of non-verbal sign systems” (Munday 2008) Indeed, this definitionapplies to subtitling, because all modes of subtitling translation areinterconnected in order to create a single form of multimedia, be it film,television series or documentary Ying-Ting presents “five semiotic modes mostfrequently represented in film text: spoken mode, written mode, mode of music,mode of sound effects and mode of moving images” (Ying-Ting 2006)

In other words, the subtitles of the translator should take into account, inaddition to the dialog: the written text on the screen, the film score andaccompanying sound effects, and the actual visual images on the screen showingthe actions of the actors Ying-Ting concludes that the information obtainedfrom all of these modes can replace the information presented in the dialogue

“[ ] the translator does not have to render everything in the dialogs intosubtitles, but he can choose to ignore the meanings represented in other semioticmodes Thus, there are not one-to-one relationships in the translation subtitles,but many-to-many” (Ying-Ting 2006) The fact that other modes are capable of

transferring information to the translator may reduce the number and length ofthe subtitles shown on the screen This could be seen as a positive development,because subtitles are essentially a tool for informing a foreign audience aboutwhat is being said on the screen Subtitles do, however, contain mostinformation, so that exclusion should not be taken lightly I agree that anysemiotic modes that Ying-Ting puts forward should be taken into account whencreating subtitles However, in many situations, other modes will not be able toprovide the same amount of information and therefore subtitle omissions willnot be possible For example, if other modes are not present or if the informationthey carry is not sufficiently conclusive It is of the utmost importance that theaudience understands how the story is developing Therefore, the translatorshould not make changes and only use this method if he or she is absolutelycertain that the audience will be able to follow the narrative.

2.2.2 Subtitle constraints

Audio-visual translation differs from other forms of translation in that it issubject to a number of constraints These constraints force the translator to makecertain translation decisions that might not have been taken if these constraintswere not linked to the translation of the subtitles Paola Guardini sets out a list ofthree different categories of constraints that affect the translation of audiovisualproducts These include technical constraints, textual limitations and linguisticconstraints

Technical limitations are concerned with the “time and space ofpresentation imposed by the original work” (Guardini 1998) In subtitling, thelimits on the number of characters per subtitle line with a maximum of two linesper six to seven seconds belong to this category The amount of time that twosubtitles can be displayed on the screen varies depending on the speed of speech

and the way the visuals are edited, but six to seven seconds is the averageduration.

The second group of constraints is what Guardini refers to as a textualconstraint These limitations exist because of “the presence of the visual andverbal elements of the original, the spatial constraints that imply the reduction ofthe original and the change in the medium” (Guardini 1998) This category ofconstraints is linked to technical constraints, as time and space constraints mayrequire the translator to reduce the text dramatically If, in a short period of time,

a speaker in a film or television program uses a large number of words, thetranslator is obliged to reduce the number of words in his or her translation inorder to comply with the technical constraints Also, in accordance with Ying-Ting theory, visuals played a vital part in storytelling, so that the translatorneeds to pay close attention to avoid any inconsistencies between image andaudio Frederic Chaume supports this notion by saying that “audio-visualtranslation differs from other types of translation in that the non-existence of animage linked to verbal text in these other types allows for the free translation of

an existing sentence, or a play with words, or a joke, for example, withoutcausing errors of coherence in the semiotic construction of the target text”(Chaume 19) Images restrict the freedom of the translator because the presence

of images requires the audio to remain as close to the source text as possible Inthe end, this may lead to a loss of stylistic features in the target text Wordplay

or other forms of humor may be lost in the translation subtitles if the visualsreduce the translation options of the translator

Linguistic constraints are the final category of constraints found inaudiovisual translation Guardini divides this category into two subcategories,namely the “intra-linguistic” category, which deals with “the differences insyntax and grammar between the two languages” and the “extra-linguistic”

category explained as “the problems relating to the surrounding reality”(Guardini 1998) Intra-linguistic constraints deal with grammatical and syntacticissues of which there is no equivalent in the target language In such cases, thetranslators must devise other grammatical constructions in order to perform asatisfactory translation Extra-Linguistic constraints are related to the source andtarget culture All types of text are influenced by the culture in which the authorresides The audience with the same cultural background will not be consciouslyaware of these cultural influences However, these features will be noted by aforeign audience who are not familiar with the customs of the source culture Inorder to avoid a confused audience, the translator needs to provide missinginformation As Denton (2007) elaborates: “Again, this may prove to be achallenge if the technical constraints of space and time are also taken intoaccount Information on the cultural background needs to be added, butinformation also needs to be removed, as the dialog is often too long to fit intothe dual subtitles”.

2.3 Equivalence in translation

Equivalence is the relationship between the source text (ST) and the targettext (TT) that allows the TT to be considered as a ST translation Equivalence isconsidered to be a key concept in translation Some theorists define translation

in terms of equivalence relations (Catford, 1976; Nida and Taber, 1969; Toury,1995; Koller, 1990) while others reject the theoretical notion of equivalence,claiming that it is either irrelevant or harmful (Gentzler, 2001) to translationstudies Other theorists take the middle course One of them is Baker (1993)who uses the notion of equivalence “or the sake of convenience—because most

of the translators are used to it rather than because it has any theoretical status”

2.3.1 Different approaches to translation equivalence

The theorists gradually adopted the theory of equivalence and introduceddifferent approaches to translation equivalence

- Function-based approach: Functional equivalence highlights the impact ofthe message on the target language and on the source language reader Šarčević(Sarčević 1989) describes the legal functional equivalent as a term in the targetlegal system that designates a principle or institution, the function of which isthe same as that of the source legal system Weston (1991) explains theimportance of functional equivalence in legal translation by implying that theapproach of using a functional equivalent can be considered the optimal form oftranslation

Nida and Taber (1974) proposed two different types of equivalence:

 Formal equivalence: this type of equivalence can be accomplished ifthe source language and target language match the form and content

of the message as closely as possible They also add that there is notalways such a perfect fit between the two languages and recommendthat formal equivalence should be used wherever possible Formalequivalence attempts to translate word-by-word

 Dynamic equivalence: unlike formal equivalence, dynamicequivalence puts more emphasis on equivalent effects In otherwords, this is a kind of equivalence in which translators try toexpress meaning in a way that has the same impact on the targetaudience as it does on the source language

- Form-based approach: Form-based or structure-based equivalence isdefined as a more or less direct transmission of source text structures to thecorresponding structures in the target language It is a process in which the

interpreter follows the surface form of the source text as much as possible whenconstructing the target text.

Baker (1993) introduced four levels of from-based equivalence:

 Equivalence at word level: baker defines the term “word” and statesthat one word can have different meanings in different languages,and she also relates meaning of words with morpheme Bakerintroduces problems at word level and above word level beforeproposing some strategies to deal with them

 Grammatical equivalence: grammatical rules may differ across thelanguage This can cause some difficulty in finding directcorrespondence in the TL

 Textual equivalence refers to the equivalence of information andcohesion between the ST and the TT Whether the cohesive relationbetween TT and ST should be maintained is based on three keyfactors: the target audience, the purpose of the translation and thetype of test

 Pragmatic equivalence refers to the implication of the target text Thetranslator’s job is to recognize the implied meaning of the source textand then reproduce it in such a way that the readers of the target textcan understand it clearly without any misunderstandings

- Meaning-based approach: meaning-based equivalence is defined as arelationship in terms of meaning in the messages of source language and targetlanguage

Koller (1990) considered five types of meaning-based equivalence:

 Denotative equivalence: the source language and target languagewords have the same denotations

 Connotative equivalence: also referred to as stylistic equivalence,offers additional values in addition to denotative values and relates tolexical choices between close synonyms.

 Text-normative equivalence: the source language and the targetlanguage are used in the same or identical way in their respectivelanguages

 Pragmatic equivalence: is the equivalence in which the sourcelanguage and the target language words have the same impact on thereader

 Formal equivalence: produces and analogy of form in the translation

by either exploiting formal possibilities of target language, orcreating new forms in target language

As mentioned above, with high standards and constraints, subtitletranslation has very specific characteristics compared to other translations.Equivalence approach is an important part of evaluating translation equivalence.Therefore, this thesis chooses dynamic equivalence translation approach anduses the criteria of translation universals, laws in descriptive translation study toevaluate the translation equivalence of Sherlock series subtitles The theoreticalframework of translation equivalence in descriptive translation study has beenaddressed by many translation theorists

There is really a new perspective of equivalence in the descriptive theory oftranslation, this is when (Toury 1995) describes equivalence as “equivalence as

it is used here is not one target-source relationship at all, established on the basis

of a particular type of invariant Rather, it is a Functional-relational concept;namely, that set of relationships which will have been found to distinguishappropriate from inappropriate modes of translation performance for the culture

in question” As a result, Descriptive analysis or research does not focus on

whether the target-text section is “equivalent” to the source-text segment, butrather on the discovery of translational patterns, and the descriptive translationstudy tries to examine the choices made by the translator under any translationalfactors, such as laws, universals or other factors that affect those choices.

One should not only concentrate on evaluating the semantic or evencultural aspects of each translational section individually and make a decision as

to whether or not it is acceptable Rather, the descriptive translation studyfocuses on the techniques and methods that have created translation, which is atthe heart of the translation process In other words, if a text is published orpretended to be a translation of another text, it is recognized as ST equivalent.Thus, as (Gentzler, 2001) explains, “translation equivalence becomes a fact, anempirical matter, to be analyzed rather than assessed against the ST for apresumed or ideal correctness, and translated texts exist as “replacements” ofspecific ST in the receiving culture” The idea is, therefore, to define them, trying

to recognize possible standard patterns that rule translation decisions The goal

is not to judge the TT as correct or incorrect, accepted or not accepted In otherwords, equivalence exists wherever it is translated, it is the products of thetranslation process, from which the world view of translation and equivalence ofresearchers changes and varies, as they will try to elucidate the processes thatgenerated the equivalence and participated in the process

2.3.2 Descriptive Translation Studies

Gideon Toury (1995) argues that descriptive studies provide the means todefine the regular language features found in the translated texts The descriptiveelement is therefore a vital component of empirical research The primarycomponents of the descriptive studies are the prediction of the data that is likely

to be found during research and the description and explanation of the data

found Descriptive research is trying to answer the following question ofwhether the information collected confirms the researcher's expectations If not,why did the outcome differ from the assumptions? By investigating thecredibility of the theory, the data will be found to either match or challenge thetheory tested If the data received are not consistent with the predicted theory,the assumptions should be revised in order to match the accumulated data MonaBaker summarizes Toury’s argument by saying that “its agenda consistsprimarily of investigating what translation is “under any defined set ofcircumstances and how it is realized” (Baker 1993) Baker points out that it isimportant to investigate why certain patterns can be seen in translation Thisresearch should be carried out by closely monitoring the universal features oftranslations If particular deviations from the source text are found throughout alarge body of texts, it is highly likely that translation universals can be found.Another important feature of Descriptive Translation Studies is that itsresearch methods must be designed in such a way that they can be duplicated byfuture scholars ‘One of its main objectives is to make the findings of individualstudies intersubjective and to make the studies themselves “repeatable, either forthe same or for another corpus”’(Baker 1993) By conducting research in asimilar manner, the data found will be more reliable because the researchmethod has already been validated by previous research Careful selection of awell-defined corpus will also help to achieve the best possible results.Descriptive studies therefore rely heavily on empirical research.

2.3.3 Translation universals

The concept of translation universal was first proposed in 1995 by GideonToury, an Israeli scholar and translator In his work Descriptive TranslationStudies and Beyond, Toury (1995) sets out his ideas on this translation

phenomenon, claiming that “the cumulative findings of descriptive studiesshould make it possible to formulate a series of coherent laws that wouldestablish an inherent relationship between all the variables found to be relevant

to translation” In other words, by conducting empirical research, descriptivestudies should provide evidence that confirms the presence of certain regularitiesthat exist in all translated texts There are two important aspects to thesetranslation regularities

First, these regularities contain syntactic, linguistic or lexical behaviors thatdeviate from the source text Second, these translation variations need to occur

on a regular basis Toury referred to these phenomena as “translation laws” Notall scholars, however, agree with this terminology The majority prefer the term

“translation universal” because they consider these translation features to beuniversally present in all translations These translation laws or translationuniversals have become the starting point for a lot of academic research in thefield of translation studies Scholars still speculate whether translation universalsactually exist and, if so, what categories can be identified

The fact that Translation Studies has developed into an empiric science can

be traced back to an American scholar named James Holmes (Toury 1995).According to Toury, until 1987, Holmes’ theories were largely unknown to awide audience He believed that Holmes' work was the cornerstone ofTranslation Studies and that his ideas should therefore be known to the widerpublic Toury finally made his theories known to an international audience.Baker (1993) uses the following quotation from Holmes to illustrate his views

on Translation Studies: “Many of the weaknesses and naiveties of contemporarytranslation theories are the result of the fact that the theories were largelydeductively developed, without the use of actual translated texts, or, at best, of avery limited corpus introduced for illustration rather than for verification”

Holmes therefore argues that translation studies used to be based onassumptions rather than actual data acquired through empirical research intoexisting translations It is precisely this empirical research that is the hallmark ofDescriptive Translation Studies These “probabilistic norms of behavior” arewhat Toury (1995) calls “laws of translational behavior” and which were laterdubbed “translation universal” by other scholars But what exactly does the term

“translation universals” mean? Judging from its terminology, it must be

“something” that is universally present in translations According to AnnaMauranen (2004), it has been reported that she uses generally unmarkedgrammar, clichés, and typical, common lexis instead of unusual or unique Theyare said to replace the standard dialect language, normalize punctuation andexaggerate target-language features Translation universals, then, are rules thatpredict translation behavior and are established by critical examination andcomparison of translations Scholars such as Andrew Chesterman and MonaBaker give two very clear definitions of what translation universal is all about.The definition of Mona Baker is more concise “Universal features [ ] can

be seen as a product of the constraints inherent in the translation process itself,and this accounts for the fact that they are universal (or at least we assume theyare, pending further research) They don't vary across cultures” According toBaker (1993) translation universals are “features which typically occur intranslated texts rather than in original texts and which are not the result ofinterference by specific linguistic systems” So, to sum up, the translationuniversal is: (1) Characteristic of each translation (2) Not to be present in non-translation (3) A constant factor even when language pairs, text-types,translators, and time periods vary

Although Chesterman argues that universal language is “a feature found (or

at least claimed) to characterize all translations,” there seems to be a difference

of opinion between the various critics (Chesterman 2004) Mauranen (2004)explains: “The term “universals” does not necessarily mean only absolute laws,which are true without exception Rather, most of the universal featuressuggested are general or law-like trends or high probability of occurrence”.Thus, she argues that translation universals are, in fact, not universally present intranslations, but rather have a tendency to occur Their presence in translations islikely, but not inevitable The definition of Mauranen corresponds to the ideas ofGideon Toury on the laws of translational behavior He defines his translationlaws by saying: “The envisaged laws are anything but absolute, designed to statethe likelihood that a kind of behavior or surface realization would occur underone set of specific conditions or under another” (Toury 1995) Even thoughMauranen and Toury agree on their definition of translation laws, other scholars

do not share their views

2.3.4 Categories of Translation Universals

Translation universal is an umbrella term that can be divided into a variety

of subcategories Mona Baker (1993) published her work Corpus Linguisticsand Translation Studies Implications and Applications in which it presents a list

of possible translation universals that have been further developed by otherscholars Baker argues that these universals are “linked to the nature of theprocess of translation itself rather than to the confrontation of specific linguisticsystems” (Baker 1993) These translation universals should therefore be present

in all translations between all language pairs

The initial list of five potential translation universals presented by Baker(1993) includes: (1) A marked increase in the level of explicitness compared tothe specific source texts and the original texts in general (2) A tendency towardsambiguity and simplification (3) A strong preference for conventional

grammaticality (4) A tendency to avoid repetition in source texts, either byomitting or by rewording them (5) A general tendency to exaggerate thecharacteristics of the target language.

The first translation universal, also known as explicitation, includes atendency for translations to clarify linguistic obscurities and to be more specificthan the original source text Mauranen (2004) defines the explicitation as “Theprocess of translation tends to add information and linguistic material to the textbeing translated” With the inclusion of additional information, it is unlikely thatthe explicitation will be present in the subtitles because the subtitles are bound

to a specific number of characters per screen This space constraint often forcessource text information to be deleted from the translation because there is nospace to incorporate a translation into a lengthy speech or dialogue It seemsunlikely, therefore, that the explicitation will be present in the subtitles

The second translation universal put forward by Mona Baker is a tendencytowards ambiguity and simplification This simplification includes phenomenasuch as the use of shorter sentences in translation, preferring finite rather thannon-finite structures, resolving ambiguity, eliminating unusual punctuation andproducing texts with a lower lexical density and a lower type-token ration (Pym2008) Baker also calls this “levelling out” phenomenon Defines “levelling out”

as “the tendency of the translated text to gravitate towards the center of thecontinuum” (Pym 2008) Overall, simplification seems to be the exact opposite

of explicitity Simplification will no doubt be found in subtitles because thedeletion of information caused by space constraint, as briefly discussed above, isalready a form of simplification

The third translation universal, a strong preference for conventional

“grammaticality”, is, in fact, a translator trying to correct some of the languageerrors or marked grammatical constructions made in the source text This

translation universal is also known as standardization or conservatism (Pym2008) Baker (1993) usually call it normalization and define “[Normalization]manifests itself in an overwhelming tendency to round off unfinished sentences,

“grammaticize” ungrammatical utterances, and to omit such things as falsebeginnings and self-corrections, even those that are clearly intentional” Thecorrection of clearly intentional errors is an interesting feature in particular.When this translation universal is found, the translator has simply created atarget text that deviates significantly from the source text and does not maintainthe level of ambiguity found in the original It is entirely possible that the sourcetext contains deliberate ambiguity, either as a comical effect or as a narrativedevice, to throw the audience out of balance If this is the case, intentional errorsform the narrative of the text and, by correcting these “mistakes”, the translatormay accidentally create inconsistencies between the source and the target text.However, choosing to leave unintentional errors out of translation can be a verylogical course of action, especially in subtitles where the translator has to dealwith a limited number of words Since these unintentional errors are of noimportance to the narrative, the translator can easily remove them in order tocreate more space for the text that is important Normalization will thereforemost likely be present in subtitles

The fourth translation universal introduced by Baker deals with the lack ofrepetition in translation In the case of novel or other translations, the translatorwill not get into trouble by increasing or decreasing the total number of words

In the case of book translations, a few more pages will not be a problem for thepublisher, so that repeated omissions will not be appropriate in this case Ifspace restriction is not an issue, there is no reason not to include all repetitions.However, this is a completely different matter when it comes to subtitling Thereare two reasons why a translator may have chosen to omit repetition when

discussing subtitling If the source text contains a large amount of replication, itseems reasonable for the translator to omit some replication if the amount ofspace needed to be replicated in the subtitling could be used in a more usefulway and the target text will not suffer from quality loss by omitting informationthat is important to the narrative Baker points out that “Toury reports thisfeature as one of the most persistent and unbending translation standards in allthe languages studied so far” (Baker 1993) Toury's statement therefore predictsthat this translation universal will be most commonly found when it comes totranslation universal research And indeed, recurrence will most certainly bepresent in subtitling, because recurrence does not provide any new informationand will therefore easily be excluded from subtitles.

The fifth and final translation universal presented by Baker is the “generaltendency to exaggerate the features of the target language” (Baker 1993) Thistranslation universal involves a tendency for translations to make use of certainlinguistic constructions present in the target language, which make up the factthat these characteristics do not appear in the source text Vanderauwera isquoted by Baker, and she “suggests that translations over-represent the features

of their host environment in order to make up for the fact that they were notoriginally meant to work in that environment” (Baker 1993) This means that aspecific language characteristic that is not present in the source text will befound in the target text on a number of occasions in order to validate itsoccurrence in the translation This translation universal seems unlikely to bepresent in subtitles for the same reason that it seems unlikely to be madeexplicit It includes information that is not present in the source text of thetranslation Again, the space constraint limits the amount of information that can

be included in the subtitles so that there is no room for additional content

Gideon Toury also elaborates on two translation laws, as he calls them, inhis book Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond It defines two translationlaws, which it calls “the law of increasing standardization” and “the law ofinterference.” Toury gives three rather long and complicated definitions of thefirst law, but the following definition is the most concise one: “in translation, thetextual relations obtained in the original are often modified, sometimes to thepoint of being completely ignored, in favor of the usual options offered by thetarget repertoire” (Toury 1995) Toury's law of increasing standardizationtherefore predicts that the marked or unusual language features found in thesource text are likely to be replaced by a less marked or more common languagefeature in the target text Sara Laviosa argues that this law “leads to thedissolution of the original set of textual relations” (Laviosa 2004).

In other words, when standardization takes place in translation, the specificlanguage features that characterize the source text become more general in thetarget text These changes create a target text that no longer contains the sameinterconnected language features as the source text Interestingly, thisexplanation is similar to the definition of other translation universals mentionedabove Mauranen (2004) argues that the law of increasing standardization mayalso be included in the heading of conventionalization or standardization Inaddition, it maintains that “the hypothesis of conventionalization seems tooverlap to a degree with simplification; both regard the noticeably high lexicalfrequencies of certain items as supporting evidence of their hypothesis”(Mauranen 2004) Taking into account Mauranen’s argument, Toury’s Law ofIncreasing Standardization and Translation Universal Conventionalization,Normalization and Simplification all appear to be synonymous with the samephenomenon Standardization is likely to be present in subtitles because I thinksubtitles often choose less marked and more general terms in order to make

subtitles less difficult Subtitles are shown on the screen for a short period oftime, so the audience should be able to understand the narrative quickly.

Gideon Toury's second law on translation is the law of interference.Translations tend to have language features that can also be found in the sourcetext This seems obvious, but the two forms of transfer slightly complicatematters Toury divides these deviations into two categories: negative andpositive Negative transfer focuses on features that “deviate from what is normal

in the target system” (Pym 2008) Thus, an example of a negative transfer can besource language words that have not been translated because translation wouldresult in a loss of information Positive transfer includes features that do notdeviate from the target text and that are why these features will not berecognized by the readers of the translation However, the fact that the transfer isnot recognizable does not mean that there is no interference It is simplyinvisible because this transfer contains language characteristics that are essential

to the translation process (Pym 2008) Pym gives a very clear illustration of thepositive transfer in the following passage: 'at least, between European languages,there is a default rule that translates sentence by phrase, paragraph by paragraph,text section by text section, and that all default behavior can be described as

“interference” (Pym 2008) He explains that translators are used to translatingtexts in a certain chronological order While reading the text, the target audience

is not only consciously aware of this translation universal procedure, but also isnevertheless present The law of interference also has a high potential to bepresent in subtitles because loan words are quite common

Sanitization will be the final universal category of translation discussed.This translation universal includes “the suspected adaptation of source textreality to make it more palatable for target audiences” (Kenny 1998) Again, thisuniversal generalizes the source text in order to create a translation that is easier

to understand and therefore faster to read Sanitization therefore shares the samecharacteristics as standardization and normalization Chesterman (2004),however, adds a little extra depth to this universal, arguing that sanitizationcreates “more conventional collocations” As a result, sanitization has a highprobability of appearing in subtitles, as collocations often do not correspondacross language boundaries.

2.4 Conceptual framework

As stated at the beginning of this chapter, subtitle translation has a widevariety of requirements and constraints One of them is to ensure that theaudience has a similar experience when watching the translated film as they didwhen watching the original Furthermore, the subtitle translation must adhere totime and space constraints, such as no more than two lines in one scene and areading time that does not exceed the content of the scene being described by thesubtitles When watching a movie, the audience continuously archives fourchannels of information at the same time, so the translated subtitles must alsoensure that the impact of the other channels on the audience is maintained.Translators must maintain that watching subtitle movies involves more than justreading subtitles They must also enjoy the impact of images, sound, and othereffects As a result, it is critical to select an approach to investigate translationequivalence for subtitles

Previously, most film translation equivalence studies used the familiarequivalent approaches The most common approach for analyzing translationequivalence is structural equivalence, which examines the grammatical structurerelationship between the source and target texts Semantic equivalence is anothercommonly used approach for analysis that ensures the text's meaningful contentremains unchanged during translation These two approaches are widely used in

evaluating text and book translations However, using these methods for subtitletranslation is not a good idea Previous studies of subtitle translation havepresented more non-equivalence factors and have covered more about how todeal with non-equivalence Some researchers have mentioned dynamicequivalence approaches as well as descriptive translation studies such astranslation universals or translation laws in their proposed solution to non-equivalence.

Descriptive translation studies, as mentioned in the previous section, areconcerned with the techniques and methods that have created translation, which

is at the heart of the translation process The descriptive translation studyfocuses on the experiences of recipients with the target text compared to thesource text by taking into account the translator's choices under any translationalfactors, such as laws, universals, norms, or other factors that influence thosechoices This theory is an appropriate tool for dynamic equivalence analysis,also known as functional relation assessment The functional relationshipinvestigates the experiences (textual functions) that the source and target textsbring to their respective audiences Some theorists have also argued that it isperfectly reasonable to analyze the translation of film subtitles using thedynamic equivalence approach, descriptive translation studies, or both

The Vietnamese translation of the Sherlock series on Netflix was chosen as

a sample for investigation in this study Despite the fact that classical Britishcultural works such as Sherlock Holmes and Romeo and Juliet have been chosen

as subjects for numerous studies Sherlock, on the order hand, was not only thefilm based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes storyline, but it was alsodesigned in a modern and approachable style The Sherlock film has received alot of appreciation and has won a lot of awards It is regarded as a significantstep toward encouraging younger generations to become interested in classical

works and culture Netflix, on the other hand, is a well-known internationalmovie streaming platform Although it is well-known worldwide, it is quite new

in Vietnam Netflix is being approached more frequently by young peopleequipped with smart devices According to my research, there has been no study

on the equivalence of the Vietnamese translation of Sherlock on Netflix Themajority of translation equivalence studies chose classics or popular films forVietnamese audiences, as well as more popular information channels such astraditional TV channels

This makes Sherlock on Netflix an appealing research subject because thereare many cultural elements in Sherlock, as well as many unique words that comefrom special personalities characters These factors will complicate thetranslation process significantly When analyzed using dynamic equivalence anddescriptive translation study, this makes Sherlock’s Vietnamese translation onNetflix more relevant These are the aims of study

In order to achieve these aims, there are three research questions, whichwill be answered in the following chapters of this research: (1) What are thetranslation universals and laws used in translating subtitles of Sherlock onNetflix? (2) What are the behaviors of translation universals in Vietnamesesubtitles? (3) How is the functional relationship between English andVietnamese subtitles?

2.5 Chapter summary

In this chapter, the literature review includes a review of theoreticalbackground and the previous studies An overview of some theoreticalbackground dealing with the general concepts of subtitle translation, subtitleconstraints, equivalence in translation, descriptive translation study andtranslation universal is presented for background of analyzing the dynamic

equivalence in the Vietnamese subtitles of Sherlock series on Netflix In terms

of previous research works, the studies by oversea and Vietnamese authors aregiven to briefly review what has been found and discussed to find out the gap ofthe study

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

This thesis employs a qualitative method The data collected from both theEnglish and Vietnamese subtitles of the Netflix series Sherlock are analyzedusing a theoretical framework adapted from Baker's and Toury’s theories abouttranslation universals and translation laws to evaluate dynamic equivalence ofthe Vietnamese subtitles

After collecting and transcribing the subtitles, the English and Vietnamesesubtitles are analyzed in order to determine the universals and laws thattranslators used to render the series These translation universals and laws will

be investigated for their behavior in the subtitle translation During this process,functional relationships for the final part of the research findings in each samplewould be recognized Following that, the results are systematically classifiedinto appropriate universals and laws based on the theoretical framework

3.2 Sampling and Methods of data collection

The data collection procedure was basically divided into two steps, whichwere as follows:

Step 1: Collecting subtitle samples

The first and most important step in this research is to collect selectedwords from the subtitles of Sherlock on Netflix This was accomplished bywatching the entire nine episodes of Sherlock with Vietnamese subtitles.Selected subtitles and original transcripts were written down for further analysis.Step 2: Create a database of original transcripted and translated subtitles

It was necessary to create a database that included both the original Englishsubtitles and their Vietnamese translations so that it would be easier and moreconvenient to investigate the samples for analysis and comparison.

3.3 Analysis methodology

Baker’s and Toury’s assessment frameworks were used to guide the dataanalysis procedures The frameworks are divided into four parts: 1) ST and TTanalysis, 2) Translator's universals and laws analysis, 3) Universals and lawsbehavior analysis, and 4) Functional relationship evaluation (dynamicequivalence of translation) The assessment procedure could be broken down asfollows:

Step 1: Examine the source and target text

The characteristics of the original subtitles were examined Thecharacteristics of translated subtitles were also investigated This was done toidentify whether the translator had used any translation universals or laws whentranslating the subtitles

Step 2: Examine the universals and laws of the translator

The translation universals and laws used to translate subtitles would beinvestigated Analyzing and categorizing translation universals and laws werefound in various words and scenes throughout the series

Step 3: Analyze the behavior of translation universals and laws

In this case, the behavior of translations universals and laws would beinvestigated in the translated subtitle The impact of the translated subtitle onviewers will be assessed The major issues that arose when using universals orlaws to translate the subtitles, as well as how they were handled, would bediscussed

Step 4: Assess the functional relationship

Following an examination of the impact of the translated subtitle, theimpact of the original will be examined These two impacts will be compared inorder to determine the functional relationships This is the point at which we canassess the dynamic equivalence of translation Following each step, the findingswere synthesized to answer the research question of how well the translationsmet the requirements of the translation equivalence framework.

In the following chapter, the information on translation universals that werepresented by Baker (1993) were connected to the principles of subtitling andsubtitles translating The television series Sherlock functioned as the corpus forthis research A short summary of these translation universals is shown for easyreference

 Explicitation: translation is more specific and clarifies obscurities ofsource text

 Simplification: translation makes use of less complicated language features such as grammar and lexical choices

 Normalization: translation corrects certain languages mistakes or marked constructions

 Omission of repetition

 Exaggeration of target language features

The provided examples are presented in a table with two windows In theleft window, the English utterance can be read while the right window shows theaccompanying Vietnamese subtitles If an English sentence does not have aVietnamese counterpart it simply means that the utterance has not beentranslated

As for translation laws, Toury’s translation laws will be evaluated in thetranslation of Sherlock on Netflix in this chapter A short summary of twotranslation laws is shown for easy reference.

 Law of growing standardization: marked or uncommon languagefeatures found in a source text have a large probability of beingreplaced by a less marked or more common language feature in thetarget text

 Law of interference: Translations possess language features that canalso be found in the source text These language features aredivided into negative and positive transfer

3.4 Chapter summary

The approach of the thesis has been presented in this chapter This chapteralso contains information on data processing processes Furthermore, datacollection instruments and procedures, as well as data processing procedures, aredefined The study's findings will be presented in the following chapter