Similarities and differences in japanese and vietnamese business styles

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION IN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION IN THE ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF JIM

BENTON‟S LET’S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED

Supervisor: Nguyen Ngoc Ninh, M.A

Student: Duong Thi Ngoc Anh

Course: QH2010.F1.E21

HANOI – 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I: Duong Thi Ngoc Anh, 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

Duong Thi Ngoc Anh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, my sincerest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Ngoc Ninh for her wholehearted encouragement and support during the last several months The graduation paper cannot be completed without her

Secondly, I would like to express my thanks to my classmates, class QH2010.F1.E21, for their advice and encouragement when I was really under pressure

Thirdly, gratefulness and love are sent to my mother From the bottom of my heart, I owe her for all the things she has done for me

Lastly, I send my thanks to the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education and all the teachers in the division of Translation and Interpreting for supporting students for the last four years

ABSTRACT

‗Domestication‘ and/or ‗foreignization‘ plays a critical role in translation and it depends on the translator‘s choice about whether and to what extent they are employed

in any translation In light of Venuti‘s theory on ‗domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘,

‗Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ written by Jim Benton and its translation by

Phong Linh were chosen for analysis Combining three models by Peter Newmark, Espindola, and Aixela, and the researcher‘s categories, instances of culture-specific items, wordplay, and syllables from the translation were extracted for analysis by comparison and contrast, and expert consultation The frequency of domestication and foreignization was also discussed The study found out that foreignization was much more predominant than domestication Of 45 instances, there are only 8 domesticated instances Only common expressions were more domesticated than foreignized Foreignization seems more advantageous than domestication in the current context when the target readers are more capable of English and the information-searching demand is explosive

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Significance of the study 5

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Foreignization and domestication 6

2.1.1 Definitions of domestication and foreignization - enuti‟s theor 6

2.1.2 Studies on domestication and foreignization 9

2.1.3 Domestication or foreignization 10

2.2 Culture-specific items 12

2.2.1 Definition of culture-specific items 12

2.2.2 Categories 13

2.3 Linguistic aspects 17

2.3.1 Wordplay 17

2.3.2 haracteristics of English and ietnamese languages‟ s llables 18

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 The reasons to choose the book „Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ 21

3.2 The book „Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ 21

3.3 The readership of „Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ 22

3.4 Data analysis methods and procedures 23

3.4.1 Coding 23

3.4.2 Grouping 23

3.4.3 Analyzing 23

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Culture-specific items 25

4.1.1 Proper names and nicknames 25

4.1.2 Common expressions……… 31

4.2 Linguistic aspects 32

4.2.1 Wordplay 32

4.2.2 Syllables 34

4.4 Quantitative discussion 35

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS 39

5.1 Major findings and implications 39

5.2 Limitations 39

5.3 Recommendation for further research 40

REFERENCES 41

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page

Table 2 Categories proposed by Espindola (as cited in Matielo) 14-15 Table 3 Categories proposed by Aixela (as cited in Brasiene 2013) 15-16

Figure 3 Domestication and foreignization in culture-specific items 37

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter explains why domestication and foreignization are chosen for the present study Aims of the study are presented as the destination to reach The two research questions, the scope and significance of the study are also provided

1.1 Rationale of the study

Literary translations have recently received huge attention from Vietnamese

readers with notable works including ‗Da Vinci Code’ ( t Da Vinci) translated

by Do Thu Ha, ‗La carte et le territoire’ (B n v ng t) translated by Cao Viet Dung, ‘The Things They Carried’ (Nh ng Th H ang) translated by Tran Tien Cao Dang and ‘The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring’ ( o n H Nh n)

translated by Dang Tran Viet, Nguyen Thi Thu Yen, and An Ly Discussions were generated surrounding translation errors, translation equivalence, and the ―degree‖ of these translations ―Degree‖ here refers to how much a translator should follow the original

The two most recent and heated debates are about the ―degree‖ of the

translations of ‗The Things They Carried’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship

of the Ring’ ―The dumb cooze never writes back‖ in ‗The Things They Carried’ is the

most controversial sentence The translator Tran Tien Cao Dang faithfully translated into ―Con m t l** ngu ** bao gi tr l i‖, which encountered huge objection from Vietnamese readers for its obscenity Nguyen (2013), a Vietnamese modern poet, claimed that no matter how exactly the sentence was translated, Vietnamese readers would never accept that because it would not be regarded as literature in Vietnamese culture

Besides, the translation of characters‘ names in ‘The Lord of the Rings: the

Fellowship of the Ring’ has also raised a heated discussion Thu (2013) wrote:

Vietnamese readers got accessed to the movie first and got familiar with the English names before the publication of ― o n H Nh n‖, so discussion is inevitable That ―Proudfoot‖ is translated into ―B n Ch n

O ch‖, ―Dady TwoFoot‖ into ―B Hai Ch n‖, or ―Paddifoot‖ into ―Ch n

p B n‖ is said to be awkward and meaningless

In this case, Vietnamese readers do not appreciate the translation of proper names although they might read more easily in Vietnamese There are two flows of opinion, one from the readers, the other from the translators and scholars The readers of the book apposed that names of the characters should not be translated They think that translating makes the translation far less interesting than the original book Mr Minh Tuan, a lecturer at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said that for instance, that ―Proudfoots‖ was translated into ―B n Ch n O ch‖ and ―Proudfeet‖ was translated into ― i Ch n O ch‖ made him understand nothing about the wordplay of these two words in the original Domestication was not good all the time (Thu, 2013)

In contrast, the translators of the book said that it was required by the author and many scholars said that the readers could feel the translation better An Ly, one of

the three translators of ‗The Fellowship of the Ring’ claimed that if English names

were kept the same, Vietnamese readers, especially those who were not good enough

in English could not clearly understand the original Translating the names was aimed

to help Vietnamese readers to have a more appropriate assess and convey the author‘s intention (Thu, 2013)

From the two examples, it can be seen that being faithful to the original work or being friendly with the target readers is opposed by the target readers of the two books, which excites the researchers to carry out a study on this translation issue

In addition, many translators have raised their voices after many discussions on literary translations One seminar on translation in publishing was held by Nha Nam Publishing House and French Cultural Center Many eminent translators agreed with the idea of the professional translator Le Hong Sam on the ―degree‖ of translation that

―[t]ranslation is a faithful duty that needs creativity‖, which means translators should follow the original work but need to be flexible because ―the boundary between the sacredness, honor, and humor is delicate, each translator needs to clearly determine his

or her own approach of ‗degree‘‖ The translator Trinh Lu contributed that formerly, translators used to ―domesticate‖ names of persons and landscapes in order for the target readers to read more easily but now with the readers‘ increase of awareness and qualification, being faithful to the original is inclined to dominate (Anh, 2013)

Translator Luong Viet Dung agreed with Trinh Lu that in the beginning of Vietnamese translation, the popularly used strategy was adaption, even foreign names were domesticated so that Vietnamese readers could remember That strategy was suitable with the readers at that time Gradually, it has changed to adoption – stick to the original (Ly, 2013) Adaption means ―the process of changing something, for example your behavior, to suit a new situation‖ (Hornby 2010, p.16) Accordingly, adaption in translation means changing foreign elements like foreign names into Vietnamese so that Vietnamese readers do not feel strangeness in the translation Conversely, adoption means accepting foreign elements or sticking to the original

The above discussion is related to an aspect of translation studies which is domestication and foreignization The former is similar to adaption and the latter resembles adoption According to Trinh Lu and Luong Viet Dung, domestication is currently less being used instead of foreignization; however, there are no systematic studies to prove it They also do not point out how foreignization and domestication are presented Studies on domestication and foreignization are mainly in translations from English into other languages rather than Vietnamese or vice versa These studies only mainly focus on culture-specific items Therefore, the researcher would like to

conduct a study named “Domestication and foreignization in the

ietnamese translation of Jim Benton‟s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” to

discover more profoundly in this aspect

The work chosen to be investigated is the translation of ‗Let’s Pretend This

Never Happened’ by Jim Benton The first reason is that the translation is recently

translated in 2009, which can represent the trend of the translating profession to some extent The second reason is that the translation is very popular and gets much

attention from the readers who are interested in not only the contents but also the translating aspect The third reason is the translator of the work, Phong Linh, is the professional one in the translating village of Vietnam

1.2 Aims of the study

This major aim of the present study is to analyze the culture-specific items,

wordplay and syllables of ‗Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’ in the Dear Dumb

Diary series to find out how foreignization and domestication are presented and which

translation strategy, domestication and foreignization, is more predominant This study

is not aimed to judge the translation but only commenting on the instances of domestication and foreignization

1.3 Research questions

The present study seeks answers to the following questions:

Question 1: What kind of language items were foreignized or domesticated in the translation of ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’?

Question 2: Which strategy, domestication or foreignization, is more predominant in the translation of ‘Let’s Pretend This Never Happened’?

1.4 Scope of the study

This is a small case study to deeply investigate the instances of domestication

and foreignization in the English-Vietnamese translation of ‗Let’s Pretend This Never

Happened’ by translator Phong Linh This book is the first book of the Dear Dumb Diary series by Jim Benton The first nine books have been translated into Vietnamese

so far; however, the researcher only takes the first into consideration because this is a qualitative research of which the effort was made to investigate the issue with depth and thoroughness The researcher does not count the number of domestication and foreignization instances to make generalizations about trends Instead, in-depth analysis is carried out on each instance of domestication and foreignization related to culture-specific items, wordplay, and syllables to answer the two research questions

1.5 Significance of the study

Firstly, this study is hoped to provide a clearer view on foregnization and domestication in English to Vietnamese translations It does not stop at defining what they are but also specifically analyzes the instances so that people of interest can learn

or use as a source of reference

Secondly, this study can be a source of materials for teaching and learning about domestication and foreignization theories in the subject of Translation Studies II for interpreting and translating students and teachers of translation in the Faculty of English Language Teaching Education Students can find useful analysis of instances

of domestication and foreignization in this study Moreover, teachers may also find some theories useful for their teaching

Thirdly, translators can find a way to deal with domestication and foreignization in certain cases as the instances appearing in the studied translation can

be found in other books or materials

Finally, this study plays a role as an initial study on domestication and foreignization in English to Vietnamese translations It is hoped that this study would intrigue other researchers to spend their time and effort taking more investigation into this aspect so that it can be further accomplished

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview on Venuti‘s point of view of domestication and foreignization Some studies on domestication and foreignization are presented to review what has been discussed and generate ideas for the present study Culture-specific items, wordplay and syllables are selected for analysis The definitions, characteristics and categories are discussed to form a ground for the later findings and discussion

2.1 Domestication and foreignization

2.1.1 Definitions of domestication and foreignization

The terms ‗foreignization‘ and ‗domestication‘ could be traced back with Goethe (as cited in Venuti 1995, p 104):

There are two maxims in translation: one requires that the author of a foreign nation be brought across to us in such a way that we can look on him as ours; the other requires that we should go across to what is foreign and adapt ourselves to its conditions, its use of language, its peculiarities

The first idea is about ‗domestication‘ when the author is brought across to the target culture The latter idea is about ‗foreignization‘ which requires the target readers to go across to adapt to the author‘s environment

However, the idea of ‗foreignization‘ and ‗domestication‘ is more well-known with the theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher When mentioning the choices that a translator can make, Schleiermacher (as cited in Venuti 1995, p 20) stated that:

There are only two Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader toward him Or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author toward him With this definition, the translator has two choices One is that the translator can keep the original as much as possible, forcing the target readers to feel foreign flavors, which means he is using foreignization strategy; or he can domesticate the original so that the target readers can be more relaxed to read the translation, which means he is

using domestication strategy It seems that domestication and foreignization formulate two sides in which the translator acts as a mediator sitting on the fence to reconcile the easy readability with the presence of the author‘s culture It is hard for the translator to sit firmly on the fence, he either leans over this side or the other In his definition, Schleiermacher also points out that there is no absolute domestication or foreignization, the translator can only move ―as much as possible‖ to satisfy one side

Compared to Goethe‘s definition, Schleiermacher‘s seems less specific in terms

of foreignization when it mentions the source culture‘s conditions, the use of SL, and the peculiarities Yet, these criteria are still obscure in details

‗Domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘ are then strongly developed by Venuti

with ‗The Translator’s Invisibility’ first published in 1995 Venuti (1995, p.14) described the invisibility of the translators in contemporary Anglo-American culture:

A translated text, whether prose or poetry, fiction or nonfiction, is judged acceptable by most publishers, reviewers, and readers when it reads fluently, when the absence of any linguistic or stylistic peculiarities makes it seem transparent, giving the appearance that it reflects the foreign writer‘s personality or intention or the essential meaning of the foreign text—the appearance, in other words, that the translation is not in fact a translation, but the ‗original‘

Domestication makes the translator invisible because the target readers perceive the translation as the original The translation in this situation is so transparent that there is

no sign of foreignness and the readers pay no attention to the appearance of the translator as Norman Shapiro (as cited in Venuti 1995, p 1) claimed:

A good translation is like a pane of glass You only notice that it‘s there when there are little imperfections-scratches, bubbles Ideally, there shouldn‘t be any It should never call attention to itself

‗Imperfections‘ here means the foreign elements in the translation The English readers cannot realize a translation because it is too fluent in their language

However, that is not Venuti‘s definition of domestication He did not coin out exactly the definition of ‗domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘; he only stated that ―the more fluent the translation, the more invisible the translator, and, presumably, the

more visible the writer or meaning of the foreign text‖ (Venuti 1995, p 2) and

―foreignizing translation signifies the difference of the foreign text,‖ (Venuti 1995, p 20) At this point, he agreed with Schleiermacher that there is no absolute domestication or foreignization A more domesticated translation means a more fluent one read by the target readers A more foreignized translation is composed of more foreignness Venuti (2012, p 105) also pointed out his opinion of domestication and foreignization:

The terms ―domestication‖ and ―foreignization‖ do not establish a neat binary apposition that can simply be superimposed on ―fluent‖ or

―resistant‖ discursive strategies […] Both sets of terms demarcate a spectrum of textual and cultural effects that depend for their description and evaluation on the relation between a translation project and the hierarchical arrangement values in the receiving situation at a particular historical moment

‗Domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘ form a spectrum of effects, which means a domesticated instance may still reserve some foreign flavor or vice versa

For example, there is a conversation on the road between a nephew and his uncle:

Nephew: - Good morning, Jason!

does not require an answer; it is a kind of Vietnamese greeting Version 1 also can be considered domesticated as it adds ‗ch ‘ before ‗Jason‘ and ‗hi‘ is translated into ‗ch o

ch u‘ instead of ‗ch o‘ only Most importantly, the reason version 1 is more foreignized is version 1 keeps the form of English greeting Vietnamese readers can feel the difference or the foreign flavor here

It can be concluded that domestication is a translation strategy in which the translator makes the translation as much fluent and transparent as possible, which help the target readers enjoy the translated work at ease Meanwhile, foreignization means retaining something foreign in the target text, making the target readers to feel that foreignness

The problem in defining ‗domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘ is that there are

no criteria for determining what can be foreignized and what can be domesticated Tymoczko (as cited in Myskja, p 7) criticized Venuti‘s concepts that ―necessary and sufficient criteria for foreignization are never established ‖ Based on the definition and discussion, the researcher decides to focus on culture-specific items, wordplay, and syllables that can conjure up the difference and make the translator to choose between

‗domestication‘ and ‗foreignization‘

2.1.2 Studies on domestication and foreignization

Many studies on domestication and foreignization have been carried out; however, they mostly research on the translations from English into other languages or vice versa Some major studies will be presented to show what they are about

The first is A Diachronic Study of Domestication and Foreignization Strategies

of Culture-Specific Items in English-Persian Translations of Six of Hemingway’s Works by Esamail Zare-Behtash and Sepideh Firoozkoohi This study was conducted

on the translation of six of Hemingway‘s works over the period of 1950s and 2000s The study found out that domestication was pervasive during that time

Another study is Domestication and Foreignization: An Analysis of

Culture-Specific Items in Official and Non-Official Subtitles of the TV Series Heros by Rafael

Matielo and Elaine B Espindola This study was carried out in the translation of subtitles from English to Portuguese The result was that foreignization was used more frequently than domestication

One more study is A Comparative Study of Translation Strategies Applied in

Dealing with Culture-Specific Items of Romance Novels before and after the Islamic Revolution of Iran by Mansoor Fahim and Zaha Mazaheri This study analyzed the

culture-specific items of the translations from English to Persian It found out that before the Revolution, foreignization was dominant and vice versa domestication was more prevalent after the revolution

Many other studies are on this issue like Domestication and Foreignization? A

Comparative Study on Three Translation of Wenxin Diaolong by GaoHan, which

focused on title, key terms, rhetorics, and grammatical features Foreignization and

Domestication in the Croatian translations of Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray by Goran Schmidt, which analyzed culture-specific items and syntax Or Tension between Domestication and Foreignization in English-language Translations of Anna Karenina by Maya Birdwood-Hedger, which analyzed culture-specific aspects with a

variety of variables like cultural lacunas, culture-specific gestures, participles and gerunds, idioms, non-equivalence of semantic fields, words denoting measures, names, personal pronouns, word order, puns

It can be seen that most of the studies work on culture-specific items Some work on other aspects in grammar, syntax Like those studies, the present study also analyzes culture-specific items Besides, the researcher takes wordplay and syllables into consideration

2.1.3 Domestication or foreignization

Right in the definitions, the strengths of the two strategies are revealed Domestication brings the author to the target reader, which means the reader does not have much work to do except for enjoying the translation because it is transparent and fluent Nonetheless, the target readers do not have a chance to get access to new

cultures and languages In contrast to the targets‘ relaxation, translators are under pressure to produce a fluent translation They need to manage in their capacity of mother tongue to accomplish their mission; then the target language can be fully mobilized

On the other hand, Lefevere (1992, p 68) stated that:

Languages benefit greatly if skillful translators dare to give some foreign figure of speech or style to their nation, as long as it does not deviate too much from that nation‘s customs and general way of life They can also imitate the language of the original, using it as a kind of matrix, and invent or construct new well-formed words to enrich the language they translate into

Languages are different from each other Accordingly, when foreignization brings some foreign elements to the translation and the target readers accept them and apply them appropriately, then the target language will be more diverse However, Lefevere mentions ―not deviate too much‖, which benefits the target language It can be inferred that if the target language is deviated too much, it will be challenged In the context of Vietnam, the reduction of Vietnamese language purity is raising a heated discussion English is used everywhere, Vietnamese newspapers have recently discussed the purity reduction of Vietnamese language with the invasion of foreign languages, especially English Minh (2013) claimed that English is used in everyday activities like ‗ok‘, ‗no‘, ‗yes‘ or even the English words having the equivalence in Vietnamese like showbiz, gameshow, rocker, scandal, stress, etc

Schleiermacher (as cited in Venuti 1995) also commented on the foreignizing translation strategy that:

A foreignizing translation strategy can be useful in building a national culture, forging a foreign-based cultural identity for a linguistic community about to achieve political autonomy, it can also undermine any concept of nation by challenging cultural canons, disciplinary boundaries, and national values in the target language

He only mentioned the possibility, not an assertion, that the foreignizing translation strategy can be beneficial or harmful If challenges can be overcome, the target

language will benefit from the foreign flavors or the linguistic and cultural differences

in the translation

‗Domestication‘ or ‗foreignization‘ has its own advantages and disadvantages and translators play a vital role in choosing one of them However, the translator has to think of his readers as one of the most important factors to the success of a translation

as Koskinen (2000, p 67) pointed out that ―audience expectations and the constraints set by the receiving culture play an important role in the decisions of domestication or foreignization ‖

Foreignization is more frequently used instead of domestication as Venuti (1995, p 20) argued that foreignization is ―highly desirable today, a strategic cultural intervention in the current state of world affairs, pitched against the hegemonic English-language nations and the unequal cultural exchanges ‖ In Vietnam, two eminent translators, Trinh Lu and Luong Viet Dung, also support this idea as mentioned in the rationale This does not mean foreignization is dominant to domestication The strengths and weaknesses are discussed above

2.2 Culture-specific items

One of the most difficult challenges a translator has to face is culture-specific items because of the cultural differences presented in such items When it comes to cultures, the translator has two options, foreignization or domestication, to transfer the meaning of the items

2.2.1 Definition of culture-specific items

Newmark (1988) called CSIs cultural words He distinguished cultural words from universal ones Universals are considered having ―no translation problem‖; meanwhile, cultural words involve ―a translation problem unless there is cultural overlap between the SL and the TL (and its readership)‖ (Newmark 1988, p 94)

‗Die‘, ‗live‘, ‗star‘, ‗swim‘ and almost ubiquitous artefacts are classified into universals These words can be easily translated into any language ‗Dacha‘ is taken as

an example of a cultural word In Vietnamese, ‗dacha‘ is kept the same as dacha with

some explanation Dacha is a kind of house in the suburbs of Russia This kind of house does not exist in Vietnam Originally, dacha was granted to the Russian persons who had contributions to the nation At that time, dacha meant ‗a granted land‘ Now, many Russian people have dacha as their second home ‗Dacha‘ can literally be translated into ‗nh ngo i ‘ so that Vietnamese readers can understand the superficial meaning However, ‗nh ngo i ‘ in Vietnam are not a second home to a family; they belong to the persons who live in the suburb as their first house Dacha encounters translation problem, so it is called a cultural word according to Newmark‘s definition

Culture-specific items are also defined as ―cultural identities which do not have direct equivalents in another culture,‖ (Halloran, as cited in Fahim & Mazaheri 2013)

Or Nord (as cited in Fahim & Mazaheri 2013) defines CSIs (he called them culturemes) as ―a cultural phenomenon that is present in culture X but not present (in the same way) in culture Y ‖ CSIs are also termed by Aixelá (as cited in Fahim & Mazaheri 2013) as follows:

Those textually actualized items whose function and connotation in a source text involve a translation problem in their transference to a target text, whenever this problem is a product of the nonexistence of the referred item or of its different intertextual status in the cultural system

of the readers of the target text

All the definitions agree that there is no direct equivalence of a CSI in the target language and translation problems are unavoidable That is why the translator needs to handle with these items The translator can make them understandable to the target readers or leave them alone and make the readers see the differences in the target language In other words, the translator can choose to foreignize or domesticate CSIs

to move the author to the reader or vice versa move the reader to the author

2.2.2 Categories

Many categories are proposed, the researcher chooses the categories of three prestigious translation researchers who are influential in the translation world

Table 1 Categories proposed by Peter Newmark (1988)

(1) Ecology Flora, fauna, winds, plains, hills

(2) Material culture (artefacts) Food, clothes, houses and towns, transport

(3) Social culture – work and leisure Reggae, rock

(4) Organizations, customs,

activities, procedures, concepts

Political and administrative, religious artistic

(5) Gestures and habits Cock a snook, spitting

These are some categories offered by Newmark (1988, p 95) He said that they were some, which means not all categories are presented Newmark (1988, p 96) suggested ―two translation procedures which are at opposite ends of the scale‖ to deal with CSIs The first way is transference, which means keeping CSIs as the original without any change; the second way is utilizing componential analysis, transference combined with ―an appropriate descriptive-functional equivalent,‖ (Newmark 1988, p 96) Regarding domestication and foreignization, choosing transference means the translator highly foreignizes CSIs because ―it emphasizes the culture and excludes the message‖; in the meantime, choosing componential analysis means less foreignization because it is ―based on a component common to the SL and the TL‖ and ― has not the pragmatic impact of the original,‖ (Newmark 1988, p 96)

Espindola (as cited in Matielo) also proposed 10 categories of CSIs presented in

the below table

Table 2 Categories proposed by Espindola (as cited in Matielo n.d.)

(1) Toponyms a place name, a geographical name, a proper name of locality,

region, or some other part of the Earth‘s surface or its natural or artificial feature;

(2) Anthroponyms ordinary and famous peoples‘ names and nicknames and names

referring to regional background which acquire identification status;

(3) Forms of

entertainment

amusement or diversion including public performances or shows,

it also encompasses hospitality provided, such as dinners, parties, business lunches;

something special which marks a religious occasion;

This classification seems more specific than Newmark‘s One difference is that

it mentions toponyms (place names) and anthroponyms (people‘s names), which are only two types of proper names Newmark‘s categories do not cover proper names Names of schools, religions, characters… are similar to other proper names in translation problems Therefore, these two classifications need a reconciliation, which

leads to the following classification by Aixela Aixela (as cited in Brasiene 2013)

classified CSIs into two categories which are proper names and common expressions

Table 3 Categories proposed by Aixela (as cited in Brasiene 2013)

Proper names include both conventional names that do not have any meaning in

themselves and names that are loaded with certain historical and cultural associations

Common

expressions

cover the world of objects, institutions, habits and opinions restricted to each culture, which cannot be included in the field of proper names

Grenz (2005, p 274) claimed that ―a proper name is an unmeaning mark which

we connect in our minds with the idea of the subject, in order that whenever the mark meets our eyes or occurs to our thoughts, we may think of that individual object ‖ According to Simmons (1997), a proper name has two distinctive features: (1) it will name a specific item, (2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in

a sentence Proper names are restricted to cultures They are normally not translated because they ―do not require translation into another language,‖ (Vendler, as cited in Ghadi 2010) English and Vietnamese names are totally different Any Vietnamese people who can read are able to differentiate English names from Vietnamese ones English names are not pronounced in the same way of written form, so English-Vietnamese translators used to familiarize them by transcribing the pronunciation so that Vietnamese reader could at least read those names like Lu n n, M txcơva The situation has changed when English names are often kept as the original The

following part is going to discover how the translator of ‗Let’s pretend this never

happened’ deals with proper names

According to Aixela as cited in Brasiene 2013, common expressions are excluded from proper names Common expressions also do not possess two features of proper names Not every common expression is CSIs as defined above

Based on the categories proposed by Peter Newmark, Espindola and Aixela, the present research will study on the following fields:

Proper names:

1 Names of people and nicknames

2 Names of animals

1 Food and drinks;

2 Measuring system and currencies;

3 Scholastic reference;

2.3 Linguistic aspects

Besides cultures, languages themselves also contain so many problems in translating because languages are different from one another The translator has to be careful selecting appropriate words for the translation

2.3.1 Wordplay

2.3.1.1 Definition

There are many definitions of wordplay Chiaro (as cited in Vandaele n.d.) defined ―the term wordplay includes every conceivable way in which a language is used with the intent to amuse ‖ This definition is too broad Readers only can see the purpose of wordplay is to amuse

Delabastina (as cited in Vandaele n.d.) defined wordplay as follow:

Wordplay is the general name for the various textual phenomena in which structural features of the language(s) are exploited in order to bring out a communicatively significant confrontation of two (or more) linguistic structures with more or less similar forms and more or less different meanings

He also claimed that whether serious or comical, wordplay creates linguistic problems of translatability because different languages have different meaning-form distributions and a structural and typological dissimilarity of SL and TL increases the

linguistic untranslatability of puns This definition is more specific and will be used for this study

For the fact that wordplay is also a problem of translation, the researcher will study on the translation strategies, specifically foreignization and domestication, applied to deal with this phenomenon

2.3.1.2 Category

As stated in the definition part, the definition by Dirk Delabasstia is chosen, his category of wordplay is also used Three types of wordplay are used in the present research are homonymy, homophony, homography These three types present

―linguistic structures with different meanings on the basis of their formal similarity‖ (Delabastia, as cited in Vandaele n.d.)

Homonymy refers to words pronounced and written in the same way but with different meanings For example, ‗can‘ has two meanings, a container and the ability

to do something

Homophony includes words are identical in pronunciation but different in spelling For example, ‗air‘ and ‗heir‘ have the same sound but are different in spelling

Homography means words are identical in spelling but different in pronunciation For example, ‗wind‘ means a current of air and ‗wind‘ means empowering a clock

2.3.2 Characteristics of English and ietnamese languages‟ s llables

If culture-specific items care about culture, this part will take the linguistic differences into consideration, particularly the syllables of English and Vietnamese

2.3.2.1 Vietnamese syllables

Wollacott (2014) said that ―Vietnamese is basically a monosyllabic language having six tones A monosyllabic language is a language that mostly consists of words with a single sound to them Such languages can have a wide number of monosyllabic words, but often use different tones in order to produce a wider variety of sounds