A study of textual equivalence in dang thuy trams diary and its translation version = phân tích phép dịch tương đương ở cấp độ văn bản trong nhật ký đặng thuỳ trâm và bản dịch của nó

Vinh university Foreign languages department ---***--- A study of textual equivalence in Dang thuy tram’s diary and its translation version phân tích phép dịch t-ơng đ-ơng ở cấp độ văn

Vinh university Foreign languages department

-*** -

A study of textual equivalence in Dang thuy tram’s diary and its translation version

(phân tích phép dịch t-ơng đ-ơng ở cấp độ văn bản trong nhật kí đặng thùy trâm và bản dịch của nó)

Vinh university Foreign languages department

graduation thesis

field: linguistics

Vinh, 2008

Part I: Introduction

1 Rationale of the study

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship between different elements

in a text which creates the link, the unity among various parts of a text These relations themselves organize a text This is the reason why cohesion gained a great deal of concern from applied liguists Callow states that “each language has its own pattern to convey the interrelationships of persons and events, in no language may these patterns

be ignored, if the translation is tobe understood by its readers”(cited in Baker, 1992, p.180) Additionally, many other applied linguists also emphasize the vital character of cohesion to translation

Halliday and Hasan have pointed out various categories of cohesion and it is believable that those outlined cohesive devices are common to nearly all of languages Infact, the way of establishing pattern of cohesive devices vary considerably across languages and even within unlike regions of the same language It is Baker who states that “different languages have different preferences for using specific devices more frequently than others or in specific combination which may not correspond to English pattern of cohesion” (1992, p.21)

Up to now, there have been some works of analysing and contrasting cohesion between English and Vietnamese The aim of these works is to point out the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of cohesive devices However, translation point of view to matter appears to have fresh idea and contributions that are unlike with what has been mentioned It is the reason that stimulates me to conduct this thesis

Dang Thuy Tram’s diary is one of the well-known literary works because of its circumstance of birth as well as its profound content The diary was selected and translated into English by the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University The story tells us about the feeling, emotion, thoughts of the author of the book: Dang Thuy Tram

- a warrior, a doctor as well in the revolutionary life The life was shown in the diary was rather hard and complex as a result of war, destruction of intruders Besides the hardess, there still exists a romantic view of a girl falling in love which is contrast with what love is expressed in the peaceful time The book caught a numbers of domestic readers and foreigners, too

The interest in cohesion devices in the original and in the translatin text has give

me an inspiration to do the study on Dang Thuy Tram’s diary The main point in this thesis is the textual equipvalence between the source and the target language text

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the thesis are:

- To provide a knowledge of translation in terms of cohesive devices

- To study textual equivalence between the source and the target language text

- To give some statistic and description of cohesive devices used in specific situation

- To suggest some practical applications for teaching and learning of translation

as well as teaching and learning of English in general and cohesion in particular

3 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the textual equivalence between the source Dang Thuy Tram’s diary and the translation version More specifically, the study is confined to cohesion only Another important aspect of textual equivalence namely thematic and information structures will be out of the scope of the study and would be for further research The ground for making comparison in this study is the system of cohesive markers suggested by Diep Quang Ban (2005) and Halliday and Hasan (1976) and the definition equivalence proposed by Baker (1992)

4 Research question

In order to achieve the purpose of the study, here are the research questions:

- Is the model of cohesion proposed by Ban common to Halliday and Hasan

- What kind of cohesive markers are preferred in Dang Thuy Tram’s diary and

by the translator in English translation Which one is the most popular?

- To what extent are the originals and the translations textually equivalent

5 Method of the study

- The study is carried out with the quantitative method with collecting and analysing data so as to answer the research questions

- Review of published related theories

- Analysis and synthesis of the selected data

Design of the study

Part 1: Introduction states the reasons for choosing the topic, the aim, its scope,

research question and method of the study

Part 2: Development consists of two chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background reviews the theoretical background of the study, including cohesion, cohesion and coherence, type of cohesion, translation theory, Dang Thuy Tram and her diary

Chapter 2: Identification of textual markers in the original text

Chapter 3: Treatment of textual markers in the translation version

Part 3: Conclusion summarizes the finding of the thesis, giving concluding remarks

Part II: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

[1:1] Càng nghiên cứu Nguyễn Trãi, chúng ta, và không chỉ chúng ta, các bạn nước ngoài cũng vậy, càng thấy Nguyễn Trãi lớn lên và càng gần gũi chúng ta, gần gũi

với thời đại chúng ta Đó là điều quý báu nhất đối với một nhân vật lịch sử

(Phạm Văn Đồng)

Đó in the second sentence causes ambiguity because if the audience wants to

make sense of its meaning, they must base on the first sentence which specifies what đó

means This meaning-explanation relation makes the second share unity and link with the first

Another example:

[1:2] Cụ Hải Nam, vừa đựoc thưởng bội tinh, tiệc tùng mấy ngày đêm Chung

quanh nức tiếng đồn Người ta nói ăn uống đến mấy vạn đồng, khách toàn đến bằng xe

hơi, xác pháo ngập cả sân, cô đầu tất cả bốn mươi cô, […]

(Nam Cao)

tiệc tùng in the first sentence and ăn uống in the third sentence are synonymous because

they explain meaning to each other Basing on that, the three sentences link to each other

It seems that Ban’s idea has similarity in common with Halliday and Hasan Let’s see Halliday and Hasan states that cohesion refers to sematic relation It appears where “the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it can not be effectively decoded except by recourse to it” (1976, p 4) At that time, the existence of cohesion appears, one is presupposing and the other is presupposed

Here is the example illustrating the definition:

[1:3] Clare loves potatoes She was born in Ireland

(Discourse analysis)

It can be seen clearly that she in the second sentence refers to Clare in the first one Therefore the word she creates the cohesion in the text and the two sentences

combine together which leads to unity

As to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion is carried out between sentences thanks to the following regulation: the grammatical resources like reference, ellipsis, sustitution and conjunction Similarly, Professor Diep Quang Ban thinks that the linkage between this sentence with another is carried out thanks to:

1.1.2 Cohesion and coherence

Coherence is something created by the reader in the act of reading the text Coherence is the feeling that a text sticks together, that it makes sense and is not a jumble of sentences

Nguyen Hoa (2000, p 23) proves that “Basically, cohesion refers to the formal relationship that causes text to cohere or stick together It is indicated by grammatical, logical relationship found among or between the sentences of a text”

Baker (1992) thinks that cohesion is the network of surface relations which links words and expression in a text and coherence is the network of conceptual relation which underline the surface text

Hoey gives the differences between cohesion and coherence as follows:

“cohesion is the objective capable in principle of automatic recognition, while

coherence is subjective and judgements concerning it may vary from readers to readers”

(cited in Baker, 1992, p 218) Thus cohesion is only a guide to coherence While cohesion is in the text, coherence is in the reader or speakers’ mind Whereas grammatical, lexical links are identified in cohesion, coherence is the feeling that the text makes sense Aditionally, coherence is the duty of readers

“Coherence refers to the type of semantic of rhetorical relationships that underline texts” (Nguyen Hoa, 2000, p 23) He extracted idea of Palmer (1983):

“Coherence refers to the rhetorical devices, to ways of writing ad speaking that bring about order and unity and emphasis” Coherence can be obtained from the root of relevance, the co-operative principle, the general thing shared on the background knowledge between participants in speech event and so does structure of discourse

[1:4] Clare loves potatoes She was born in Ireland

(Discourse Analysis)

This sentence is cohesive: Clare and she but it can be coherence if the readers

already know the typical association between Irish and loving potatoes

In summarize, cohesion can be understood as means to indicate coherence but it is completely wrong when whoever considers thay are one Between them, there not exists

a one-to-one correspondence ( Nguyen Hoa, 2000 )

[3:5] A: My car’s broken down

B: There’a garage down there

From the above example, cohesion is missing, however, the readers can get the

meaning thanks to its coherence The garage is the place where people have their car,

motobike repaired that have broken down

1.1.3 Type of cohesion in Vietnamese

Vietnamese is like other languages, the link between this sentence to another is the beginning of the following regulation: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjucntion and lexical cohesion

1.1.3.1 Reference

As Ban indicated (2005, p.356) reference is in the semantic relationship, that means the role of referential element in terms of grammar is not paid attention to Reference comes into being when an unidentified element is understood by means of identified element in another sentence As a result, the link is established between two sentences Noticeably, the element which has unidentified meaning is called presupposed element, in contrast, the element which has identified meaning is called presupposing one

In short, reference starts from the unidentified linguistic element in a sentence which is explained by another identified linguistic one in another sentence As a result

of it, two sentences stick together

[1:6] Thứ cười gượng không nói gì Đêm hôm ấy y thức rất khuya

Personal reference is the way of using personal pronoun (the 1st, the 2nd, the

3rd) acting as an unidentified in relation with identified in another sentence

[1:7 ] Thứ ngồi trầm ngâm bằng cái vẻ quen thuộc của y San khe khẽ cười vô cớ Họ

rất sợ tỏ ra mình là những con người khó tính

(Nam Cao)

Họ has ambiguity and indefinite meaning, the reader do not know what the word

refers to By basing on the previous sentence, we can make sense and achieve the meaning of the whole sentence

Similarly, in the following example, họ and nó are personal pronoun, cậu is

kinship term used as a personal pronoun By referring back to the first sentence reader

can see cậu is Thứ and San, and nó refers to Mô

[1:8] Thứ và San cho việc ép Mô xếp chỗ ăn, chỗ ở cho họ chỉ là một chuyện

đùa Không ngờ Mô lại để ý nhiều Cố nhiên không phải chỉ vì muốn tận tâm với hai

cậu mà thôi Còn vì lợi riêng của nó

(Nam Cao)

In the above example, họ and nó are personal pronoun, cậu is kinship term used

as a personal pronoun By referring back to the previous sentence, we can see cậu indicates Thứ and San, and Mộ in the first sentence Nó in của nó shows the possessive

relation

[1:9] Rõ ràng trống choai của chúng ta đã hết tuổi bé bỏng thơ ngây Chú chẳng

còn phải quấn quít quanh chân mẹ nữa rồi

(Hải Hồ)

In this example, chú is kinship term which is used which is used as personal pronoun and in this situation it refers to an animal, a kind of poultry Nó itself is

indefinite

The following example shows the pronoun referring to an entity, a thing not a animal, not human beings:

[1:10] Bước vào cổng thôn Đoài, đã thấy nhà ông Nghị Quế

Nó là một đám bung xung nhọn như ngọn tháp, hùng dũng úp trên đoàn bịch

vựa đồ sộ, dường như phô nhà mình thóc để hàng bốn năm mùa

Nó là một lũ đống rơm, đống rạ lớn bằng trái núi, chen nhau đứng bên cạnh

ngọn mít, ngọn sung, dường như khoe ông chủ cày cấy tới mấy trăm mẫu

(Ngô Tất Tố) The following table will show personal address element which are mosly used:

Person Singular form Plural form Note

(Included)

Chúng, bay, bọn mày, bọn bay, bọn mi

Chúng, chúng nó, bọn

nó, bọn chúng nó, bọn hắn

Mình, ta: are used in

both singular and plural form depend on particular situation

Mi: The Middle, bay:

The Middle and the South

Nó: referring to human beings animal,

thing Hắn: mainly referring to men Thị:

only used for women who is in youth

Table 1.1: Personal address elements which are mostly used

In order to make it easy to categorize, the words which are used for cohesive

marker will be in personal reference such as: đó, đấy belongs to substitution In theory ,

those words which are used as cohesive markers can be used as substitution when we

use nó to replace a Noun, Noun phrase, a clause In this situation we can replace by đó

[1:11] Bước vào cổng thôn Đoài, đã thấy nhà ông Nghị Quế

Nó là một đám bung xung nhọn như ngọn tháp, hùng dũng úp trên đoàn bịch

vừa đồ sộ, dường như phô nhà mình thóc để hàng bốn năm mùa

(Ngô Tất Tố)

It is acceptable if we use đó or đấy instead of nhà ông Nghị Quế If so, đó belongs to substitution Moreover, nó is a personal word so it is also personal reference However in some cases, there exits several exceptions in which we can not use đó in stead of nó or vice versa

[1:12] Đạo đức cách mạng không phải từ trên trời sa xuống Nó do đấu tranh, rèn luyện

bền bỉ hằng ngày mà phát triển và củng cố

Dân ta có một lòng nồng nàn yêu nước Đó là một truyền thống quý báu của ta

(Hồ Chí Minh) The reason here is due to the solemn and serious characteristic of the first

sentence Nó indicates the ordiginal mood However, sometimes it is harmless when we use nó instead of đó

[1:13] Chín giờ có chuyến tàu ở Hà Nội đi qua huyện Đó là sự hoạt dộng cuối cùng

của đêm khuya

(Thạch Lam)

-> Chín giờ có chuyến tàu ở Hà Nội đi qua huyên Nó là sự hoạt động của đêm khuya

Ban indicates that in Vietnamese, most of kinship Noun/ social position word , pronoun and he conludes: when kinship Noun and social word can be Nouns are used as the first and the second personal in respective

[1:14] Cậu là em tôi (tôi mới phải nói) can be substituted by “Maỳ là em tôi”-> Cậu is personal reference

Tôi gọi ông ấy bằng bác

Cậu in the first sentence is used as the second pesonal, em tôi is kinship term

Therefore both of them can be used as personal reference

Demonstrative reference: is the way of using demonstrative words like “này,

kia, ấy, nọ” after Nouns in earlier sentences Eg: Bà ấy, anh kia, cái bàn ấy, em học sinh này…, cái đó, con ấy, việc này…Cohesion occurs when the demonstrative words

are put in relationship with definite Nouns are mentioned earlier

[1:15] Một con bồ các kêu lên Cái con này bao giờ cũng vừa bay vùa kêu như bị có ai

đuổi đánh

(Duy Khánh)

In this sentence cái con này is not definite, has no concrete meaning only by paying attention to con bồ các is it meaning conveyed and cohesion is established

Another example:

[1:16] Keng phải may một bộ cánh Việc này không thể để cho bố biết được

(Nguyễn Kiên)

The phrase việc này has relationship in semantic with the first sentence and it is

explained through the first itself

Comparative reference: is the way we use phrase of words which has

unidentified meaning and contain comparative words such as: (cái) tương tự, (cái bàn)

lớn hơn, (cái đồng hồ) khác, (làm) cách khác, (tốt) hơn, (đẹp) bằng… and these words

are put in relation with the other element/ sentenaces which have more definitemeaning The purpose of the definite element is to explain, contribute and clarify what unidentified element refers to and to increase cohesion in text

[1:17] Bạn tôi thích áo màu đỏ Tôi thì thích màu khác kia

The phrase màu khác kia is not clear in meaning, what màu khác kia means can

be the colour oân shirt, trousers, a hat or an umbrella… Thanks to referring back to the

first sentence, we can achieve smoothly màu khác kia means the colour of the shirt

While the author’s friend like the red, he likes the other one This creates cohesion in text also

The following examples will take it easy to catch how comparative reference works:

[1:18] Cái nhà thụt vào mãi trong làng Từ ngoài đường nhựa có một cái ngõ gạch đi

vào Ngõ vào đến nhà ấy vừa cùng Nhưng vòng về phía sau nhà, một cái ngõ khác

trũng hơn, kề một đầu lên cái ngõ kia và chạy sang tận mặt kia làng, vắt hai sợi râu đó của nó là cái sườn xanh rì của một con đê lớn

(Nam Cao) Comparative reference is also demonstrated in making comparison in length, in places

[1:19] A: Sợi dây này dài ba mét

B: Tìm cho tôi một sợi dài hơn

[1:20] Năm ngoái các bạn ấy đã đi nghỉ ở Hạ Long Năm nay chúng mình cũng đi

một chuyến tương tự

Một chuyến tương tự has cohesion with the first sentence Ha Long is a

beautiful resort of Viet Nam and the writer wants to spend the same holiday as his

friends do Một chuyến tương tự maybe in Ha Long, may be another place where is as

phrase and clause In contrast, demonstrative usually goes wih “này”, “kia,” “ấy”,

“nọ” eg: cái nhà ấy, cái đó, việc này… and the third personal always refers to “nó”,

“chúng nó”…and the words demonstrating kinship term

Ban also expresses the devices that substitution hires

- Pronoun “đó”, “đấy” substitute a N (“kia” is usually used in referring to

discourse Its characteristic is situational, not textual) Therefore it won’t be listed in cohesion among sentences

[1:21] Dân ta có một lòng nồng nàn yêu nước Đó là một truyền thống quý báu của ta

- Pronoun vậy, thế substitue a Verb, adjective preforming predicator, a clause, word of

cái, con, cây which have not consist of Noun also have cohesion

[1:24] Loại đồng hồ này giá bao nhiêu? Cho tôi mua một cái (0)

In substitution, the most important aspect that are most paid attention to is:

- Noun (N- phrase)

- Verb (V- phrase), Adjective (Modifying clause), words goes with Verb, Adjective

- Clause (including S-V)

[1:25] Đoàn du lịch sẽ đến Hội An vào trưa mai Đoàn sẽ ở lại đấy một ngày đêm

Pronoun đấy substitute Hội An and it functions as a complement

Similarly analysing, we have:

[1:26] Dân ta, nước ta có những con người rất đẹp cái đẹp đó là gì? Cái đẹp đó là đức

tính dũng cảm trong chiến đấu, dũng cảm trong lao động, rất cao cả trong tình yêu Đó

là đối tượng của nghệ thuật, đối tượng của những người nghệ sĩ […]

The pronouns like: thế, vậy and phrase such as: vì vậy, nếu thế, tuy vậy If they

are in the initial position and are not subject of a sentence or stand after Subject and before Verb and Adjective; they belong to conjunction (mentioned later)

[1:27] Chắc chắn rằng số tài liệu ta hiện có không phải là ít lắm Vậy các đồng chí

không thể tham gia vào tập thể nghiên cứu thì làm thế nào nghiên cứu cho hết được

1.1.3.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis leaves out the element which should have been presented in this sentence, and the interpretation of the leftout element bases on the other one in the sentence It is the fact that ellipsis is also a form of substitution in which original items are replaced by zero

In other word, ellipsis is a kind of substitution Ellipsis can be a:

- N/ N- phrase

- Verb, Adjective (Verb phrase, Adjective phrase) and words of manner goes with Verbs, Adjective

- Clause (S-V structure)

Ellipsis can be marked by (0)

[1:28] Quyên mò thắt lưng Ngạn lấy ghi đông Cô lắc nhẹ (0)

bi đông has omitted However, the reader can catch the meaning by referring

back to the 1st sentence Then cohesion occurs

[1:29] Chị trò chuyện giảng giải, khuyên anh phản cung Cuối cùng anh bằng lòng (0)

It is acceptable if adding the italic phrase.It is necessary to make a comoarison between ellipsis and xtracting elemnts into independent sentence The purpose of this is

to create aesthetic effect

[1:30] Huấn đi về trạm máy Một mình trong đêm

1.1.3.4 Conjunction

Conjunction is the way using the linking words in initial position or before verbs Here are some typical linking devices:

i) Independent conjunction such as: và, vả lại, rồi, còn, nhưng, hay… superordinate

such as: vì, cho nên, nếu, tuy, để and so on…Those words are employed in order to

indicate logical relationship between two sentences

ii) - Linking words: vậy, thế, và thế là, vì vậy, tuy thế, nếu vậy, để được như vậy, muốn

vậy, muốn được như vậy, có như thế thì

- Linking word phrase: đồng thời, trong lúc đó, tiếp theo, tiếp theo sau đó, ngoài ra,

hơn nữa, ấy là chưa kể

Those conjunctions are employed to link the sentence containing such words and other sentence That is the reason why it is called: adjunctive (according to Halliday and Hasan)

The conjunctions being in group ii) belongs to substitution actualy However, it

is put in conjunction on account of some main reasons:

- The content of the sentence holding those conjunctions relates to another one

in another sentence and is explained through those sentences This is general criteria in comparison with substitution

- The position of those conjunctions is initial place but it does not function as a subject, adjunct

Let’s take a look at 2 following examples:

[1:31] a Chín giờ có chuyến tàu ở Hà Nội đi qua huyện Đó là sự hoạt động cuối cùng

của đêm khuya

b Chín giờ có chuyến tàu ở Hà Nội đi qua huyện Do đó, chúng ta phải thu xếp đồ đạc

nhanh lên

Đó in example a) is substitution and it functions as a subject in the sentence

Do đó in b) is conjunction as it functions cause-effect relationship and it is

[1:33] Anh ngáp, rồi lại ngáp… Chỉ một lúc sau, anh đã không còn biết có anh trên đời

này nữa, bởi vì anh ngủ như chết rồi…

Sáng hôm sau, một người đi qua đã giật minh; họ tưởng anh là một cái xác chết đường

Họ lay anh Anh choàng dậy và bẽn lẽn

-> ngủ >< dậy and two sentences relate to each other

Những người yếu đuối vẫn hay hiền lành Muốn ác phải là kẻ mạnh

Phụ nữ and chị em are synonymous They belong to identical referenc because both of

them refer to female

+) Identical synonym: can be superordinate

For example:

[1:35] Trâu đã già Trông xa con vật thật đẹp dáng

(Chu Văn) Trâu is in the below level of con vật whereas con vật is in general It relates to each other and has identical reference cause telling about a kind of animal

Another form of synonym is the using of negation af antonym

Near-synonym words can be in one of 2 relations below:

+) Hyponym: means the following is upper than the preceding

For example:

[1:37] Chúng tôi muốn sắm một bộ bàn ghế ở phòng khách Nghe nói đồ nội thất của

cửa hàng X rất tót, đẹp và giá phải chăng

+) Metonymy: means the following is lower than the preceding

For example:

[1:38] Trước bản, rặng đào đã trút hết lá Trên những cành cây khẳng khiu đã lấm tấm những lộc non và lơ thơ những cánh hoa đỏ thắm đầu mùa Những cây thông già cao vút như bất chấp cả thời tiết khắc nghiệt Trời càng rét, thông càng xanh Lá thông vi vu

 Collocation

Collocation exists when the appearance of the other element thanks to the

appearance of one element For example: snow-white is a form of collocation

1.2 Translation theory

1.2.1 What is translation?

It is said that “Translation is an art and a science” It deals with language in use rather than language as a system The term “translation” itself can refer to 2 meanings: the 1st it can be the product (the text that is translated) or the process (the act of producing translation, another way to say translating) Traditionally, translation is the phenomenon which is considered an “art” However, recently it is accessed from a more technical point of view by a number of linguists

Cartford (1965) defines translation as the replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language)

Marlone (1988) claims that “Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another source language preserving semantic and stylistic equivalence”

Whereas Bell (1991) holds that translation is the “transformation of a text originally in one language in to an equivalent text in a different language retaining, as far as possible, the content of the message, and the formal features and the roles of the original text”

It is noticeable that ideas on translation are diversified and the concept and translation is compilcated indeed Howevwer, these definitions, stemming at different times share common features: translation is the action of translation from source language to target language in which meaning is preserved That means there has to have equivalent characteristic

Nida (1964) distinguishes two primary types of equipvalence

- Formal equivalence: pays attention to the message itself, in both form and content

This orientation focuses on the message being in conceptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language

- Dynamic equivalence: aims at complete naturalness of expression and tries to relate

the receptor relevant within the context of his own culture According to this orientation, translation is based upon the principle of equivalence effect

Whereas Koller (1979) describes five different types of equivalence

- Denotative equivalence: is related to equivalence of extralinguistic content of a text

- Connotative equivalence: is related to lexical choices, especially between

near-synonym This type of equipvalence is referred to as “stylistic equivalence”

- Text-normative equivalence (communicative equivalence) is related towards the

receiver of the text or message This is completely coincided with Nida’s dynamic equivalence

- Formal equivalence: is related to the form and aesthetic of the text, includes word

plays and the individual stylistic features of the source text It is in some sources referred to as “expressive equipvalence”

Baker (1992) also provides an interesting point of view when discussing the notion of equipvalence specifically as follows:

- Grammatical equivalence: refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across

languages

She notes that grammatical rules may vary across language and this may pose some problems when finding a direct equivalence in the target language Especially, those problems concentrate on number, tense, aspect, voice, person and gender

- Textual equivalence: refer to equipvalence between a source language text and a

target language text in terms of information and cohesion Texture is very important as

it provides useful guidelines for the comprehension and analysis of the source text which can help translator in his/her attempt to produce a cohesive and coherent text for the target audience

- Pragmatic equivalence: refers to implicatures and strategies of avoidance during the

translation process Translator’s duty in this field is to work out implied meanings in order to get source text message across

To sum up, the notion of equivalence is still a problematic and controversial area

in the aspect of translation theory It is helpful to think that among pattersn of

equivalence, some are practical and can be applied to certain kind of texts, the thers are practical and can also be applied to other ones

SL emphasis TL emphasis

Word for word translation Adaptation Literal translation Free translation

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

(Newmark 1988)

* Word-for-word translation: This is often demonstrated as interlinear translation,

with the TG immeidately below the SL words The SL word-order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings out of context Cutural words 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 pre-translation process

* Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest

TL equivalent but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context As a translation process, this indicates the problems tobe solved

pre-* Faithful translation: A faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise

contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grmamatical structure It “transfer” cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical “abnormality” (deviation from SL norms) in the translation It attempts tobe completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realization of the SL writer

* Semantic translation: differs from “faithful translation” only in as far as it must take

more account of aesthetic value of the SL text, compromosing on meaning where appropriate so that no assonance, word play or repitition jars in the finihed versions Further it may translate less important cuturally neutral third of functional terms but not

by cutural equivalents and it may make other small concession to the readerships

* Adaptation: This is the freest form of translation It is used mainly for plays

(comedies) and poetry; the theme, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL culture and the text rewritten The deplorable practice of having a play or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established drammatist or poet has produced many poor adaptations, but other adaptations have “rescued period plays”

* Free translation: reproduces the matter without the manner, ot the content without

the form of the original Usually it is a paraphrase that is much longer than the original,

a so-called “intralingual translation”, often proix and pretentious and not translation at all

* Idiomatic translation: reproduces the message of the original but tends to distort

nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original

* Communicative translation: attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the

original in such a way that both content and language are readily aceptable and comprehensible to the readership

Commenting in this method, Newmark said that only semantic and communicative translation fullfil the two mains of translation, which are first: accuracy and second, 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” texts

1.2.4 Translation of literature

Translation of literature is not purely a technical change in language, but it requires that the translator duplicate the author’s process of artistic creation, grasp the feeling, the emotion of the original, find the most appropriate expression of the writer’s thought expression and reproduce fully and correctly and form of the original in a literary language To any translators, there are two main points before taking any translation: literary point and linguistic point of view

First, literary point of view That is to say, translators should have a macroscopic point of view- the whole view He must do the translating as vivid as it’s in the original in terms of form and content

Second, translators must have a microscopic point of view During thr process

of translating, they must choose the way how to translate sentences, paragraghs on the condition that it satisfies the demand of the original text

1.2.5 Dang Thuy Tram and the strange diary

The diary of Dang Thuy Tram coming in to the world was retold by a soldier who had fought against Viet Nam during the war His name is Frederic Whitehurst He said: During the hard days, doctor Dang Thuy Tram always give her feeling and emotion on the diary After 35 years, an American veteran, a photographer named Ted Engelmann who is a friend of of Frederic brought the CD containing the diary Ted Engelmann was moved to tears and said: “I get information about the dairy when attending a workshop on Viet Nam at Texas university Here, Frederic talked about the war and the diary that he had Actually, he cried On March, 1970, this soldier went to Duc Pho and he found the existence of dispensary” All of the people and wounded soldier had escaped, there had only a few of paper remained The American found them and fired Among a lot of paper, Frederic saw a small catalogue looked like a tape-recorder It’s necessary to keep it, he thought By looking at the way of writing, he recognized its content is about personal information The second one which is thinner but has the same hand-writing He also kept it Later, he knew that both of them are diary of a doctor named: Dang Thuy Tram, one is 118 and the other is 28 pages in length In this diary we found out name of a man: Doctor Dang Ngoc Khue, working at Dong Anh hospital Thanks to the address and a great deal of help from Quaker organization in Vietnam, finally, we searched for Dang Thuy Tram’s family successfully

In the morning of 25th, April, 2005, Thuy Tram’s sister received a sudden phone call It is from Quaker office - a humanity Organization They informed that they are keeping her sister diary

It can be said that the fate of the diary is a long journey with hard days Luckily,

it was in tha hands of a kind soldier- Frederic Thuy Tram was born into an educated family on 26th , November,1942 After graduating Medicine University in 1966, Thuy Tram voluntarily went on duties at B battle After 3 months comprade, actually she got

to the destination- Quang Ngai and she was assigned to work as a doctor in a small hospital in Duc Pho district on 27th, September, 1968 she was admitted to the Party Unfortunately, she was killed on the way to the dental

Dang Thuy Tram’s diary is a long story on daily life in the war Specifically, it concentrates on Tram’s thought, feeling, emotion about the colleges, the war and the lovestory, as well The occurence of the diary has awaken the Vietnamese Youth and draw the attention of all ages, including me It seems to me that what the youth thinks

and does in the war time is comparatively different from what they do today Although the author of the book went away, the message coming from it still remained What Tram wanted is also Vietnamese people’s desire at that time: Independence, Freedom and Happiness That is the reason why the diary has given me an aspiration and evoked

me ro study this topic

The book was chosen and translated by the Archive of Viet Nam at Texas University in America This is the result from the attraction of foreign audience

Chapter 2:

Identification of textual markers in

the original text

2.1 Reference

I have found out that reference is the cohesive device which is employes secondly after lexical cohesion Referential markersoccurs with a number of 288 times, accouting for 29,7% - nearly one third of total cohesive items Three sub-types of reference are also employed in order to create achievement of textuality in the original with the number of appearance time is 77, 194 and 17 in reaspective with personal, demonstrative and comparative Specifically, personal reference accounts for 7,9%, demonstraitve accounts for 20,1% and comparative contains only 1,7% Noticeably enough, demonstrative reference is the pattern with almost the highest times, it stands secondly after repetition

2.1.1 Personal reference

In contrary to many other languages, which only carry one couple of address, Vietnamese takes advantage of a variety of words in order to give appelation and those ones have to follow a strict regulation based on social status, age, sex which are regardless of by other cultures As we discussed earlier, the book is the diary of a soldier, a doctor and it tells about diferent relationship during war time It can be the sentiment between a doctor and a patient, a sister and a younger brother or younger sister, a daughter and her grandparents and even between a girl and her darling Sometimes, it can be referred to a battle, a cloud, a tree or a dream that the author means However, the frequeny of kinship term is remarkable, it makes up a high percentage They appear with high density in the whole text and sentences Here are examples for illustration:

[2:1] …Thuốc giảm đau chỉ có vài ống Novocaine nhưng người thương binh trẻ không

hề kêu la một tiếng Anh còn cười động viên mình… (p 33)

[2:2] … Ngay từ buổi đầu gặp gỡ, mình đã cảm thấy mến thương Thuận, không phải vì

Thuận có gương mặt ác tơ khi anh còn là sinh viên…

[2:3] … Chị Thu Hương, người y tá xã mà xưa rày mình cùng ở với chị, mới đêm hôm

cùng ngồi với mình tâm sự cho đến tận khuya… (p 181)