A comparative study on English - Vietnamese translation of business texts.pdf

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH -VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF BUSINESS TEXTS (Nghiên cứu so sánh dịch Anh - Việt lĩnh vực Kinh doanh) MAJOR: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 9.22.02.01 Doctoral Thesis of Philosophy in Linguistics SUPERVISORS: ASSOC PROF DR HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH ASSOC PROF DR LÊ HÙNG TIẾN STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP The thesis entitled “A comparative study on English-Vietnamese translation of Business texts” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis, I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others in this thesis The thesis does not contain work extracted from a thesis, dissertation or research paper previously presented for another degree or diploma at this or any other university Signature NGUYỀN THỊ HỔNG HÀ NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẦN KHOA HỌC PGS TS Hoàng Tuyết Minh NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẰN KHOA HỌC PGS TS Lê Hùng Tiến CHỦ TỊCH HỘI ĐỒNG PGS TS Hồ Ngọc Trung PHÒNG QUẢN LÝ ĐÀO TẠO - TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI ABSTRACT This descriptive, comparative, and evaluative research attempts to assess the equivalence extent of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and marketing strategies with their semantic modifications in an English- Vietnamese translation of a marketing text from the functional- pragmatic perspective The data are extracted from the Source text (ST) "Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital”, published in 2017 and from the Target text (TT) “Tiếp thị 4.0: Dịch chuyên từ Truyền thống sang Công nghệ số”, published in 2018 The qualitative method is applied to the study, in which descriptive, comparative and interpretive procedures are adopted The data are analyzed and assessed from the functional- pragmatic perspective of House’s model (2015) incorporated with the Attitudinal and Gradational resources of Appraisal theory (Martin and White, 2005), in which component Field is combined with Gradational resources while component Tenor is integrated with Attitudinal resources The findings show that, among the 661 nominal groups and 392 verbal groups collected, 553 cases in the both contain semantic modification in the translation A large number of cases shows an ‘upscaled’ trend of equivalence extent while the ‘downscaled’ trend accounts for a small proportion The upscale can be seen in the figurative expressions, using ‘stronger’ adverbs, modal verbs, more formal words, resorting the longer expressions and applying metaphors which arc carefully put in double quotation mark Especially, the cultural filters are employed to be more familiar to the target readers Besides, for the abstract terms, notes of explanation at the end of the page are also carefully added right away to each page, revealing a respectful attitude towards the readership and enhancing the interpersonal function of the translation The downscale in denotative and connotative equivalence occurs just very little in the translation with the phenomenon of ellipsis in several adjectives preceding the nouns, and untranslated proper names in the translation The findings of this study can make theoretical contributions to applying House’s model in uncovering the equivalence of an English-Vietnamese translation of nonlitcrary texts Also, the model shows the effectiveness when integrated with another theory, particularly with the Appraisal theory of Martin and White (2005) in ii translation studies The practical contributions are for translators, and translator training programme, especially in translating non-literarty texts iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been made possible without the guidance and the support of individuals who contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the preparation and completion of this study I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisors, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tien and Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyet Minh, who inflame the fervent passion inside me towards the research topic and research progress Without their continuously constructive feedback and encouragement, the thesis could not come into being Additionally, I am deeply grateful to Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuan, whose guidance and insightful comments are of profound significance during my research completion also wish to extent my gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngọc Trung, Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế, Dr Phạm Thị Thủy, Assoc Prof Dr Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy, Dr Nguyền Việt Hùng, Dr Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông, Dr Nguyền Đăng Sửu, Dr Lưu Thị Kim Nhung and Dr Lê Phương Thảo, who gave practical comments on my research proposal and presentations, and provided me with many valuable suggestions to develop my research effectively My sincere thanks also go to the colleagues and friends at the English Faculties of Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their continuous motivation, support, and valuable advice for me across the path will never forget strong support from Mr Lê Công Phú, Ms Trần Thị Thúy Hà, Mr Nguyền Việt Xô, Mr Phạm Đức Diễn, Ms Đào Thị Thu Nga, Ms Vi Thị Hồng Ngân, Ms Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh, Ms Nguyễn Thanh Nhàn, Mr Nguyễn Việt Tiệp, Ms Nguyền Thị Hào, Ms Đỗ Thị Kim Dung, and Ms Lê Thị Kiều Oanh They have always supported me to overcome the obstacles during my research completion Last but not least, I would like to thank my warm-hearted parents, my enthusiastic brothers, my sisters-in-law and my family with their restless assistance, especially my daughter and my son for their immense tenderness, deep empathy, strong inspiration, and firm support to motivate me throughout upheavals and realize the life values iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale 1 Research aim and objective of the study 3 Research question 4 Scope of the study 5 Methods of the study 6 Significance of the study Organization of the thesis 7 CHAPTER 2: 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW Translation Studies .9 2.1.1 Translation Studies as a discipline 2.1.2 Central issues of Translation Studies 11 2.1.3 Issue of translation equivalence 12 2.2 Approaches of Translation Assessment 16 2.2.1 Response-based approach 16 2.2.2 Linguistics-based approach 17 2.3 Two popular Models of Translation Assessment 18 2.3.1 Newmark’s model of translation assessment (1988) 19 2.3.2 House’s model of translation assessment (2015) .20 2.3.3 Overt, covert translation and culture filters 27 2.3.4 Adaptation of House’s model for the research aim 30 2.4 Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005) in House’s model 34 2.4.1 Attitudinal resources of the Appraisal Theory 38 2.4.2 Gradational resources of the Appraisal theory 40 2.5 Nominal groups and verbal groups 44 2.5.1 Nominal groups 46 2.5.2 Verbal groups 48 V 2.6 Business and marketing texts 49 2.6.1 Business texts .49 2.6.2 Marketing texts 50 2.7 Market segments and marketingstrategies 55 2.7.1 Market segments 55 2.7.2 Marketing strategies 56 2.8.1 Previous studies on Comparative Translation Studies 57 2.8.2 Previous studies on MarketingTexts 62 CHAPTER 3: 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 66 Research approach 66 3.1.1 Qualitative method 66 3.2 Analytical framework 71 3.3 Data collection and procedures of data analysis 75 3.3.1 3.4 Data collection .75 Summary 82 CHAPTER 4: TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND VERBAL GROUPS RELATED TO MARKET SEGMENTS 83 4.1 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to YWN market segment 84 4.1.1 Nominal groups related to YWN market segment 85 4.1.2 Verbal groups related to YWN market segment 93 4.2 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to the young market segment 100 4.2.1 Verbal groups related to the young market segment 109 4.2.2 4.3 Nominal groups related to the young market segment 100 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to women’s market segment 117 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.4 Nominal groups related to women’s market segment 117 Verbal groups related to women’s market segment 126 Translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to netizens’ market segment 133 vi 4.4.1 Nominal groups related to netizens’ market segment 133 4.4.2 Verbal groups related to netizens’ market segment 142 4.5 Summary of translation equivalence of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments 150 CHAPTER VERBAL : TRANSLATION EQUIVAENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND GROUPS RELATED TO STRATEGY 5.1 HUMAN-CENTRIC MARKETING 152 Translation equivalence of nominal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy 152 5.1.2 Comparison of NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy in the source text and target text 157 5.2 Translation equivalence of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy 164 5.2.1 Analyses of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in the source text 165 5.2.2 Comparison of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy in the source text and target text 168 5.3 Summary of translation equivalence of Nominal groups and Verbal Groups related to human-centric marketing strategy 172 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 175 6.1 Recapitulation of the study 175 6.2 English-Vietnamese translation of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to market segments 176 6.3 English-Vietnamese translation of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy 179 6.4 Contributions of the study 180 6.4.1 Theoretical contribution 180 6.4.2 Practical contribution 181 6.5 Limitations and suggestions for further research 183 REFERENCES 185 RESEARCHER’S ARTICLES RELATED TO THE THESIS 196 vii APPENDIXES I Appendix A Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to market segments I Appendix B Gradational resources embedded in NGs related to the young market segment X Appendix c The authors’ attitudes embedded in NGs related to the young market segment XI Appendix D Process and Graduation embedded in VGs related to the young segment XIII Appendix E The authors’ attitude embedded in VGs related to the young segment XV Appendix F Gradational resources of NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy XVII Appendix G The authors’ attitude embedded in NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy XXIII Appendix H Some of the end-of-pagc explanation for NGs in the TT XXVII Appendix Equivalence extent in translating Nominal groups related to human­ centric marketing strategy XXXI Appendix K The authors’ attitude embedded in VGs related human-centric marketing strategy XL Appendix L Equivalence extent in translating VGs related to human-centric marketing strategy .XLII Appendix M Source Text and Target Text of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy XLIV APPENDIX N: Previous Comparative Translation Studies Iv APPENDIX o Previous Studies on Marketing Texts Ixi viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES Figure 2.1 Relation between language and social context (Martin and Rose, 2008:10) 23 Figure 2.2 Three levels of text analysis (Martin and Rose, 2008:17) 24 Figure 2.3 House’s model of translation quality assessment (House 2015:127) 28 Figure 2.4 Theoretical framework of the study 32 Figure 2.5 The Appraisal framework (Martin and White, 2005 from https://www.google.com/search?q=apprciisal+frcimework+(martin+and+white) 36 Figure 2.6 The selling and marketing concept (Kotler 1991 cited in MacKenzie 2001:53) 53 Figure 3.1 Analytical framework of the study 72 Figure 3.2 Procedures of data analysis in the study 81 TABLES Table 2.1 ‘Affect’ category with its types (Martin and White, 2005: 51) 38 Table 2.2 ‘Judgement’ esteem with its variables (Martin and White, 2005: 53) 39 Table 2.3 ‘Judgement’ sanction with its variables (Martin and White, 2005: 53)39 Table 2.4 ‘Appreciation’ category with its variables (Martin and White, 2005:53) 40 Table 2.5 Variables of Force-intensification (Martin and White, 2005:137-143)41 Table 2.6 Variables of Force-quantification (Martin and White, 2005: 146) 43 Table 2.7 A nominal group, showing multivariate experiential structure 46 Table 2.8 Experiential structure of the verbal group 48 Table 2.9 The factors related to Marketing mix ‘4Ps’ 53 Table 2.10 Some previous comparative translation studies directly related to this paper 57 Table 2.11 Some previous translation studies of a ST with TTs in the same language 58 ix ... Khoa Hong Thành gaining a BA in Vietnamese Diplomatic Policy in Vietnam, an MBA at University of Hawaii at Manoa in the USA, and currently being the coo of Isobar Vietnam The Vietnamese translation. .. human-centric marketing strategy as language units play an essential role in conveying the ideational and interpersonal meaning of the ST Thus, their translation in the TT is taken into analysis... the study This research is a comparative study of a business text, specifically a marketing text in English and its translation in Vietnamese The research approach employed for this study is mainly