HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID TERM TEST ON TRANSLATION THEORIES FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 3) Subject Code EN43 Full name Date of birth Group I Answer the following questions (40 points) 1 What are Nidas Linguistic Theories of Translating? 2 What are Nidas Sociolinguistic Theories of Translating? (The file sent will be named after each student’s name Plagiarism will lead to failure) Answer Linguistic theories of translation, according to Nida (1976 69), are based on a compar.
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HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID -TERM TEST ON TRANSLATION THEORIES
FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 3)
Subject Code: EN43 Full name: ………
Date of birth: ………
Group: ………
I Answer the following questions: (40 points)
1 What are Nida's Linguistic Theories of Translating?
2 What are Nida's Sociolinguistic Theories of Translating?
(The file sent will be named after each student’s name Plagiarism will lead to failure) Answer:
1
- Linguistic theories of translation, according to Nida (1976: 69), are based on a comparison of the Linguistic structures of the source tranlations and target translations, rather than a comparison of literary genres and stylistic features of the philological theories
- Thus, ‘Linguistic Translation’ ( or Linguistic Approach ) is a product of these theories which view translation as simply a question of replacing the linguistic units of the source text with “equivalent” target languge units without reference
to factors such as context or connotation
- According to Nida and Taber (1969:134) it is only a linguistic translation that can be considered ‘faithful’ , because it “is one which only contains elements which can be directly derived from the source text wording, avoiding any kind
of explanatory interpolation or cultural adjustment which can be justified on this basis.”
- One major difference between linguistic theories of translating and
philological theories of translating is that linguistic theories are descriptive rather than prescriptive They demonstrate how people translate rather than how they should translate
- According to Nida (1976): The principal differences between various linguistic theories (or semi-theories) of translation lie in the extent to which the focus is
on surface structures or corresponding deep structures Theories based on
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2
Sociolinguistic theories of translating emerged out of the dissatisfaction with linguistic theories of translating, and the growing interest in communication Such interest resulted from the work of anthropologists who recognized the role of text recipients in the process of translating
Sociolinguistic theories of translating relate linguistic structures to a higher level where they can be viewed in terms of their function in communication When discussing a text, the sociolinguist is concerned particularly with its author, its historical background, the circumstances involved in its production, and the history
of its interpretation
Nida and Taber (1969), have pointed out that the old fucus on the form of the message in translation has shifted to the receptors, i.e the readers Therefore, it is the reader’s reponse to the translated message that determines the correctness of the message They set the average reader as the only criterion for measuring
correctness in translating Correctness, in the view, is not only the possibility of understanding the message by readers but rather than the possibility of
misunderstanding it
II Translation practice
1 Read the text and find out the features of the situational context (30 points)
He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large, tall, and well shaped; and as I reckon, about twenty six years of age
He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially when he smiled His hair was long and black, not curled like wool: his forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very fawns His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like the Negroes, a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set and as white as ivory
.In a little time I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me: and, first, I let him know his name should be "FRIDAY", which was the day I saved his life I called
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Tenor:
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2 Translate the text into Vietnamese (30 points)
Anh ta là một anh chàng khôi ngô tuấn tú, có thân hình hoàn hảo, chân tay thẳng tắp, khỏe, không quá to, cao và dáng chuẩn; và như tôi nghĩ, khoảng hai mươi sáu tuổi Anh ta
có một khuôn mặt rất ưa nhìn, không phải là một khía cạnh dữ tợn và quái gở, nhưng dường như có một cái gì đó rất đàn ông trong khuôn mặt của anh ta; và anh ta cũng có tất
cả sự ngọt ngào và uyển chuyển của một người châu Âu trên nét mặt , đặc biệt là khi anh
ấy cười Tóc anh ta dài và đen, không quăn như lông cừu: trán rất cao và lớn; và một sự hoạt bát tuyệt vời và sự sắc nét lấp lánh trong đôi mắt của anh ấy Màu da của anh ta không hoàn toàn đen, nhưng rất ngớ ngấn Gương mặt tròn bầu bĩnh; mũi nhỏ, không tẹt như người da đen, miệng rất ngoan, môi mỏng, răng đều và trắng như ngà