Some common strategies to deal with non equivalence in the translation of vietnamese traditional costumes

Abstract The research examines and offers strategies to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes.. Strategies to deal with non-equivalence in the t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

of Vietnamese traditional costumes

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of bachelor of arts (TEFL)

Hanoi, May, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

of Vietnamese traditional costumes

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of bachelor of arts (TEFL)

supervisor: Mr NGUYỄN THÀNH VÂN

Hanoi, May, 2011

I hereby state that I: Phạm Thị Hà Chuyên, a student of class 07.1.E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

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

Supervisor

Hanoi, May the 4th, 2011

Acknowledgements

I owe a profound debt to many people for their invaluable help during the conduct of my research

Firstly, I would like to express deepest gratitude to my supervisor

Mr Nguyen Thanh Van for his support, helpful guidance, materials and considerable encouragement which are significant factors in the completion of the study

As well, I would like send my sincere thanks to the lecturers in Vietnam National University Hanoi, University of Languages and International Studies, especially lecturers in Translating and Interpreting Division for their lectures, instructions and their useful suggestions that have effectively contributed to my research and supported me to overcome enormous obstacles

In addition, words of thanks go to my classmates who gave me initial ideas about the chosen topic

Also, I am deeply indebted to my family for their constant encouragement and financial support during the time

Last but not least, I owe a great deal of gratitude to readers who take interest in and make useful comments on this research

Abstract

The research examines and offers strategies to deal with non-equivalence

in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes The study is conducted to find out effective strategies to help translators in general and those who translate Vietnamese traditional costumes in particular

To obtain the intended goal, the samples are mostly collected from the translation of the book “Trang phục cổ truyền các dân tộc Việt Nam” by Ngô Đức Thịnh and the translation of the book “Trang phục Việt Nam qua các thời đại” by Đoàn Thị Tình Through the collection and analysis

of the samples, the research introduced the strategies available for dealing with the stated problem Each strategy is presented with typical examples to facilitate reader’s comprehension Additionally, the author

of this graduation paper also makes a list of samples and their translations as a source of reference for those who are interested

Table of contents

Acknowledgements……….i

Abstract……… ii

Table of contents……… iii

List of tables and figures……… v

List of abbreviations……… vi

Chapter 1: Introduction 10

I.1 Rationale 10

I.2 Aims and objectives 11

I.3 Significance of the study 12

I.4 Scope of the study 12

I.5 An overview of the rest of the paper 13

Chapter 2: Literature Review 15

II.1 Definition of key terms 15

II.1.1 Translation equivalence and non-equivalence 15

II.1.1.1 Translation equivalence 15

II.1.1.2 The issue of non-equivalence at word level 18

II.1.1.3 Strategies used by professional translators 29

II.1.2 Translation procedure……….28

II.1.2 Traditional costumes of Vietnam 31

II.2 Related studies 32

Chapter 3: Methodology 35

III.1 Sampling 35

III.2 Data analysis procedures 36

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion 38

I Research question 1 38

1.1 Strategies to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes 38

1.2 Procedures to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes 53

II Research question 2 54

2.1 The most common strategies for the problem 54

2.2 The most common procedures for the problem 56

Chapter 5: Conclusion 50

I Major Findings of the study 50

II Limitations of the study 51

III Suggestions for further studies 52

REFERENCE

APPENDIX

List of tables and figures

Table 1: Frequency of strategies used to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes………45

Figure 1: Frequency of strategies used to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes……….46

Table 2: Frequency of strategies used to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes……….47

Figure 2: Frequency of procedures used to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes………48

List of abbreviations

LDOCE: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

OALD: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

CALD: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Online dictionary: OLDict

SL: Source Language

ST: Source Text

TL: Target Language

TT: Target Text

Chapter 1

Introduction

In this chapter, the rationale as well as the aims and the objectives of the study are stated Moreover, the methods and design of the thesis are also identified

I.1 Rationale

Translation has a long history and has played an important role in the development of the human race In our modern world, the increasing globalization has made translation more vital to the multilateral exchanges among countries It is regarded as the bridge for different cultures in the world However, translation which has never been an effortless task requires profound knowledge because not only the language proficiency but also the culture understanding are needed in the translation process

According to Catford (1965: 20), translation is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language It is often said that the ultimate purpose of translation should

be to achieve an “equivalent effect” (Bekku, 1975: 90; Newmark, 1988: 48)

However, finding the nearest equivalent in the TL is not easy as a result of cultural differences Hence, translation equivalence has long been a central topic of translation studies

In addition, culture, a barrier for the translator to cross includes many aspects Costume is a very typical element as it reflects the most visible sign of a society namely living conditions, customs, tastes, lifestyles, etc Different cultures have different costumes Hence, translating the names of traditional costumes is very challenging Specifically, for Vietnamese - English translation, most of traditional costumes of Vietnam are unique Consequently, it is hard to find a one-to-one equivalent in the target language

Therefore, when dealing with non-equivalence relating to traditional costumes of Vietnam, translators have to spend a lot of time and efforts finding a suitable translation The author of this thesis did get

a lot of trouble in translating names of some traditional costumes of Vietnam Moreover, translating traditional costumes of Vietnam has been what she wants to explore This state has stimulated her to conduct

a study to find out some common strategies to deal with

non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes This

study is a serious attempt to find out the solutions used for the translation

of non-equivalence in the Vietnamese costumes Subsequently, through comparison and research of other materials, the most common and possibly most effective strategies for this problem will be determined

I.2 Aims and objectives

First, the study aims to find out the methods employed by experienced translators for the stated problem Afterwards, the most common and effective strategies will be analyzed and attested In short, the objective of the study is to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the possible measures for non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese costumes?

2 What are in general the most common and effective strategies for the problem?

I.3 Significance of the study

The research wishes to be one of the first studies about translation

of non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese costumes - a challenge for many translators Therefore, it might be of great use for translators, students, interested people as well as other researchers

To be more specific, through this paper, the ways to deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes will be made known to the interested people, who need some reference for the translation Moreover, readers will hopefully have a better understanding of Vietnam’s traditional costumes Last but not least, researchers who share the same interest will find helpful information from this initial research to conduct further studies into this relatively unexplored area

I.4 Scope of the study

As can be seen in the title, the research is not going to investigate the translation of all the costumes of Vietnam but only the traditional ones Besides, the author of this research would like to emphasize the translation of non-equivalence relating to Vietnamese traditional costumes

As well, it should be clearly stated that the study only focuses on the non-equivalence at word level as distinct from others

Finally, it should be noted that the samples for the study are mainly taken from the translation of the book “Trang phục cổ truyền các dân tộc Việt Nam” by Ngô Đức Thịnh The translators are Jared Williams Hiền

and Phạm Thu Giang Moreover, the book “Trang phục Việt Nam qua các thời đại” by Đoàn Thị Tình which was translated into English by Trịnh Hồng Hạnh is also taken as one of the main research objects

I.5 An overview of the rest of the paper

The author of this thesis is going to clarify the problem of equivalence at word level and find out the strategies to deal with them in general and with non-equivalence in the translation of traditional costumes of Vietnam in particular

non-Chapter one opens the research with rationale, aims, scope,

significance and organization of the whole study

Chapter two continues the study with the introduction of some key

terms like translation equivalence and non-equivalence and Vietnamese traditional costumes To be more specific, the definitions about translation equivalence, problems and some studies of non-equivalence are referred to in this chapter Additionally, the concept of Vietnamese traditional costumes is also mentioned Furthermore, some studies on traditional costumes of peoples all around the world are also acknowledged

The thesis is continued with chapter three which is on the

methodology of the research In this chapter, the data collection procedure and data analysis are identified The collected samples are analyzed by the confirmation of the strategies used by professional translators for the interpretation of Vietnamese traditional costumes Then the author of this thesis will collect information needed to analyze, compare and contrast to find out the most common and effective ways to

deal with non-equivalence in the translation of Vietnamese traditional costumes

Findings and discussion of the study are declared in chapter four

in which the anticipated results are confirmed

Last but not least, chapter five - the conclusion chapter - gives

readers an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the research More than that, some suggestions and comments from the author of this thesis for further studies are also discussed in this chapter

Summary

This chapter serves to introduce and help the readers to follow the research more easily with five main points These include the rationale, the aims, the objectives, the methodology, the scope and the design of the study Generally speaking, these elaborations have not only justified the major contents and structure of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper

Chapter 2

Literature Review

An overview of translation, translation equivalence and traditional costumes of Vietnam will be introduced in this chapter Therefore, this chapter will offer the definitions of the terms Besides, a general view of related studies will also be presented

II.1 Definition of key terms

At the sight of the topic, readers may wonder what are meant by

translation non-equivalence and traditional costumes of Vietnam

Therefore, general knowledge of these core terms should be presented in

the definition section

II.1.1 Translation equivalence and non-equivalence

II.1.1.1 Translation equivalence

As stated earlier, translation plays a dominant role in the exchanging activities of people all around the world Furthermore, it requires translators to use not only languages but also cultural background Hence, translation is such a complicated process and goes far beyond the replacement of one word in the TL for another word in the SL

To explain, languages do not always share the same concepts in terms of both denotative and connotative meaning as the result of the

differences in all fields It is widely believed that no two languages are the same

Consequently, the simple replacement in translation process may not satisfy the requirements To be more specific, translation is a process

of finding a TL equivalent for an SL utterance (Pinhuhuck, 1977:38) Consequently, a significant task of the translator is to find out satisfactory equivalents in the TL to replace the SL text Newmark maintained that “the ultimate purpose of translation should be to achieve

an “equivalent effect”” (Newmark, 1988: 48)

For the importance of appropriate equivalence in the translation process, different scholars have given numerous definitions on translation equivalence

Halverson defined equivalence as “the relationship existing between two entities, and the relationship is described as one of similarity in terms of any of a number of potential qualities.”

Halverson (1997) Catford (1965) states that “Translation equivalence occurs when

an SL (source language) and a TL (target language) texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance.”

In addition, he also shares “the central problem of translation practice is that of finding TL equivalents and the central task of translation theory is therefore that of defining the nature and conditions

of translation equivalence” (Catford 1965: 21)

In summary, from the viewpoint of this paper’s author, translation equivalence can be understood as the relationship between two entities

Once equivalence is achieved, the translation can be considered as successful as it can convey the meaning of the ST appropriately and bring about the expected effects on reader

There is a large body of theories on translation equivalence with different approaches Some of the most popular ones are Quantitative equivalence, Function-based equivalence by Nida and Taber, Meaning-based equivalence by Koller and Form-based equivalence by Mona Baker These theories are the most widely supported and appreciated categorizations in the world In this graduation paper, as the result of a constraint on time and research scope, only one non-equivalence theory,

by Mona Baker, is introduced to reader as the core theory

Mona Baker supposes that equivalence occurs at word, above

word, grammatical, textual and pragmatic levels In a book named In

Other Words: a Coursebook on Translation, Baker puts each level of

translation equivalence in plain words First of all, equivalence at word level is discussed The notion of word in different languages is made known to readers

Besides, equivalence above word level that includes collocation, idioms and fixed expressions is subsequently introduced Next, the problem at word and above word level is presented Then Baker also suggests some common strategies to cope with the problems identified Third, grammatical equivalence that is about the variety in grammatical rules among languages is affirmed Different languages have their own unique grammatical rules namely number, gender, person, tense, aspect, voice, etc These differences may cause changes in the way the information is carried across

Fourth, textual equivalence is the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in terms of information and cohesion If the cohesive relations between TL and SL should be maintained depends on: the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type Last, pragmatic equivalence is achieved when translator can work out implied meanings in order to get the message in the ST across to the SL readers

In other words, pragmatic equivalence reproduces the author's intention into the TL in such a way that enables the target reader to understand it clearly without any cultural miscomprehension

This is the general knowledge of the central theory for the thesis The next part will discuss this issue in greater details

II.1.1.2 The issue of non-equivalence at word level

Baker (1992:11) stated there is no one-to-one correspondence between words and meaning within a language or across languages One word in a language can be represented by more than one word in another

language For instance, the English word sweatshirt is transferred into Vietnamese as “áo ấm dài tay, áo lạnh tay dài or áo len chui đầu” (Lac

Viet Dictionary) Languages can differ in lexicon, and hence there are words in one language that another language has no equivalents to

Newmark (1991) said, “It is impossible to expect perfect translation equivalence between SL word and its TL correspondent” (p.100) Defined clearly, perfect translation equivalence is hard to achieve As a result, the problem of translation non-equivalence at word level comes up

“Non-equivalence at word level means that the TL has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the ST” (Baker, 1992: 20) The

writer of this thesis would like to introduce translation non-equivalence theory by Baker to readers (Baker, 1992: 21) Also, she tries to work out the examples in Vietnamese and English to make them clearer to readers

a Culture-specific concepts

A source-language concept which is totally unknown in the target language may relate to cultural differences between two corresponding nations The cultural differences between Vietnam and the UK can be taken as an illustration The two nations lay in two sides of the earth with different geographical, social conditions Consequently, there are unknown concepts between the two cultures To be more general, the Asian and European cultures carry a lot of distinctions To be in depth, the history, geography, traditional customs and even the development

of two societies engender those cultural differences

It is especially hard to translate a word that is totally non-existent

in the TL Those words are often referred to as 'culture-specific terms' Making TL readers comprehend the translation of the SL concepts that

they have never had any idea of is obviously not easy The word hen

party in English can be a typical example Hen party is a “a party for

women only happens just before one of them get married” (LDOCE) It is very popular in England but Vietnamese are absolutely unfamiliar with

that concept Consequently, problems arise when hen party is to be

translated into Vietnamese as translator may not find any suitable word to express the same meaning to reader

To be clearer, Speaker which means the person who controls the

way in which business is done in an organization which makes laws, such

as a parliament (CALD) can be taken as an illustration This position does not exist in Vietnam hence it is impossible to find an absolute equivalent

in Vietnamese As a result, problems face translators

On the other hand, Làng văn hóa which is a kind of honorary title

typically Vietnamese does not exist in the Western culture as the result

of the differences in the two society types Hence, it is a culture-specific concept and also poses problems for translators

What is more, mừng tuổi can be another compelling example for this problem Mừng tuổi is the act of giving money as a wish of good

luck for others on the first days of Lunar New year, which is only acquainted with the Asian culture including Vietnam Hence, problems also occur when translators need to render this phrase

Additionally, the concept continental breakfast is such a challenge

for English-Vietnamese translator as it is unknown in Vietnamese In

fact, a typical continental breakfast is a breakfast consisting of coffee

and bread with butter and jam (LDOCE 5) This kind of breakfast is somehow lighter compared with the full breakfast which is usually greasy with a lot of meat Vietnam does not have that kind of meal; consequently, it is impossible to find a Vietnamese equivalent for this term

In addition, Vietnamese traditional foods have a lot of examples

for this problem namely bánh trôi, bánh tét, bánh ướt, bánh bèo,bánh

bột lọc, bánh cuốn, bánh đúc, bánh gối, bún thang, bún bung, phở, chè kho, chè bà cốt, etc Furthermore, tết Hàn Thực, cây Nêu, câu Đối, tiết hạnh, nhà sàn, tủ chè are also hard to translate into other languages as

they are the Vietnamese culture-specific concepts that others may not have

b The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the target language

The expression in the SL may be known but is not lexicalized or

easily found an equivalent in the TL The word hốc in Vietnamese in the sentence Nó hốc lấy hốc để như thằng chết đói can be taken to illustrate

Hốc which means to eat impolitely cannot be translated fully into English

as the result of lacking proper equivalent Similarly, the word “tọng” in

Vietnamese is also hard to be translated into English equally and connotatively as a result of the absence of an equivalent term in the TL

In addition, the word quân tử which means a talented and

straight-forward man who has many good qualities in accordance with Confucian beliefs is also hard to be translated into English Some readers may find that it can be translated as gentleman; however, this translation does not

exactly express the meaning of quân tử as gentleman only refers to a man

who is always polite, has good manners, and treats other people well (LDOCE)

Besides, the English concept de facto relationship is not lexicalized

in Vietnamese According to Australian law, de facto relationship is the

relationship that

“people are living with a person as their partner, who is over the age of consent (applicable to the relevant state or territory) are living on a permanent or indefinite basis, are not in a prohibited relationship to whom they are not married, with whom they are not

in a registered relationship (whether of the same sex or a different sex)

(Australian Government, 2011)

In spite of understanding its meaning, the translator can hardly find the exact equivalent for the word in Vietnamese In fact, Vietnamese

has terms namely bà bé, bà nhỏ, vợ bé or even sống thử which cannot

express the full meaning the English one Although translator may

understand the meaning of de facto relationship they still cannot find the

appropriate equivalent for it

c The source-language word is semantically complex

(Bassnett 1991:15-20) stated that “the more complex semantic relations a word has the more difficult it is to find an equivalent in another language” The complex semantic relations make it hard to find

an equivalent in foreign languages

This is a common problem in translation A single word can sometimes express a more complex meaning than a whole sentence Languages automatically develop very concise forms for referring to complex concepts if they become important enough to be talked about regularly Baker (1992) stated “We do not usually realize how semantically complex a word can be until we have to translate it into a

language that does not have an equivalent for it” The word enormous in the sentence We had an enormous meal today can be taken as an instance Enormous means extremely large Vietnamese has some possible equivalents such as khổng lồ, vĩ đại, to lớn However, the sentence cannot be translated as Hôm nay chúng tôi đã có một bữa ăn

khổng lồ as it sounds unnatural enough in Vietnamese As the result,

translators have to use a group of words to express for only one word

from the ST The sentence can be transferred into Vietnamese as Hôm

nay chúng tôi đã ăn một bữa no nê

d The target language lacks a superordinate

For this problem, the TL does not have suitable general word to express the specific word in the SL To exemplify, translators may be

fraught with problem when interpreting rice from English into

Vietnamese Rice has general meaning in English while Vietnamese only

have specific words relating to rice like mạ, lúa, thóc, gạo, cốm, bỏng For this reason, when facing the word rice, translators have to base on

the particular situation to translate it appropriately

Another popular example is the word problem, which is

commonly used in English However, when translating this word into Vietnamese, interpreters have to choose among lots of relating

expressions like vấn đề, khó khăn, trở ngại, rắc rối, trục trặc, chứng,

thắc mắc Besides, it can even be translated as “chứng” in the phrase breathing problems as “chứng khó thở”

In the same way, Vietnamese also has specific words lacking general terms in English The words relating to amount can exemplify

this problem Specifically, the word đàn in Vietnamese may trouble Vietnamese-English translators To explain, đàn conveys general

meaning which stands for groups of animals or people English only has

specific words like flock (flock of bird), school (school of fish), herd (herd of cattle/ buffaloes), pack of dogs/ calves, pride of lions/ deer

e The target language lacks a specific term (hyponym)

Contrary to the previous case, this problem comes up when the TL lacks a specific word to express the general word in the SL There are numerous examples of this type of non-equivalence Vietnamese has the

noun áo to express the things cover the upper body When translated into

English, it may trouble translators as English does not have any general word to convey its general meaning Instead, English only has specific

words namely shirt, blouse, sweater, windcheater, pullover, cardigan,

coat, jacket, shawl, dress, sweatshirt, jumper, fleece, parka, etc

English-Vietnamese translators are also beset with this problem

One of the troubles is carry which means to take something from one

place to another This is a general meaning, however, there are only

specific words relating to carry in Vietnamese like đem, đưa, mang, vác,

xách, đội, cõng, cầm, ôm, bồng, ôm, khiêng, gánh, quảy, đeo, đèo, chở, lai, thồ, điụ, bưng, bế, kiệu, công kênh

In addition, there are cases that both the TL and the SL have specific terms but they do not match one another For example, the word

house in English has subordinates like bungalow, cottage, croft, chalet, lodge, hut, mansion, manor, villa and hall The word nhà in Vietnamese

has subordinates like nhà ngói, nhà gạch, nhà sàn, nhà tranh, nhà lá,

nhà vườn, biệt thự, lều Nevertheless, those specific words in two

languages do not match one another, causing the problem of equivalence in translation

non-To make it clearer, the word cooking in English is taken as an instance It has many subordinates like boil, roast, bake, brew, stew,

braise, simmer, poach, grill, seal, glaze, prick, and brown When

translating those words into Vietnamese, translators may be troubled as

Vietnamese has such verbs like kho, luộc, xào, chiên, rang, rán, tráng,

rim, nướng, hấp, hầm, tần which do not go with those in English

Moreover, the English word “to wear” has lots of hyponyms in Vietnamese namely “đi” in “đi giầy, đi tất, đi dép, đi tông”, “mặc” in

“mặc áo, mặc quần, mặc váy”, “đội” in “đội nón, đội mũ”, “chít” in

“chít khăn”, “đeo” in “đeo kính, đeo nhẫn, đeo dây chuyền”, “thắt” in

“thắt dây lưng, thắt cà vạt”, “đánh” in “đánh phấn”, “thoa” in “thoa son, kem chống nắng”, “tô” in “tô son”, “bôi” in “bôi son, bôi nước hoa”, xức in “xức nước hoa”, “đóng” in “đóng khố, đóng bộ” All of

these hyponyms can be translated into English as “to wear” or “to put

on”- the general ones It does not have specific terms to express the above Vietnamese hyponyms

f Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

It is widely known that many English words may express additional meaning in comparison with Vietnamese Consequently, in many cases translator may confuse in choosing the appropriate word in specific context

According to Baker (Baker, 1992: 22) “Physical perspective may

be of more importance in one language than it is in another Physical perspective has to do with where things or people are in relation to one another or to a place” In different languages, the physical perspective

may have dissimilar importance Pairs of words such as come/go,

take/bring, arrive/depart can help readers understand more clearly Come means to move or travel towards the speaker while go means to

move away from the speaker Similarly, bring means to carry someone

or something to a place or a person, or in the direction of the person

speaking (CALD) Take means conveying things to a place away from

the speaker Likewise, depart means to leave, especially when you are starting a journey while arrive means to get to the place you are going to

(LDOCE)

In addition, Baker also adds that “Interpersonal perspective draws the attention to the relationship among participants in the discourse” (Baker, 1992: 23) Interpersonal perspective makes distinction in the relationship among participants in the context For instance, Vietnamese

has word groups like “biếu, tặng, cống, nạp” and “đưa, cho” “Biếu”

express the act of giving someone who is much higher in status, age or

giving with great respect “Cống, nạp” which is used in the past refers to the act of giving as being forced to do The two word “đưa” and “cho”

means giving to someone of the same status or age It is clear that these words make distinction on whom to be given However, all they may be translated into English as “to give” which does not show any distinction

in meaning

As can be seen, the differences in physical or interpersonal perspective may make it hard to find a proper equivalent in the TL

g Differences in expressive meaning

The next regular translation non-equivalence problem is that a word has different expressive meaning in the SL and the TL A very

representative example for this problem is the word sexy that means

“attractive” or something that attracts a lot of interest and attention in

English Differently, sexy is popularly known in Vietnam as

“suggestive” Hence, careless translators may fail to transfer its real

meaning and even make readers misunderstand the sense of the text Specifically, when a foreigner wants to compliment a girl for being

attractive, the interpreter should translate as “đẹp”, “hấp dẫn” but not

“khêu gợi” or “gợi tình”

Furthermore, the word “exotic” which is another example means

unusual and interesting because it is related to a foreign country It is

used to show approval (LDOCE) Hence, “exotic” is used with the

positive meaning Seemingly, the most usually used equivalent for it in

Vietnamese is the word “ngoại lai” However, “ngoại lai” expresses

negative and disapproving meaning which is not suitable even against Vietnamese culture Therefore, this difference in expressive meaning is such a big trouble for English-Vietnamese translators

The two above examples show how the difference in expressive meaning can lead to difficulties for the translator

h Differences in form

This difference refers to the form of the SL with regard to the translation into the TL Baker supposes “there is no equivalent in the target language for a particular form in the source text” (Baker: 1992: 24) Certain suffixes and prefixes in English are taken to explain more

specifically English has two suffixes for the noun child which are

“-like” and “-ish” When translators have to interpret “childish” and

“childlike” into Vietnamese they may run into problem “Giống trẻ con”

seems to be the most direct equivalent for both those words As readers can see, this translation is not satisfactory as it cannot transfer the full meaning of the two examples In fact, those two words have difference

in meaning “Childish” means to be connected with or typical of a child

or to show adults who behave in a stupid or silly way (OALD)

“Childlike” means to have the qualities that children usually have,

especially innocence (OALD) “Childlike” has an approving implication

while “childish” has a disapproving one However, it is not easy for

translators to transfer the distinctions between these two words into Vietnamese

In addition, the suffix -in-law is employed to refer to words to

show relationship like father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and daughter-in-law As can be seen, this suffix does not help distinguish between the husband and the wife side while Vietnamese make a

distinction between the two side For example, bố chồng (husband’s father), bố vợ (wife’s father), mẹ chồng (husband’s mother), mẹ vợ (wife’s mother), em chồng (husband’s younger sister/brother), em vợ (wife’s younger sister/brother), anh chồng (husband’s older brother),

anh vợ (wife’s older brother), chị chồng (husband’s sister), chị vợ

(wife’s sister), etc When dealing with the suffix -in-law, translators may

find it challenging as it may belong to one of the two sides

i Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms

In most languages there is a meaning of plurality, such as the English -s This often occurs in the grammar as an inflection on the nouns or verbs or both In Vietnamese, however, plurality is expressed in

an isolated word “những, các” A single word in the source language

will need to be translated via several words in the target language

Even when a particular form does have a ready equivalent in the target language, there may be a difference in the frequency with which it

is used or the purpose for which it is used English, for instance, uses the

continuous -ing form for binding clauses much more frequently than

other languages which have equivalents for it, such as German and the

Scandinavian languages Consequently, rendering every -ing form in an

English source text with an equivalent -ing form in a German, Danish, or

Swedish target text would result in a stilted and unnatural style

j The use of loan words in the source text

According to Baker “the use of loan words in the source text poses

a special problem in translation.” As “Once a word or expression is borrowed into a language, we cannot predict or control its development

or the additional meanings it might or might not take on.” (Baker: 1992)

Simply speaking, when writers borrow words from other languages, translators might find it hard to comprehend fully the meaning the loan words even in their mother tongue For example, when

translating a text containing the word muk lếch nọi, a Vietnamese

translator may not know its meaning even in his/her native language

Muk lếch nọi that is a loan word from the Thai, an ethnic group in the

North of Vietnam means youngsters’ hat However, not every translator knows its meaning to translate into a foreign language

II.1.1.3 Strategies used by professional translators

During translation process, it is impossible to avoid equivalence Hence, translators should find ways to tackle this problem

non-In this part, strategies for dealing with various types of non-equivalence proposed by Baker are going to be listed Moreover, the author of this thesis would like to give some examples to give them clear-cut distinctions

a Translation by a more general word (superordinate)

According to Baker (1992), “This is one of the commonest strategies for dealing with many types of non-equivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning

In this strategy, translators choose the word that is more general instead of a specific one It is especially useful and wise to use this strategy for the cultural specific concepts However, it should be noted that overgeneralization or the loss in intended specific meaning may result Hence, the translator should take serious consideration when using this measure

For instance, to comb and to brush hair both refer to the act of

tidying one’s hair but there is a meaning distinction in term of the tool

used To comb hair means to use a flat piece of plastic, wood or metal

with a thin row of long narrow parts along one side to tidy and arrange

your hair (CALD) While to brush hair means to use an object with short

pieces of stiff hair, plastic or wire fixed into a usually wooden or plastic base or handle, to clean and tidy the hair (CALD) English-Vietnamese translators can interpret by a more general word (superordinate) in

Vietnamese, which is chải tóc This strategy can help avoid the

specificity in the ST

What is more, English has words like mopeds, scooters, and

motorcycles Those words are used to refer to the two-wheel, motorized

vehicles However, motorcycles have larger wheels and engines than

mopeds and scooters Vietnamese, on the other hand, refers to all these

two-wheel, motorized vehicles as "xe máy" Hence, when facing these words, the translator may employ the general word "xe máy"

Another example is the translation of the English words "paw",

"foot", and "leg" All of them may be translated as "chân", which may

not pose any problems of comprehension in Vietnamese, as it should be clear from the context which of these words is meant

b Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word

Expressive words are words that strongly express a feeling or attitude This is also a problem for the translator as it is hard to convey the full meaning of the word in the TL When the TT contains expressive words, translators may get into difficulty The solution recommended is using more neutral/less expressive word

Normally, translators try to convey the meaning in the ST by finding the equivalent in the TL However, as a result of non-equivalence, TL does not have an appropriate equivalent Hence when translators try to express the idea by the equivalent they may fail, or worse still, cause readers to misunderstand Thus, it is recommended that more neutral/less expressive words be employed

The adjective sexy can serve as an illustration Normally, in most Vietnamese people’s mind even those who study English, sexy evokes a

negative meaning In fact, it means sexually attractive or something that attracts a lot of interest and attention (CALD, 2008) Hence, translators should choose Vietnamese words that have neutral or less expressive

meaning like quyến rũ

c Translation by cultural substitution

With this strategy, translators may interpret a culture-specific expression in the SL as a TL term which may not have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the

readers of TL In other words, this strategy is to replace a culture-specific item or expression with one of different meaning but similar impact in the translated text or the readers

Specifically, this strategy can be applied for words that are so connected to the culture of the SL that they have no equivalent in the TL Then words that have similar impact on the TL readers should be employed This strategy help TL readers understand more easily as translators use more familiar words in the target culture However, this measure should not be used for cases where the propositional meaning must be conveyed fully For example, English-Vietnamese translators

may interpret the noun mourning as áo tang as it is familiar with Vietnamese Mourning refers to the usually black clothes that are worn in

some countries as an expression of sadness about someone's death

(CALD, 2008) However, áo tang in Vietnamese is usually white and has a different look As áo tang in both cases describes clothes that are

worn to show the sadness about someone’s death, it may have same effects on readers

To help readers comprehend this strategy more fully, the author of this thesis would like to introduce one some more examples that are the units of measurement of both Vietnam and the UK When translating those units, translators should use the cultural substitution to make it straightforward to readers For instance, Vietnamese-English translators should convert VND into USD to make it readily comprehensible for readers/listeners of English

To be more detailed, when asked about the translation cost of two million VND, the translator should convert it into one hundred dollars to make it less confusing for client

Likewise, Vietnamese-English translators should do so to lạng, cân

(kilogam), yến, tạ, chỉ (for gold), etc Vice versa, English units of

measurements such as pound, yard, mile, foot, inch, ounce, etc should be

converted into Vietnamese corresponding units to make it accessible to Vietnamese readers

It should be noted that translators should consider when using this strategy as it may affect the original quality of the text in some cases Hence, the purpose of both the ST and the TT should be taken into serious consideration

d Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

According to Baker (Baker, 1992: 34) “This strategy is particularly common in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words.” For the problem of non-equivalence, translators can apply this strategy to words that are particular of the SL culture, newly made known concepts and words from a particular subject area, which has become fashionable through frequent usage Simply speaking, this strategy can be applied to words that are new to TL readers The reason

is those items has no apt equivalence or hard to be translated into other languages Translators can apply this strategy by using the same word or expression in the ST and add some more explanations possibly

For instance, to translate the item Nón cụ from Vietnamese into English, some translators use the loan word in Vietnamese “cụ hat” and add with flat tops, small diameter and thick edges as an explanation The reason is English does not have “cụ hat” English people do not know what “cụ hat” refers to Hence, the most suitable method is to

transfer the SL word and add explanation to help readers have a sense of that item