A STUDY ON THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF TERMS IN THE MATERIALS FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

It is better when they have the knowledge of English andVietnamese languages, translation theories as well as mechanical engineering to deal withdifficult mechanical engineering terms in

ABSTRACT ii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Scope of the study 2

3 Aims of the study 2

4 Method of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1 Terminology 5

1.1 Definition of terminology 5

1.2 General features of terminology 6

1.3 Formation of terminology 7

1.4 Words and neologisms 9

2 Translation theory 9

2.1 Definition of translation 9

2.2 Translation methods 10

2.3 Translation equivalence 11

2.4 Translation procedures 13

2.5 Technical term translation 17

CHAPTER II: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TERM TRANSLATION 18

1 Structural features of Vietnamese mechanical engineering terms 18

1.1 Simple terms 18

1.2 Complex terms 18

2 Structural features of English mechanical engineering terms 20

2.1 Simple terms 20

2.2 Complex terms 21

3 English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms 22

3.1 English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering simple terms 22

3.2 English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering complex terms 28

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

REFERENCES 41

DATA SOURCES 42 APPENDIXES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the trend of globalization and dramatic development of science and technology,translation in general and technical translation in particular have become extremelynecessary and attracted very much attention from translation theorists and researchers.Like many developing countries in the world, in national industrialization andmodernization, Vietnam needs continuously develop its mechanical engineering, one of themost important fields of science and engineering This means it is necessary for Vietnam toimprove international cooperation, translation studies and applications in mechanicalengineering

More and more inventions as well as products of mechanical engineering are made inthe world More and more new information and valuable experience in the field ofmechanical engineering should be shared and exchanged in order to constantly updateknowledge of such an essential field Meanwhile, English is an international language; it isused in almost fields, in many materials, and on various media Therefore, the English-Vietnamese translation particularly mechanical engineering term translation plays a veryimportant role in the development of mechanical engineering

In practice, very few English-Vietnamese Mechanical dictionaries are published inVietnam These dictionaries sometimes provide Vietnamese different meanings of thesame English term and they can not cover all the meanings of mechanical engineeringterms This causes some difficulties for dictionary users to choose the most suitable terms.Besides, translators and researchers sometimes find it difficult to translate a number ofEnglish mechanical engineering terms into Vietnamese equivalents The main reasons arethat they do not have enough knowledge of mechanical engineering and that Vietnameselanguage has not had words that can express or present the meaning of some English termsexactly In this case, they need study and choose suitable translation strategies to carry outthe English-Vietnamese translation of terms in materials for mechanical engineeringeffectively

In addition, translation studies and applications are also important in English languageteaching Translation is really useful for teachers who teach English for mechanical

engineering They can save time and sometimes help their students understand Englishlessons more profoundly when they translate some English mechanical terms intoVietnamese equivalents In this case, they do not need analyse or explain English terms byusing other English words, which may cause confusion, waste much time, and make theirlectures more difficult Moreover, teachers, students and engineers can understand andtranslate English materials into Vietnamese more exactly and easily when they applyappropriate translation strategies It is better when they have the knowledge of English andVietnamese languages, translation theories as well as mechanical engineering to deal withdifficult mechanical engineering terms in English and Vietnamese languages.

It can be said that technical term translation in general and mechanical engineeringterm translation in particular represent one of the most difficult tasks for everyone In fact,

in Vietnam there are not many studies on English-Vietnamese translation of terms inscience and technology especially mechanical engineering and the need for and importantrole of studies on the English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms areincreasing

Therefore, the author decides to carry out a study on the English-Vietnamese translation of terms in the materials for mechanical engineering Hopefully, the thesis

would bring concrete benefits to translators/interpreters, researchers, engineers, teachers,students and so on

2 Scope of the study

There are innumerable English and Vietnamese mechanical engineering terms in manymaterials for mechanical engineering The study concentrates on typical English terms andtheir Vietnamese equivalents in some materials for mechanical engineering The materialsare derived from some books, dictionaries, and the Internet The study will analyse typicalEnglish mechanical engineering terms’ structural features, compare them with Vietnameseequivalents, and then find out common translation strategies that can be applied in theEnglish-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms

3 Aims of the study

The study is ultimately aimed at:

 Working out and comparing typical structural features of English terms with that ofVietnamese terms in the materials for mechanical engineering to find out appropriateVietnamese equivalents for English mechanical engineering terms.

 Defining common translation strategies that can be applied in the translation ofmechanical engineering terms

 Giving some suggestions for technical translation especially translation in mechanicalengineering, dictionaries editing, English language teaching as well as for thestandardization of Vietnamese mechanical engineering terminology

Research question:

What are common translation strategies applied in the English-Vietnamese translation

of terms in materials for mechanical engineering?

4 Method of the study

The study will present a theoretical background based on a number of materials fortranslation and terminology Next, it will collect typical English and Vietnamesemechanical engineering terms from some materials for mechanical engineering andanalyze their general features and main structural features In the process, the study willalways compare English mechanical terms with Vietnamese ones in order to choose thebest Vietnamese equivalents After that, the study will define common strategies applied inthe English-Vietnamese mechanical engineering term translation

A number of general research methods such as qualitative statistics, quantitativeanalysis, deductive, and inductive method will be applied to carry out the thesis Besides,observation, contrastive analysis, and description which are usually used to studylinguistics will be applied in the thesis

The materials for mechanical engineering are derived from books, bilingualdictionaries and downloaded from the Internet

5 Design of the study

The study includes three main parts, a bibliography, and appendixes

The chapter provides the theory of terminology and translation.

Chapter II: Mechanical engineering term translation

The chapter analyses typical structural features of mechanical engineering terms inboth English and Vietnamese and draws out main strategies used in the English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms

References

Data sources

Appendixes

PART B: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

The chapter will provide typical theories on terminology and translation considered abasis for studying the English – Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms

In practice, it is more familiar with the second meaning of the term terminology, which

is considered “the set of special words belonging to a science, an art, an author, or a socialentity”; for example, “the terminology of law” or “the terminology of culture” In anotherword, a term, or terminology unit, is the name or designation of a concept in a particularsubject field

In Vietnam, many studies on vocabulary as well as terminology have been made byfamous linguists such as Nguyen Van Tu, Do Huu Chau, Nguyen Thien Giap, and NguyenHuu Quynh

Nguyen Van Tu (1968) states that terminology consists of fixed words or phraseswhich denote concepts of sciences, manufacturing fields, or culture and so on Similarly,

Do Huu Chau (1998) says that terminology includes specialist words used within ascientific field, a profession or any technological field Besides, Nguyen Thien Giap (1999)defines it as a part of special lexis of a language It consists of fixed words or groups ofwords which accurately name concepts and subjects belonging to different specializedfields of human beings In addition, for scientific terminology, Nguyen Huu Quynh(2007:104) defines a scientific term as a word or a phrase which designates a concept in

fields of science (social science, natural science, technical science) He also states thatgenerally a scientific term has a certain phonetic form and designates a concept with onemeaning (monosemy) which is not the same as the meaning of other terms

From the above-mentioned definitions, terminology can be considered fixed words orphrases which accurately denote concepts of particular subject fields

1.2 General features of terminology

There are different ideas about features of terminology In general, many linguists havecommon agreement about the following general features of terminology They aresystematic, accurate, international, and national

1.2.1 Systematic

This is the most important characteristic of terminology In one terminology system,each term is dependent on others The characteristic helps terms define their positions inone terminology system Terms name things, events, phenomena, activities, andconcepts…which exist objectively and have relations with other terms in a particularsystem with disciplines controlling their existence and development, so their concepts can

be easily comprehended (Nguyen Thien Giap, 1999)

1.2.2 Accurate

Nowadays, science and technology have dramatically developed, and terminologyplays an important role in building a specific theory To understand the theory, it isnecessary to know the terms which are used to present the theory To help the readerthoroughly comprehend any scientific and technical objects, terms must have functions ofexactly naming and correctly define the objects without confusion Therefore, terminology

is featured with accuracy

1.2.3 National

Each nation should use its own language’s terms to express scientific concepts andavoid abusing foreign terms Luu Van Lang (1977:58) states that terminology in anyscientific fields or specific fields must be part of one national language, so terminologymust be national and have the national language’ features

1.2.4 International

Besides national charateristic, terminology is international This seems to becontradictory, but in fact it is very logical The vocabulary system of each language bringsthe typical features of a nation which uses that language but science is the common fortune

of human beings Theories or concepts of mathematics, physics, and biology… areuniversally used It is impossible that theories on biology in Vietnam are different fromthat in England, Japan…As it is stated by Nguyen Thien Giap (1999:275), if the content ofterminology is noticed, it is agreed that international characteristic of terminology isimportant; it distinguishes terminology with other parts of vocabulary Terminology is aspecial part of vocabulary which denotes common scientific concepts for all peoplespeaking different languages Therefore, the unification of terminology among languages isnecessary and useful This makes terminology bear international characteristic

In addition, terminology has other features particularly mono-meaning Terms should

be fixed words or phrases which have only one meaning Terminology should not denotemore than one concept simultaneously Many linguists agree that there should not be morethan one term which denotes one scientific concept

1.3 Formation of terminology

According to Valeontis and Mantzari (2006:5), the following term formation

mechanisms applied in the English language are recognized and applied in otherlanguages:

Creating new forms:

The mechanism consists of derivation, compounding, and abbreviated forms, e.g

Derivation: phosphor + ous = phosphorous, co- + education- + al = co-educational Compounding: member country, biological + electronic = bionic

Abbreviated forms: Court of Justice of the Justice of the European Communities

-Court, page - p., United Nations – U.N.

Using existing forms:

The mechanism consists of terminologization, transdisciplinary borrowing, conversion,and semantic transfer within a special language

T erminologization: a word or phrase from general language is transformed into a

term designating a concept in a special language, e.g

General language: a line enclosing a surface

Electric or mechanical engineering language: an arrangement of devices or media

through which electric current can flow

Transdisciplinary borrowing: as internal borrowing, it refers to situations where a

designation from one specific subject field is used in another one to represent a differentconcept The general features making up the intension of both concepts in both subjectfields are often comparable and analogous, e.g

‘Reaction’

In Chemistry: interaction among two or more chemical elements or compounds,

resulting in the creation of another chemical compound

In Physics: force of equal magnitude and opposite direction, developed due to action

of any given force

Conversion: as the morphosyntactically differentiated usage of a single form, e.g.

Input (noun) – input (verb), intake (noun) – intake (verb)

Semantic transfer within a special language: An existing term in a special language

is used to designate a different concept, by an analogous extension These are some mainmodes of semantic transfer:

Simile: this is usually expressed by means of suffixes (–like, -style, -type…), e.g Noise-like error, ethernet-like interface, bus-type interface.

Synecdoche: this is the most productive technique of utilizing existing forms, which

is referred to as systematic polysemy in the contemporary linguistic theory of semantics,

Concrete: the part of a computer on which information is displayed

Abstract: the information displayed on this computer part

Interlingual borrowing:

Terms existing in one language can be introduced into another language by means of:

Direct borrowing: e.g English: diameter, spiral (from Ancient Greek)

Loan translation: The morphological elements of a term or whole words from the

source language are translated literally (“word by word”) to form a new term in the target

language, e.g German: die nische (from ‘niche’ in French).

1.4 Words and neologisms

In translation, it is necessary to distinguish terms with neologisms and words

Newmark (1988b: 140) defines neologisms as “newly coined lexical units or existinglexical units that acquire a new sense” He proposes twelve types of neologisms includingwords, collocations, new coinages, derived words, abbreviations, eponyms, phrasal words,transferred words, acronyms, pneudo-neologisms and internationalisms

A term in a specialized language is distinguished from a word in general language byits single-meaning relationship (called monosemy) with the specialized concept that itdenotes and by the stability of the relationship between form and content in texts with thisconcept (called lexicalization)

in the attempt to replace a written message and statement in one language by the samemessage and/or statement in another language”

Catford (1965:20) considers translation “the replacement of textual material in onelanguage (source language) by an equivalent textual material in other language (targetlanguage)”

Hartman and Stork (1972:713) also give a similar definition of translation, “translation

is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of anequivalent text in a second language.”

Hatim and Mason (1990:3) say translating is a communicative process which takesplace within a social context

The above-mentioned different definitions of translation prove translation is acomplicated process

2.2 Translation methods

There is argument about different translation methods which can be appropriate to thiscontext but inappropriate to other contexts Newmark (1988b) presents eight main methods

of translation including each method’s features and applications

Word – for- word translation

The method is often considered interlinear translation with the TL immediated belowthe SL words Newmark (1988b:45) states: “The SL word – order is preserved and thewords translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context Cultural wordsare translated literally The main use of word – for – word translation is either tounderstand the mechanics of the source language or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process.”

Literal translation

As it is stated by Newmark (1988b:46), “the SL grammatical constructions areconverted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly,out of context As a pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved”

Newmark (1988b:46) says the method reproduces the matter without the manner, thecontent without the form of the original It is usually a paraphrase much longer than theoriginal, a so-called “intralingual translation”.

Some translation researchers and theorists say the classification of translation methods

by Newmark is too complicated and theoretical, it is not practical However, others supportNewmark’s translation methods

In fact, the application of translation methods is required to be flexible Translators canapply Newmark’s translation methods and others creatively to carry out the translation oftexts in general and terms in particular effectively

2.3 Translation equivalence

It is said that translation equivalence is a central concept in translation theory but it isalso a controversial one According to Le Hung Tien (2006:52), translation equivalence hasbecome a “thorny problem” Theorists’ opinions are different or even opposite to eachother The reason is that the nature of translation has been seen in too different ways.Translation equivalence can be classified in various ways based on different factors LeHung Tien (2006:54-55) presents four common ways of classifying translation equivalence

as followed:

• Form-based equivalence: equivalence at word, sentence, or text level

• Meaning-based equivalence: denotative, connotative, pragmatic, formal equivalence

• Function-based equivalence: dynamic equivalence, formal equivalence

• Quantitative equivalence: one equivalence, many equivalence, part-of-one equivalence, nil equivalence

one-to-It is necessary to consider four main types of equivalence by Le Hung Tien (2006).

1) Quantity-based equivalence:

a One-to-one equivalence:

A single expression in TL is equivalent to a single expression in SL The equivalence

type often appears in terminology, e.g., information technology – công nghệ thông tin.

No TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression In this case,

loaned/borrowed equivalents should be used, e.g., modem (English) – mô đem (Vietnamese), áo dài (Vietnamese) – aodai (English).

In technical translation, many English terms are translated by transference (loanedwords or transcription)

• Connotation of speech level: elevated, poetic, normal, colloquial, slang…

• Connotation of socially determined usage: student language, military language…

• Connotation of geographical relation or origin: American English, Australian…

• Connotation of medium: spoken language, written language…

• Connotation of stylistic effect: pompous, artificial, euphemistic…

• Connotation of frequency: common, uncommon

• Connotation of register: normal usage, technical, medical…

• Connotation of evaluation: positively evaluative, ironic, pejorative

• Connotation of emotion: using emotive language to describe a given topic

2.4 Translation procedures

Clarifying the distinction among translation procedures, strategies, and methods is achallenging task Krings (1986:18) sees translation strategy as “translator’s potentiallyconscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concretetranslation task” Similarly, Loescher (1991:8) defines translation strategy as “a potentiallyconscious procedure for solving a problem faced in translating a text or any segment of it”.Besides, Newmark (1988b:81) clearly distinguishes translation methods withtranslation procedures: “while translation methods relate to whole texts, translationprocedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language”

In conclusion, translation strategy can be basically understood as ways of choosingappropriate translation methods and procedures applied in particular cases

The following translation procedures by Newmark (1988b: 81-93) are typical ones intranslation theory

2.4.1 Literal translation

According to Newmark (1988b), literal translation is the most important of theprocedures, so he discusses it in a separate chapter Literal translation ranges from oneword to one word, through group to group, collocation to collocation, to sentence tosentence; the longer the unit, the rarer the one-to-one translation This also means “above

the word level, literal translation becomes increasingly difficult” Newmark (1988b:81)adds “normally, the more specific or technical a word, the less it is likely to be affected bycontext” and “the more likely a literal translation”.

Therefore, literal translation is a common procedure in technical translation,particularly technical term translation

2.4.2 Transference

Newmark (1988b:81-82) defines “transference (emprunt, loan word, transcription) is

the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text as a translation procedure He also givessome following cases applied the procedure: “names of all living” and “most dead people”;

“geographical and topographical names including newly independent countries such as (le)Zaire, Malawi, unless they already have recognised translations”; “names of periodicalsand newspapers; titles of as yet untranslated literary works, plays, films; names of privatecompanies and institutions; names of public or nationalized institutions, unless they haverecognized translation; street names, addresses, etc”

Up to now, there is always argument about transference procedure, “the argument infavour of transference is that it shows respect for the SL country’s culture The argumentagainst it is that it is the translator’s job to translate, to explain” (Newmark, 1988b:82)

2.4.6 Descriptive equivalent

According to Newmark (1988b:84), “in translation, description sometimes has to beweighed against function” Moreover, functional procedure and descriptive one can besimultaneously used in translation It is reasonable when he says “description and functionare essential elements in explanation and therefore in translation” and “in translationdiscussion, functions used to be neglected; now it tends to be overplayed”

2.4.7 Synonymy

Newmark (1988b:84) uses “the word “synonym” in the sense of a near TL equivalent

to an SL word in a context, where a precise equivalent may or may not exist” “Thisprocedure is used for a SL word where there is no clear one-to-one equivalent, and theword is not important in the text, in particular for adjectives or adverbs of quality” Theprocedure is only appropriate where literal translation is not possible and because the word

is not important enough for componential analysis “Here, economy precedes accuracy.”

2.4.8 Through-translation

According to Newmark (1988b:84), the literal translation of common collocations,names of organizations, the components of compounds and perhaps phrases, is known ascalque or loan translation or “through-translation” “The most obvious examples ofthrough-translations are the names of international organizations which often consist ofuniversal words which may be transparent for English and Romance languages, andsemantically motivated for Germanica and Slavonic.” In addition, “internationalorganizations are often known by their acronym”

2.4.9 Shifts or transpositions

Newmark (1988b:85) defines “shift” or ‘transposition’ is a translation procedureinvolving a change in the grammar from SL to TL There are four main types The firsttype is the change from singular to plural or in the position of adjectives, nouns, adverbs.The second type is used when a SL grammatical structures does not exist in the TL Thethird one is required when literal translation is grammatically possible but may not accordwith natural usage in the TL The fourth type of transposition is the replacement of avirtual lexical gap by a grammatical structure

As it is stated by Newmark (1988b:85), “transposition is the only translation procedureconcerned with grammar, and most translators make transpositions intuitively”

or “positive for double negative” (or “double negative for positive”) is a “concretetranslation procedure which can be applied in principle to any action (verb) or quality(adjective or adverb)”

However, it is reasonable when Newmark (1988b:88) thoroughly states “in theorynegative is not as forceful as the positive; in fact the force of the double negative depends

on the tone of voice, and therefore the appropriateness of this modulation must depend onits formulation and the context”

Vinay and Darbelnet (1965) give several types of modulation Some examples are:abstract for concrete, cause for effect, one part for another, reversal of terms, active forpassive, space for time, intervals and limits, change of symbols Practically, Vinay andDarbelnet’s classification is not totally convincing but the types of modulation procedureare useful in technical translation

2.4.11 Paraphrase

The procedure is “an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of thetext It is used in an “anonymous” text when it is poorly written, or has importantimplications and omissions” (Newmark, 1988b:90)

2.4.12 Translation label

Newmark (1988b:90) regards translation label as “a provisional translation, usually of anew institutional term, which should be made in inverted commas, which can later bediscreetly withdrawn”

In addition, there are other procedures such as compensation, componential analysis,reduction and expansion, and so on Writing notes or additional information in translation

at bottom of page, at end of chapter or book is a useful way to support and clarify themeaning of target language terms Normally, in the translation of terms in diagrams, maps,

or models, notes are written under them or at bottom of page

In general, the translation procedures are useful to the translator The translator mayapply them flexibly in particular context and he may combine two, three or four procedures(couplets, triplets, quadruplets) to deal with a single problem

2.5 Technical term translation

Newmark (1988b:151) defines technical translation as “one part of specializedtranslation; institutional translation, the area of politics, commerce, finance, governmentetc., is the other” In his opinion, technical translation is potentially (but far from actually)non-cultural, therefore “universal”; the benefits of technology are not confined to onespeech community

Technical term translation is part of technical translation As it is stated by Newmark(1988b:153), “the central difficulty in technical translation is usually the newterminology” Therefore, the first requirement of translating technical texts is tocomprehend and translate technical terminology This is really a challenging task

In technical texts particularly those which are translated from other languages,descriptive terms usually occur to denote technical objects for three reasons (Newmark,1988b:153):

(1) the object is new, and has not yet got a name;

(2) the descriptive term is being used as a familiar alternative, to avoid repetition;(3) the descriptive term is being used to make a contrast with another one

In cases where there is a TL technical equivalent, the translator may translate a SLdescriptive term by a TL technical term This shows off the translator’s knowledge andacclimatizes the professional reader Conversely, in cases where the translator does notfind TL equivalent for an SL technical term, he should use a descriptive term

One of the most important requirements for a translator to become a competenttechnical translator is that he has to have much knowledge of linguistics and backgroundknowledge of the specific field (a particular technical field)

CHAPTER II: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TERM TRANSLATION

1 Structural features of Vietnamese mechanical engineering terms

Besides general features of terminology in languages, Vietnamese terminology is alsocharacterized with their own structural features After collecting and observing a greatnumber of Vietnamese mechanical engineering terms, the author finds out that Vietnamesemechanical engineering terms can be classified into two main kinds: simple terms andcomplex terms In this part, the author will describe and analyze typical structural features

of Vietnamese mechanical engineering simple terms and complex terms

1.1 Simple terms

The number is really not great though Vietnamese consists of quite many simplewords The general function of technical terms is to technically name the concepts ofthings, phenomena, processes… In some cases, Vietnamese simple terms do not denotethings, phenomena as well as technical and scientific processes as precisely and clearly ascomplex terms do This is one main reason for reducing the number of simple terms Themajority of Vietnamese simple terms are nouns and verbs, e.g

Verbs: tiện, bào, mài, rèn, đúc, nung, dập, tán, ép, nén, chặt, cắt, hàn…

Nouns: nắp, đế, giá, răng, rìu, quạt, đinh, ghim, ren, máng, bơm, van…

Vietnamese mechanical engineering simple terms may be Vietnamese-originated terms

(bào, nung, ép), Sino-Vietnamese originated terms (nhập, xuất, tuyến), or Indo-European originated terms (van, cắt, pha) Nowadays, technology is always developed and improved,

so more and more new theories, techniques, equipments, machines, appliances, and toolsappear This requires more and more new terms to name them In some cases, Vietnameselanguage has not terms which can clearly and precisely denote the concepts of these things;

Vietnamese people may directly borrow these new English terms (dynamo, cam, diesel) or

transfer them into Vietnamese language to make them sound familiar to the Vietnamese

reader (van, pha, cáp).

1.2 Complex terms

The number is quite great This kind of terms can be classified into compound terms and specifically combined words or nominal groups.

● Compound terms’constituents may have coordinated or principal and accessory relationship in which one constituent of a term support the meaning of the other

constituents of the term

Vietnamese mechanical engineering terms are reduplicative ones (very few terms, for example: (mắc) song song, (đèn/sáng) nhấp nháy, (gõ/nện) cồng cộc, (đập) chan chát…

which are usually used to describe the status of verbs Maybe they are noun compounds,adjective compound, verb compounds or adverbial compounds

The common models of Vietnamese mechanical engineering compound terms can be

drawn out as follows:

adjunct (hư từ - bộ, cái, con, thiết bị…) (1) T = Tv: vào, ra, đóng, tiện, rèn, hàn, đầu, đuôi, cổng…

(2) T = Ts: nhập, xuất, thoát, tuyến, băng…

(3) T = Ti: pha, cáp, các, phai…

(4) T = Tv + Tv: thân dao, lưỡi cắt, bàn cắt…

(5) T = t + Tv: thiết bị cắt, bộ điều khiển, con lăn …

(6) T = t + Th: sự tăng, bộ lọc, cái kế…

(7) T = Ti + Ti: véc ni, rô to, bu lông, sú páp, lanh tô…

(8) T = Tv + Ts: trộn cáp, đầu van, tạo pha…

In addition, there are other structures which will be clearly observed in the process ofstudying the English-Vietnamese translation of mechanical engineering terms

● Specifically combined words or nominal groups: the number of such terms is big.

They usually denote specific features and details related to things, events, phenomena aswell as processes in mechanical engineering Specifically combined words usually consist

of a noun which plays the most important role in naming things, phenomena, processes inmechanical engineering, the other words in each specific word combination help describefeatures, status, nature of concepts of things, phenomena, and processes more concretely Main structural models of terms which can be seen as specifically combined words (themain word is underlined)

T: term A: adjectiveN: noun Adv: adverbV: verb VP: verb phrase

t: adjunct ( sự, cái, con, chiếc, và, cho, của,…) (1) T = t + N + N: sự biến đổi trạng thái, sự tiếp nhận tín hiệu xung, cái tụ đĩa, sự đổi

chiều khí, sự thay đổi không khí, sự nối khớp cầu, bộ nối âm, cái tụ đĩa…

(2) T = N + V: máy phát, máy bào, máy tiện, máy phay, ống nghe…

(3) T = t + N + A: cái tụ vi sai, bộ điều khiển sơ bộ, cái bản lề cố định, cái bản lệ chìm… (4) T = N + VP = hệ thống điều khiển kích thước, hệ thống định vị phương sai, phím điều

khiển bánh răng…

(5) T = t + N + Adv: sự điều khiển bằng tay, sự điều khiển bằng máy, sự tính lại bừng tay,

sự dừng trước thời gian, sự hàn trong chân không…

(6) T = N + Adv: tín hiệu tới đích, máy phay bằng tay…

Apart from the above common structures, there are other ones which are unpopular, sothe author does not present them here

2 Structural features of English mechanical engineering terms

Besides general features of terminology, English mechanical engineering terms are alsodistinguished with their own structural features They can be classified into two types:simple terms and complex terms

2.1 Simple terms

English mechanical engineering terms consist of many verbs, nouns but few adjectivesand very few adverbs They are formed by only one word, e.g

Verbs: Control, damp, feed, bore, react, turn, abrade, strip

Nouns: Curvature, decay, chip, cutter, lathe, carriage, chuck

Adjectives: Bare, automatic, dead, steady, longitudinal, rough

Adverbs: Vertically, reciprocally, automatically

The author focuses on studying the translation of English mechanical simple terms informs of verbs, nouns, and adjectives and does not study simple terms in form of adverbsbecause of their limited number