an investigation into loss and gain in english vietnamese translational version of the book

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANGUNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES TRAN THI THU HUONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL VERSION OF THE BOOK “HAPPY TEA

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRAN THI THU HUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN

IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL VERSION OF THE BOOK “HAPPY TEACHERS CHANGE THE WORLD” BY THICH NHAT HANH

AND KATHERINE WEARE

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES

OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Da Nang, 2020

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRAN THI THU HUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN

IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL VERSION OF THE BOOK “HAPPY TEACHERS CHANGE THE WORLD” BY THICH NHAT HANH

AND KATHERINE WEARE

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES

OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI THU HUONG PhD.

Da Nang, 2020

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that this thesis “AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS ANDGAIN IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL VERSION OF THEBOOK “HAPPY TEACHERS CHANGE THE WORLD” BY THICH NHATHANH AND KATHERINE WEARE” is my own work and effort and that it has notbeen submitted for the award of any degree or diploma

Where other sources of information have been used, they have beenacknowledged

Danang, May 2020Signature

Tran Thi Thu Huong

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I am deeply grateful for being guided by my supervisor DoctorNguyen Thi Thu Huong, who has motivated me throughout the entire process of thethesis and given all of the constructive and valuable comments, “My belovedteacher, you always arouse my spirit to do the thesis Thanks a lot for encouraging

me by your patience and kindness Words fail to express my thankfulness to you”

I take this opportunity to extend my special thanks to all of the lecturers of theEnglish Department, Danang University of Foreign Languages Studies, from whom Ihave learnt a lot

I also want to express my deepest thanks to my sweet family for their endlessgreat love, motivation, and support Especially, I would like to send love to myhusband, who is always by my side, listen to me, understand me and help me toovercome tough times

This thesis could not have been completed without the assistance and kindness

of many people I thus would like to give my sincere thanks to all friends who havedirectly or indirectly shared with me in this journey, which I cannot mention one byone Millions thanks!

Last but not least, I truly realize that this thesis is still far from perfection.Thus, I will always appreciate for the coming constructive comments from thereaders Hopefully, this research will give many advantages to all of people who arefond of discovering the beauty of language, especially translation

The objectives of this study are to identify loss and gain in the VietnameseTranslation of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World” and examine factorscausing loss and gain in the process of translating from English to Vietnamese Thestudy adopts a descriptive approach, using a combination of qualitative andquantitative data Firstly, one hundred samples taken from the two books wereexamined to see how translation was manifested according to Catford’s translationshifts model The researcher found most of the types suggested by Catford Thentypes of loss and gain were analyzed and described According to the analysis, losswas more popular than gain The most significant process was loss and gain inmeaning, which account for 23 % and 12 % respectively Totally, the percentage ofthis process is 35 % Additionally, factors causing loss and gain in the process oftranslating are presented Finally, implications and suggestions for further study areput forward This master thesis is expected to be helpful for translators, Englishteachers and students

Keywords: Happy teachers change the world, Catford's model, translation

shifts, loss and gain, factors causing loss and gain

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2

1.2.1 Aims 2

1.2.2 Objectives 3

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

1.5 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS 3

1.6 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY 4

1.7 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

Chapter Two THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1.1 What is Translation? 6

2.1.2 Types of Translation 8

2.1.3 Principles of Translation 10

2.1.4 What is Equivalence? 12

2.1.5 Loss and Gain in Translation 15

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW 17

2.3 SUMMARY 20

Chapter three RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 21

3.2 SAMPLING 22

3.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 22

3.4 DATA COLLECTION 23

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS 23

Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 TYPES OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS 25

4.1.1 Level Shifts 25

4.1.2 Category Shifts 28

4.2 FREQUENCY OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS 36

4.3 TYPES OF LOSS AND GAIN 36

4.3.1 Loss and Gain in Lexis 36

4.3.2 Loss and Gain in Structure 41

4.3.3 Loss and Gain in Meaning 44

4.3.3.2 Gain in Meaning 45

4.5 FREQUENCY OF LOSS AND GAIN 49

4.6 FACTORS AFFECT LOSS AND GAIN IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATING FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE 50

4.5.1 Linguistic Differences 51

4.5.2 Cultural Features 52

4.5.3 Religious Dominance 53

4.6 SUMMARY 54

Chapter Five CONCLUSION - IMPLICATIONS -SUGGESTIONS 56

5.1 CONCLUSIONS OF THE FINDINGS 56

5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING TRANSLATION 58 5.3 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 60

5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 60

QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (Bản sao)

LIST OF TABLES

Number of

Table Name of Table Page

4.1 Occurrence and Percentage of Shifts in Level Shifts 284.2 Occurrence and Percentage of Shifts 364.3 Occurrence and Percentage of Loss and Gain 50

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher presents the reasons for conducting this study Besides, fundamental objectives of the study are identified The research questions, significance, scope and structure of this paper are also clearly presented in this part.

1.1 RATIONALE

Translation is not just a transference of words or expressions from onelanguage to another but rather a communication of the meaning and culture of asource language (SL) text by means of the closest equivalence of a target language(TL) text (Pym, 2010; Munday 2008; Hatim & Mason, 2005; Bell, 1991; Newmark,1988; Nida, 1982) Therefore, translators must clearly understand the linguisticaspects of SL and TL in terms of lexical, semantic, and pragmatic meanings, known

as explicit and implicit meanings In fact, the translation of the implicit meanings isone of the most common problems and most difficult tasks that translators usuallyface since they lie under the cultural signs The implicit meaning refers to thespeaker’s intention rather than literal words Such meaning can be understoodthrough the extra-linguistic aspects of language Moreover, this meaning cannot beunderstood literally without taking the socio-cultural and situational contexts intoaccount (Baker, 2011; Malmkjaer, 2011, Nida, 2001) It represents all aspects of life,the totality of meanings, ideas, and beliefs shared by individuals among the samecommunity Consequently, the ways of translating English into Vietnamese becomesgreatly concerned among readers and translators This is the primary reason why theresearcher chooses to deeply investigate this field One of the central problems in thefield of translation is translation shifts Basing on the theory of translation shifts, thestudy analyses loss and gain in the translation process In order to remain the originalmeaning in the source language, the translator might adopt a variety of approaches tomake some changes in the target language During this process, loss and gain mightoccur According to Peter Newmark (1988), Gain refers to the addition of words in

the translated texts, while Loss tends to shorten and simplify the translated texts Itcan be seen, loss and gain are popular phenomena in translation; however, a deepinvestigation into this field is still necessary

Moreover, English has been considered as a key tool to help students go further

in their academic study, develop their profession and integrate into global world;therefore, teaching and learning English is of considerable importance Despitepositive changes, teaching and learning English in Vietnam in these days are stillfacing a lot of challenges The English capacity of Vietnamese students still needs alot of improvement According to the executive manager of Project 2020, 98% ofVietnamese students study English for seven years (from grade 6 to grade 12, age11-18), but cannot use it for basic communication (Nhan, 2013) The researcher ofthis study has witnessed that many teachers have tried really hard, even someteachers suffer from burnouts in classroom but students have shown littleimprovement in learning English This made the researcher have a great desire to dosomething to help other teachers through implementing a research related to Englishtranslation of a teaching guide Among various kinds of books, the researcher usesthe book written by two outstanding educators Thich Nhat Hanh and KatherineWeare

For these above reasons, the researcher decided to conduct this paper entitled

An Investigation into Loss and Gain in English -Vietnamese Translational Version of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World” by Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare, which is translated into Vietnamese by a group of translators

including Chan Hoi Nghiem, Chan Thuan Khanh, Chan Ky Nghiem and Chan TaiNghiem

1.2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This research is aimed at finding out loss and gain in the VietnameseTranslation of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World” Additionally, in thisstudy, implications and suggestions are put forward in order that English teachers,

students, translators and scholars can benefit from this research

1.2.2 Objectives

The objectives of the present research paper are as follows:

- To identify the loss and gain occurring in the Vietnamese translation of thebook “Happy Teachers Change the World”

- To examine factors causing loss and gain in the process of translating fromEnglish to Vietnamese

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study focuses on the translation of the book: “Happy Teachers Change theWorld” by Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare In this study, loss and gain areidentified, analyzed and discussed Additionally, translation shifts are figured out tosee how the ST and TT are different

Loss and Gain in Translation

Baker (1992: 40) refers to loss as "omission of a lexical item due togrammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language" 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

Gain, on the other hand, is very rare, if ever, because, as Bassnett (2002) pointsout, translation theoreticians as well as practitioners are mainly concerned withmatters of equivalence and the like, “Ignoring what can also be gained, for thetranslator 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”

1.6 JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY

The investigation of this nature is unlikely to have been done in Vietnambefore; therefore, a research in this area is not a pure repetition of previous researchbut is expected to shed some light on the theoretical as well as practical issues intranslation studies

1.7 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The paper consists of five chapters as follows:

- Chapter One - “Introduction” - includes the rationale, justification for the

study, scope of the study, aims and objectives, research questions, definition of termsand the organization of the study

-Chapter Two - “Literature Review and Theoretical Background” - presents

a review on previous studies in the area of translation shifts, loss and gain Thetheoretical background related to the thesis is also provided

-Chapter Three - “Research Design and Methodology” - shows the research

methods, data collection, data analysis and research procedures of the study

-Chapter Four - “Findings and Discussions” - the main section of the study,

reports on the analysis of the data collected to answer research questions

-Chapter Five “Conclusion Implications Recommendations”

summarizes the major findings of the study In addition, some implications for betterunderstanding of translational book are drawn, as well as some recommendations forfurther studies suggested

Chapter Two THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter describes the theoretical background for this study This chapter represents conceptual framework of previous studies related to the concepts of translation, equivalence, translation shift, loss and gain The final part summarizes the chapter and highlights the research gaps in which this study locates itself.

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 What is Translation?

The concept of translation has been of particular concern to researchers since itplays an important part in all aspects of life such as art, literature especially inlanguage teaching and learning Translation has been defined in a variety of ways.Translation according to the 8th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is:

“The process of changing something that is written or spoken into another language

It is an expression in another language; it is a creative and meaningful rewriting andsubsuming activities such as paraphrasing, reviewing, commenting etc” (p 1573).The English word "translation" derives from the Latin word translatio, (Vélez, Fabio

Antes de Babel, pp.3-21) which comes from trans, "across" + ferre, "to carry" or "to

bring" (-latio in turn coming from latus, the past participle of ferre) Thus translatio is

"a carrying across" or "a bringing across": in this case, of a text from one language toanother (Christopher Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p 83.) According toMayoral (2001, p 45), there are as many definitions as there are authors who havewritten on the subject Such diversity is due to the fact that translation is amultifaceted term It can refer to: a) the general subject field, b) the product (the textthat has been translated) or, c) the process (the act of actually carrying out atranslation, otherwise known as translating) (Munday, 2001, pp 4-5)

A number of scholars have presented their own views of translation definition

Translation is an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural andlinguistic boundaries, another act of communication (Hatim and Mason, 1997: p1).Translation is to be understood as the process whereby a message expressed in aspecific source language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood byreaders of the target language"(Houbert1998, p1) Translation involves the transfer ofmeaning from a text in one language into a text in another language (Bell, 1991,p.8) Translation is a process of communication whose objective is to import theknowledge of the original to the foreign reader (Levy, 1967, p.148) Translation isthe act of transferring through which the content of a text is transferred from the SLinto the TL (Foster, 1958, p 1) Translation is a transfer process, which aims at thetransformation of a written SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and whichrequires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analyticalprocessing of the SL (Wilss, 1982, p 3) Translation is the replacement of textmaterial of this language (source language) with text material of another (targetlanguage) (Cartford, 1965, p 20).

Translation is considered as a science, an art, and also a skill (Chukovskii,1984; Newmark, 1988; Miremadi, 1991; Zaixi, 1997) In a scientific sense, it requiresfull background understanding of the structures of the languages (Toury, 1982) Interms of art, it necessitates the artistic talent to transfer the ST to be an accessibleproduct to the readers of another language (Miremadi, 1991; Chukovskii, 1984) Onthe aspect of skill, it associates with the acts of smoothing to overcome anydifficulties in the translation process, and also introduces the translation of what doesnot exist in the TL (Zaixi, 1997; Newmark, 1988)

As a discipline, the name “translation studies” was proposed by the scholarJames Holmes (1972) This term was widely accepted because it consideredtranslation as a broad discipline moving emphasis to other areas of translation such asinterpreting and translator training Translation is not simply the process of filling thelinguistic gaps between the ST and the TT, but also the „spaces psycho physiologicalencounter with the text’ (Scott, 2006, p 4) In other words, the process of

comprehension should go ahead before embarking upon translation (Seleskovitch,1976).

Leppihalme (1997) states that translation is a skill to fill the intercultural gapsand intertextual communication of the cultural bumps Evans (2008, p 155) says that

„a translation is the performance of the source text in a different language’ Anotherclassic way to define translation is to find the equivalents in the TL for the words inthe original one (Sa'edi, 2004) Sharing the same point of view, Nord (2007, p 182)states that „translation is the production of a functional TT maintaining relationshipwith a given ST that is specified according to the intended or demanded function ofthe TT’ She highlights the role of culture in translation arguing that culture is moreimportant than language because it affects the way people understand each other Inher opinion, if the translator does not know a country’s cultural codes, the best way isnot to translate a text

In my view, translation is the process of creating an equivalent version in the

TL to not only transfer the meaning of the work in the SL, but also deliver its culturalvalues

2.1.2 Types of Translation

Translation has been defined in a variety of ways by different scholars in thefield, depending on their perceptions and how they look at translation in a specificcontext According to Larson (1984, p 15) translation is classified into two maintypes, namely form-based translation and meaning-based translation Forms-basedtranslation attempts to follow the form of the source language (SL) and it is known asliteral translation, while meaning-based translation makes every effort tocommunicate the meaning of the SL text in the natural forms of the receptorlanguage Such translation is called idiomatic translation A literal translation soundslike nonsense and has little communication value (Larson, 1984, p.15) Literaltranslation can be understood if the general grammatical form of the two languages issimilar Larson (1984, p 16) says that idiomatic translations use the natural forms ofthe receptor language both in the grammatical constructions and in the choices of

lexical items A truly idiomatic translation does not sound like translation It soundslike it was written originally in the receptor language Therefore, a good translatorwill try to translate idiomatically This is his/her goal.

Catford (1965, p 21) divides translation into 3 elements including extent, level,and ranks

Based on the extent, the types of translation are:

1) Full translation, it is a type of translation in which the entire SL text isreproduced by the TL text materials

2) Partial translation, there are only some parts of the SL text to be translatedinto the TL text

In terms of level, the types of translation include:

1) Total translation, the TL material replaces all levels of the SL text

2) Restricted translation, it is the replacement of SL textual material withequivalent TL material at only one level; whether at the phonological level, graphlogical level, or at the level of grammar and lexis

In terms of rank, translation is divided into:

1) Rank-bound translation: The selection of TL text equivalent is limited atonly one rank, such as word-for-word equivalence, morpheme-for-morphemeequivalence, etc

2) Unbounded translation: Translation can move freely up and down the scale

rank-Based on the purposes of translation, Brislin in Choliludin (2007, pp 26-30)categorizes translation into four types, namely:

1) Pragmatic translation refers to the translation of a message with an interest inaccuracy of the information that was meant to be conveyed in the SL form and it isnot conveyed with other aspects of the original language version, for example, thetranslation of the information about repairing a machine

2) Aesthetic-poetic translation refers to translation in which the translator takesinto account the affect, emotion, and feeling of an original version, the aesthetic form

used by the original author, as well as any information in the message, for example,the translation of sonnet, rhyme, heroic couplet, dramatic dialogue, and novel.

3) Ethnographic translation: its purpose is to explicate the cultural context ofthe SL and TL versions Translators have to be sensitive to the way words are usedand must know how the word fits into cultures

4) Linguistic translation is concerned with equivalent meanings of theconstituent morphemes of the SL and grammatical form, for example, language in acomputer program and translation machine

Classification of translation in Brislin’s viewpoint is varied, depending on thepurposes of the translators and how they are going to render the meaning of theoriginal text into target language to fit their objectives Remarkably, this authormentions factors in aesthetic-poetic translation, in which the translator expresses his

or her emotion or feeling

a Is the meaning of the original text clear?

b If not, where does the uncertainty lie?

c Are any words loaded, that is, are there any underlying implications?

d Is the dictionary meaning of a particular word the most suitable one?

e Does anything in the translation sound unnatural or forced?

2 The ordering of words and ideas in the translation should match the original

as closely as possible (This is probably essential in translating legal documents,guarantees, contracts, etc) But differences in language structure often requirechanges in the form and order of words

3 Languages often differ greatly in their level of formality in a specific

context To resolve these differences, the translator must distinguish between formal

or fixed expressions and personal expressions in which the writer or speaker sets thetone

4 Many translations do not sound natural This is because the translator’sthoughts and choices of words are too strongly influenced by the original text Agood way to avoid this is to set the text aside and translate a few sentences frommemory in order to get the natural patterns of thought in the target language

5 The translator should not change the style of the original as much aspossible Changes are likely to happen if it necessary such as, many repetitions ormistakes in writing

6 Idiomatic expressions including similes, metaphors, proverbs, sayings,jargon, slang, colloquialisms, and phrasal verbs are commonly hard to translate Tosolve this problem, try any of the following

a Keep the original word between inverted commas

b Keep the original expression, with a literal explanation in brackets

c Use a close equivalent

d Use a non-idiomatic or plain prose translation

But what is the most essential is that if the idiom does not work in the targetlanguage; translators should not put it into the translation

Duff mentions that his book is not a theoretical work; instead, it's a teachingresourcehandbook The principles he proposes from my point of view are open to somedegree of question or debate Especially principle number 5, in which he claims thatthe translator should not change the style of the original As there are manydifferences between ST and TT, translators need to make some adjustments to makethe translated texts more appropriate

2.1.4 What is Equivalence?

As a necessary component of translation theories in the 1960s and 1970s,equivalence was meant to indicate that source text and target text, share some kind ofsameness Equivalence can be seen at various levels, from word to textual level

Equivalence may occur due to semantic, socio-cultural, and grammatical samenessbetween the source language and the target language Therefore, equivalence can bedivided into different types as presented in the next part.

2.1.4.1 Types of Equivalence

Equivalence is classified in different ways According to Nida (2001, p 41)divides equivalence is divided into two types The first is formal equivalence, whichfocuses on the message of a text, both in its form and content The mainconsideration is the message in the target language should closely match as good aspossible to the different elements in the source language

- Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form andcontent It requires that the message in the target language should match as closely aspossible the different elements in the source language

- Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where therelationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same asthat which existed between the original receptors and the message

Baker (1992, p.5) categorizes equivalence into following classes at the level ofword, phrase, grammar, text and pragmatics:

- Equivalence at word level: explores the meaning of single word

- Above word level: explores a group of words, combinations of words andphrases (stretches of language)

- Grammatical equivalence: explores grammatical relationship Baker explainsthat the difference of grammar could cause the missing or adding of information inthe translated message, depending on grammatical features, such as number, tense,voice, person, or gender

-Textual equivalence: explores the aspects of information and cohesion of text

in translation Baker argues that there are three main factors influencing the wayshow the translators render the meaning of the text including target audience, thepurpose of translation, and text types

- Pragmatic equivalence: explores lexical relationship linked to various parts of

text, and on how texts are positioned in communicative situations Pragmaticequivalence is affected by many aspects such as writers’ style and cultural context.For example: how texts are used in communicative situations that involve variablessuch as writers, readers, and cultural settings.

Different from the point of view of Baker, who mainly focuses on thepragmatics and grammatical features of text in setting equivalence, Munday (2001, p.47), whose approach is based on the concepts of context and discourse describesthese five different types of equivalence as follows:

- Denotative equivalence is related to equivalence of the extralinguistic content of a text Denotative equivalence is one in whichthe SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the real world This isthe referential identity between SL and TL units This is equivalence

of the extra linguistic content of a text, otherwise called „contentinvariance.” For instance, a tiger, Eiffel Tower

- Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especiallybetween near-synonyms The connotation transmitted by means ofthe word choices (especially where there is a specific choice betweensynonymous expressions), with respect to level of style, the socialand geographical dimension, frequency, etc It is also called “Stylisticequivalence”

- Text-normative equivalence is related to text types, with textsbehaving in different ways Text - normative equivalence relates totext-type specific features or text and language norms for given texttypes

- Pragmatic equivalence, or 'communicative equivalence', is orientedtowards the receiver of the text or message

- Formal equivalence is related to the form and aesthetics of the text,includes word plays and the individual stylistic features of the sourcetext It focuses on the form of the text: rhythm, verse form, special

stylistic forms of expression in syntax and lexis, word play,metaphor It is particularly common in translation of poems, songs,etc and this type of equivalence is also called „expressiveequivalence”.

While efforts have been made to identify and establish equivalence amonglanguages, some scholars observe linguistic and cultural transfer in terms of shiftsand loss and gain, which are the key concepts employed in this study The nextsection presents Catford’s shifts and types of losses and gains

2.1.4.2 Catford ‘s Shifts

In the book “A Linguistic Theory to Translation”, Catford introducedtranslation shifts, which was his considerable contribution to the translation theory.Catford (1965, p.73) defines them as departures from formal correspondence whentranslating from the SL to the TL Moreover, he maintains that there are two maintypes of translation shifts, level shifts and category shifts

The first one is level shifts in which an SL item at one linguistic level, forexample grammar, has a TL equivalent at a different level, for instance lexis Thesecond one is category shifts with four sub-types (Catford, 1965, pp 75-78):

- Structure-shifts, which involve a grammatical change between the structure ofthe ST and that of the TT; for instance: a passive voice structure in ST is changedinto an active voice in TT

- Class-shifts, when a SL item is translated with a TL item which belongs to adifferent grammatical class, a noun phrase may be translated with an adjectivephrase For example: the noun phrase “Greater fierceness” in English was translatedinto “hung tợn hơn”, an adjective in Vietnamese

- Unit-shifts, which involve changes in rank; in which the translation of a unit

at one rank in the SL is a unit at different rank in the TL

- Intra-system shifts, refers to the shifts that occurs internally, within thesystem; that is for those cases where the source and the target language possesssystems which approximately correspond formally as to their constitution, but when

translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the target languagesystem.

Obviously, shifts bring about certain changes in the translation including lossand gain

2.1.5 Loss and Gain in Translation

Due to differences between the source language and the target language, thereare loss and gain in translation Basnett-McGuire (1991) states that once the principle

is accepted that sameness cannot exist between the two languages, it is possible toapproach the question of loss and gain in the translation process (p.30) Bell (1991,p.6) suggests a similar point that 'something' is always lost or, one might suggest,gained in the process Sharing the same view with Bell, Nida (1975, p.27) stressesthat all types of translation involve loss of information, addition of information.Additionally, Nida adds one more element, which is skewing of information.Skewing of information can be explained that when rendering the meaning of themessage from the source language into the target language, an exact equivalence isnot achieved

Therefore, perfect equivalence between two languages is hardly achieved andthere are necessarily some losses and gains during the act of transferring

2.1.5.1 The Concept of Loss

According to Dickins (2002, p 21) translation loss refers to “the incompletereplication of the ST in TT when translator fails to render the entire culturallyrelevant and linguistic features of the (TT)

Baker (1992, p 40) refers to loss as "omission of a lexical item due togrammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language" 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

The notion of loss in translation was defined by Nozizwe and Ncube (2014, p.676) as “the disappearance of certain features in the (TL) text which are present in

the (SL) text”, which means the discrepancies between the two linguistic systemscause some elements of the ST such as its characteristics and information containedwithin to vanish during the process of transferring to the TT As a result, the effects

of the ST will not be the same

2.1.5.2 The Concept of Gain

Gain is a notion that relates to the situation “where the (TT) gains features notpresent in the (ST)” (Louise, Michael &Sandor, 2005,p 16) Sallis (2002, p 89)notes that gain “could only be a matter of expressing the meaning to a greater degree

in the translation as compared with the original” Bassnett- McGuire (2002, p 30)says that language can gain through explanations when saying “The translator can attimes enrich or clarify the source language text as a direct result of the translationprocess Moreover, what is often seen as lost from the source language contextmaybe replaced in the target language context” Similarly, Nozizwe and Ncube(2014, 672) affirm that “gain revolves around the enrichment of the target language”

2.1.6 Types of Loss and Gain

Loss and gain has been one of the main issues in the translation studies formany years However, there are not many scholars focusing on classifying types ofloss and gain The definition and application of loss and gain have been presented ingeneral According to Tiwiyanti and Retnomurti, (2016, p 2) in the study “Loss andGain in Translation of Culture-Specific Items in Ahmad Tohari’s Lintang Kemukus”,there are two kinds of losses The first one is inevitable loss It occurs because of thedivergent systems of the two languages regardless of the skill and competence of thetranslator In this case, the translator usually cannot establish equivalence andtherefore resorts to compensation strategies The second loss is an avertable lossattributed to the translator’s failure to find the appropriate equivalence

Loss and gain happen in regard to Lexis, Structure and Meaning which refer tothe omission or the addition of linguistic features in the TT Loss in lexis relates tothe disappearance of words while gain in lexis occurs when translators add morelexical items in the translated text With regard to loss in structure, grammatical

features in the ST are not retained in the TT Contrary to loss in structure, gain instructure refers to the addition of grammatical structures which do not appear in the

ST Loss in meaning takes place when translators miss any aspects of meaning in the

ST Unlike loss in meaning, gain in meaning occurs when translators provide moredetailed information that does not exist in the SL and transmit the message in SL to

TL more closely

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Several studies have been conducted related to loss and gain in translation TranThi Mai Le (2012) conducted an investigation into loss of meaning in the translationprocess as manifested in the Vietnamese version of “The World is Flat” by Thomas l.Friedman The researcher described and analyzed the collected data for finding outlinguistic and non-linguistic features of loss in meaning through descriptive andanalytical methods She also clearly presented several examples of Loss ofConnotative Meaning, Collocative Meaning, Thematic Meaning and reflectedmeaning According to this study, loss in meaning cannot be considered mistakes but

it refers to phenomena in the process of translation each translator should be aware of

in order to make his/ her product better Clearly whatever kinds of loss in meaningare, they seem to be necessary because they can make the target version smootherand readers can find it more comprehensible and acceptable However, the researchermainly focused on the analyzing the types of loss of meaning occurring inVietnamese version of “The World is Flat” while the types of gain were notinvestigated

Then, Tran Thi Thao Mien (2016) investigated loss and gain in the translation

of conceptual metaphor expressing “self-identity” in Trinh Cong Son (TCS)’s songsinto English The researcher found out loss and gain in the English translations ofcognitive metaphors of Self-identity for a better understanding of cognitivemetaphors in TCS„s songs The results showed that cognitive metaphors of —Self-identity in Trinh Cong Son„s songs are rooted in bodily experiences and inexperiences with culture and physical world Furthermore, results about loss and gain

in the English the translations indicate that loss and gain in such translations in terms

of semantics and syntax are mostly inevitable due to the influence of the sound beats

in the STs, the linguistic and cultural discrepancies between English and Vietnamese.Loss is also caused by strategies employed by the translators such as using a moreneutral/less expressive words, metonymy, and unrelated words and phrases.Misunderstanding the author„s ideas is also a contributory factor for such loss Loss

is more prevalent than gain in the English translations Gain, on the other hand, ismostly realized through expansions or explanations

In the same year, Tran Thi Yen Nhi (2016) examined loss and gain in theVietnamese translation of stylistic devices used in Uncle Tom’s Cabin by HarrietBeecher Stowe The study found that 5 stylistic devices namely simile, repetition,rhetorical question, metaphor, personification were used Nevertheless, it cannot bedenied that due to differences between the two languages, loss and gain phenomenaare unavoidable especially when stylistic devices in the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabinwere translated into Vietnamese

Another research related to this field was done by Huynh Ngoc Thanh (2009),who presented a contrastive analysis of personal pronouns in English and inVietnamese in the view of sociolinguistics to find out loss and gain in the process oftranslating personal pronouns According to this study, sociolinguistic elements(history, culture, psychology) affect loss and gain in the process of translatingpersonal pronouns from English to Vietnamese and vice versa

Loss and gain in translation is also of great concern For instance, LeniTiwiyanti; Ayu Bandu Retnomurti (2016) studied loss and gain in translation ofculture-specific items in Ahmad Tohari’s Lintang Kemukus (Lintang Kemukus is thename of an Indonesian novel, written by Ahmad Tohari) They identified translationprocedures applied in translating Culture-specific items (CSIs) which caused loss andgain in the translation process and to identify how the translator compensated the loss

in translating CSIs They suggested that in order to compensate the loss that mighthave occurred, translator uses some translation procedures They are translation by

loan word with explanation, translation by paraphrase using related word, andtranslation by paraphrase using unrelated word.

The result showed that loss is more prevalent than gain although the translatorhas enough knowledge on the source text culture as he has spent some years doingsome research loss and gain in translation of culture-specific items in Banyumassociety There are two kinds of losses found in this research; inevitable and avertablelosses According to the researchers, inevitable loss occurs because of the divergentsystems of the two languages regardless of the skill and competence of the translator

In this case, translators usually can not establish equivalence and therefore resorts tocompensatory strategies The second loss is an avertable loss attributed to translator’sfailure to find the appropriate equivalence Translation procedures which result inloss in translation are translation by a more general word (subordinate), translation by

a more neutral/less expressive word and translation by cultural substitution Gain isrealized mostly through the creativity of the translator when they are able to explainculture-specific items for effective communication In order to compensate the lossthat might have occurred, translator uses some translation procedures They aretranslation by loan word with explanation, translation by paraphrase using relatedword, and translation by paraphrase using unrelated word

In 2013, Sulistyoko Agustina in the research of Loss and Gain in Translation Process

of a Comic “The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America” into IndonesianVersio“Petualangan Tintin: Tintin di Amerika”, found 129 processes of loss andgain The first part is the loss process The researcher found 110 patterns, they are 33

or 30% patterns of the loss in word level, 62 or 56% patterns of the loss phrase level,and 15 or 14% of the loss related to clauses The researcher only found 19 patterns ofgain process in this study They are 15 or 79% of the gain in word level, and 4 or21% of the in phrase level Meanwhile, the clause class gain is not found by theresearcher in this translated comic

Most of the authors only discussed loss and gain in translation while factors causingloss and gain have not been fully mentioned

Accordingly, this study with the combination between loss and gain analysis andfactors leading to this phenomenon would be of necessity for language learners.

2.3 SUMMARY

This chapter shows that several studies have been carried out to set fundamentaltheories of translation and other fields related to translation including types oftranslation, principles of translation, translation process, equivalence, types ofequivalence, translation shifts, loss and gain in translation Some of the discussions

in this chapter will be used as the framework for the analysis in following chapter

In addition, this chapter has presented a review and synthesis of literaturerelated to previous research regarding loss and gain in translation There is noresearch in Vietnam conducted before to have a look at the loss and gain in thetranslation of the book “Happy Teachers Change the World” by Thich Nhat Hanhand Katherine Weare, which means this research is needed to present a clear andcomprehensive rationale for translation studies

The next part focuses on the methodology of the study

Chapter Three RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter mainly discusses detailed steps carried out throughout the study

by the researcher to answer the research questions and satisfy the objectives of the study An outline of the tools, procedures and materials used to gather data and the description of sampling are also presented.

3.1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

With an attempt to achieve the objectives, the study adopts a descriptiveapproach, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative method Thedescriptive method in the study is employed in chapter four to describe the process oftranslation shifts found in this study Moreover, the method is used to describe thetable of occurrences of loss and gain

According to Silverman (2001), qualitative method, can show the insightsbehind the numbers and facts to clarify different layers of meaning conveyed by thespeaker In linguistics, applying qualitative method tends to be the most appropriatechoice of language researchers, who use it as the tool to encounter the multiplemeanings as well as the value patterns that quantitative method cannot express(Lincoln and Guba, 1985) The qualitative method in this study is expressed inanalyzing the factors affecting loss and gain in the process of translating fromEnglish to Vietnamese in chapter four

Quantitative method is applied to measure „how much’ and „how many’ of thecase study (Rasinger, 2013, p10) The quantitative method in this study is adopted inchapter three to collect samples This method is used in chapter four to count thefrequency of occurrence of translation shifts, loss and gain in this study

3.2. SAMPLING

Samples were taken from the books, including 100 English samples in the book

“Happy Teachers Change the World” and 100 Vietnamese translations in the book

“Thay Co Hanh Phuc Se Thay Doi The Gioi”

The purposive sampling strategy is employed in this study In regard tostrategy, Patton (2002) states that purposive sampling is a technique widely used inqualitative research for the identification and selection of information-rich cases forthe most effective use of limited resources (Patton, 2002) As for purposive sampling,Sugiyono (2007) claims that purposive sampling allows the researcher to collect thedata or deliberately choose the data source due to certain considerations, which fitsthe research objectives of the present study The research adopts this method ofsampling in order to choose samples based on the following classification criteria: Asample can be a phrase, a collocation or a sentence with the condition that there is atleast one difference between the original text and its translated text This differenceincludes any linguistic features relating to grammatical and lexical aspects Despitethe fact that samples do not represent all the attributes of the population, they coverthe basic characteristics of typical translated text found in the book This way ofselecting samples enables the researcher to meet the objectives of the study

3.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY

In terms of reliability, as mentioned above, English samples in the book

“Happy Teachers Change the World” and 100 Vietnamese translations in the book

“Thay Co Hanh Phuc Se Thay Doi The Gioi” were collected The data were collectedfrom sources which are reliable The English samples were taken from the book

“Happy Teachers Change the World”, published in 2017 by Parallax Press, Berkeley,California The Vietnamese ones were taken from the translated book “ Thầy CôHạnh Phúc Sẽ Thay Đổi Thế Giới”, published in 2018 by Thai Ha book and Ha NoiPublishing Additionally, the study was carried out on the basis of the

theoretical background as mentioned in chapter 2, and theprocedures of study which would guarantee the consistency ofthe result of study.

In terms of validity, all English and Vietnamese samples were selected in arecent period from 2017-2018 and from well-known publisher They were exactly thesamples that reflect what researcher really wished to measure concerning thequalitative information to serve the research questions All findings in this thesiswere clarified from clear evidence, statistics and frequencies For that reason, thevalidity was also confirmed

3.4. DATA COLLECTION

The researcher read the book thoroughly to collect all the samples in the book

“Happy Teachers Change the World” and in the Vietnamese translation as mentioned

in sampling The data collection procedure was carried out as illustrated in thefollowing flow chart

Figure 3.1 Data Collection Procedure

3.5. DATA ANALYSIS

_ Firstly, the English samples were collected from the book;

_ Secondly, the data taken from English and Vietnamese versions werecompared to identify types of translation shifts;

_ Thirdly, the identified types of translation shifts, loss and gain were soughtand described from the data;

_ Fourthly, the occurrences of loss and gain are worked out; the result of thefrequency was compared with each other and shown in the pie charts The frequency

of each type of loss and gain was counted manually These procedures

were adopted to meet the objectives of the study and to answer the researchquestions;

_ Finally, the researcher interprets the data.

All in all, this chapter presents justifications of the researcher for the purposivesampling, data collection procedure with five stages and data analysis method thatthis study employed

Chapter Four

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In chapter four, shifts occurring during the translation of the book “Happy Teachers Change the World” are analyzed Each type of translation shifts is discussed and explained, and then they are shown by a table and a pie chart The occurrence of Loss and Gain is figured out and the results of the frequency were demonstrated by a pie chart After the data analysis, factors affecting Loss and Gain are identified The final part is a summary of the findings.

4.1 TYPES OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS

This section presents the most frequent type of translation shifts according toCatford’s model of translation shifts in the translation of the book

4.1.1 Level Shifts

Catford (1965, p 73) defined „level shifts’ as the change that takes place when

“an SL item at one linguistic level has a TL equivalent at a different level” Heexplained that shifts from „grammar to lexis’ are “the only possible level-shifts intranslation; and such shifts are, of course, quite common” In other words, agrammatical item in the SL is expressed using a word in the TL or vice versa

4.1.1.1 Shift from Grammar to Lexis

This subcategory of level shifts relates to the change from a grammatical item

in the ST to a lexical item (i.e word) in the TT

In order to translate the plural nouns in English into Vietnamese, “các” can beused before a noun, which is demonstrated in the following phrase

Example 1:

Grammar -es

Lexis các

Contemplative approaches Các phương pháp quán niệm

p 41, book 1

It is clear from the above examples that in the English language, the morpheme

“-s” or “-es” is added to indicate the plural form of a noun while there is no change inthe form of Vietnamese noun whether it is singular or plural The words such as “các”,

“những” are served as plural markers

Moreover, translators often add markers such as “sự”, “việc”, to a noun asfollows:

Example 2:

Grammar -ing

Lexis Việc

Our teaching of mindfulness will not Việc giảng dạy chánh niệm không phải

always go according to plan lúc nào cũng suôn sẻ như những gì

chúng ta mong muốn

p 108, book 2

In the above example, it can be seen that in English, the verb present participle

morpheme: ing is added to the verb teaching to create a noun In Vietnamese, the marker “việc” is used to indicate a noun From the researcher„s observation, “ sự’ is

another marker, preferred by translators

Example 3:

Grammar -sion

Lexis Sự

helping us to listen in an open and

nonjudgmental way with kindness,

compassion, and empathy

Giúp ta mở lòng lắng nghe, với tình

thương, sự thấu cảm mà không phán xét

p 103, book 2

Example 4:

You can talk with them, and get together

more often with them to be able to

continue the practice.

Chúng ta phải đến với nhau để có thể

tiếp tục sự thực tập.

p 27, book 1

In the ST, the word “practice” can be a verb and a noun The article “the” before “practice” indicates that it is a noun While in the TT, it is rendered into Vietnamese with the nominal marker “Sự”.

Example 5:

The more meditative practices of

awareness of breath develop an ability

to remain calm, and present, grounded

and with focused attention

Sự thực tập ý thức về hơi thở làm phát

triển khả năng giữ sự điềm tĩnh, an trú,

vững chaĩ và tập trung

p 63, book 1

The noun phrase “meditative practices” in the SL is transferred into “sự thực

tập ý thức” in TL As illustrated in the above example, the translators add the word

“những” as a Vietnamese nominal marker to indicate the plural form of the noun.

However, in this case, the words “ những” or “ các” are not used so the plural

element does not exist in the TT This translation is still comprehensible without

affecting the meaning of the original text.

4.1.1.2 Shift from Lexis to Grammar

This level shift deals with a change from a lexical item (word) in the ST to agrammatical item (i.e part of the linguistic structure) in the TT In the collected data,there is no shift from lexis to grammar

The following table shows the statistics of all observed level shifts occurring inthe collected data

Table 4.1 Occurrence and Percentage of Shifts in Level Shifts

Level shifts Occurrence Percentage

Shifts from grammar to lexis 26 26%

Shifts from lexis to grammar 0 0%

in English into the plural marker in Vietnamese For instance, the translators added the

word “những”, “ các” as a Vietnamese nominal marker to indicate the plural form of the noun In English, the verb present participle morpheme: ing was added to the verb

to create a noun In Vietnamese, the marker “việc” or „ sự” was used to indicate a

noun

4.1.2 Category Shifts

According to Catford (1965, p 80), category shift means change from the formalcorrespondence in translation Furthermore, it is divided into structure shift, classshift, unit shift, and intra - system shift

4.1.2.1 Structure Shift

Structure shifts are defined by Catford (1965) as the changes in the grammatical