An investigation into difficulties facing 3rd year students in translating english noun phrases into vietnamese = khó khăn của sinh viên năm thứ 3 trong dịch cụm danh từ tiếng anh sang tiếng việt

NGUYÔN THÞ Hµ AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES ENGLISH NOUN PHRASEs INTO VIETNAMESE kh¶o s¸t nh÷ng KHã KH¡N CñA SINH VI£N N¡M THø 3 chuyªn ng÷ TRONG DÞCH CôM DANH tõ Tõ TIÕNG ANH SA

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

…………000…………

NGUYÔN THÞ Hµ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES

ENGLISH NOUN PHRASEs INTO VIETNAMESE

(kh¶o s¸t nh÷ng KHã KH¡N CñA SINH VI£N N¡M THø 3 chuyªn ng÷ TRONG DÞCH CôM DANH tõ Tõ TIÕNG ANH SANG TIÕNG VIÖT)

GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: TRANSLATION

Vinh – 2008

VINH UNIVErsity FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

AN INVESTIGATION INTO DIFFICULTIES

ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES INTO VIETNAMESE

(kh¶o s¸t nh÷ng KHã KH¡N CñA SINH VI£N N¡M THø 3 chuyªn

ng÷ TRONGDÞCH CôM DANH tõ Tõ TIÕNG ANH SANG TIÕNG VIÖT)

GRADUATION theSis FIELD: TRANSLATion

Supervisor : NguyÔn ThÞ TuyÕt Hång, M.A

Student : NguyÔn thÞ Hµ

Class : K44 E2 - Anh

Vinh – 2008

I am grateful to students of the course 46 for their help and support for my research thesis

Finally, my warmest thanks are due to my family members and friends for encouragement and support during the time that I study

Vinh, May 2008

NguyÔn ThÞ Hµ

1.2.1 Definitions of English noun phrases 7 1.2.2 Structure of English noun phrases 8

3.2.2 Implications for learning translation of English noun phrases 35

PART III CONCLUSION

2 Suggestions for further stydy research 37

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Justification of the study

Translation was main means of communication between prominent men of letters and, to a lesser degree, philosophers and scientists and their educated readers abroad, whilst trade was conducted in the language of the dominant nation,and diplomacy The setting of a new international company, gives translation enhanced importance Thus, translation/interpreting courses open everywhere

But there is a fact that problems facing learners during their translation learning are enormous Newmark (1988a, 1988b) identifies some problems of translation such as the transfer of technical style, constraints of register, nature and formality of text Other problems include acquisition of source text to choose intended text, the transfer of meaning, and the access of target language Another fact is that during their translation courses students at Vinh University are introduced and work on a lot of technical texts whose typical feature is a very high occurence frequency of noun phrases Being a student the researcher is aware of difficulties facing translation learners resulting from those noun phrases The difficulties are long lasting and not easy to cope with It is obvious that failure to translate technical texts ussually originated from failure to translate complex English noun phrases

Furthermore, to my best understanding, few researches have been done on students‟ difficulties relating to translation of complex noun phrases Therefore, this study is conducted and is intended to be an effort contributing to filling this

“empty” area

2 Aims of the study

In general, when carrying out a study, author often thinks about its aims

In this study, the author‟ s aims are:

- Identify common difficulties facing 3rd year English major in translating English noun phrases

- Explain major causes of these difficulties

- Put forth some implications for translation teaching and learning of English noun phrases

3 Research questions of the study

The study is carried out in order to answer the following questions:

- What difficulties face 3rd year English students in translation of English noun phrases, especifically complex noun phrases?

- What are the causes of those difficulties?

- What suggestions can be made to translation teaching and learning of English noun phrases ?

4 The subjects of the study

The study is carried out among 80 3rd year English students of the Foreign Language Department, Vinh University These students is asked to do a translation test in 60 minutes and some of them are randomly chosen to participate in interviews The number of female students outweights male students

These students are generally between the upper-intermediate and the advanced levels of English They have been learning English since high school and learning translation for at least two years at University In the first year, they were taught the very first things about translation to know what translation is and practised doing translation of separate sentences In the 2nd year, translation theory was introduced to students to equip them with basic knowledge and skills

of translation What is more, students also began to translate short passages at that time In the 3rd year, students are exposed to translation of whole texts of different types

5 Scope of the study

We are aware of the fact that students of different courses also face various difficulties in their translation learning process re, but this is beyond the scope of this study We would like to identify only the problems facing 3rd year English students relating to complex English noun phrases

6 Methods of the study

We have applied the quantitative methodology in this research by using a translation test to identify students‟ difficulties The test is designed in the written form containing within it some complex English noun phrases The test

is at the everage level of length and difficulty It takes about in 60 minutes and the test environment is made sure to be as similar as the actual tests

The study also employs interviewing to collect more data from students

We conduct interviews with 20 students among those who do the translation test The aim of the interviews is to get more profound information from students‟ feelings, opinions, sharing, etc in order to support quantitative data

7 Format of the study

PART I INTRODUCTION

PART II THE CONTENTS

CHAPTER I THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

CHAPTER II THE STUDY

CHAPTER III DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION

PART III CONCLUSION

PREFERENCES

APPENDIX

Part II contents Chapter 1 theoretical background 1.1 Theory of translation

1.1.1 Definitions of translation

Linguists have different attitudes about translation, thus there are various definitions of translation through times The following definitions quoted from many different sources provide a range of deversity of the concept of translation:

1 Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in

the way that the author intended the text.( Newmark 1988)

2 Translation is the expression in another language (or target language)

of what has been expressed in one language (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalencies.(Bell 1991)

3 Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language(source language) by equivalent textual material in another language(target language) (catford 1965)

4 Translation , by dictionary definition , consists of changing from one state or form to another , to turn into one’ s own or another’ s language.(The Merrian – Webster Dictionary 1974)

All above definitions show the variety and contradiction of translation, and from those definitions we can see the complexity of the concept of translation.However, at different times and from different sources, definitions also have some common features: translation is the movement from one language into another, translation is a process to find in target language equivalents to the ones in source language

1.1.2 Methods of translation

The central problem of translating has always been whether to translate literally or freely Newmak(1998) proposes the following methods:

1 Word- for – word translation: This is demonstrated as interlinear translation, with target language immediatly below the source language words.The source language word – order is preserved and the words translated singly by the most common meaning, out of context.Cultural words are translated literally.The main use of word for word translation is either to understand the mechanics of the source language or to construe a difficult text

as a pre-translation process

2 Literal translation The source language grammatical construction are converted to their nearest target language equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.As a pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved

3 Faithful translation A faithful translation attempted to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the orginal within the constraints of the target language grammartical structures It transfers cultureral words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical abnormality( deviation from source language norms) in the translation It attempts to be faithful to the intentions and the text- realisation of the source language

4 Semantic translation Semantic translation differs from faithful translation only in as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the source language text, compromising on the missing on meaning where appropriate so that no assonance, word- play or repetition jars in the finished version Further, it may translate less important cultural words by cuturally neutral third or functional terms but not by cultural equivalents and it may make other small concessions to the readership

5 Adaptation This is the freest form of translation It is used mainly for plays and poetry, the themes, characters, plots are reserved, the source language cultural coverted to the target language culture and the text rewitten The deplorable practice of having a play or poem literally translated and then

rewitten by an established drammatist or poet has produced many poor adaptations, but other adaptations have rescued period plays

6 Free translation.Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original Usually It is a paraphrase much longer than original

7 Idiomatic translation.Idiomatic translation reproduces the message of the original but tends to distort nuances of the meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original

8 Communicative translation.Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contexual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readerships

Newmark states that only semantic and communicative translation fulfil the two main aims of translation: accuracy and economy In general, a semantic translation is written at the author‟ s linguistic level, a communicative at the readership‟ s Semantic translation is used for „ expressive‟ texts, communicative for „ informative‟ and „ vocative‟ text For the detail, semantic translation is personal and individual, follows the thought processes of the author, tends to over- translate, pursues nuances of meaning, yet aims at concision in order to reproduce pragmatic impact Communicative translation is social, concentrates

on the message and the main force of the text, tends to under-translate, to be simple, clear and brief, and is always written in a natural and resourceful style

Equivalence has also been classified in other ways Nida(1964) distinguishes two types of equivalence as basic orientation rather than binary choice: formal equivalence, dynamic equivalence In Koller‟ s viewpoint(1979), equivalence concludes five types: denotative equivalence, connotative equivalence, text normative equivalence, pragmatic equivalence, and formal equival

However, according to some others, there are four equivalence relationships: one- to- one equivalence, one -to – many equivalence, one – to

– part- of- one equivalence, and nil equivalence This approach seems to be

restricted to word level only However, it supplies great help, especially when one has to do translation of technical terms and when one has a limitted

knowledge of the field under translation

1.2 English noun phrases

1.2.1 Definitions of English noun phrase

Noun phrases are word phrases which can be simple constituents consisting of one overt element, perhaps a word like „ cabbages‟ (article shown as zero in its determiner slot) Noun phrases can also be complex They sometimes have a possessive noun phrase instead of a determiner, like „ Yeltsin‟ s in several

of Yeltsin‟ s supporters‟ , and embedded clauses There are different definitions of

noun phrases

*According to Jacobs (1995), noun phrases are word phrases which are used to refer to things people want to talk about Refering is important, speakers need to refer to people, objects, concepts, processes, and all kinds of entities, and noun phrases serve this function

* Pyle and Muno and Bobrow (1997) states: noun phrase is a group of words that ends with a noun It can contain determiners (the, a, this, etc), adjectives, adverbs, and nouns It can not begin with a preposition Both subjects and complements are generally noun phrase

* According to Schmidt (1999): A noun phrase is one or more words which we use in a sentence as subject, direct object, indirect object, complement

phrase

1.2.2 Structure of English noun phrase

Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), classify English noun phrases into basic and complex ones

1.2.2.1 Basic noun phrase

Basic noun phrase is a phrase consisting of a head noun with only systems as pre-modifiers without open class items or post-modifiers Example: The man, a cat, these flowers

closed-The elements found in those noun phrases are pronouns and numerals, nouns with articles or other closed-system items that can occur before the noun head, such as predeterminers, and postdeterminers

* Predeterminers:

- All, both, half

- Double, twice, three/ four times

- One-third, two-fifths, etc

* Determiners

- Article: the, a, an,

- Possessive adjectives: my, our, their,

- Interrogative pronouns: which, who, that,

- Demonstrative pronouns: this, that,

- Quantifiers: some, any,

1.2.2.2 Complex noun phrases

Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) states, complex noun phrases consist of three components: the head, the premodification, and the postmodification

1.2.2.2.1 The head noun

Head noun is the central noun of noun phrase The head, around which the other components cluster and which dictates concord and other kinds of conguence with the rest of the sentence outside the noun phrase

Example: The pretty girl standing in the corner

The pretty girls standing in the corner

Widespread international support for driving oil price lower

1.2.3.2.2 The premodification

The premodification, which comprises all the items placed before the head Premodification consists of closed system premodifiers and open class premodifiers

Close system premodifiers include predeterminers, determiners, and postdeterminers which have been presented in basic noun phrase

Open class premodifiers include adjectives, participles, adverbials, sentences, nouns, and – s genitives

* Adjectives Example: His delightful cottage

* Participles Example: His completed cottage, his crumbling cottage

* Adverbials Example: His far-away cottage

* Sentences Example: His pop-down-for the weekend cottage

* Nouns

Example: His country cottage

* - S genitives Example: His fisherman‟ s cottage

Example: A tile falling from a roof

The only car repaired by that mechanic

The money to buy food

* Relative clauses

Example: The girl who spoke to him

The office where he works

The hat which is on the table

* Appositive clauses

Example: The belief that no-one is infallible

CHAPTER II THE STUDY

2.1.Introduction

Translation is a process to solve a series of problems, thus translation problems are the concerns of both theorists and translation learners Newmark (1988a, 1988b) defined some problems related translation such as constrainsts of technical style, constransts of register, characteristic and rituals of text, difference between native and foreign people, etc.According to Hatim and Mason (1990), basic problems of translators are aquisition of the source texts (analysing text, accessing professional knowledge and intended meaning), the transfer of meaning (the transfer of lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical meanings), and appreciation of target language (natural features, suitability of kinds and target language) What can be infered from these ideas is that language knowledgeis an outstanding source of difficulties facing students

During translation learning at Vinh University 3rd year students are introduced to dififferent types of texts Among those, technical texts account for

a large majority and present a number of difficulties to students Causes are vatious but complex noun phrases are a dominant one Since noun phrases occur

in technical texts with a high frequency and problems resulting from them are long-lasting, the thesis is an effort to approach the issue and highlight the issue

so that solutions can be worked out

2.2 Data collection

To probe translation capacity of students, the author intends to carry out the study in two stages Stage one: conducting a translation test to identify difficulties facing students Stage two: interviewing the subjects to investigate their opinions on English noun phrases and difficulties facing

them in translating complex noun phrases

2.2.1 Stage one

Translation test is conducted to identify students‟ difficulties relating to noun phrases The test is designed to be at the everage level of length and difficulty The test will last 60 minutes and the test environment will be made sure to be as similar as the actual ones so that the subjects‟ performance can reach the best and the natural setting can be maintained, which is one of the characteristics of quantitative research

2.2.2 Stage two

20 students are randomly chosen from these who did the translation test for the interviews These interviews help the author get more data for the study because interviewing is an important way to check the accuracy of the impression gained from observation What is more, interviewing can help the author gain insight into unobservable things like the students‟ feelings, thoughts, intentions The author will use semi-structured interviews embedded with stimulated recalls to find out students‟ thoughts toward translation of noun phrases as well as the difficulties facing them

2.3 Data analysis

2.3.1 The interviews

Students are given two noun phrases extracted from the translation test and asked to give a brief analysis of the structure of those noun phrases The noun phrases are “ one manifestation of how work and leisure are organized

as separate and regulated spheres of social practice in modern societies” and

“ a clear intention to return home within a relatively short period of time”

For the first noun phrase, only 5 students (25%) produce a correct analysis, the others fail to do so The relative number of srudents in analysing the second noun phrase is 8 (40%) and 12 (60%)

When being asked about their performance in the test, 60% say they failed

to produce a good translation for the first noun phrase due to its complexity and 10% say the same for the second noun phrase What can be infered from this is

that complex structure of English noun phrase is a cause of students‟ translation difficulties

Students also reveal that during translation learning process, they also have problems with the target language, namely word choice and word order in their mothe tongue This is proved to be true and coincide with the data gained from the test as analysed below

2.3.2 The translation test

The translation test has three paragraphs with at least five complex noun phrases Most of students completed their translation without any sentences/phrases left not However, the translation quality of the sentences are different For sentences containing complex noun phrases, students seemed to get troubles with noun phrases and fail to produce good translations.Through careful analysis, the problems relating to 5 complex noun phrases are identified

as follows

2.3.2.1 Problems with word choice

Vietnamese possesses a very rich stock of vocabulary.An English word can be equivalent to many Vietnamese ones For example, the word “ rice” can

be translated into Vietnamese as “ lóa, g¹o, c¬m,….” depending on “ planting it, cooking it, harvesting it, or eating it” Another example is the word “ mother” It can be translated as “ mÑ, mÕ, u, mî, m¸,…” depending on different geographical areas Such a wide range of choice sometimes brings about difficulties to students

To control variables and ensure vadility, only analysis of content words are taken into account The empty words such as articles, prepossitions, etc are beyond our concerns, unless they play an important role in contributing to forming the meanings of the sentence or phrase

2.3.2.1.1 Noun phrase 1: “ a leisure activity opposite regulated and organized work”

In this noun phrase, the analysed words are “ leisure, activity, opposite, regulated, organized, work” (See table 2.1)

The table shows that there are different choices for each English word For the first and third items, 60 students (75%) translate “ leisure” and “ opposite” as

“giải trí” and “trái ng-ợc” respectively, 11 others (13,75%) render them as “th- giãn” and “ đối lập” 6 others (7,5%) transfer “ leisure” as “ nghỉ ngơi” but have

no Vietnamese version for “ opposite” Likely, 3 others (3,7%) do not produce Vietnamese translation for “ leisure” but offer “ nằm ngoài” as target language equivalent to “ opposite”

The next item “ activity” is transfered into Vietnamese as “ hoạt động” by mjority of students (77: 96,25%), the others do not translate The three other items have more varieties, 60 students (75%) render “ organized” into Vietnamese as “ sắp xếp” , 6 others (7,5%) do not translate “ organized” into Vietnamese The three rest students (3,75%) render “ organized” as zero in Vietnamese There are even more alternatives for the forth item “ regulated” , 71 students (88,75%) choose “ th-ờng xuyên” as its equivalent, 6 (7,5%) transfer it

as “ căng thẳng” , and three others (3,75%) do not translate it For the last item, there are two different word choice The first word choice for the word “ work” is

“công việc”, occupying 74 students (92,5%) and the second is “việc” (7,5%) in

Vietnamese

It is shown by the table and analysis that word choices for English items are various and thus, choosing the most appropriate word is not an easy task for any student

Table 2.1 The results of noun phrase 1

Percen tage

Word choice

Num ber

Percen tage

Word choice

Num ber

Percen tage

Word choice

Num ber

Percen tage

Word choice

Num ber

Percen tage

Word choice

Num ber

Percen tage

2.3.2.1.2 Noun phrase 2: “ one manifestation of how work and leisure are organized as separate and regulated spheres of social practice in modern societies”

There are 11 items that are analysed in this noun phrase: manifestation, how, work, leisure, organized, separate, regulated, spheres, practice, modern, societies (See table 2.2)

This is a complex noun phrase and the range of students‟ choices is wide Students have three different choices for “ manifestation” , 38 students translate it as “ biểu lộ” , 28 others as “ biểu hiện” , 12 put it equivalent to zero and 2 others do not translate “ How” was transfered into Vietnamese with three choices, “ nh- thế nào” (35%), “ cách” (10%), and “ zero” (50%), 2students omit this item For the third item, there are two different choices The first choice for “ work” is “ công việc” by 74 students (92,5%) and the second is “ việc” (7,5%) With the word “ leisure” , there are also two different word choices: “ giải trí” (47,5%) and “ nghỉ ngơi” (50%), 2 students (2,5%) do not translate this word The words “ organized” and “ practice” are rendered respectively into Vietnamese as “ tổ chức” and “ thực tế” by 40 students (50%), as “ sắp xếp” and “ thực tại” by 28 students (35%), 10 students (12,5%) give nil-equivalents to these two items, and 2 students (2,5%) fail to produce Vietnamese versions The word “ separate” was translated as “ riêng rẽ” by 12 students (15%), as “ tách biệt” by 38 students (47,5%), and as zero by 28 srudents (35%)

There are even more alternatives for the seventh item “ regulated” , 36 students (45%) choose “ duy trì đều đặn” as its Vietnamese equivalent, 42 (52,5%) transfer it as zero, and two others do not translate it The next item

“spheres” is translated into Vietnamese as “mặt” by 12 students (15%) and the number of students who transfer it as zero increases to 66 students (82,5%) 2 others do not translate The data also reveals that 40 students (50%) similarly render “ modern” as “ hiện đại” , 28(35%) translate it as “ thực

t¹i” , and 12 students (15%) have no translation The last word “ societies” is transfered as “ x· héi” by 50 (62,5%), as “ thÕ giíi” by 28 (35%), and is not translated by 2 others (2,5%)

Table 2.2 The results of noun phrase 2.