Preferred strategies by australian and vietnamese parents in encouraging their children

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON EUPHEMISM EMPLOYMENT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON EUPHEMISM EMPLOYMENT

IN TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONS OF

GEOGRE ORWELL’S THE ANIMAL FARM

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh, MA Student : Vũ Hồng Nhung

Year of enrolment : QH2010.F1

HANOI, 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH VIỆC SỬ DỤNG UYỂN NGỮ TRONG HAI BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT CỦA TÁC

PHẨM THE ANIMAL FARM (GEORGE ORWELL)

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh Sinh viên : Vũ Hồng Nhung

Khóa: QH2010.F1

HÀ NỘI, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I, Vũ Hồng Nhung, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the

degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Hanoi, 2014

Vũ Hồng Nhung

In addition, I would love to express my high appreciation for the special encouragement from my former English teacher, Ms Phạm Thu Hương, who plays an important role in giving useful pieces of advice that helped keep my mind in balance despite the hardship I was suffering from

Besides, I also feel grateful for my family, especially my younger brother, for the strong support and special caring and treatment since the very first moment of my doing this graduation paper till the very last one

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all of my friends whose helpful comments and wholehearted encouragement constructively contribute to the paper proceeding

ABSTRACT

Generally, euphemism employment in translation gets hold of an essential importance in not only orienting the audience‟s attitude towards the characters mentioned in the plot but also mitigating the intension (if any) resulted in by the cultural conflict(s) between the source language and the target language However, there are no abundant resources for studies on this research topic at present; therefore, the researcher was inspired to conduct a comparative

study on euphemism in two Vietnamese translations of George Orwell‟s The Animal Farm, which are translations produced by Phạm Minh Ngọc and An Lý

Accordingly, a two-fold objective is addressed, particularly to figure out how different and/or similar the translations are and what approaches taken by two translations to employ euphemism Thanks to the methodology presented in Chapter 3, the researcher finds out that both of translators did employ euphemistic expressions though the frequency of euphemism employment in An‟s translation is greater than that in Phạm‟s In addition, two main approaches taken to employ euphemism are also called out which are grammatical and lexical modalities Hopefully, this paper‟s findings and suggestions could partly contribute to enriching the data source on euphemism employment in translation for further studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

Table of contents iii

List of abbreviations v

List of tables and figures vi

Chapter 1- Introduction 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale 1

1.2.Aims and objectives 2

1.3.Scope of the study 3

1.4.Significance of the study 3

1.5.Organization of the study 3

Chapter 2 – Literature review 5

2.1.Translation 5

2.1.1.Definitions of translation 5

2.1.2.Methods of translation 6

2.1.3.Communicative translation and semantic translation 9

2.2.Equivalence in translation 10

2.2.1.Language and culture 10

2.2.2.Definitions of equivalence in translation 11

2.2.3.Types of equivalence 12

2.3.Euphemism 13

2.3.1.Definitions of euphemism 13

2.3.2.Classification of euphemism 14

2.3.3.Theory of euphemism in translation 15

Chapter 3 - Methodology 17

3.1.Research approaches 17

3.2.Participants 17

3.3.Data collection instrument and procedure 18

Chapter 4 - Findings and interpretation 20

4.1.Research question 1: A comparison of euphemism employment between two translations 20

4.2.Research question 2: Approaches of euphemism employment in two translations 26

4.2.1.Lexical modality 26

4.2.3.Grammatical modality 31

Chapter 5- Conclusion 34

5.1.Summary 34

5.2.Limitations of the study 35

5.3.Suggestions for further studies 36

References 38

Appendix 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

- List of tables

are translated into Vietnamese by two translators

20

euphemism employment in the two translations

27

word/ phrase modality presented in the two translations

28

involvement in the two translations

29

- List of figures

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

In Vietnam‟s literature world, it can be noted that there are two major groups of audience who approach foreign literary works The former group often includes people with proficiency high enough to master the source language Not only are they able to read the work but they can figure out the message behind the lines and the attitude of the author as well People in the latter group are those who employ the translation of the work to enjoy its humanism However, the size of the latter group probably

overwhelms the former one As the statistic number from some big Vietnamese

publishing houses revealed in Vietnam‟s book market, the number of translated copies

is as many times as the available original ones For instance, according to Trẻ Publishing House‟s copyright deposit data, there were 25,000 Vietnamese translation

copies of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which has been praised through

decades, sold in 1987 whilst there were not many original ones available at that time Thence, translation has been an essential language-transferring means which helps spread out the foreign literature in the domestic sphere

As a matter of fact, a variety of translation procedures coupled with methods are made full use of on the platform of translation theory so as to produce a high quality translation Obviously, there exists cultural differences between languages; therefore,

in addition to transferring the explicit content of the literary work, a translator is expected to utilize proper representation language to denote a certain matter For example, a political issue mentioned in a source text, which is considered neutral in the source culture, might be offensive or extremely sensitive in the target culture Or in other case, the target language is selected carefully to ease the intensive atmosphere in literature Hence, the translator needs be aware of and pay best attention to the language expression, particularly lexical choice, in order that the key message is still

well-conveyed while the severe tone is regulated In a nutshell, that modus of translation is likely to involve euphemism in translation

In spite of the vital role of euphemism in translation that partly orients audience‟s emotion to some extent; the number of studies on this field is still finite Furthermore, up to now, there have been very few researchers in Vietnam in general and none at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University

of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) who lend insight into the popular ways of euphemism translation in literature The most updated research was carried by Phan Thị Thu Thủy in Đà Nẵng city two

years ago entitled An investigation into English-Vietnamese translation of euphemism

M.A defended in the University of Danang Nevertheless, this study has not pinpointed the key issue yet It would rather calculate the rates of euphemism employment or translation in a number of books that seem irrelevant to each other, then give the explanation for it

For all above-mentioned reasons and being inspired to seek something new in

translation practice, the researcher wishes to carry out a study entitled “A

comparative study on euphemism employment in two Vietnamese translations of

George Orwell’s The Animal Farm” This study coupled with its findings is expected

to serve as a useful source of reference and assistance for those who hold an interest in this area

1.2 Aims and objectives

This research aims to accomplish two-fold purposes The first purpose is to investigate the practice of employing euphemism in the source and target texts Then, the researcher is expected to draw a conclusion of what are the methods that translators applied to create euphemism and employ it in their translation after doing data analysis

In other words, this study will mainly focus on dealing with two questions as below:

1 What are differences and/or similarities of euphemism employment in English-Vietnamese translation as seen in examples taken from two translated

versions of George Orwell‟s The Animal Farm?

2 What are the main approaches taken by the two translators in employing euphemism in English-Vietnamese translation?

1.3 Scope of the study

This paper pays attention only to the current situation of translating English

euphemism into Vietnamese in two translated versions of George Orwell‟s The Animal Farm To be more specific, one translation named Trại Súc Vật is done by Phạm Minh Ngọc (Giấy Vụn publisher, 2003) and the other Vietnamese version called Chuyện ở Nông trại is completed by An Lý (Nhã Nam culture and communication JSC, 2013)

Then, a comparison would be made so as to withdraw the similarities and differences between those versions

1.5 Organization of the study

The paper consists of 5 chapters

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the subject and an overview of the

paper

Chapter 2 reviews relevant literature including an overview of definitions of key

concepts (translation and euphemism) as well as some fundamental theories of translation and euphemism translation

Chapter 3 describes the method utilized in this study

Chapter 4 presents and analyzes the collected data from questionnaire‟s responses

and text analyses

Chapter 5 summarizes some main issues mentioned in the research, offers the

limitations of the study and suggestions for further research Following the chapters are the references and appendices

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is expected to describe and provide critical comments on previous studies which relates to the research topic

2.1 Translation

2.1.1 Definitions of translation

demand for mutual understanding among people speaking different languages Since it came into existence, there has been a wide range of definitions denoting what translation is Following are among the three most updated ones:

In his book of A Linguistic Theory of Translation (1965), Cartfod

considers that translation is no longer a dangerous technique once people can apprehend its nature and control its usages Besides, it is very translation that operates the process of a text‟s language transferring Particularly, “translation

is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” (p 25) in which the core issue of translation is mentioned concerning the equivalence between SL and TL Nonetheless, it is widely accepted to be sometimes impossible to work out an appropriate SL equivalent for a TL word Thence, the definition is not quite satisfactory yet

Sharing the same point of view, Burgin (1986) demonstrates the essence

of translation that it goes beyond ameliorating a nation‟s language and culture, beyond breathing new life into the source text, beyond providing a language with articulation, and becomes an entry way into a universal language

In addition, expressing his agreement on the same viewpoint of the translation‟s definition with the two theorists above, Larson (1984), in her book

titled Meaning-based Translation, additionally covers other aspects of

translation inclusive of the analyzing process, author‟s intention, readership and rendering:

Translation is studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation, and cultural context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, and then reconstructing this same meaning using lexicon and grammatical structure which are appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context (Larson, 1984, pp 3-4)

Another definition of translation introduced by Newmark (1988) is that:

“Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text.” (p 5) Like Catford‟s given definition, Newmark‟s only considers a single aspect of translation, which is author‟s intention whilst neglects all the others

All things considered, the researcher decided to use the definition of translation given by Larson (1984) in this paper due to its extensive coverage of translation study

2.1.2 Methods of translation

translator is supposed to at least partly acquire the knowledge of translation theory Whenever translation is mentioned, it always refers to a process comprising the harmonic transference of language that allows the recipients to get the point with what messages that the author is trying to convey Thus, a large number of researchers have spent time on the perusal of translation methods Below are predominant methods suggested by prestigious scholars

translation methods and translations by indicating “while translation methods relate to whole texts, translations are used for sentences and the smaller units of language” (p.24) Then, he proposes eight methods of translation, particularly:

(1) Word for word translation is the process in which SL word-order is

preserved, and it barely pays attention to grammar Words are translated

by their most common meanings and out of context

For example:

They met many difficulties (Orwell, 1945, p 11)

 Họ gặp nhiều khó khăn (Phạm, 2003, p 17)

(2) Literal translation is the process in which SL grammatical

structures are converted to their nearest equivalent in the TL, BUT words are still translated singly and out of context

For example:

There were more songs, more speeches, more processions (Orwell, 1945, p 44)

 Ca hát nhiều hơn, diễn thuyết nhiều hơn, diễu hành cũng

nhiều hơn (An, 2013, p 132)

(3) Faithful translation is the process in which words are translated in

context BUT uncompromising to TL It would transfer cultural words rather than naturalize and often read like a translation

For example:

The farm had had a fairly successful year

(Orwell, 1945, p 44)

 Năm ấy trại khá được mùa.(An, 2013, p 130)

(4) Semantic translation is more flexible than faithful translation It is

translating certain cultural words into neutral equivalents in the TL Better attention is paid to great focus on aesthetic features of ST (at expense of meaning if necessary) It has close rendering of metaphors, collocations, technical terms, slang, colloquialisms, unusual syntactic structures and collocations, peculiarly used words, neologism, badly written or inaccurate passages

For example:

The boy did not stir (Orwell, 1945, p 17)

 Gã chẳng động cựa gì hết (An, 2013, p 52)

(5) Communicative translation is freer than semantic translation It

gives priority to the effectiveness of the message to be communicated and focuses on factors such as readability and naturalness Thus, both the content and the language are readily acceptable and comprehensible

to the reader For example:

There was much discussion as to what the battle should be called (Orwell, 1945, p 17)

 Chúng tranh cãi rất lâu về chuyện đặt tên cho chiến thắng

(Phạm, 2003, p 23)

(6) Idiomatic translation is the process reproducing the „message‟ of

the original It prefers colloquialisms and idioms which do not exist in the original with the outcome as lively, „natural‟ translation as much as possible

In January there came bitterly hard weather

(Orwell, 1945, p 18)

 Ra giêng, trời trở rét cắt da cắt thịt (An, 2013, p 56)

(7) Free translation is to reproduce the matter without the manner; the

content without the form of the original and paraphrase much larger than the original

(8) Adaption is the freest form of translation and preserves the theme,

plots, characters only in which the SL culture is converted to the TL culture It is a kind of rewriting the text in translation

In addition, sharing the concern on translation methods, Levý (1984), a paramount Czech translation scholar, believes that there exists immorality if a translator is bound to omit or contract any difficult or challenging expression that needs translating In his opinion, the translator is also responsible for figuring out the solution to the most hard-to-tackle problem(s) Besides, he propounds that the functional view must be adopted both meaning and manner Albeit the translator could never be the author of the SL text, he is the one who produces its translation; therefore, he is still required to consider his professional ethic as the way to show his respect to the TL readers

translator employs the methods that matters It is advisable that the translator flexibly applies each method in the appropriate context to make full use of it

2.1.3 Communicative translation and Semantic translation

Putting himself in the readers‟ shoe, Newmark (1988) distinguishes

communication translation and semantic one which is illustrated as in the following diagram:

D

Diagram 2.1.: Distinction of communicative translation and semantic translation (Newmark, 1988, p.47)

Newmark (1988, p 47) also entrusts that “only semantic and communicative translation fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are first, accuracy, and second, economy.” Accordingly, all of the translated versions to some extent embrace not only semantic aspect but communicative, social and individual ones as well

In terms of communicative translation approach, the author insists that only the meaning of the SL motivates the reader‟s grasp of the identical message Following this approach, the translator is granted to do some modification and correction to guarantee the translation‟s quality within certain limitation of TL readers‟ level of knowledge and intelligence The translator is attempted to produce a simple and brief translation whose main message is paid better attention Subsequently, communicative translation‟s language often sounds natural and resourceful In contrast, semantic translation as a whole favours “the thought processes of the author” (p 47) with the tendency of over-translating and maintaining word‟s shadow of meaning It sounds more complex and awkward Hence, semantic translation‟s product is usually

“inferior in its original - as there is both cognitive and pragmatic loss” (p 48)

In conclusion, Newmark (1988) perhaps faces some confusion there when he recognizes that communicative translation theoretically provides the translator with no more freedom than semantic translation However, he still admits that it actually does on the platform of TL readership friendliness

2.2 Equivalence in translation

2.2.1 Language and Culture

Spending time doing research in this field, Sapir (1956, p 13) once claimed that “language is a guide to social reality” and language has turned out to be an expression medium that they utilize among their society Therefore, it can be understood that human would employ language to reverberate and record their daily behaviours and communications which

eventually becomes their traditions and customs then culture To obtain mutual understanding, speakers from different places all around the world need to acquire their partners‟ language first On that basis, they can approach each other‟s culture ultimately

Also, Kramsch (1998) concedes in his book of Language and Culture that language is a major means of communication by which human

exchange with each other their life information inclusive of delivering their culture identity As a role of a scholar, he does not deny that “words also reflect author‟s attitude and beliefs, their point of view” (p 4) Thus, it is very language that “expresses cultural reality” (p 4) as people‟s utterance often involves their popular experience They are supposed to create experience via the language that they use

In such a way, the researcher finds out that there exists a close-knit relation between language and culture Thus, a translator is compulsory to take cultural factor into consideration when doing the job of language-transferring

2.2.2 Definitions of equivalence in translation

Equivalence is defined in Oxford Dictionary (2005, p 493) as the state of “equal in value, meaning, importance” Hence, it can be said that in

a specific linguistic unit in one language carries the same intended meaning

or message embedded in a specific linguistic medium in another language, then these two units are regarded as the equivalents

Mentioning equivalents, researchers can refer to basic linguistic elements namely morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, idioms and proverbs Thus, figuring out the equivalent is a quite challenging stage in translation process However, the translator is not expected to always find out one-to-one equivalents The equivalence term here shall be understood with the comparative meaning as sometimes two different linguistic units in the two

languages perform the same function In other words, it is the relationship between a ST and a TT that allows the TT to be considered as a translation

of the ST And, equivalence performs a relationship between two texts in two different languages instead of the languages themselves

2.2.3 Types of equivalence

Researchers have different criteria to classify equivalence in translation This paper will focus on the common groups of meaning-based equivalence Accordingly, Koller (1979) has categorized 5 types of equivalence as below:

(1) Denotative equivalence: is one in which the SL and TL words refer to the same referent in the reality There is referential identity between SL and TL units Besides, it is considered the equivalence of the extra linguistic content of a text, otherwise called content invariance

(2) Connotative equivalence: suggests that SL and TL words should produce the same communicative values in the mind of native speakers of the two languages The connotation certainly transmitted the selections of word (particularly where there is a specific choice between synonymous expressions) concerning about level of style, frequency, the social and geographical dimension, etc It is also known as stylistic equivalence

(3) Text-normative equivalence: is one in which the SL and TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective languages Text – normative equivalence relates to text-type specific features or text and language norms for given text types

(4) Pragmatic equivalence: refers that the SL and TL words have the same influence on the readers Also, it is called communicative equivalence,

(5) Formal equivalence: focuses on the form of the text: rhythm, verb form, special stylistic forms of expression in syntax and lexis, word play, metaphor… It is particularly used in translation of poems, songs, etc It is also called expressive equivalence

In short, equivalence consideration is necessarily involved in the stage of selecting words for a translation in order to get targeted expression as its translator‟s set objectives To do so a translator is required to make the same great efforts as in clarifying TL readership This classification supports translator to obtain the translation effectiveness

2.3 Euphemism

2.3.1 Definitions of euphemism

Once cross-cultural expression is shown out, cultural translation will be required which led the translator to be aware of both of the source and target cultures In order to avoid unexpected misunderstanding or cultural conflicts, the translator asks for help of euphemism in translation According to the definition of euphemism introduced in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (n.d.):

Euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant; also: the expression so substituted

Whilst a semantic research, Leech (1981, p 45) regards euphemism as

“the practice of referring to something offensive or delicate in terms that make

it sound more pleasant.” Eighteen years later, Sanderson (1999) raises his voice

in agreement with the idea that “euphemism can be used as a way of being vague and unclear, or to cover up the truth or reality of a situation” (p 259)

Simply to understand, there are certainly phrases in a society or culture that cannot be explicitly expressed in other society or culture Therefore, euphemism appearance is bound to ease the tense that could happen in the translation In addition, euphemism is no longer concerned by Western scholars; a number of Asian researchers inclusive of Vietnamese ones have conducted studies related to euphemism usage Particularly, Trương (2003), in his master thesis studying on Euphemism, shares his agreement on euphemism utility which happens in courteous communication context that may involve the art of using language Regarding other aspect, earlier research (Nguyễn, n.d.) believes that euphemism originates from the psychological need of human as the way to show respect to a person that joins the communication

Undoubtedly, every language serves the function of representing the culture of speakers For this reason, it is important bear in mind that the uses of euphemism may vary from SL culture to TL culture owing to differences in terms of history, social norms, religions, etc

of it

Rawson (1981) assorts euphemism into two fundamental groups including positive and negative The former type is also known as stylistic euphemism or exaggerating euphemism He indicates that “the positive ones inflate and magnify, making the euphemized items seem altogether grander and

more important than they really are” (p 211) On the contrary, Rawson demonstrates the negative euphemism is to “deflate and diminish They are defensive in nature, offsetting the power of tabooed terms and otherwise eradicating from the language everything that people prefer not to deal with directly” (p 214) Narrowing or traditional euphemism is other name of negative euphemism that sounds more pleasant than taboo For instance, saying God‟s name is banned in some countries Thus, people intend to use some euphemism referring to God

Additionally, euphemism also can be divided in accordance with its semantic features regarding death, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, prostitute, gender, occupation, disease, etc

2.3.3 Theory of euphemism in translation

As writing in Introduction to Semantics and Translation, Barnwell

(2003) concludes some way of euphemism translation, such as explicit translation, equivalent-based translation By the same token, another expert, Larson (1984) emphasizes that it is essential for a translator to recognize the euphemistic nature of TL language and diagnose when using euphemism is proper

After a period of time investigating into the field of employing in translation, the researcher finds out that among all of the research that the researcher has chance to access regardless domestic or foreign sources, their authors mainly focus on how to translate an English euphemism into Vietnamese, which means that the writer of SL text does utilize euphemism in his piece of writing Nevertheless, the researcher is concerned about the situation that how to employ Vietnamese euphemism to translate English original words rather than English euphemism Likewise, the researcher is supposed to discover Vietnamese euphemism shown in the translated versions

euphemism-then reflect them in the SL text to find the answers for all research questions mentioned above

In conclusion, this chapter has presented some key theories on translation, concepts and classification of euphemism which are in need for a deeper investigation

on euphemism-employing in English-Vietnamese translation

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the research questions, research approaches, the participants of the research, the data collection instruments, the procedures of data collection and analyses

3.1 Research approaches

In this paper, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed which are composed by text-research and questionnaire The stages of text-research and questionnaire are to help the researcher gather highly in-depth demographic and background information data so as to identify what and how euphemism is employed

in the two translations Given its advantages, the researcher decided to conduct careful reading and highlight typical illustrations in the translated versions in addition to collecting responses from questionnaire answerers

published with the total number of 195,500 copies sold in the United Kingdom and in

the United States Up to 1950, the number of The Animal Farm copies had reached

615,500 copies over those two countries Besides, this book was translated into 68 languages within 50 years after its first publication Moreover, at the time celebrating

Farm was ranked the 31st (Phạm, 2003) Most importantly, Orwell wrote this book as a way to reveal his thoughts towards the contemporary Soviet Government through the lives of some animals Consequently, it would be expected to provide a pool of examples for euphemism-employing translation on the purpose of research The