NộI địa hóa và ngoại lai hóa trong dịch tên riêng nghiên cứu so sánh hai bản dịch tiếng việt của the fellowship of the ring

Studying the two Vietnamese translations of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Rings, this research was conducted to figure out the strategies which were dominantly– whe

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION IN

TRANSLATING PROPER NAMES

A comparative study on the case of Vietnamese translations of

J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Rings"

Supervisor : Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy Student : Phạm Thị Quỳnh Anh

Course : QH2011

Hanoi, 2015

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NỘI ĐỊA HÓA VÀ NGOẠI LAI HÓA

TRONG DỊCH TÊN RIÊNG Nghiên cứu so sánh hai bản dịch Tiếng Việt của

“The Fellowship of the Ring” – J.R.R.Tolkien

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy

Sinh viên: Phạm Thị Quỳnh Anh

Khóa : QH2011

HÀ NỘI, 2015

I hereby state that I: Pham Thi Quynh Anh, QH2011.F1.E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements

of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the 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

CONTENT

Acknowledgements ……….……… i

Abstract ……… ii

List of figures, tables, and abbreviations……… ………iii

Chapter I: Introduction 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study…….…… … …1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study……… … ….4

1.3 Scope and significance of the study.……… …… 5

1.4 Organization…… ….……….……….…… 6

Chapter II: Literature Review 2.1 Proper Names……….……… 7

2.1.1 Proper Names in general……….…… 7

2.1.2 Proper Names in fantasy literature……… ….… 7

2.1.3 Proper names in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings……… 8

2.2 Domestication and Foreignization…….……… … 9

2.2.1 Venuti’s Domestication and Foreignization……… … 9

2.2.2 Factors influencing domestication or Foreignization ……… … 10

2.2.3 Theoretical Framework and Models… ……… … 12

Chapter III Research methodology 3.1 Selection of subjects……….….………….……… … 17

3.2 Procedures of data collection…….……….……….… 17

3.3 Procedures of data analysis…….……… ……… 18

Chapter IV Findings and Discussions

4.1 Translators’ use of domestication and foreignization in translating proper

names ……… … 19

4.2 Explain author's motivations…….……….…… … 29

4.3 Discussions…….……… … … 37

Chapter V: Conclusion 5.1 Summary of findings …….……….… … 41

5.2 Limitations…….……….… … 43

5.3 Suggestions for further study………43

References…….……… ……… … 44

Appendices…….……… 48

I also take this chance to express my special thanks to Ms An Ly, Nha Nam’s translator, for her great help with important materials My completion of this study would not have been satisfactory without her support

Lastly, my most heartfelt thanks would go to my parents who are always

my source of strength and motivation throughout the time

ii

ABSTRACT

Translating proper names is a great challenge in fantasy literature translation, especially in a classic work as Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien So far, there have been a large number of studies on strategies to translate proper names but those on domestication and foreignization is quite limited Studying the two Vietnamese translations of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Rings, this research was conducted to figure out the strategies which were dominantly– whether domestication or foreignization, were used to translate proper names in the first two chapters, as well as to explain the motivations of translators in using that strategy to translate the names, and finally is to discuss

on the use of domestication and foreignization to translate literary fictive proper names in general Document analysis, observed interviews and articles were

adopted as the main instruments to collect data The final outcomes indicate the

prominent use of foreignization strategy on the 2003 translation “Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn”by Nguyen Nam and domestication strategy on the 2013 translation “Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” by Dang Tran Viet, Nguyen T.T.Yen and An Ly, notably when they are translated from a same English source text The result from the recorded interview and articles reveals the different motivations between two translators groups, in terms of aesthetic attitudes, strategic attitudes, attitudes toward readers and attitudes toward writer’s requirements All the initial results leads to the researcher’s conclusions on strategies and procedures should use to translate particular proper names such as non-english proper names, semantically transparent names, metaphoric names and non-descriptive with

English-sounding names Recommendations for further studies are provided

iii

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

Foreignization Strategies by Translation Scholars

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1 Problem statement and rationale

Stretching out various discussions and debates in translation studies throughout decades, it is now acknowledged that the translation of a literary text, especially, fantasy literature, is no longer only a process of transferring linguistic contents from a Source language into a Target language, but now it is more likely

an action of transferring culture from a Source culture into a Target culture In recent decades, culture specific elements have generated challenges to translators more than the linguistic differences between the source and target texts, in terms

of both lexical and semantic level, and most of them are concerning about names, customs, traditions, clothes, foods, institutions or even idioms and slangs

“Account for the greatest percentage of the cultural specific items in a text” (Aixela, 1996), proper names have become a central issue for translation debates

in recent decades Approached from different perspectives by translators, from Newmark (1981), Venuti (1995) to several other researchers such as Nord (2003), Bertills (2003), Fernandes (2006), Mäkinen (2010), proper names have proved itself to be one of the hardest problems in translating a literary text, as translating names need to keep not only the names’ identification functions but also their meaningful aspects which may coined by the authors Being used to be claimed to be “never translated” (Strawson, 1971), proper names now have posed great challenges to translators over the world Whether they should be translated

or not, and to what extents? Every translator who is facing with a literary work, especially fantasy literature, must struggle to find the answers to those questions Discussions on treatments for proper names often lead to two basic tendencies of translation, those are, firstly, maintaining the characteristics of the source text, even where this creates a strange and exotic effect, and secondly, naturalizing it

to produce a normal, familiar target translation which is accessible to the target culture The two ways of treatment have been generalized and introduced by Lawrence Venuti as domestication and foreignization What makes Venuti’s strategies different from other theorists’ studies is that domestication and

2

foreignization cover both linguistic and cultural guidance, thus his framework has been used widely by recent researchers on issues related to the translation of cultural contents, especially to proper names in various languages and corpora

To investigate the challenge of translating culture specific items in fantasy literature, particularly proper names in this case, in the notions of Venuti's domestication and foreignization, this study will examine and compare two Vietnamese translations of "The Fellowship of the Rings", the opening book of the famous trilogy "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R.Tolkien The corpus has raised several issues in translating proper names in various translation versions of different languages, as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien [J.R.R.Tolkien] – the author, who is also a recognized linguist, a master in linguistic art, had spent much efforts in crafting beautiful and meaningful names in his fantastic world with roots traced back from various of languages he knew: old Scandinavia, old Celtic, English,…and even Sindarin and Quenya – his self-invented language Since it is first published in 1954, the Lord of the Rings has been translated into nearly 80 languages Come with these various translations are various issues of translating the novel which even had got Tolkien involved in the debate One particular issue is how to translate his invented names in the book, because translating it is taking the risk of losing author’s intentions, but keeping the whole system of names in source language will not convey his invented ideas In Vietnamese, there are even two translation versions were published, and they met the same problems “Chúa tể của những chiếc nhẫn – Phần 1: Tình Bằng Hữu Của Chiếc Nhẫn” translated by Pham Viem Phuong and Hoang Long, published online under the penname Nguyen Nam in 2003 and “Chúa tể của những chiêc nhẫn – Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” recently translated by Nguyen Thi Thu Yen, Dang Tran Viet and An Ly, published by Nha Nam in 2013 are two translations of Lord of The Rings – The Fellowship of the Rings which have raised lots of debates and discussions on the translation of proper names in the books It is said that the two translations use completely different strategies to translate names and led to different reacts from readers, as most of them love the former and criticize the later, though the later received more compliments and supports from other

3

translators The present study is aimed to investigate the case in details, on the different translation strategies applied in two versions and the differences in motivations of translators in choosing that dominant strategy In order to do so, a comparative analysis on the two translations for signs of domestication and foreignization as well as translator’s explanations will be carried out The study

is expected to be a guideline for people who interested in The Lord of the Rings

to have a deeper understanding about the proper names in the novel Indeed, it would be a useful reference for people who is approaching fantasy translations in general or in Tolkien translations in particular, because there are still many Tolkien’s works that have not been translated in Vietnamese, such as the Silmarillion, Sons of Hurin and even for some people who is considering to re-translated his books, or films’ subtitles…

To sum up, this research will study the case of two Vietnamese translations: “Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn” by Nguyen Nam (2003) and

“Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” by Nguyen Thi Thu Yen, Dang Tran Viet and An Ly (2013) to investigate the use of domestication and foreignization strategies in dealing with proper names in “The Fellowship of the Rings" by J.R.R.Tolkien

4

2 Aims of the study:

The purposes of this study are:

being used in two TTs: “Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn” (TT1) by Nguyen Nam (2003) and “Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” (TT2) by Nha Nam (2013)

Vietnamese translations in order to explain the dominant strategy they used in translating proper names

to deal with proper names in fantasy literature

Due to those objectives, this paper seeks to address the following questions:

1 What strategy, foreignizing or domesticating, was dominantly used to deal with proper names in two translation versions: “Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn” by Nguyen Nam (2003) and “Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn” by Nguyen Thi Thu Yen, Dang Tran Viet and An Ly (2013)

2 What are the translator's motivations in using that dominant strategy to deal with proper names in The Fellowship of the Rings?

3 How should translators deal with proper names in fantasy literature, domesticating or foreignizing?

5

3 Scope and significant

researches on the translating of cultural specific items in the notions of domestication and foreignization has also expanded The domestication and foreignization strategies have been taken up as a subject for many researches and studies in terms of, for instance, which is the dominate strategy being used to translate cultural elements from poetry (Machali, 2012; Ye, 2014), song lyrics (Song, 2014), plays (Suh, 2006), comics (Hover, 2014) So far this method has only been applied to culture specific items in broader view Proper names can also become one of cultural specific elements, however, these analysis have only been carried out in a small number of areas

When the treatments of proper names were approached more deeply to be

a subject of studies by some other scholars (for instance Mäkinen, 2010; Oittinen, 2006), the researches to date have not referred much to the tendencies

of domestication and foreignization

compare the source text and its sole translation version Comparing and contrasting two (or more) translations in one language on the basic of the same source text might offer interesting insights not only into how differently individual translators can go about treating proper names, but also into differing motivations and values orientated them

Each of the mentioned issues is insightful and has posed lots of subjects to

be studied However, this study will focus only on two strategies: domestication and foreignization in the analyzing of barely just anthroponomy (names of persons) and toponyms (names of places) in the categorized of proper names in order to provide a more specified understanding on this filed The study is also limited to examining the proper names that appear in the first two chapters of the book “The Fellowship of the Rings” – acting as the introduction to the depicted world This means leaving out many fascinating names worthy of analysis

6

However, covering the whole books (and their translations) is simply out of the scope of such a study

4 Organization of the study

The main content of this present study consists of 5 chapters, together with reference and appendice

Chapter I: Introduction

This chapter will introduce briefly the theoretical background including the statement of the problem and rationale, the objectives, 4 research questions, scope and significance as well as the organization of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

Theoretical background is presented, include proper names in ordinary life, in fantasy literature and in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings The researcher will also have reviews on domestication, foreignization and the treatments of these strategies to proper names

Chapter III: Methodology

This part includes the instruments and methods of data collection and analysis

Chapter IV: Findings and Discussions

Results from the collected data and observations analysis will be performed regarding foreignization and domestication

Chapter V: Conclusion

This chapter will state a summary of the thesis with findings and its limitations as well as implications for further study

7

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Proper names

2.1.1 Proper names in general

It is generally believed that proper names were used to identify individual referents The Oxford Concise English Dictionary (2001, p.1146) defines proper name as “a name for an individual person, place, or organization having an initial capital letter” At first, in 1971, Strawson stated that proper name is, roughly, “a word, used referringly, of which the use is not dictated by any descriptive meaning the word may have”, means that proper names only have function of referring to persons But in later studies, researchers have placed different view

on proper names Nord in his study (2003) claimed that “proper names may be non-descriptive, but they are obviously not non-informative” He proved it by generating some referents of proper names, as a name can tell us the gender of a person (Alice – Bill), their ages (due to particular historical periods) or the geographical origins (NewYork and Beijing) Thus he claimed that “In non-fictional texts, it seems to be a convention to use the target culture exonym of a source-culture name, if there is one, but if a translator prefers to use the source-culture form, nobody will mind as long as it is clear what does the name refer to”

2.1.2 Proper names in fantasy literature

Notwithstanding, things are not quite as simple as that in fiction Compared to the real world, where names merely act as “non-descriptive” identifiers, names in fantasy literature are not only created to have identifying function, but also based on various purposes such as “denoting characters, amusing the reader, imparting knowledge or evoking emotions” (Van Coillie

2006, p 123) Names enable differentiation between one character and the next, but they also help the reader orientate in and learn to know the fictional world (Bertills, 2003)

To be more specific, fiction names now can have several functions Names can denote the name-bearer’s personality, appearances or profession

8

(Oittinen, 2008) Lincoln Fernandes says that in literary works proper names are used as “dense signifiers” because “they contain in themselves clues about the destiny of a character or indicates of the way the storyline may develop” (Fernandes, 2006, p 46) Names can also have classifying functions, whereby characters and places in fiction may categorized into different groups based on the similarity or dissimilarity of their names content or structure Names that are similar in structure or phonetic can imply that the name bearers have somehow a connection; likewise “giving two characters two strikingly different names may

be used to point out that the characters are otherwise, too, very dissimilar” (Ainiala et al., 2008, cited in Mäkinen, 2010) In Harry Potter novels, names of

Draco Malfoy is easily denote his personality, as Draco is Latin for dragon; and

it could also derive from the adjective draconic, ‘rigorous, harsh, severe, cruel’

(OED) Or in “Alice in the Wonderland”, White Kingdom and Red Kingdom are

two contrasting places since their contrastive names’ items: red and white

The problem of how to translate names in fantasy literature has been discussed by many translation theorists, including Mäkinen, Newmark, Nord, Tymoczko… In translating this kind of item, translators usually have to choose between two general translation strategies, namely, foreignization, which aims at preserving all the cultural elements, and domestication, which brings the text closer to the readers by adapting or even leaving out many of these elements More details on this will be analyzing in the later section

2.1.3 Proper names in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

problematic in translating works created by J.R.R.Tolkien, an accomplished historical linguist and philologist, who insisted that a name “must fit not only its designee” by way of their source words, sound symbolism, or etymology some, but also “the phonological and morphological style of the nomenclature to which

it belongs, as well as the linguistic scheme” of his invented world (Robinson, 2013)

9

In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, the nomenclature was done very carefully Beside some names based on actual existing names in British modern culture, some are borrowed from Celtic and German legends and myths There are lots of invented names, taken from his invented language (Quenya, Sindarin, Khuzdul, Rohirric) devised on the basis of old Celtic, old German, and Scandinavia Each name also need to fit particular linguistic style, culture, and moral meaning that Tolkien has assigned to the characters Translate them keeping their etymology, symbolism, and onomatopoeia attributes may be a

tremendous and exhausting task to translators For instance, Aragorn, the name

of a man who returns to claim his throne, denotes “Lord of the Tree” in elven speech (Sindarin), which may imply the royal identity of him Or Aragorn’s

elven bride, Arwen Undomiel, in elven speech means ‘Daughter of Twilight’ or

‘Evenstar,’ Thus translate them into target language may remove their elven origins, and also give up the euphonious they sounded However, keep them as

“foreign” may lost the sense that author assigned to those names With language being so centered in his works, the task of translating Tolkien’s names into other languages raises numerous problems for translators

2.2 Domestication and Foreignization

2.2.1 Venuti’s Domestication and Foreignization

Domestication and Foreignization are two basic translation strategies coined by Venuti (1995) that cover not only linguistic but cultural guidance as well Domestication refers to the type of translation in which “a transparent, fluent style is adopted to minimize the strangeness of the foreign text for target language readers”, while foreignization means a target text is produced which

“deliberately breaks target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness

of the original” (Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997) To sum up, “while domestication assimilates text to target linguistic and cultural values, in foreignization some significant traces of the original text are retained” (Oittinen, 2006)

In the translation of proper names as a culture-specific item in the ST, a translator shall always consider whether he should be close to the source culture

10

or the target culture and to what extent Numerous studies have attempted to provide a clear navigation for translator to decide when and how to use domestication and foreignization

According to Hanada (2009); Bainbridge and Norris (2010); Cooper-Chen (2010) (cited in Hover, 2014), translators usually take domestication for work

“targeting a mass audience that includes readers who has limited background knowledge on the source culture” Hover also pointed out that domestication can

be achieved through the omission of culture specific terms and the neutralization

of cultural concepts in order to make them comply with the target language and culture While foreignizing translation style, to Ceglia and Valeri (2000); Glodjovic (2010) (cited in Hover, 2014) is suited for a target audience of initiated readers that enjoy a source-oriented translation, are knowledgeable about the culture and wish to grasp cultural references and foreign flavor of the text Accordingly, “maintaining the foreign identity of the original work in the translation can be achieved by retaining onomatopoeia, names, wordplay, puns, toponyms, [ ], references and customs instead of localizing them to make these elements the same as in the target language” (Larsen, 2009) However, if foreignization is taken too far, it may result in a work that is difficult to understand for the general readership or in an unnatural, non-fluent and slightly awkward text (Larsen, 2009) On the other side, by domesticating a text, the translator risks to impose his own voice, sacrificing some of the cultural, stylistic and descriptive messages of the original author's story This process can “result

in a wholly different work in terms of its style, message and content” (LaPlante, 2008)

2.2.2 Factors influencing Domestication or Foreignization

As stated above, many researches have tried to answer the question of whether translators should be close to the source culture or the target culture, or, whether to take domestication or foreignization in the translation of a text The answer should be found after the consideration of several factors Shen and Wong (1999) pointed that “no explanation of translating can claim to be

11

comprehensive if the factors are not systematically considered” Thus in comparing translating strategies applied by translators, the factors influencing their choice should be studied

On the study of factors influencing Domestication and Foreignization (2012), Wenfen Yang classified them into Macro and Micro Levels Macro-factors navigate translators to historical and social screen, included “cultural asymmetry, historical background, language reality, political interference, ideology, aesthetic stereotype and needs of the TT reader” Micro-factors are more individual-oriented compared to macro-factor, which included “purpose of translation” and “the translator’s attitude toward ST and his cultural attitude”

Also concern on factors influencing the process of translating, study of Shen and Wong (1999) pointed out “three most important areas: Language, Culture and the translator’s Personal conditions” Linguistic factors included phonological, lexical, syntactic and textual factors Cultural factors are described

as intercultural factors (Culture-specific expressions, Aesthetic differences, Political interference, Ethical influence) and intracultural factors (Strategic orientation, Period style) Finally, personal factors regarded with Personal Competence and Personal Attitudes, which also be classified into Aesthetic attitudes, Attitude toward recipients’ response, Strategic attitudes, Political and ethical attitude Political and Professional attitudes

Although the two framework based on different standards to classified factors, they are both sharing the acknowledgement of individual-oriented factors Nida once said: “No translator can avoid a certain degree of personal involvement in his work” (Nida, 1964) And those individual-oriented factors will be mainly investigated in this research, as the mentioned purpose of this study is to compare two translation texts of a same target language instead of between two different languages like TT and ST as generally As both Vietnamese translations are translated from one source text, translators are faced and dealt with the same linguistic and cultural factors (or macro factors) Notwithstanding, the personal factors accounted for “many of the differences

12

between various translations of the same source, are subtle and complex” (Shen and Wong, 1999) Thus the analysis of translator’s motivations in this study will barely mentioned Linguistic and Cultural factors but concentrate more on translator’s personal factors Even with the same linguistic and cultural factors, two translators with different attitudinal orientations, whether aesthetic, communicative, strategic, political, ethical, or professional, will produce very different translations

Aesthetic attitude: reflected in “the way the translator interprets the SL

text and then represents it in the TL” (Shen and Wong, 1999) Some translators may focus their attention on the aesthetic value of the original content, others on its form “One may give precedence to the writer’s artistic style, another to his or her own aesthetic preferences” (Yang, 2012) An original text will assume different forms and take on different aesthetic values in different versions

Attitude toward recipients’ response: refers to “how the translator

respond to readers’ needs” (Shen and Wong, 1999) Different attitudes towards the reader will no doubt encourage different strategic orientations, one target-oriented and the other source-oriented, and produce distinct versions of the text with different social and aesthetic values

Strategic attitudes: Strategic attitude refers to “how the translator

responds to the predominant or traditional strategic orientations of his or her culture” (Shen and Wong, 1999) It depends on how translator decided to, whether he wants to be close to source text culture or target text culture

Each of these factors can seriously interfere with the translator’s judgment and selection, and ultimately materialize in one form or another in the final translation

2.2.3 Theoretical Framework and Models of Domestication and Foreignization Strategies

the target culture, they must then consider how to use it in translating the text and

13

to what extent In researching strategies to translating cultural specific items in the light of domestication and foreignization, some procedures have been proposed by translation scholars (Table 2.2)

Table 2.2: Taxonomies of Procedures Related to Domestication and Foreignization Strategies by Translation Scholars

Domestication Foreignization Proposed by

Aixela (1996)

Synonymy Limited universalization Absolute universalization Naturalization

Deletion Autonomous creation

Repetition Orthographic adaptation Linguistic translation Extratextual gloss Intratextual gloss

Proposed by

Georges L.Bastin

(1998)

Omission Exoticism Updating Situational equivalence

Transcription of the original

Normalization Discourse transfer Distinctive distribution of lexical items

Borrowing Calque Literal translation

Although these models showed different terms to label the procedures, in fact, they are all similar For example, borrowing (Vinay and Darbelnet, cited in

14

Munday, 2001) may have been variously referred as preservation (Davies 2003),

transference (Newmark 1988) or repetition (Aixela 1996) For this study, Vinay

and Darbelnet’s procedures will be choose in analyzing proper names in the translated books as its influence “was enormous” (Munday, 2001) and still be followed by many other researchers: Ayora (1977), W.Friederich (1977) (cited in Munday, 2001), and Mlotkowski (2006), Zahre-Bethtash, E and Firoozkoohi,

S (2009), Hover (2014)… The list consists of seven procedures: Transposition, Modulation, Equivalence, Adaptation, Borrowing, Calque and Literal translation, classified into two continuums between domestication and foreignization as mentioned above

2003) This translation strategy has been variously referred to as preservation (Davies 2003), repetition (Aixela 1996), exoticism, cultural borrowing (Hervey & Higgins 1992), and transference (Newmark 1988) (cited in Suh, 2005) Faced with a reference to an entity which has no close equivalent in the target culture, a translator may simply decide to retain the source text term in the translation “Languages and speech communities vary in the extent to which they tolerate this process”, and some types of readers may be more ready to cope with it than others

through the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds (Newmark, 1988) The resulting calque either follows the syntactic structure of the TL to introduces a new mode of expression (a lexical calque), or introduces a completely new construction into the TL (a structural calque) (Mlotkowski cited Vinay and Darbelnet, 2006) Often they look and sound odd, although sometimes they become assimilated or adopted into the target language (Suh, 2005)

idiomatically appropriate TL text” (Vinay and Darbelnet, cited in Mlotkowski, 2006), mostly used in the translation of languages of the same

15

family Ideally, the translated passage is fully reversible, i.e back translation reverts the TT to the original message with very high accuracy (Mlotkowski, 2006)

grammatical category of a given element for the TL rendition, without changing the overall meaning of the message “It is necessary when literal translation produces an “unnatural” passage” (Mlotkowski, 2006) The change can concern the number of a given lexical item, the grammatical structure (when the SL structure does not exist in TL) or the “natural usage”

of a given item within the TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist

in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth (Newmark, 1988)

original text in the TL text through the change of perspective in its TL version (Suh, 2005), i.e, abstract for concrete (an SL item is rendered by its more general TL counterpart), explicative modulation (involves substitution

of effect by cause, result by means, and the object by substance), the part for the whole (a SL object is represented by its single feature in the TL), one part for another (a SL item is translated by a related term in TL), reversal of terms, negation of the opposite (a SL passage is rendered by its opposite in TL in terms of positiveness/negativeness), active to passive and vice versa, space for time, exchange of intervals for limits (SL time and space expressions are translated into fixed points in TL) and change of symbol (exchange of images in translating fixed metaphors) (Mlotkowski, 2006)

original, whilst using completely different wording” (Vinay-Darbelnet, 1957) It can maintain the stylistic impact of the SL text in the TL text, therefore, it is the ideal method when the translator has to deal with

16

proverbs, idioms, clichés, nominal or adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds (Suh, 2005)

culture concept, represented by a SL item does not exist in the target culture, or does not have the same relevance or connotations as it does in the source context, then it falls on the translator to “create a new message which is as close to an equivalent of the original meaning as possible” (Mlotkowski, 2006) The procedure is therefore regarded as “a special kind

of equivalence, a situational equivalence.” (Suh, 2005)

Among those seven procedures, borrowing, calque and literal translation exhibit some certain degrees of foreignization, bringing into the target text a strangeness of the source culture terms and senses (Suh, 2005), while transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation cover various degrees of domestication, bringing a familiar feeling of target culture into a smooth and natural translation text

in the upcoming chapters The proper names appeared there will be carried out throughout the story, so the translators must make decisions on how to translate names right from these first two chapters

3.2 Procedures of data collection

To collect data for the first research question, 109 proper names appearing

in the source text, included 68 anthroponyms and 41 toponyms were selected After that, corresponding names in the two translated texts were sorted into groups of translating-procedure to create a base for the comparison between two Vietnamese translated versions

Data for the second question were found after the observation of text materials as well as interviews and articles on some official Vietnamese websites such as VnExpress, Dantri.com, Nha Nam’s website on the explanations of translators about their applied strategies for proper names Especially, two public recorded interviews were analyzed carefully, included an interview with Pham Viem Phuong (co-translator of Tình Bằng Hữu của Chiếc Nhẫn 2003 with Hoang Long, under the penname Nguyen Nam) and an interview recorded in the Press Conference of Nha Nam’s translators answering public questions on the translating of Đoàn Hộ Nhẫn The study has collected translator’s answers on matter of translating names and analyzed the motivations behind them

18

The data for question number three were collected from the analysis of two first questions

3.3 Procedures of data analysis

To answer the first research question, the study compared anthroponyms and toponyms in two translation versions using the theoretical framework and models of domestication and foreignization, then sorted them into groups of treatments Based on those groups, the research has calculated the frequency of each strategy to find out the dominant strategy being used in each translation version

Answer to the second research question were found after analysis of each group of treatment along with the explanation for translator’s motivations The explanations based on the theories of factors affecting translation strategies presented by Yang (2012) and Shen and Wong (1999) in which the literature review have mentioned in section 2.2.2 It is expected that personal factors, together with some cultural and linguistic factors will be found, and they did so

Those initial findings were used to answer question number three on the use of domestication and foreignization strategies to deal with proper names in fantasy literature

19

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Answer to research question 1: What strategy, foreignizing or

domesticating, was dominantly used to deal with proper names in two translation versions

The following section will present and compare the procedures applied for proper names in two TTs to figure out the most frequent strategy used by translators based on the framework proposed by Munday (2001): Foreignization (Borrowing, Literal translation, Calque) or Domestication (Transposition, Modulation, Equivalence and Adaptation)

After collecting 109 proper names, included 68 anthroponyms and 41toponyms into tables (see more in appendix), the researcher found out that some names in the ST were treated with similar procedures in both TTs, while some particular names received different treatments by each translator This will contribute to the different degrees of foreignization and domestication used in the two translations, which will be present in the last part of this section

4.1.1 Names that treated with same techniques in both translations

There are names in ST that both translators treated with borrowing and literal translation procedures

- Borrowing:

Firstly, there are some names in the novel that both translators transferred directly with no alteration, or to say, applied the borrowing technique for them

These names do not have any semantic meanings, completely strange and exotic

a lack of equivalents of source language terms in the target language” (Vinay and Darbelnet, see in Fawcett, 1997) There are 26 items found in this group, included:

+ Names of Elves (a fictive humanoid race): Gigalad, Elendil, Isildur, Aragorn

The names are created in Sindarin language (invented by Tolkien), so they are

+ Names of Men: Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron Men in Tolkien’s works are similar

to Human in real life They are Westerner (source text culture) with sounding names, though uncommon These names also have no descriptive meaning Both translators directly transferred them into TL

English-+ Names of Hobbit (another fictive humanoid race): Sméagol, Gamgee, Took, Boffin, Bolger… Though most of hobbit names have ‘descriptive meanings’

(Tolkien, 1967), the hobbit names in this group are minority ‘non-descriptive’ They do not appear to be English, and were retained in both Vietnamese translations

+ Names of invented places: Esgaroth, Mordor, Eregion, Anduin, Orodruin

They are not in English but created from Tolkien’s language: Sindarin, Khuzdul and Rohirric, with no English meaning No Vietnamese equivalent can be match with these terms Again, they are transferred directly by both translators

As borrowing is “the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text” (Nord,

2003), 28 proper names with similar treatment were classified into this group Table 4.1.1a shows representatively 18 proper names among them

Table 4.4.1a: Borrowing proper names in both translations

Anthroponyms

No ST TT1 & TT2 No ST TT1 & TT2

21

Toponyms

According to Munday (2001), borrowing is sign of foreignization, bringing into the Vietnamese text a strangeness effect of the terms In sum, there are 28/109 proper names treated with borrowing technique by both translators,

account for nearly 25.69% of all proper names in the text

- Literal translation

As a fantasy literature work, Lord of the Rings included a great number of meaningful names, created base on various purposes such as “denoting characters”, describing places, “imparting knowledge or evoking emotions” (Van

Coillie 2006) These names are generally semantically transparent, i.e Long Lake, Dark Tower, Blue Mountains, Great River, Fire-mountain …With each of these words do has equivalent in Vietnamese, for example Long means dài, Lake means hồ, or Dark is u ám đen tối, and Tower is tháp, both translators may easily get the literal meanings of those names: Hồ Dài, Tháp Đen Tối, Rặng Núi Xanh/Dãy Núi Lam, Great River – Sông Lớn/Sông Cả, Fire Mountain – Ngọn Núi Lửa…

There are 26 proper names found applying this technique, which all have a change in language but retain the same overall meanings in both TTs Some proper names treated in this procedure were presented in table 4.1.1b:

22

Table 4.1.1b: Literal translation of proper names in both translations

Anthroponyms and Toponyms

Hơn

Vùng Đất Hoang

Munday’s (2001) stated that literal translation exhibits a certain degree of foreignization, because it brings a strange feeling of sense and form to the TT However, according to the names translated above, the meanings they carried are

mostly normal in target culture language: Hội Đồng Trắng, Rừng Già, Ngọn Núi Lửa Instead of generating strange feelings, the literal translation has brought a

familiar environment into the TTs Thus, according to the researcher, this procedure should not be placed in Foreignization group but it contributed to the domestication tendency of the TTs With 26 proper names treated in this group,