An investigation into loss and gain in the translation of a comic “the adventures of tintin

LÊ THỊ NHUNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN IN THE TRANSLATION OF A COMIC “THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: TINTIN IN AMERICA” INTO VIETNAMESE VERSION “NHỮNG CUỘC PHIÊU LƯU CỦA TINTIN:

LÊ THỊ NHUNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN IN THE TRANSLATION OF A COMIC “THE

ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: TINTIN IN

AMERICA” INTO VIETNAMESE VERSION

“NHỮNG CUỘC PHIÊU LƯU CỦA TINTIN:

TINTIN TRÊN ĐẤT MỸ”

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN

COUNTRIES

Da Nang, 2020

Da Nang, 2020

Major: ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN

COUNTRIES

SUPERVISOR: TRẦN THỊ THUỲ OANH, Ph D

Da Nang, 2020

THE TRANSLATION OF A COMIC “THE

ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: TINTIN IN AMERICA” INTO VIETNAMESE VERSION “NHỮNG CUỘC PHIÊU LƯU CỦA TINTIN: TINTIN TRÊN

ABSTRACT

This study clarified the loss and gain in the translation strategies of the comic

“The adventures of tintin: Tintin in America” into Vietnamese version The

investigation indicated kinds the loss and gain of translation applied in the comic The discussion began by collecting the data both the English version and Vietnamese version to be read and to find some Vietnamese there are ain in the translation process

of the comic The results of the investigation indicate that there are 134 patterns of loss and gain in the comic by using semantic strategies The study also shows the finding of loss and gain in the comic as well as some reasons why the translator did

the loss and gain process in translating the comic “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin

in America” into “Những chuyến phiêu lưu của Tintin: Tintin trên đất Mỹ” Finally,

the study gives some implications and recommendations have been conducted in the field of commic reading in the context of global English and of the emergence of so many variations of English so far Through the results of this study, the researcher hopes that the result of this study can give some benefits to the translators and learners

to enlarge knowledge about loss and gain and to learn how to make a good analysis, especially in translation analysis

Keywords: loss and gain, comic, translation, source language, target language

My very special thanks go to the board of director, the library staff of The University of Danang, University of Foreign Language Studies for their dedicated helps during the time I carried out this research

I wish to express my deep thanks to my family and friends for all their support as well as motivation during the time I was conducting this project

TABLE CONTENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF CHARTS vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

Chapter One 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

1.2 THE AIM OF THE STUDY 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY 3

1.4 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4

1.6 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 5

Chapter Two 6

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 8

2.2.1 The The main views of translation 8

2.2.1.1 Definition 8

2.2.1.2 The aspects of Language and Culture in Translation 10

2.2.1.3 Equivalence in translation 11

2.2.1.4 Translation procedures 13

2.2.1.5 Translation Strategy 15

2.2.1.6 Process of translation 21

2.2.2 The main tenets of Comic 23

2.2.2.1 Definition 23

2.2.2.2 Comic translation 24

2.2.3 Loss and Gain 24

2.2.3.1 Loss 24

2.2.3.2 Gain 25

2.3 SUMMARY 25

Chapter Three 26

METHODOLOGY 26

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS 26

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 27

3.2.1 Data collection 27

3.2.2 Data analysis 29

3.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 29

3.4 SUMMARY 30

Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 31

4.1 THE DISCUSSION OF LOSS 32

4.1.1 Loss in Translation by Cultural Substitution 32

4.1.2 Loss in Translation by using Paraphrase with Unrelated Word 34

4.1.3 Loss in translation by using omission 36

4.1.4 Loss in translation by using A More Neutral/Less Expressive Word 39

4.1.5 Loss in translation by a more general word 41

4.1.6 Loss in translation by using loan word without explanation 43

4.2 THE DISCUSSION OF GAIN 45

4.2.1 Gain in Translation by using Paraphrase with Related Word 45

4.2.2 Gain in Translation by using Paraphrase with Unrelated Word 48

4.3 FREQUENCY OF LOSS AND GAIN IN TRANSLATION BY USING SEMANTIC TRANSLATION STRATEGIES 50

4.4 SUMMARY 53

Chapter Five 56

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 56

5.1 CONCLUDING REMARKS 56

5.2 IMPLICATIONS FROM THE RESULTS 58

5.2.1 To teachers 58

5.2.2 To learners 58

5.2.3 To translators 59

5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 59

REFERENCES 61

APENDIX 65 QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI (BẢN SAO)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SLT: source language text

TLT: target language text

strategies (P.53)

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1 The percentage of loss in translation by using semantic strategies

(P.52) Chart 4.2 The percentage of gain in translation by using semantic strategies

(P.53)

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Nida and Taber’s translation process (P.22)

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter provides a brief overview of the study It begins with rationale for the study, then goes on to the aims and research questions of the study This is followed by scope of the study and significance of the study Lastly, the organization of the study is also presented

1.1 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

In the process of globalization today, English has been considered an official language by many nations in the world and used in many fields such as business, politics, economics, education or communication By using English language, people can give or get any information about anything they need In other words, English is

a language that enables people over the world to express ideas or what is thought together Therefore, people usually want to transfer good, interesting or attractive works in their own language into English so that those works are able to be brought

to the public better, especially in the works of art such as film, music, novels or comic Consequently, people learn how to make a good translation their own language into English and vice versa

The case being analyzed in this research is loss and gain, one of the key issues

in translation studies With the need of preserving the intended meaning, when rendering from one language to anothers, the translator might use several strategies and make adjustment to the texts in target language, which causes a bunch of changes and differences in the translated texts These were presented by the theory of Loss and Gain by Peter Newmark (1988), in which Gain refers to the addition of words in the translated texts, while Loss tends to shorten and simplify the translated texts

In this study, to clarify this strategy of loss and gain process, we choose a comic called The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian artist Georges (1907–1983) writing under the pen name of Hergé which is one of the most popular comics in the world and translated into more than 70 languages in which English version was performed by Leslie and Michael (1978) and Vietnamese version (translated from

this English one) by Nguyen Huu Thien (2016) To serve the study, we used one of

the popular series of Tintin entitled “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America”

This title was written in 1931, published for the first time in 1932, republished in

2002 by Herge New Edition and said to the most interesting comic series The author decided to use this work due to the descriptive word usage and the rich of utterances, which would be useful in analyzing how they will be translated

This encourages us to conduct a study with a title “An investigation into loss

and gain in the translation of the comic “The adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” into Vietnamese version “Những cuộc phiêu lưu của Tintin: Tintin trên đất Mỹ” with

the hope to clarify how the translation process of loss and gain works when this comic

is translated from English into Vietnamese based on the semantic features of lexicon

of phrases and sentences, why translators should choose the loss and gain process in translating a comic The adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America into Vietnames and suggest some implications for comic translating

1.2 THE AIM OF THE STUDY

This research aims to:

- Clarify the generalizations of how the translating methods are rendered and analyze the loss and gain when this comic is translated from English into Vietnamese based on the semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences

- Identify the kind of loss and gain can be found in the Vietnamese

translation of English comic “The adventure of Tintin: Tintin in Amarica”

- Find the reasons why the translator should choose the loss and gain process

in translating the comic “The adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” into

Vietnamese

- Give some implications for the learners and translator in commic translating and translating teaching and learning as well as some recommendations for practice in the future

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY

The research attempts to answer the following questions:

1) What are the semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences of

the comic “The adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” translated into Vietnamese?

2) What kind of loss and gain can be found in the Vietnamese translation

version of a English comic “The adventure of Tintin: Tintin in America”

translated from English version?

3) Why did the translators choose that loss and gain process in translating

a comic?

4) What are the implications for translators in comic translating?

1.4 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study adopts mixed methodologies, including qualitative method, quantitative method, descriptive method, and contrastive method to investigate

clarified the loss and gain in the translation strategies of the comic “The adventures

of tintin: Tintin in America” into Vietnamese version

This study is conducted in the context that comic translators often get difficulties due to different language and culture of countries They should be able to choose the simplest words to fit the capacity in the bubbles as well as have to build their imagination by using the right words to bring readers to get inside stories To make a good translation of comic, one of the strategies ususally used by translators is loss and gain Therefore, in order to help readers have deeply understanding comics

in their language, considering the loss and gain process in comic translation should

be carried out

Due to limitation of duration and human sources, this study focuses on the

semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences in the comic “The Adventures

of Tintin: Tintin in America” in English and Vietnamese versions to find out loss and

gain in the translation This study is implemented with 690 Vietnamese utterances

and 690 English utterances which will be tested and identified according to the strategies proposed by Baker

1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The investigations as well as recommendations have been conducted in the field of comic translating in the context of global English and of the emergence of so many variations of English so far However, how the translation process of loss and gain works when comic is translated from English into Vietnamese based on the semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences is still left untouched In this vein, this study contributes to this growing area of research by finding the loss and gain in translation of comic from English into Vietnamese in order to help language users have a lot of information about comic translating Besides that, this research sets out with an expectation that many necessary adjustments have been made in helping to decrease confusion when reading any kinds of English comics

The research would be a contribution to the teaching and learning in translating English into Vietnamese, especially, helping learner have a better insight into the linguistic features at loss and gain process based on the semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences for translation comic It is clear that learners’ ability

to translate will be better if they are taught the way to use the loss and gain in translation In addition, the findings of the research would provide learners with knowledge or understanding about the translation process by using the loss and gain

in English and in Vietnamese Finally, the study would help learners aware of loss and gain in translation the comics and remind them to take notice the difference between the use of word between English and Vietnamese

Furthermore, with the hope that the result of this study can give some benefits

to translators to enlarge knowledge about loss and gain and to learn how to make a good translation analysis, especially in comic translating

1.6 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The overall structure of the study takes the form of five chapters

Chapter One, Introduction provides a brief introduction to the rationale for the study The aims and research questions are also included and then followed by the scope and the significance of the research Lastly, the organization of the study is presented

Chapter Two, Literature Review and Theoretical Background presents the prior studies and theories related to the research After literature review, this chapter presents the background of translation with three small sections in order as follows: definition of translation, equivalence in translation, translation strategy and process

of translation Then some background information about comic and its translation are provided respectively Finally, loss and gain are reviewed in the last section

Chapter Three, Methodology clarifies the methodology of the research which includes the design of the study, data collection and data analysis The sample, the research methods as well as reliability and validity of the study are fully explained

Chapter Four, Findings and Discussion presents the findings of the research focusing on the two key themes that the loss and gain processes Also, the discussion about the loss and gain is also provided

Chapter Five, Conclusions gives brief summaries as well as implications drawn out from the result of the study Besides, some limitations and suggestion for translators are offered

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is divided into four main sections for the purpose of introducing

a theoretical framework to support for this research Starting with literature review, the background of translation is presented with three small sections in order as follows: definition of translation, equivalence in translation, translation procedures, translation strategy and process of translation Then some background information about comic and its translation are provided respectively Finally, loss and gain w are reviewed in the last section

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Practically, translation in Vietnam has started recently and the number of published works is still modest While some research focuses on basic theory of translation, other work has sought to show different examples of translation techniques or provide sample translations

The majority of jobs published for internal circulation within universities emphasize the previous aspect, which is the theoretical basis of translation It can be

said that in Vietnam featured publications of this type include Translation Books and Translation Courses by Bui and Dang (1999), Translation Theory by Huynh and

Nguyen (2000) and some scattered academic essays found on the Internet Unlike international books on translation theory, these publications are closely related to the English – Vietnamese translation Written by experienced translators, who have spent many years practicing translation as a career and working with students learning translation skills, the books focus on solving theoretical problems to meet the need

of translation learners in Vietnam This can be a solid base to begin any further study

of translation practice in Vietnam Another trend of coping with translation issues in Vietnam is to figure out what are the weaknesses lingering in translation work and suggest specific techniques to help translators avoid repeating frequently made

mistakes This kind of approach can be seen in Hướng dẫn kĩ thuật dịch Anh – Việt (English –Vietnamese Translation Techniques) by Nguyen (2005) and Le’s

Translation and Grammar (2003) Both works are practical and useful for readers as translation learners if they are to develop their translation skills and ability to deal with thorny situations The authors base their arguments on verified studies by well-known scholars over the world and their scope of study is broad

Regarding the topic of loss and gain in translation, there are many practical

studies related to the analysis of loss and gain have been carried out “An investigation into Loss and Gain in Vietnamese Translation of English Lexical Nominalizations in American Short Stories by Jack London and O’Henry” conducted by Le (2018) has

shown the ways of translating nominalizations and loss and gain in the translation into Vietnamese The researcher investigated 540 samples including 270 English nominalizations and 270 Vietnamese translations in the works of Jack London and O’Henry and classified them into each kind of loss and gain The thesis concluded that the occurrence of the loss and gain of information in the process of translation is caused by the structural differences in both languages In order to make the translation natural, the only way can be done is to transfer the equivalence of the SL into the TL Thus, the occurrence is loss and gain process cannot be avoided due to structure of the SL or linguistic system and cultural background are different in the TL

Next “An investigation into loss of meaning in the translation process as manifested in the Vietnamese version of the world is flat by Thomas L Friedman” by

Tran (2011) has explored, described and analyzed the cases of loss in meaning occurred during translation in English -Vietnamese translation of The World Is Flat The study showed her attention to the unavoidable phenomena in the process of translation because of many reasons: the ability to use language, the translation method choice of translator and the difference of language The most prominent reason may be the last- the difference in language It is this difference that affects the translator’s equivalences And loss in meaning will appear In the project, the researcher concluded that loss in meaning cannot be considered the mistakes but the phenomena in the process of translation each translator should be aware of in order

to make his/ her product better Clearly whatever kind of loss in meaning is, they

seem to be necessary because they can make the target version smoother and the readers can find it more comprehensible and acceptable

Most of the writers only discussed the problems in syntactic aspects and their semantic roles while the loss and gain in translation by using the sematic strategies has not been fully mentioned Accordingly, a study of loss and gain in translation the comic by using semantic strategies become a new item for language learners

The translation is primarily discussed in terms of conflict between free and literal translation Proposed literal translation of the syntax as well as the words, it is said that this sentence is a wall to prevent the language of origin, while the word to translate words is arcade

Before, people thought that translation is the replacement of a textual material in one language (source language – SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language – TL) The equivalent here is the grammatical factors between the SL and the TL Therefore, at the time with this view the grammatical equivalent became one of the criteria for assessing the quality of a translation

One of the most prominent definitions of translation is stated by Newmark (1988) is that “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that

the author intended the text” (p.5) This definition stresses on rendering meaning of the SL text into the TL text as what is intended by the author

Hatim and Munday (2004) define that translation is “the process of transferring a written text from SL to TL” (p.6) In this definition they do not explicitly express that the object being transferred is meaning or message They emphasis on translation as a process

Nida and Taber (1982) say that “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalence of a source language message, firstly in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (p.12) It means that when

we translate a text, we do not only have to look at the words, but we also have to look

at the style and grammar rules Because every language has their own style and grammar Translating a text by word for word without making a right grammar will

be hard to be understood

Besides that, Tou (1999) quoted the view of Malinowski (1965) of translation that :

“Translation must always be re-creation of the original into something profoundly different On the other hand, it is never substitution of word for word but invariably the translation of whole contexts So, a translator must

be able to translate the whole context, not only the words inside, then re-write

it into the target language by using the appropriate text.” (p.31)

From the definitions mentioned above, it is found that translation is a process which is intended to find meaning equivalence in the target text Rochayah (2001) and Mona (1992) underline the term meaning equivalence because it is the meaning which is transferred in the TL In this case, translators are faced with text as unit of meaning in the form of sets of words or sentences This means that language which

is used is unit of meaning in discourse which can be understood by the participants

of the communication (Machali, 2007)

In short, we make a conclusion that translation is the way to transfer from the original text into the target text by using an appropriate word deal with the target text but still have a same meaning of the original text

2.2.1.2 The aspects of Language and Culture in Translation

Language, culture and translation and the relationship between them are

valuable issues due to the importance of human communication in the world The variety of languages with different cultures and necessity of communications in human life caused translation to be a very effective factor in communicating, exchanging cultures, and knowledge Thus, it seems that language and culture are closely related and it is essential to consider both in the process of translation Although there might be is no specific frame and force on how a translation must be done, all translators who transfer natural meaning based on the cultural and religious norms of their society, encounter some limitations and censorship through translation

As languages and culture are complimentary of each other, and cultural features of every region are different, translators not only should concentrate on how to convey the same meaning, but also attempt to show the dissimilarities between two cultural perspectives

a) Language

There are lots of definitions on language which are included here shortly Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties Different ideas stem from differing language use within one's culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships start at one's birth Brislin (1976) defines language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex system of communication or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication (p.10) Carlson (2001) states the human language faculty is thought to be fundamentally different from and of much higher complexity than those of other species Human language is highly complex in that it is based on a set of rules relating symbols to their meanings, thereby forming an infinite number of possible innovative utterances from a finite number of elements (p.17)

b) Culture

Newmark (1988) defines culture as "the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as its means of

expression" (p.94)) He clearly states that operationally he does not regard language

as a component or feature of culture in direct opposition to the view taken by Vermeer (1989) who stated that "language is part of a culture” (p.222) The term culture originally meant the cultivation of the soul or mind; culture includes behavior such

as courtship or child rearing practices material things such as tools, clothing and shelter, institutions and beliefs Culture is the sum total of the ways of living built up

by a group and passed on from one generation to another Culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and many other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society

c) Culture through the Language

We came to agree on the existence of the so-called "cultural universals" that enhance communication, change of ideas in order to achieve progress in all life domains Change of ideas, concentration of mutual efforts in different directions, communication among different peoples in different ways, all these are a constant necessity of spiritual and material life Not only cultural acts are achieved by means

of continuity process alone, but also being discontinuous can be as creative at certain times.Yet, this breach is to be performed to existent models and not to a state of nothingness rightfully considers Romul Munteanu (Munteanu: 1980) But how cultures transfer through the languages? For answering this question we should consider the relationship between culture and language which is deeply rooted Translation is the only way which does it The fact that there is only one human species is explained by the possibility to transfer sense, meaning from one language

to the other, by means of the word, thus, by translation

2.2.1.3 Equivalence in translation

Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) [28] view equivalence-oriented translation as a procedure which replicates the same situation as in the original, whilst using completely different wording They also suggest that, if this procedure is applied during the translation process, it can maintain the stylistic impact of the SL text in the

TL text According to them, equivalence is therefore the ideal method when the

translator has to deal with proverbs, idioms, clichés, nominal or adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds

With regard to equivalent expressions between language pairs, Vinay and Darbelnet claim that they are acceptable as long as they are listed in a bilingual dictionary as full equivalents However, later they note that glossaries and collections

of idiomatic expressions can never be exhaustive They conclude by saying that the need for creating equivalences arises from the situation, and it is in the situation of the SL text that translators have to look for a solution Indeed, they argue that even if the semantic equivalent of an expression in the SL text is quoted in a dictionary or a glossary, it is not enough, and it does not guarantee a successful translation

Roman Jakobson's (1959) [12] study of equivalence gave new impetus to the theoretical analysis of translation since he introduced the notion of 'equivalence in difference' On the basis of his semiotic approach to language and his aphorism 'there

is no signatum without signum' [12, p232], he suggests three kinds of translation:

• Intralingual (within one language, i.e rewording or paraphrase)

• Interlingual (between two languages)

• Intersemiotic (between sign systems)

Jakobson claims that, in the case of interlingual translation, the translator makes use

of synonyms in order to get the ST message across This means that in interlingual translations there is no full equivalence between code units According to his theory, translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes Jakobson goes

on to say that from a grammatical point of view languages may differ from one another to a greater or lesser degree, but this does not mean that a translation cannot

be possible, in other words, that the translator may face the problem of not finding a translation equivalent He acknowledges that whenever there is deficiency, terminology may be qualified and amplified by loanwords or loan-translations, neologisms or semantic shifts, and finally, by circumlocutions Jakobson provides a number of examples by comparing English and Russian language structures and explains that in such cases where there is no a literal equivalent for a particular ST

word or sentence, then it is up to the translator to choose the most suitable way to render it in the TT

There seems to be some similarity between Vinay and Darbelnet's theory of translation procedures and Jakobson's theory of translation Both theories stress the fact that, whenever a linguistic approach is no longer suitable to carry out a translation, the translator can rely on other procedures such as loan-translations, neologisms and the like Both theories recognize the limitations of a linguistic theory and argue that a translation can never be impossible since there are several methods that the translator can choose The role of the translator as the person who decides how to carry out the translation is emphasized in both theories Both Vinay and Darbelnet as well as Jakobson conceive the translation task as something which can always be carried out from one language to another, regardless of the cultural or grammatical differences between ST and TT

Nida argued that there are two different types of equivalence, namely formal equivalence - which in the second edition by Nida and Taber (1969/1982) [20] is referred to as formal correspondence - and dynamic equivalence Formal correspondence 'focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content', unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect' [20, p159] In the second edition (1982) or their work, the two theorists provide a more detailed explanation of each type of equivalence

2.2.1.4 Translation procedures

The translating procedures, as depicted by Nida and Taber (1982:152) are as follows: Technical procedure (analysis of the SL and TL; a thorough study of the SLT before making attempts translate it; making judgments of the semantic and syntactic approximations) and organizational procedures (constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translator; checking the text's communicative effectiveness by

asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions)

The following are the different translation procedures that Newmark (1988), one of the most popular translation scholars, proposed:

Transference: it is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text It

includes transliteration and is the same as what Harvey (2005) [8, p5] named

“transcription”

Naturalization: it adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then

to the normal morphology of the TL

Cultural equivalent: it means replacing a cultural word in the SL with TL

one However, “they are not accurate.”

Functional equivalent: it requires the use of a cultural-neutral word

Descriptive equivalent: in this procedure, the meaning of the cultural- based

translation (CBT) is explained in several words

Componential analysis: it means “comparing an SL word with a TL word

which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components.”

Synonym: it is a “near TL equivalent” Here economy trumps accuracy Through-translation: it is the literal translation of common collocations,

names of organizations and components of compounds It can be called: claque or loan translation

Shifts or transpositions: Transposition, or shift as Catford calls it, reflects the

grammatical change that occurs in translation from SL to TL According to Newmark,

it involves a change in the grammar form SL to TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required when a specific SL structure does not exist

in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb to a TL word, (iv) change of an SL noun group

to a TL noun and so forth

Modulation: With Newmark, it occurs when the translator reproduces the

message of the original text in the SL text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in terms of perspective

Recognized translation: it occurs when the translator “normally uses the

official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term.”

Compensation: it occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is compensated in another part

Paraphrase: in the procedure, the meaning of the CBT is explained Here the

explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent

Couplets: it occurs when the translator combines two different procedures

2.2.1.5 Translation Strategy

Krings (1986) defines translation strategy as "translator's potentially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task," (p.16)

Seguinot (1989) believes that there are at least three global strategies employed by the translators:

(i) translating without interruption for as long as possible;

(ii) correcting surface errors immediately;

(iii) leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage

Moreover, Loescher (1991) defines translation strategy as "a potentially conscious procedure for solving a problem faced in translating a text, or any segment

of it." (p8) As it is stated in this definition, the notion of consciousness is significant

in distinguishing strategies which are used by the learners or translators In this regard, Cohen (1998:4) asserts that "the element of consciousness is what distinguishes strategies from these processes that are not strategic."

Furthermore, Bell (1998:188) differentiates between global (those dealing with whole texts) and local (those dealing with text segments) strategies and confirms that this distinction results from various kinds of translation problems

Venuti (1998:240) indicates that translation strategies "involve the basic tasks of choosing the foreign text to be translated and developing a method to translate it." He employs the concepts of domesticating and foreignizing to refer to translation strategies

Jaaskelainen (1999:71) considers strategy as, "a series of competencies, a set

of steps or processes that favor the acquisition, storage, and/or utilization of information." He also maintains that strategies are "heuristic and flexible in nature, and their adoption implies a decision influenced by amendments in the translator's objectives." (p.71) Taking into account the process and product of translation, this author divides strategies into two major categories: some strategies relate to what happens to texts, while other strategies relate to what happens in the process Product-related strategies, as she writes, involve the basic tasks of choosing the SL text and developing a method to translate it However, she maintains that process-related strategies "are a set of (loosely formulated) rules or principles which a translator uses to reach the goals determined by the translating situation" (p.71) Also,

she (2005:16) divides this into two types, namely global strategies and local

strategies: "global strategies refer to general principles and modes of action and local strategies refer to specific activities in relation to the translator's problem-solving and decision-making."

Another popular translation scholar whose work on translation practice is widely adopted is Baker (1992), pointed out 8 strategies for dealing with non-equivalence at word level

a Translation by a more general word (superordinate):

This is one of the commonest strategies for dealing with many types of equivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning It works equally well

non-in most, if not all, languages, snon-ince the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is not language-specific The translator usually uses a more general word (superordinate)

or a more commonly known to replace the more specific one Yet the possibility of

relative ease of rendering a problematic specific concept with a more general one may result in excessive generalization and eventually in oversimplification (loss in meaning) in the translated text Above all, using a superordinate is one of the popular strategies for dealing with many types of non-equivalence It works equally well in most, if not all, languages, since the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is not language-specific Under certain circumstances, it may be appropriate to use a more general word to translate an English word with no specific Vietnamese equivalent

Example:

English makes distinctions among sedan, coupe’ i.e the former have 4 seats, two

or four doors and a separate section at the back for bags, boxes and cases while the

latter just have 2 seats Besides, there are some other items such as “auto, limousine, limo, banger, jalopy, automobile” Vietnamese, on the one hand, refers to all four- wheel, motorized vehicles as “ô tô”

Similarly, the English words “paw”, “foot”, or “leg” may all be translated by the Vietnamese word ‘‘chân’’, which does not suggest 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

This is also one of the commonest ways to set the equivalence between two

or more languages by using a word or phrase to get the general meaning.This strategy

is particular useful when a translator encounters an expressive word If carelessly, he might fail to convey the true meaning or even cause misunderstanding There are cases even the translator picks up a word which seems to equivalent but perceived differently in the target language Therefore, using a less expressive correspondence

in the target language to avoid the risk and to sound natural is a good recommendation

Example:

The word “sexy” should be transferred as “quyến rũ” in Vietnamese since it is more neutral and not likely to convey a disapproving meaning as “gợi tình”

Or It is quite dangerous to translate “motherland” as “mẫu quốc” as each single syllable meaning People from the United States and former Bristish colonists would

sometimes describe the United Kingdom as the "Mother Country", often carrying a strong British Imperialist connotation Other Vietnamese versions such as “đất mẹ, quê mẹ”, still, bring about an unnatural feeling; hence, “quê hương” should be the

best translation

c Translation by cultural substitution:

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression with a target-language item which does not have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader The strategy of translation by cultural substitution involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression in the source text with a target language item which describes a similar concept in target culture and thus is likely to have a similar impact on the target readers.The obvious advantage of using this strategy is that it gives the readers a concept which they can identify and which is easy to understand, familiar and appealing to them The translator then avoids the necessity of providing footnotes or lengthy explanations of the item With certain texts, e.g those where historical background is very important, this strategy should not be employed as it may lead to overgeneralizations or simple misunderstandings However, translators are motivated to make some additional appropriate changes in the texts they are translating in order to achieve the cultural appropriateness Even though it is not a compulsory duty of the translator, the outcome of these efforts is truly admirable

Example:

“Mother Day” is translated as “Ngày Lễ Vu Lan” in Vietnamese In two cultures, “Mother Day” and “Ngày Lễ Vu Lan” share a common meaning as a day to honor mother and motherhood Likewise, “The baby weighs six pounds" (đứa bé cân được 6 cân Anh) should be translated as "đứa bé cân được hơn 2 kí 7" Or "The two houses are 100 yards apart" (Hai nhà cách nhau 100 mã Anh) will be translated as

“Hai nhà cách nhau chừng 100 thước"

d Translation by using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

This strategy is particularly common in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words This also helps in the case of very modern, newly introduced concepts The loan word can, and very often even should, be followed with an explanation The reader does not have problems with understanding it and his attention is not distracted by other lengthy explanations There is some objection to this strategy in Vietnam, as many translators prefer to select new words in Vietnamese rather than borrow English words However, this strategy is very useful when the translator deal with concepts or ideas that are new to Vietnamese audience, culture- specific items, and proper names of diseases or medicines that are widely known in English names

Example:

The new items as “boomerang” must be thoroughly explained Hence, after

using the loan word, the translator needs to include an explanation so that reader can

better understand , “boomerang” is described as “a curved stick that, when thrown

in a particular way, comes back to the person who threw it” but it can be added that

“boomerang can be used for animal hunting” The completed Vietnamese version

should be: Bumơrang (vật dụng của thổ dân Uc ném ra bay tới đích rồi quay về chỗ người ném, có thể làm vũ khí săn bắn)

e Translation by paraphrase using a related word

This strategy tends to be used when the concept expressed by the source item

is lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form is used in the source text is significantly higher than would

be natural in the target language

Example:

“Non-price competition” is known as “cạnh tranh phi giá cả” in TL, Taking

consideration of the word “non-price”, it can be seen that the prefix “non” indicate negative meaning, and it is known as “không” in Vietnamese In contrast, this term

is not translated as “cạnh tranh không giá cả”

f Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word: if the concept expressed by the

source item is not lexicalized at all in the target language, the paraphrase strategy can still be used in some contexts Instead of a related word, the paraphrased may be based

on modifying the superordinate or simply on unpacking the meaning of the source item, particularly if the item in question semantically complex

Example:

“Gatekeeper”, in general, is often known as “The person keep the gate”, or

“người gác cổng” in Vietnamese equivalent However, in Marketing translation, it means “person who can control the flow of information to members of the buying

centre” and it is translated as “người kiểm soát thông tin”

g Translation by omission:

This strategy may sound rather drastic, but in fact it does no harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning convey by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question Baker (1992) refers to deletion as "omission of a lexical item due to grammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language" (p 40) She states further that this strategy may sound rather drastic, but in fact it does no harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question (Baker, 1992, p 40) Nida (1964) also shares there are cases where omission is required to avoid redundancy and awkwardness and this strategy

is particularly applied if the source language tends be a redundant language

Example :

“Romance” sometimes should be translated as “tình”, or “chuyện tình” instead of “câu

chuyện tình lãng mạn”, “mối tình lãng mạn” as stated in dictionary The shorter version, though, can convey the implication which is enough for reader to understand

h Translate by illustration: this is a useful option if the word which lacks an

equivalent in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point This is a useful option if the word which lacks an equivalent

in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly

if there are restrictions on space or if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point

Example :

"Tò he" toys are sculptured figurines fashioned from colored rice dough It is made

to depict different heroes and ordinary people of daily life, symbolic animals However, it is still difficult for the readers to visualize what exactly a “tò he” is, what size is it etc The best way to illustrate a tò he” is showing a photo of it

2.2.1.6 Process of translation

In translation there are so many processes which must be done, because translation is not only process of changing the form of word or sentence, but translation is the process of transferring the idea or information from the SL to the

TL Before a translator begins translating the text, the translator must understand about the process and procedure of translation because translation is also a way to find the equivalent in another language of one textual material

Newmark (1988:19) describes the process of translation; first it begins with choosing

a method approach Secondly, when we are translating, we translate with four levels more or less consciously in mind:

- The source language text level; the level of language, where we begin

and which we continually (but not continously) go back to

- The referential level; the level of objects and events, real or

imaginary,which we progressively have visualize and build up, and which is an essential part, first of the comprehension, then the reproducing process

- The cohessive level; which is more general, and grammatical, which

traces the train of thought, the feeling tone (positive or negative) and various

oresuppositions of the source language text This level encompasses both comprehension and reproduction: it presents an overall picture, to which we may have

to adjust the language level

- The level of naturalness; of common language appropriate to the writer

or the speaker in a certain situation It is a generalized level, which constitutes a band within which the translator works, unless he is translating an authoritative text, in which case he sees the level of naturalness as a point of reference to determine the deviation between the author’s level he is pursuing and the natural level This level concerns with reproduction

While Nida and Taber (1969:33) have different perception of translation process They called it as dynamic translation process shown as follows:

Figure 2.1 Nida and Taber’s translation process

From Figure 2.1 it can be concluded that there are three stages of translation; namely the analysing, transfering, and restructuring In the analysis, a translator analyzes the SLT in terms of relationship and the meaning of the word grammatically,

as well as a series of words to understand the whole meaning or content Then the results are transferred in the translator’s mind from the SL to TL After that the reconstruction phase, the meaning is written in the target language in accordance with target language rules

Source Language Text

By knowing the processes according to some experts above, anyone can

do translating easily It is because the processes above give explanation that anyone can follow There are many problems in translation process faced by a translator and one of the problems is loss and gain in translation process

2.2.2 The main tenets of Comic

2.2.2.1 Definition

McCloud (1994) defines comics as a set of “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (p.9) Jaindl’s (1999) definition of a comic is “the narrative forms in which the story is told in a series of two separate pictures” (p.264) This notion is reinforced by Eisner (2000) who states that comics are a form of

“sequential art” where the images or pictures are arranged in a specific way in order

to narrate a story or dramatic idea (p.5) Jaindl and Eisner’s definitions of comics have excluded single panel illustrations because according to them, comics that only consists of one panel is not sequential It takes at least two panels at the minimum to form a sequence

In the study of comics, Markova (2012) recognizes the flaw of these definitions because “single paneled illustrations are generally considered to be works

of comics” (p.10) This statement is based on Harvey’s (2001) explanation of comics which “consist of pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa” (p.76) However, this statement ignores the existence of wordless comics Cohn’s definition which is quoted by Markova (2012:11) takes all these into consideration as he stresses that, “Truly, single panel comics, text-dominated comics, and text absent comics are all comics ” Additionally, Temasek (2009:7) observes comics can be understood as “a specific form of literature, a form

of art which is close to painting and as a form of movie, which is motionless and captured in panels” Furthermore, comics are also considered a part of literature and

therefore, are analyzed alongside other literary works However he stresses that comics have their own language, narrative strategies and sign systems

2.2.2.2 Comic translation

When translating comics, the translator faces challenges, requirements and opportunities that can be found both when translating prose and when doing audiovisual translation The written form of comics allows the translator to include a preface, footnotes or even a glossary – techniques impossible when translating a film

On the other hand, the translator is restricted to speech balloons, thus setting limits similar to ones of audiovisual translation, and making it impossible to use techniques such as, for instance, explication The unique characteristics of comics force the

translator to carefully select the techniques he or she uses Tolvanen (1996)

acknowledges the fact that “text in speech bubbles is meant to represent speech and the translator must translate it in a way in which all words in the translated version fits into the speech bubbles” (p 206) On a different note, in 2001, Toivonen points out that “occasionally the speech bubbles or space reserved for narration and detail texts can be modified slightly, but mostly the translator needs to be able to make the translation fit in the space given” (p.103-104) For instance, in English, the sound

“mew mew” is associated with cats, however in Vietnamese, cats are associated with the sound “meo meo” Likewise the English speakers will be more familiar with the dog sound “woof woof” or “arf arf” but in Japan, dogs make the sound “gâu gâu” in Vietnamese In the end, the cultural factor still plays a prominent role in the translation of onomatopoeic words be it in comic strips or other types of texts Therefore, it is clear that various aspects in the comic genre can pose a challenge in

translation

2.2.3 Loss and Gain

2.2.3.1 Loss

The generic differences in the two language systems naturally generate loss

on all levels Baker (1992) refers to loss as "omission of a lexical item due to grammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language" (p.40) If the meaning

conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development

of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can

do simply omit translating the word or expression in question

2.2.3.2 Gain

Gain, on the other hand, is very rare, if ever, because, as Bassnett (2002)

points out, translation theoreticians as well as practitioners are mainly concerned with matters of equivalence This author also says that “ignoring what can also be gained, for the translator can at times enrich or clarify the SL text Moreover, what is often seen as ‘lost’ from the SL context may be replaced in the TL context” (p.38) By the same token, Nida and Taber (1974:106) states that “whereas one inevitably loses many idioms in the process of translation, one can also stands to gain a number of idioms”

2.3 SUMMARY

In the above sections in Chapter Two, we have reviewed some aspects in translation The first aspect of language and culture has provided together with background of translation Besides that, the issues related to comic and translating it have been mentioned for the purpose of highlighting the reason why the researcher choose the comic to analyze in this study The other aspects about translation in terms

of Loss and Gain theory have been presented with an aim to be a foundation for the researcher to conduct the research Based on these points, we will exploit the generalizations of how the translating methods are rendered and analyze the loss and gain when this comic is translated from English into Vietnamese based on the

semantic features of lexicon of phrases and sentences

Chapter Three METHODOLOGY

This chapter with four main sections is presented with the aim of introducing the methodology of the study This chapter begins with the presentation of research design which is followed by data collection and data analysis The next section provides the research methods The last section with the reliability and validity of the study is also displayed

Qualitative method, according to Silverman (2001), can present the insights behind the numbers and facts to clarify different layers of meaning conveyed by the speaker In linguistics, applying qualitative method tends to be the most appropriate choice of language researchers, who use it as the tool to encounter the multiple meanings as well as the value patterns that quantitative method cannot express (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) The qualitative method in this study was expressed in analyzing the data consisting of loss and gain in translation by using translation strategies, describing and discussing kinds of losses and gains found both in SL and

Quantitative method was applied to measure ‘how much’ and ‘how many’ of the case study (Rasinger, 2013: 10) This author states that quantitative method deals with different mathematical types, such as numbers, charts, graphs, and statistics The quantitative method in this study is firstly used in collecting documents in Vietnamese and English Version Secondly it is used to count the number of loss and gain by using each translation strategies Charts and tables would be used to illustrate the popularity

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

3.2.1 Data collection

The data were taken from a comic entitled “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin

in America” in English version by Leslie and Michael and Vietnamese version entitled “Những chuyến phiêu lưu của Tintin: Tintin trên đất Mỹ” by Nguyen Huy

Thien Words as well as phrases and sentences will be tested and identified according

to the strategies proposed by Baker and Newmark

The researcher focuses on the utterances written in the source language comic and the target language comic which show the loss and gain in its translation process One utterance is in one bubble, and as the result, the researcher found 690 utterances

of the comic in English and 690 utterances of Vietnamese versions

The following are typical examples of utterance which the reseacher took from the two version:

Example 1: (From English Data)

(From Vietnamese Data)

Example 2: (From English Data)

(From Vietnamese Data)

3.2.2 Data analysis

Firstly, the English and Vietnamese version of the collected comic chosen from

a comic series “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” is searched to identify

the utterances which influenced by loss and gain in translated comic

Secondly, the investigated utterances were classified and their Vietnamese translation is examined to see how translation is manifested

Thirdly, the data is compared between English and Vietnamese version to identify types of loss and gain by using translation strategies

Fourthly, the types of loss and gain based on translation strategies are recognized; the occurrences of types of loss and gain are worked out counted and presented in the tables

Finally, the result of the frequency was compared with each other and shown

in the charts

3.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

In this study, every attempt to obtain the reliability and validity has been administered

In terms of reliability, as mentioned above, 690 utterances of the comic in English and Vietnamese versions from the books were collected for the data All the

data used for analysis and the utterances are shown with clear and exact references about the authors, name of publishers, time and place of the publication so we assure that what is cited in this study would be exactly the same as it appears in its original material The data were collected from sources which are reliable Additionally, the study was carried out on the basis of the theoretical background of experienced linguists as mentioned in chapter 2, and the procedures of study which would guarantee the consistency of the result of study

In the case of validity, the English and Vietnamese version were selected from well-known sources They were exactly the samples of weather broadcasts that reflect what reseracher really wished to measure concerning the qualitative information the study sought for the research questions so the process of data analysis leading to findings of the thesis is definitely valid

Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter provides with the findings and discussion of the study The results

of the study will be clarified through pictures, tables and charts Some discussion

related to the loss and gain in the comic “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” that has been translated into Vietmase version “Những chuyến phiêu lưu của Tintin: Tintin trên đất Mỹ” are also given in this chapter

After using the strategies proposed by Baker, we examined the semantic

features of the words and phrases in Vietnamese version of “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” in contrast to original texts in English All of loss and gain with

the typical strategies used by the translator in this comic are illustrated from the highest to the lowest Finally, as a summary of findings, all metrics will be represented

by graphs

The researcher has examined the Vietnamese and English collections of the

comic “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America”, which contained 690

Vietnamese utterances and 690 English utterances, the researcher concludes that in this thesis the process of loss and gain can be found The process of loss and gain gives the effects to the readers to catch the messages of the SL to the TL easily

Then the researcher found 134 patterns of loss and gain in the comic by using semantic strategies In this part we just focus on the strategies that cause loss and gain during the translation of this work It can be divided into two parts The first part is the loss process The researcher found 113 pattern, they are 82 or 73 % patterns of loss in translation omission, 8 or 8 % patterns of loss in translation by a more neutral/less expressive word, 7 or 6% patterns of loss by cultural substitution, 6 and 5% patterns of loss by a more general word and 6 or 5% patterns of loss by using loan word without explanation

The second part is gain process The researcher only found 21 patterns of gain process in this study They are 17 or 81 % of gain in translation by using paraphrase