The use of sino vietnamese in the translation of noun phrases in harry potter book series

Procedures of translation used by Ly Lan to translate English nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into Sino-Vietnamese 4.2.. Sino-Vietnamese structures used in the English-SV translat

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

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

GRADUATION PAPER

THE USE OF SINO-VIETNAMESE

IN THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN PHRASES

IN HARRY POTTER BOOK SERIES

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI CAM LINH, M.A STUDENT: HOANG THI MY LINH

YEAR OF ENROLMENT: 2009

Hanoi, May 2013

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

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TỪ HÁN- VIỆT TRONG VIỆC DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ

TRONG BỘ SÁCH HARRY POTTER

Giáo Viên Hướng Dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh Sinh Viên: Hoàng Thị Mỹ Linh

Khóa: 2009

HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2013

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Hoàng Thị Mỹ Linh, class QH2009.F.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) 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

Signature

Date

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all people who supported and inspired me to complete this paper The success of this paper is also attributable to them

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep indebtedness towards my venerable supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, M.A for her enthusiasm and dedication, her critical comments and feedbacks, her useful materials, as well as her continuous encouragement Had it not been for her tremendous support, I would never have been able to complete this graduation paper

I would also like to express my sincerest thanks to my family, my classmates of QH09.F1.E25, and all my other friends, especially my close friend, Nguyen Phuong Thu, who are always by my side and unceasingly support me Thanks to their extensive experience and opinions, I did not have to encounter difficulties alone during the completion of this research

Furthermore, I would love to extend my profound gratitude to all the teachers who have not only taught but also inspired me during the whole four years If it had not been for their diligence and dedication, I would not be what I am today

Last but not least, I would like to thank all the readers for their interest in the paper I hope that the readers of this would find this helpful, to even the smallest extent

ABSTRACT

Translation and its relating issues have become non-stop topics for researchers Language difference is one of the most basic issues of translation Aiming at handling the gaps between languages, translation procedures is one of the elements determining the accuracy of language equivalence Therefore, this research is firstly an attempt to figure out in detail types of translation procedures applied in the Vietnamese version

of one of the most famous books for children- Harry Potter book series By counting

the frequency of translation procedures used in the translation of the Vietnamese translator Ly Lan, the characteristics of each procedures affecting the equivalence of the translation are drawn, in which through translation, functional equivalence, and couplet are most frequently used

Together with that, the Sino-Vietnamese structures used in the books are also concentrated in the hope to have a deeper look into the use of Sino-Vietnamese in the translation of literary documents By modeling common Sino-Vietnamese structures of noun phrases in Ly Lan’s versions, some structures are built, including some stylistic structures of the translator such as “Bất khả+V”, or “V+N-career indicator” In comparison with original noun phrases, some features of Sino-Vietnamese are also described One of those is the ability to remain the structure of English noun phrase by using the structure “N Adj+N” or “N  Q+ N” Basing on the closeness in structures of phrases, Sino-Vietnamese must be exploited in other literary documents and fictions as well

Last but not least, since the suggestions were given basing on a small-scale study, the answer to it needs more examination, thus requires larger-scale studies Further studies should be of larger scope to increase the validity as well as reliability

of the results More discussions are needed within the topic of translation procedures and the use of Sino-Vietnamese, as there remain a lot of issues to discover

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acceptance page i

Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii List of figures, tables, and abbreviations vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.3 Significance of the study

1.4 Scope of the study

1.5 Organization of the study

1 2 3 3 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Noun phrases 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 Original noun phrases created by J.K.Rowling 5 6 2.2 SV words 2.2.1 Origins

2.2.2 Classification

2.2.3 Sino-Vietnamese compounding patterns

6

6

7

2.3 Translation

2.3.1 Definition of translation

2.3.2 Translation procedures

2.3.2.1 Transference

8

9

9

2.3.2.2 Naturalization 2.3.2.3.Through translation

2.3.2.4.Shift or transposition 2.3.2.5.Modulation

2.4 An overview of Harry Potter book series by J.K.Rowling and

Vietnamese translator Ly Lan

2.4.1 J.K.Rowling

2.4.2 Harry Potter book series

2.4.3 Vietnamese translator Ly Lan

3.2 Data collection instruments

3.3 Procedures of data collection

3.4 Procedure of data analysis

16

17

17

18

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Procedures of translation used by Ly Lan to translate English

nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into Sino-Vietnamese

4.2 SV structures used by Ly Lan to translate

English nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV

4.2.1 Most frequent SV structures used by Ly Lan

4.2.2 Modeling main structures of SV noun phrases in Ly

4.2.3 Suggestions for utilizing SV vocabulary when

translating noun phrases, especially in literary documents

34

4.2.3.1 The exploitation of translation procedures

translating English original noun phrases into SV in fiction

works

4.2.3.2 The exploitation of SV in translating English

original noun phrases into Vietnamese in fiction works

34

35

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Major findings of the study

5.2 Limitations of the study

5.3 Recommendations for further study

LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS

List of figures

Figure 1 Translation procedures applied in the English-SV translation of original noun

phrases in Harry Potter series

Figure 2 Sino-Vietnamese structures used in the English-SV translation of original

noun phrases in Harry Potter series

List of tables

Table 1 Division of noun phrases into groups and subgroups

Table 2 Classification of procedures and structures of noun phrases

Verb Adjective Noun phrase

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is to clarify the rationale, the aims and the objectives of the study, the significance, scope and the organization of the thesis

1.1 Rationale

Since the release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on

30 June 1997, Harry Potter has become a symbol in readers’ mind all over the world,

especially children The name of the young boy wizard is so familiar to everyone in

every corner of the world Harry Potter, without a doubt, is no longer a name but a

global book phenomenon that maintains its heat and attraction for generations As of June 2011, the book series has sold about 450 million copies, making it the best-selling books series in history and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history

Definitely, Vietnamese translators quickly coped with this global trend to bring this famous book to Vietnamese readers This book series have been translated into Vietnamese, mostly known through the version translated by Ly Lan and published by Youth Publishing House Although there are many other translated versions of this

book into Vietnamese, Ly Lan’s version is the most famous among readers of Harry

Potter series

One of the reasons leading to the fame of Ly Lan’s version is that she knows how to translate strange and hard-to-understand noun phrases originated from Rowling’s great imaginative version into typical, easy-to-remember, and arousing nouns in Vietnamese “Veritaserum”, “Felix Felicis”,…, what are they? “Chân Dược” and “Phúc Lạc Dược” These original nouns cannot be found in any English-Vietnamese dictionaries Therefore, Ly Lan’s talent is shown through the way she counts on the content of the original version to find out the best equivalents for those words Using SV is one of the special ways of Ly Lan that achieves values of both

content and art Ly Lan is very clever at keeping characteristics of original words by using short and descriptive SV equivalents to convey their meaning The process to make such products is undoubtedly a tough way to go Fortunately, SV noun phrases well facilitate Ly Lan in her process to find out the best Vietnamese equivalents for such complex nouns

Undergoing a process of selection, adaptation and application during thousands

of years, SV vocabulary has become one part of Vietnamese language and culture SV plays a vital role in expressing, for example, formality, elegance, and classic style Therefore, SV noun phrases in Ly Lan’s version have a lot of effects on the texts in terms of creating the mysterious, magical atmosphere of the wizarding world

There have been many researchers who conducted studies on translation of SV

in many kinds of texts and documents Using SV words as equivalents of English terms

is considered the tactics of many translators However, it seems that the importance of

SV noun phrases in the translation of Harry Potter’s series into Vietnamese has not

been paid enough attention and thoroughly examined For these above reasons, the translation of original English noun phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV by Ly Lan

in seven volumes of Harry Potter book series has become the subject of this graduation

paper

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions

Firstly, this research paper is expected to find out the specific features of SV noun phrases appearing in the sample target text Secondly, the researcher also hopes to find out the structures of these SV noun phrases, so that this research paper can help to model the translation of English noun phrases into SV for further application Besides,

a closer look at the use of SV words in literary translation will be provided by specifying translation strategies and procedures which are applied in the translation of the source text

In brief, these aims can be summarized into these following questions:

1 What procedures of translation are mostly used by Ly Lan to translate English

nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV in 7 volumes of Harry Potter book

1.3 Significance of the study

This research would benefit those who work in translation, those who are trained

to be future translators, especially those who work on literary translation, and researchers working on related studies

As for translators and students whose major is translation, this study raises their awareness of using SV noun phrases as equivalents in translation of English Literature, specifically proper names created by writers Based on the findings, they can draw some conclusions of the effectiveness of exploiting SV vocabulary in translation of literary text Therefore, this research paper can help translators develop some strategies and apply some models of SV noun phrases for utilizing SV vocabulary

In addition, the researcher hopes those who share the same interest in the study

of application of SV vocabulary in translation not only in literary field but also in other fields such as economics or politics can rely on this research to find some reliable and useful information for their related studies in the future

1.4 Scope of the study

As the title implies, this research paper focuses on the translation of original

noun phrases created by Rowling into SV by Ly Lan in Harry Potter Book Series Therefore, the analysis is conducted in seven volumes of Harry Potter book series of

J.K.Rowling in English and seven translated volumes into Vietnamese of those books

by Ly Lan (Youth Publishing House) In those books, only original noun phrases created by Rowling (including nouns, proper names, and some complete noun phrases) which have SV equivalents in the translated versions are focused

1.5 Organization of the study

The graduation paper consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 (Introduction) clarifies the rationale, the aims and the objectives of the study, the significance, scope and the organization of the thesis

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) presents the theoretical background of the study, including an overview of noun phrases, SV, and translation Particularly, this part will deal with translation procedures suggested by Newmark, and the structures of SV compounding patterns

Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the participants and procedures deployed in the study

Chapter 4 (Results and Discussion) gives detailed answers to all research questions raised in the study as well as a comparison between factual findings and assumptions discussed in the Literature Review

Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes all issues discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research, and some recommendations for other researchers in this field

The final part of the study will provide references and appendices for the whole paper

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is a summary and provides general introduction of translation and translation procedures together with some background knowledge about SV The chapter starts with the definitions of noun phrases, the translation procedures applied

in the Vietnamese version of Harry Potter book series by J.K.Rowling (translated by Ly Lan), and finishes with an overview of Harry Potter books series accompanied by an introduction about Vietnamese translator Ly Lan

Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification

As we can see, a noun phrase consists of three parts: pre-modification, head, post-modification In a noun phrase, the head is obligatory but the Pre-modification and the Post-modification are optional As their names have suggested, the function of the pre-modification and post-modification is to elaborate or limit the head noun’s meaning In this research paper, noun phrases are mostly in the form of only head nouns (common nouns and proper nouns)

2.1.2 Original noun phrases created by J.K.Rowling

In Harry Potter book series, there are many nouns, such as “Veritaserum”,

“Thestral”, or “Death Eater” that are not very familiar with readers as they are the products of Rowling’s imagination In this research, proper names and nouns relating

to typical terms of wizarding world are mainly focused as they help the readers stay in the whole picture of the story and follow the storyline It is necessary to say that these noun phrases sometimes cannot be looked up in any dictionaries as they originate from Rowling’s own knowledge about wizarding world and her imagination to invent such specific, typical wizard items

2.2 SV words

2.2.1 Origin

Both Vietnamese and Chinese are languages experiencing a very long history

As China and Vietnam are neighbors for centuries, the contact of these two languages had begun Instead of using the whole system of Chinese characters, Vietnamese had adapted and changed those characters for their easier using and learning Therefore, SV words are elements in Vietnamese language derived from Chinese According to Tran (2012), SV words account for 60% of Vietnamese vocabulary, not including naturalized words borrowing from China After Vietnamese had their own alphabet system, SV words have been written with Latin alphabet instead of Chinese characters

SV words are frequently used in written documents in formal context rather than

in daily life They are widely used in various fields such as medicine, politics, economics, literature, etc SV words are mainly exploited to create formal, classical, or mysterious nuances for the text

2.2.2 Classification

According to Le (2010), Vietnamese vocabulary consists of two groups of words which are native and non-native Non-native group refers to words borrowed

from other languages, including Chinese-derived words In the history of China, two remarkable periods which are the early Tang Dynasty (8th century) and the late Tang Dynasty (8th-10th century) mark the border of two sub-groups of Chinese-derived words in Vietnamese non-native vocabulary: Old Chinese words and SV words

Firstly, Old Chinese words are Chinese-derived words adopted to Vietnamese in the first period After a long time of adaptation, these words have become more familiar among Vietnamese, entering the daily life of them Some words such as “hoa”,

“trà” are used frequently in the modern time but they are not regarded as original Chinese words

Secondly, SV words are also Chinese-derived words imported to Vietnam in the second period They involve words which Chinese borrowed from other languages, then are pronunciatively adjusted to be in accordance with Vietnamese phonology, for example “Nã Phá Luân”, “Nữu Ước”, etc

ii noun  noun- adj

verb  verb- adj adj  adj- adj’

b i verb  noun- verb

verb  verb- verb verb  adj- verb

ii noun  noun- verb

verb  verb- verb adj  adj- verb

c i noun  noun- noun

noun  verb- noun noun  adj- noun

ii noun  noun- noun

verb  verb- noun adj  adj- noun

1 noun  noun- adj

2 noun  noun- verb

3 noun  noun- noun

noun  verb- noun noun  adj- noun

4 noun  Q- noun

in which:

Q= Quantitative indicator (Nhất, Nhị, Tam, Á, Song, Đa )

Based on this table of the formation of SV words, each noun phrase is analyzed and re-structured to find out which word formation is the most popular in the book This helps to build some common forms of SV words often used in the translation texts from English into Vietnamese

language in the way that author intended the text.” Meanwhile, Bell (1991, p.5) defined translation as “the expression in another language (or TL) of what has been expressed

in SL, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.” Among these two definitions, the translation definition of Newmark is probably the most suitable to the thesis

2.3.2 Translation procedures

A perfect translated version totally depends on two main factors: The thorough analysis of linguistic of the text to be translated and proper application of translation approaches to that (Tran, 1999) There have been many theories about application of the so-called translation approaches, including translation procedures Among them, translation procedures set out by Peter Newmark are widely recognized for their significant influences on many professional translators Newmark (1988, pp 81-93) also mentioned the differences between translation methods and procedures that while translation methods refer to the whole text, translation procedures are used for sentence and smaller units of language

According to Newmark (1995, pp 81-93), there are many procedures of translation listed below:

A SL word is directly taken into the TL word with no changes in terms of word form in order to create certain stylistic effect Most of the cases of this loan-translation procedure are used for proper names of people, places, kinds of tree or animals that do not exist in Vietnam These can serve as typical examples

E.g: - IT-related names: Bluetooth, Internet, Blog, Wifi, USB

- Some jobs: MC, DJ

2.3.2.2 Naturalization

A transferred word is adapted to the TL (maintaining the pronunciation and the phonology) This procedure succeeds in transferring and adapting the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology of the TL It helps strange elements of SL texts come closer to the readers thanks to the familiar pronunciation Illustrations for this procedure are various

E.g: - Coffee: cà phê

- Turbine: Tua-bin

2.3.2.3 Through translation

A word or normally an expression is literally translated into the TL Through translation should be used for already recognized terms, e.g names of organizations Newmark (1995, p 84) defined this procedure as “the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations, the components of compound and perhaps phrases.” Names of organizations and diseases can be illustrations of this translation procedure

E.g: - AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome: Hội chứng suy giảm

miễn dịch mắc phải

- MOET: Ministry of Education and Training: Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo

- APEC: Asian Pacific Economic Corporation: Hợp tác kinh tế châu Thái Bình Dương

This procedure involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL For example, change from singular to plural, change required when a specific SL structure does not

exist in the TL, change of a SL verb to a TL word, change of a SL noun group to a TL noun (Newmark, 1988, p.86) Here are the examples of this procedure:

E.g: - After his return: sau khi anh ta trở về

- Despite his laziness, he passed the exam: dù anh ta lười học, anh ta vẫn thi đỗ

Modulation means the variation in the message when it is translated into the TL due to a change in the point of view In other words, it is a variation through a change

of viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought The following pairs

of sentences can be taken as examples for this translation procedure

- One part another

E.g: She cleared the throat before making her speech

 Cô ta hắng giọng trước khi phát biểu

- Passive active

E.g: The roof was damaged by the storm: Trận bão đã phá hỏng mái nhà

Unwritten contract: Hợp đồng miệng

- Positive double negative

E.g: Flawless: hoàn hảo

A SL cultural word or expression is translated by a TL cultural word considered equivalent to it The illustration for this translation procedure is as follow:

E.g: She graduated after obtaining the degree with high distinction

 Cô ấy tốt nghiệp loại xuất sắc

Functional equivalence uses a culture-free word or expression in a translation

for a culture word or expression in a SL This procedure can also be called the

“deculturalising-cultural-word” procedure The following sentences can be examples of this method:

E.g: - Will the Pentagon decide to terminate the program?

 Liệu Bộ Quốc Phòng Mĩ có quyết định dừng chương trình?

-He has attended the biggest carnival festival in Europe

 Anh ấy đã tham dự lễ hội hóa trang lớn nhất châu Âu

This means the meaning of the original word is explained by a phrase or sentence It is frequently used with transference to translate a cultural word or expression These sentences can serve as an example for this method of translation:

E.g: - To attend the barbecue, you must have a student ID

- Khi đi dự tiệc Barbecue (bữa tiệc tổ chức, đồ ăn cũng được đặt ở bên

ngoài), bạn cần mang theo thẻ sinh viên

In addition to those eight translation procedures, Newmark (1995, p.91) considered another item of translation approach, which is “adaptation” It is used in the cases where the type of situation referred to by the SL message is unknown in the TL culture According to him, adaptation rests on “the use of a recognized equivalent

between two situations”, and he considered it as “a matter of cultural equivalence.” However, Newmark (1995, p 91) claimed that adaptation is not “usable” and recommended other translation procedures to translators

E.g:

Người ta khổ vì thương không phải cách

Yêu sai duyên, mà mến chẳng nhầm người

Người ta khổ vì xin không phải chỗ

Có kho vàng nhưng tặng chẳng tùy nơi

(Source: Dại khờ- Xuân Diệu)

You suffer as you stray and lose your heart Adore the wrong one, and misplace your love Your gold you lavish where it foes to waste You suffer as you beg where one won’t give

(Translation: A fool in love- Xuan Dieu)

Couplet is the procedure in which two translation procedures are combined Similarly, triplets combine three procedures, and quadruplets combine four

E.g: What do you want for breakfast, hotdog or hamburger?

 Bữa sáng bạn muốn ăn gì? Hotdog (bánh mì kẹp xúc xích) hay hamburger

(bánh mì kẹp thịt)?

2.4 An overview of Harry Potter book series by J.K.Rowling and Vietnamese

translator Ly Lan

2.4.1 J.K.Rowling

Born in Yate, England, on July 31, 1965, J.K Rowling came from humble

economic means before writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a children's fantasy novel J.K Rowling is the creator of the Harry Potter fantasy series, one of the

most popular book and film franchises in history

Joanne Rowling isst known as J.K Rowling As a single mother living in

Edinburgh, Scotland, Rowling became an international literary sensation in 1999, when

the first three installments of her Harry Potter children's book series took over the top three slots of The New York Times best-seller list after achieving similar success in her

native United Kingdom

Being a graduate of Exeter University, Rowling moved to Portugal in 1990 to teach English She met and married the Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes After her marriage ended in divorce, Rowling worked on a book to support her daughter and

herself on welfare After a number of rejections, she finally sold the book, Harry Potter

and the Philosopher's Stone, for the equivalent of about $4,000

On July 7, 2004, she received an honorary degree from Edinburgh University, in recognition of the Potter books and her outstanding contribution to children's literature She is the best-selling author in the history of literature Also, she is the first author to become a billionaire from writing books

2.4.2 Harry Potter book series

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J

K Rowling The books chronicle the adventures of a wizard, Harry Potter, and his

friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry The main story is about Harry's quest to overcome the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort, whose aims are to become immortal, conquer the wizarding world, subjugate non-magical people, and destroy all those who stand in

his way, especially Harry Potter

Since the release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on

30 June 1997, the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone As of June 2011, the book series has sold about 450 million copies, making it the best-selling book series in history, and has

been translated into 67 languages The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history

The main theme of Harry Potter books is death There are also many other

themes in the series, such as prejudice and corruption

The initial major publishers of the books were Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States The books have since been published by many publishers worldwide

2.4.3 Vietnamese translator Ly Lan

Ly Lan was born on July 16, 1957 in Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong province Her mother is Vietnamese, and her father is originally Chinese

Ly Lan spent about a year studying at village school, half a year at Trung Chanh school, and finished her primary school at Cho Quan She continued her secondary stage at Gia Long, then entered University of Teacher Education in Ho Chi Minh City She went abroad to take her M.A degree in Literature at Wake Forest University, U.S

She had been a teacher until 1997, then she stopped teaching and continued working as a linguistic researcher, translator, and writer

Ly Lan’s most famous work is the translation of Harry Potter book series

published by Youth Publishing House She is praised for her amazing translation speed (her translation is introduced just a few months after the official work is introduced in UK), and her effort to find out the closest equivalents in Vietnamese for hard-to-understand phrases or original nouns and proper names created by Rowling By her unique talent of building her own translation style, Ly Lan devotes her efforts to

bringing Harry Potter book series to Vietnamese readers Although there remain some

mistakes or weaknesses in her translation such as the omission of some interesting puns, her translated works are the most famous editions among Vietnamese readers, and they are constantly reprinted by Youth Publishing House

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter is to describe the data collection and analysis procedures deployed in the study

3.1 Selection of subjects

The researcher chose 7 volumes of Harry Potter the book series in both English

and Vietnamese published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Youth Publishing House Ly Lan’s translated version was chosen because it is the only official translated

version of Harry Potter book series published by Youth Publishing House in Vietnam,

guaranteeing the quality of translation

In Harry Potter, many noun phrases that typically relate to wizarding world can

be found Therefore, their equivalents in the target text are paid much attention to The researcher found that the majority of these equivalents are SV equivalents They became the subject of this research paper since they play an essential role in creating the atmosphere of the novel’s world

3.2 Data collection instruments

The instrument applied to this graduation paper is observation of the documents

After accessing to 7 volumes of Harry Potter book series, every noun phrases which

have SV equivalents were taken for further analysis

In order to answer the first research question “What procedures of translation are used by Ly Lan to translate English noun phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV

in 7 volumes of Harry Potter book series?”, all the English noun phrases in the original

English volumes which have SV equivalents were collected for the purpose of analysis

For the second question “What models of SV noun phrases are mostly applied in the translation of original English nouns?”, models of SV were built basing on the above theoretical base

3.3 Procedures of data collection

Step1: The access to 7 volumes of Harry Potter book series in both English and

Vietnamese was conducted Accessing to these selected books means reading it thoroughly and paying much attention to every noun phrase in the original English versions and check its Vietnamese equivalent to see whether it is SV equivalent or not

Step 2: All noun phrases created by Rowling in the source text which have SV

equivalents were collected According to Václavíková (2006, p.16), they were classified into groups as the table below

Table 1: Division of noun phrases into groups and subgroups

Names of people Student

Staff Writer Fictional figure Ghost

Nickname Pet

Other Names of Places Address

Facility Educational Institution Other

Titles of Books Magical Items Plant

Creature Spell

Formula Tool Miscellaneous Food/broom/etc

3.4 Procedure of data analysis

Step1: After the researcher finished collecting English noun phrases

which fit the theme of the research, they and their SV equivalents were analyzed and modeled to find the procedures used to translate them and those SV noun phrases’ structures as table below

Table 2: Classification of procedures and structures of noun phrases English noun

phrase

procedure

SV structure

Step 2: Statistics on the frequency of different SV structures used by Ly Lan

were provided The researcher would find out the most frequent structure used by Ly Lan by counting the frequency each structure appears in the translated texts

Step 3: Some features of SV noun phrases’ structures were drawn from the

collected data The researcher hoped to figure out different nuances each type of structure has on the texts, and the way it affects the quality of the translated version compared to the author’s intention in the original version Also, the relationship between translation procedures applied in the noun phrase and its SV structure was also considered

Step 4: Last but not least, after analyzing these features of SV structures used in

the target text, some useful implications for the future studies on using SV models in the translation of English into Vietnamese were given

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this part, the researcher will try to find the answer for the three questions which are about translation procedures applied in the translation of Harry Potter series by Ly Lan, her use of SV in translating original English noun phrases into Vietnamese, and some suggestions for utilizing the results of the thesis

4.1 Procedures of translation used by Ly Lan to translate English nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV

After collecting all data and gathering them into groups as tables in the appendix, the researcher counts the frequency of translation procedures applied in translating the noun phrases into SV

Figure 1: Translation procedures applied in the English – SV translation of original

noun phrases in Harry Potter series

4.1.1 Functional equivalence

As can be seen from the graph, the most frequent translation procedure used by

Ly Lan is functional equivalence (20/52) All the noun phrases listed in the tables are originated from Rowling’s imagination and her knowledge about wizarding world Therefore, the original words may, to some extent, contain some cultural characteristics which may not exist in the TL Choosing functional equivalence to translate such cultural words is the right strategy that Ly Lan employs successfully in her work

Functional equivalence+ Transposition Descriptive equivalence

Through translation+ Modulation+

Transposition

These examples will provide a better look at how effectively functional equivalence works in the text:

Np (Adj+ N) N+ N

Chaser Truy thủ Functional

in Vietnamese To preserve cultural characteristics of the original phrase, Ly Lan deculturalizes it into a SV phrase which tends to be a non-cultural phrase in Vietnamese culture “Thủ lĩnh Nam sinh” is a non-cultural normal term, like “Tấn thủ”,

or “Tầm thủ” in Vietnamese

Similarly, “Animagus” and “Squib” are cultural words invented in Rowling’s imagination about wizarding world Their meanings cannot be looked up in any common English dictionaries, as they contain unique features of wizarding culture Thus, Ly Lan bases on the context of the stories and the form of the words (e.g Animagus= “Animal”+ “magus”) to discover the exact meanings of these nouns

4.1.2 Through translation+Transposition

This couplet procedure is the most second widely used in the translation of original noun phrases, which accounts for 33% of total translation procedures in the books This procedure is illustrated by changes in the part of the speech of some nouns and noun phrases

Take these examples below as an illustration of this couplet

In these examples, these terms created by Rowling can be considered recognized

terms as they only exist in Harry Potter books Therefore, through translation is the

most suitable procedure for translating these terms, as it helps create some

“symbolizing” words used thoroughly in the series In addition, as the structure of noun phrase in English is different from that in Vietnamese, so it is vital to use transposition

to change the form of words into the correct one in the TL

E.g: Un- break -able + Vow

Bất Bội khả phép thề

Phép thề Bất khả Bội