Rationale of the study
In recent years, foreign literary works, especially English ones, have been widely introduced in Vietnam Had it not been for the substantial efforts made by many excellent translators, these works would not have become a great enjoyment of Vietnamese literature enthusiasts In other words, translation procedure has a significant influence on the reception of readers, and, obviously, the popularity of a particular work A number of problems could be detected during this procedure, and the solutions to these should be explored to assist the translators These troubles might come from many complicated issues namely cultural elements, technical terms, verb phrases, and so on This inspires the author to conduct a study of English and Vietnamese, and the chosen subjects are the meanings of verbs of Giving/Receiving and its Vietnamese translated variants
Verbs of Giving/Receiving are widely-used; however, their variety of meanings tends to cause considerable difficulties to translators Particularly, in the translation process of a literary piece, it is crucial that the translator have deep understanding of the intent and the messages conveyed by the author The intentions and messages are generally generated from every single word in the text, and verbs of Giving/Receiving are the ones that cannot be left out They are difficult and complicated elements that should be carefully investigated to make any translation refined As a result, this paper is conducted with the expectation that the Vietnamese equivalents of verbs of giving/receiving in the examined literature piece might be brought to light
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the sixth novel in the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling, is chosen as the source of data for this study because of its abundance and variety of instances where those verbs occur, and hence the diversity researcher was strongly appealed and impressed by this novel and then she made a decision to choose this piece, both Vietnamese and English versions to examine
For all of the above reasons, the researcher proposes Vietnamese translated variants of verbs of Giving/Receiving in "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" by J.K
Rowling as the title of the study.
Aims of the study
As mentioned, the aim of this study is to investigate the translation variants of English verbs of Giving/Receiving in the corpus novel This aim can be reached by answering the following research questions:
1 What verbs are used to denote the meaning of Giving and Receiving in the novel “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K.Rowling?
2 How are these verbs translated in the Vietnamese version?
Research Approaches and Procedure
In the study, the following approaches are employed:
Qualitative and descriptive approach: the whole novel is thoroughly examined in order to note down and to list all the English verbs of Giving/Receiving
Contrastive analysis approach: the English (original) version is contrasted with then Vietnamese translation so as to identify the translation variants of the investigated verbs
Quantitative approach: The collected data are presented quantitatively according to their number of occurrences in both the English (original) version and the Vietnamese translation
The data collection procedure consists of three main steps
First of all, the original version of the novel is examined to enumerate the English verbs of Giving/Receiving and their number of occurrences These verbs are found based on the verb list and the definition of the act of Giving/Receiving proposed by Lâm Quang Đông (2008) and Newman (1996) The dictionary meaning also plays an important role in this step This addresses the first research question
Secondly, the Vietnamese version is studied and contrasted with the original to find the translated counterparts (the variants) of the English verbs
Finally, based on the gathered data, the reasons for the appearance of these variants are suggested The theory of context by Halliday/Hassan (1990) could be considered one of the key bases of this part.
Significance of the study
The study will contribute to understanding of the different Vietnamese variants of English verbs of Giving/Receiving through a translated literary work Besides, practical options for translating verbs of Giving/Receiving into Vietnamese will be proposed on the basis of the study results.
Scope of the study
As mentioned earlier, the research merely examines the Vietnamese translation of English verbs having the literal meaning of Giving/Receiving in the Vietnamese version of the sixth novel in the Harry Potter series named “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.
Structure of the thesis
The thesis, which reports the different stages of the study and its results, is expected
This part includes the rationale, aims of the study, research questions, reseach approaches and procedure, scope and significance of the study as well as the structure of the thesis
Chapter I: Theoretical Background In this chapter, the theory of translation and the matter around the problems of translation variants are provided Moreover, the chapter reviews some aspects of verbs of Giving/Receiving
Chapter II: The translation variants of verbs of Giving/Receiving in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K.Rowling This chapter presents the results and the data analysis concerning the English verbs of Giving/Receiving and their translation variants in the selected novel
Part C: Conclusion The last part briefly summarizes the main ideas of the study, presents the limitations of the study as well as suggests further research on the same topic.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The generality of translation
In Approaches to Translation, Newmark (1982:7) states:
Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language
According to Bell (1991:5), "Translation is the expression in another language (or TL) of what has been expressed in another, SL, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalence.”
As might be drawn from the above definitions by the two scholars in different times, in the theory of translation, equivalence might be considered a central concept Therefore, equivalence relation is applied in defining translation by a number of theorists As Pym (1992) claims, equivalence is believed to define translation, and translation, in turn, defines equivalence Thus, the next part presents some discussions about equivalence in translation, especially at word level
Translation equivalence can be classified in various ways based on different factors
In terms of meaning, equivalence could be divided into five main groups: denotative, connotative, text-normative, pragmatic and formal equivalence
- Denotative equivalence: The SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the real world
- Connotative equivalence: Additional values besides denotative are provided
This equivalence is achieved by the translator‟s choice of synonymous words or expressions
- Text-normative equivalence: The SL and TL words are used in the same or similar context in their respective languages
- Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words have the same effect on their respective readers
- Formal equivalence: produces and analogy of form in the translation by either exploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating new forms in TL
In addition, Nida (1964) suggests another way of categorize equivalence based on function: dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence These two types of equivalence are distinguised as basic orientations rather than as a binary choice:
- Formal equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have the closest possible match of form and content
- Dynamic equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have the same effect on their effective readers
On the other hand, Munday (2001) seems to stick to numeracy and suggests the following classification based on the quantity: one-to-one equivalence, one-to-many equivalence, one-to-part-of-one equivalence and nil equivalence
- One-to-one equivalence: A single expression in TL is equivalent to a single expression in SL
- One-to-many equivalence: More than one TL expressions are equivalent to a single SL expression
- Many- to-one equivalence: there is more than one expression in the source language, but there is a single expression in TL which is equivalent to them
- One-to-part-of-one equivalence: A TL expression covers part of a concept designated by a single SL expression
- Nil equivalence: no TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression ->
Loan or borrowing should be used
Moreover, in Baker (1992), a discussion of the notion of equivalence in terms of form could be found She seems to offer a more detailed list of conditions upon which the concept of equivalence can be defined She distinguishes between equivalence at word level and above word level Because the subject of this research is the translation variants of giving/receiving verbs, only the equivalence at word level is discussed further
To begin with, Baker (1992) defined a word as “the smallest unit which we would expect to possess individual meaning” (Baker, 1992:11) With more precision, she also defines the written word “as any sequence of letters with an orthographic space on either side” (Baker, 1992:11)
Besides, she deals with the lexical meaning of a word The lexical meaning refers to
“the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system and their „personality‟ it acquires through usage within that system” (Baker, 1992:11) The four main types of the lexical meaning of a word (Cruse, 1986) are also presented in Baker (1992): propositional meaning, expressive meaning, presupposed meaning and evoked meaning
- Propositional meaning: This meaning refers to the relation between it and what it refers to or describes in a real or imaginary world This meaning provides the basis on which we can judge an utterance as true or false
- Expressive meaning: This meaning relates to the speaker‟s feelings or attitude It cannot be judged as true or false
Baker (1992) claims that two or more words/utterances might share the same propositional meaning but differ in their expressive meanings, for example, the words famous in English and fameux in French They both basically mean „well- known‟ (propositional meaning) However, while famous is neutral in English, fameux is potentially evaluative and could be used in some contexts in a derogatory way
- Presupposed meaning: It could be defined as the restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or after a particular unit
+ Selectional restrictions: For instance, we expect a human subject for studious and an inanimate one for geometrical
+ Collocational restrictions: In English, teeth are brushed, but in German and
Italian they are „polished‟, in Polish they are „washed‟, and in Russian they are „cleaned‟
- Evoked meaning: This meaning arises from dialect and register vairation
+ Dialect: dialect: a variety of language which has currency within a specific community or group of speakers Dialect might be classified according to geographical (e.g lift in British English BE - and elevator in American English AE), temporal (e.g verity – really) and social (e.g scent - and perfume) bases
+ Register: It refers to a variety of language that a language user considers appropriate to a specific situation
These types of lexical meaning all contribute to the overall meaning of a word/utterance in vague and complex ways because of the nature of language As stated by Baker (1992), in most cases, words have „blurred edges‟; that is, the meanings of words are negotiable and can only be realized in specific contexts
Sharing the same viewpoint, Tyler/ Evans (2003:18) also state:
In normal communication lexical items do not occur in isolation In point of fact, when humans use lexical items, the lexical items always occur in context and their precise interpretation changes with each use
Consequently, it can be inferred that one word in one language could be translated in different ways into another language This perception is also mentioned in Diệp Quang Ban (2004) According to Diệp Quang Ban (2004), the events […] are expressed via the perspective built by people, and encoded in the grammar of a specific language Therefore, the same event could be perceived and expressed in different ways which can differ among different speakers, and languages Besides, these ways can vary among different times of perception of the same person or within the same language but with different means of expression allowed in this language Thus, the central element that causes the changes of word interpretation, as agreed by the above authors, is the context where the lexical items occur
Discussing the effects of context on the meaning of language, the concept of
“context of situation” has been raised According to Schaeffner (2002), this concept was formulated in 1923 by Malinowski in The Meaning of Meaning It was then elaborated by Firth (1951) and extended in numerous studies (Schaeffner, 2002)
The best-known treatment might be Hymes‟ (1971) discussion of models of the language and social setting interaction (Schaeffner, 2002) In this discussion, speech situation is categorized in terms of eight components which summarized as form and content of text, setting, participants, ends (intent and effect), key, medium, genre and interactional norms (Halliday/Hasan, 1990:22, mentioned in Schaeffner,
Halliday/Hasan (1990) proposed a more abstract interpretation with the three headings of field, tenor and mode as a foundation for deriving the text features from the situation features
- Field: the subject matter In other words, it is the answer to the questions: What is happening, to whom, where and when, why is it happening, and so on
- Tenor: the social relation existing between the interactants in a speech situation
It might consist of relations of formality, power, and effect (e.g the relation between manage/clerk, father/son) It tends to influence interpersonal choices in the linguistic system Hence, the structures and strategies chosen to activate the linguistic exchange are affected
Verbs of Giving/Receiving
2.1 The act of Giving/Receiving
An act of Giving is defined as “an act whereby a person (the giver) passes with the hands control over an object (thing) to another person (the recipient)” (Newman,
1996) Lâm Quang Đông (2008), labels these three entities X, Z and Y, respectively In some cultures, the act of Giving may associate with some rituals and vary in terms of position, movement or kinship obligation (Newman, 1996)
Moreover, Newman (1996) suggests that the transfer of control/ownership/possession tends to be the core meaning of Give words Thus, the act of Giving can be considered not only one of the human interactions but also are frequent and generally highly purposeful He also states that Give is a basic verb in every language Lâm Quang Đông (2008) shares the same opinion, and extends this to the other verbs of Giving Verbs of Giving, as argued by Lâm Quang Đông
(2008), belong to the basic vocabularies of languages These verbs are among the earliest linguistic elements to be perceived and used by children Besides, the number of verbs of Giving is abundant to properly express various circumstances, characteristics, manners of the act of Giving as well as the interpersonal relations among the participants
An act of receiving is defined through the verb take in comparison with the verb give (Newman, 1996) The similarities is that both acts include “the movement of a thing, typically the hands of a person; the movement is initiated by a person; the thing ends up in the sphere of control of a person” (Newman, 1996: 56-57) They differ in terms of the directions of movement of a thing with respect to the subject referent (Newman, 1996) Particularly, in the case of give, the movement is away from the subject referent while in the case of take, the movement is toward the subject referent Another distinction is that there is no Giver necessarily presented in the base of take In other words, there is only one person necessarily involved in the sub-categorization of the basic meaning of take Like verbs of Giving, verbs of Receiving also vary in accordance with certain circumstances
Based on the core concept of an act of Giving/Receiving, Lâm Quang Đông (2008) proposed a list of Giving verbs and some related verbs as follows:
Table 1: Giving verbs and some related verbs
Allocate Allot Assign Award Bequeath Bestow Bribe Buy Cede Concede Confer Contribute Dedicate Delegate Deliver Devote Dig Dispatch
Distribute Divide Donate Endow Entrust Extend Forward Furnish Get Give Hand out Hand Impart Jump Leave Make over Offer Pass
Present Provide Receive Refund Reimburse Relegate Remit Repay, pay back Return
Reward Sell Send Share Submit, hand in Supply
Take Throw Transfer (Adapted from Lâm Quang Đông, 2008) This list tends to focus on the verbs of Giving Besides, some verbs such as dig, buy and sell are believed to be excluded from the verbs of Giving/Receiving On the other hand, there are also some other verbs mentioned in the above list among which some verbs of Receiving are also found As can be seen, however, by pre- examining the original version, the researcher find that there are some verbs with the meaning of Giving/Receiving found in the corpus does not exist in the list, especially the Receiving verbs such as accept, inherit, catch, grab, reap and have
Therefore, in the current study, a contrastive analysis of the two versions (the original and the Vietnamese) of the novel and a dictionary research also serve as the tools for identifying the data
2.2 The representational semantic structure of verbs of Giving/Receiving
Lâm Quang Đông (2008), in his book, presents the representational semantic structure of verbs of Giving He groups the verbs according to the number of participants involved in the act of Giving
2.2.1 The representational semantic structure of verbs of Giving/Receiving with 3 participants or less a 1 participant
- Only Agent appears, Recipient and Theme cannot be identified
Bà ấy toàn cho đi chứ chẳng bao giờ lấy cả CHO ĐI
She always gives but never takes
He usually gives GIVE
- There is no occurrence of the Giver and Recipient Only Theme appears
Cái ngọt bùi đem cho, còn đắng cay gánh lấy ĐEM CHO
Advantages to give, disadvantages to retain
Give blood here! GIVE
(Adapted from Lâm Quang Đông, 2008) b 2 participants
This case happens when one of the three participants is unspecified and schematic
Tôi thích tặng quà TẶNG
I like to give presents The teacher gave the answers after the test GIVE
Con thí cho thằng mõ đấy THÍ
I like to give to the church GIVE
Bốn cái móng giò biếu bốn ông to nhất BIẾU
Four legs are given to the four leaders
He was given the Nobel Prize for his invention GIVE
(Adapted from Lâm Quang Đông, 2008) c 3 participants
Người cho em tất cả là Bác Hồ Chí Minh CHO
The person who gave me everything is Uncle Ho Chi Minh
He handed the report to me HAND
(Adapted from Lâm Quang Đông, 2008)
2.2.2 The representational semantic structure of verbs of Giving/Receiving with more than 3 participants
According to Lâm Quang Đông (2008), in the case of the verb send/gửi, it is hypothesized that the act of Sending can happen through an intermediator In English, an intermediator is realized by a prepositional phrase (the circumstant)
Two main kinds of circumstants are proposed by Lâm Quang Đông (2008): Default Circumstants and Non-default Circumstants
Table 2: The semantic roles of participants in the case of the verb send/gửi
Agent Author Source Locative Instrument
Recipient Goal Experiencer Locative Beneficiary Patient
Intermediary Recipient Means Instrument Direction Goal
I will send you the contract through email (I: Agent, you: recipient, the contract: theme, email: Non-default circumstant –Instrument)
I have sent you the gift through Mr Brown (I: Agent, you: recipient, the gift: theme, Mr Brown: Default circumstant – Intermediary Recipient)
(Adapted from Lâm Quang Đông, 2008)
As mentioned above in the act of Receiving, Receiving is the reverse act of Giving
Thus, both verbs of Receiving and Giving share the same expressive semantic structures However, the semantic roles of the participants 1 and 2 are reversed with each other As Newman (1996) claims, the distinctive features of the two acts are the directions of the movement Regarding give, the movement is away from, whereas in the case of take, the movement is toward the subject referent Therefore, in the structure of Receiving verbs, the participant 1 is the recipient and the participant 2 is the person from whom something is taken Moreover, in the case of Receiving verbs, the appearance of the participant 2 is not necessary.
Concluding Remarks
This chapter discussed the definitions of translation and the concept of equivalence in translation Numerous factors could influence the translater‟s choice, and the context of situation is one of the most important factors In the context of situation, the three main aspects namely field, tenor and mode shoud be taken into consideration in the translation process In addtion, the concept of the act of Giving/Receiving suggested by Newman and Lâm Quang Đông as well as the list of some typical verbs proposed by Lâm Quang Đông is presented and chosen to be one of the main criteria to conduct the investigation Otherwise, a dictionary research and a comparison between the two version are also useful tools for analysis The representational semantic structures of the verbs of Giving/Receiving by Lâm
Quang Đông (2008) also assist the writer in identifying the verbs of Giving/Receiving in the original version.
THE TRANSLATION VARIANTS OF VERBS OF GIVING/RECEIVING IN “HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE” BY J.K.ROWLING
Introduction: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K.Rowling
The subjects of the study are English verbs of Giving/Receiving in the sixth novel in the Harry Potter series published in 2005, and their translation in the Vietnamese version by Lý Lan
Harry Potter is one of the most popular book and film franchises in history It is a series of seven fantasy novels, which were written by J K Rowling, a British author In this series, the adventures of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger are chronicled All of the three characters are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry The whole series illustrates Harry‟s quest to overcome Lord Voldemort, the Dark wizard, who attempts to become immortal, control the wizarding world, subdue non-magical people and is willing to destroy all those who stand in his way, especially Harry Potter
Joanne Rowling, best known as J K Rowling, the creator of the Harry Potter series, was born in 1965 in Yale, England Before writing “Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone” (the word "Philosopher" was changed to "Sorcerer" for its publication in America), the first novel of the Harry Potter series, she came from humble economic means as a single mother As her work was an international hit, she wrote six more novels in the series, and became an international literary sensation
1.2 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, the sixth novel in the Harry Potter
Series, was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury on 16 July 2005 Set during protagonist Harry Potter‟s sixth year at Hogwarts, this novel unveils the past of Lord Voldemort and Harry‟s preparations for the battle alongside Albus Dumbledore, his headmaster and mentor The book is noted to take on a darker tone than its predecessors, though some humor was contained Its core themes appear to consist of love and death, and trust and redemption
The return of Lord Voldemort is no longer deniable, since havoc is severely made in both magic and Muggle communities by the Dark Lord and his minions This leads to the resignation of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic Arthur Weasley, Ron‟s father, is promoted to Head of Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects; thanks to this, the Weasley‟s financial situation is improved On the dark side of the world, Draco Malfoy‟s mother makes Severus Snape swear to protect Draco Snape, finally, takes a position that he has long coveted – Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts In the meantime, emotions among Harry, Ron and Hermione are at an all-time high because of the relationship between Ron and Lavender It is not until Ron is poisoned that Harry stops being caught between Ron and Hermione‟s cross fire Dumbledore hypothesizes that Voldemort‟s soul was split into seven parts, the Horcruxes, to acquire immortality and he shares this theory with Harry As a result, Voldemort is a goner for good as long as all his Horcruxes are destroyed In order to find out the locations of the Horcruxes, all the memories about Voldemort collected by Dumbledore are reviewed The third Horcrux is sought out Upon the return of Harry and Dumbledore, Voldemort‟s Dark Mark looms over Hogwarts and the school has been infiltrated by the Death Eaters Draco is charged to kill Dumbledore but hesitates; therefore, Snape performs the killing instead The Dumbledore‟s Army defends the campus until the arrival of the Order of the Phoenix The Horcrux in Harry‟s possession turns out to be a fake The death of Dumbledore results in an immense sadness of all the students, professors and ghosts at Hogwarts Harry makes a decision to end his budding romance with Ginny so as to protect her from Voldemort He also decides to leave Hogwarts, and vows to find the four remaining Horcruxes with the help of Ron and Hermione.
Verbs of Giving/Receiving in the English (original) version and their variants
2.1 English verbs of Giving/Receiving in the English (original) version
The selected novel has been carefully examined and it has been found that in this novel, there exist a total number of 52 verbs of Giving/Receiving in which the number of Giving verbs is 43 and that of the Receiving verbs are only 9 It has also been found that beside the verbs with the explicit meaning of Giving/Receiving, as listed in the verb list by Lâm Quang Đông (2008), there also exist the verbs that only carry the Giving/Receiving meaning in some certain contexts In other words, these verbs just carry a temporary Giving/receiving meaning The verbs and their number of occurrence will be presented in the following sections
The table belows presents the verbs of Giving/Receiving found in the novel in their number of occurrence The number of occurrence of each verb is typed to the right of the verb and is put in parentheses
Table 3: English verbs with explicit meaning of Giving/Receiving in the original version
Verbs of Giving (No of occurrence) Verbs of Receiving Assign (1)
Hand (25) Impart (1) Leave (5) Offer (9) Pass (18)
It is noteworthy that in the English version, the verbs of Giving outnumber the verbs of Receiving by roughly five to one (16 verbs to 3 verbs, respectively) In terms of verbs of Giving, it might be drawn that in this novel, the verb give gets the dominant position (53 times), followed by the verb hand (25 times) Among the
Receiving verbs, the verb get occupies the highest number of occurrence (14 times- roughly four times lower than give-the most used Giving verb)
„It‟s the thing she touched,‟ said Harry
„Good Lord‟, said Professor McGonagall, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry
„No, no, Filch, they‟re with me!‟ she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the Entrance Hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft „Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!‟
Besides, the two verbs take and get both convey the meaning of Giving and Receiving, depending on the structures they are involved As can be seen in example 1, take in she took the necklace from Harry means to receive the necklace whereas in Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, it means to give the necklace to another person
As stated, the data also contain a number of verbs which only have a temporal meaning of Giving/Receiving These verbs are displayed in the following table with their number of occurrence (also in parentheses)
Table 4: English verbs with temporary meaning of Giving/Receiving in the original version
Verbs of Giving (No of occurrence) Verbs of Receiving Allow (2)
Bring (8) Carry (3) Chuck (1) Convey (1) Drop (2) Encase (2)
Fling (1) Force (2) Grant (1) Hold (3) Lend (3) Press (1) Produce (1)
Push (2) Put (3) Seal (1) Set (5) Shove (1) Show (5) Slip (1)
Smuggle (1) Spare (1) Stuff (1) Thrust (5) Tip (2) Turn (1)
Accept (2) Catch (1) Grab (1) Have (5) Inherit (2) Reap (1)
As can be seen in the table, the number of the verbs with temporary meaning is relatively high comparing to that of the explicit Giving/Receiving verbs; however, it seems that these verbs occur in a relative low number throughout the text As claimed earlier, these verbs may have the meaning of Giving/Receiving in some certain contexts The following examples illustrate the appearance of these verbs in the novel In the examples, the verbs are underlined
„My grandmother thinks Charms is a soft option,‟ mumbled Neville
„Take Charms,‟ said Professor McGonagall, „and I shall drop Augusta a line reminding her that just because she failed her Charms O.W.L., the subject is not necessarily worthless.‟
Particularly, drop itself means let or make (something) fall vertically (according to Oxford Dictionaries); however, in and I shall drop Augusta a line reminding her that […], drop a line is an idiom which means send a short letter or note (example
Not long after this, Hagrid became tearful again and pressed the whole unicorn tail upon Slughorn, who pocketed it with crires of, „To friendship! To generosity! To ten Galleons a hair!‟
Or the verb press, which itself refers to the action of move or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force (Oxford Dictionaries), in […] pressed the whole unicorn tail upon Slughorn […] means to hand the tail with a strong physical force (example 3)
2.2 Translation variants of the verbs of Giving/Receiving in the Vietnamese version
2.2.1 Vietnamese variants of verbs of Giving 2.2.1.1 The number of the variants
After comparing and contrasting the original version with its Vietnamese translation, the variants of each Giving verb are explored (See Appendix for more details)
Table 5: Vietnamese variants of verbs of Giving
Assign Bring Carry Chuck Convey Drop Deliver Encase Entrust Fling
Force Get Give Grant Hand Hold Impart Leave Lend Offer Pass
Press Provide Produce Push Put Return Reward Seal Send Set Shove
Show Slip Smuggle Spare Stuff Take Thrust Throw Tip Turn
The table above demonstrates the Vietnamese variants of verbs of Giving (the verbs and their number of variants in the Vietnamese translation) In the investigated novels, the number of variants of the verb give ranks at the first position with 19 variants At the second and the third are the verbs hand and pass with 14 and 12 variants, respectively On the other hand, because of appearing only once in the whole novel, many verbs like assign, chuck, convey, entrust, fling, or grant have just 1 variant Besides, some other verbs namely encase, lend and return share the same number of variants: 1, despite the fact that they are used twice, three times and twice, respectively
2.2.1.2 The translation variants of some significant verbs of Giving
This section discusses the translation variants of the significant verbs in the text As described in the above table, the verbs with the highest number of variants are give, variants of these verbs differ strongly in different contexts Besides, although the verb offer only has 6 variants, these variants also diverge in the text
This verb has totally 19 variants throughout the Vietnamese translation by Lý Lan and these variants are relatively different from each other in different contexts The following examples illustrate some situations in which some alternatives of the verb give are discussed and once more, the verbs in each example are underlined
Original Novel Dialogue Vietnamese Translation
In a vain attempt to rid himself of all reminders of this uncomfortable encounter, he had given the gerbil to his delighted niece and instructed his Private Secretary to take down the portrait of the ugly little man who had announced Fudge‟s arrival
Trong một cố gắng vô ích nhằm gạt bỏ hết tất cả những gì gợi nhớ đến cuộc gặp mặt khó chịu này, ông đã đem con chuột lóc chóc cho đứa cháu gái mừng húm và ra lệnh cho viên thư ký riêng gỡ xuống bức tranh chân dung gã đàn ông nhỏ thó xấu xí đã thông báo về cuộc viếng thăm của ông Fudge
Original Novel Dialogue Vietnamese Translation
„Humph,‟ he said, looking away quickly as though frightened of hurting his eyes „Here-‟
He gave a drink to Dumbledore who had sat down without invitation, […]
“Hừm,” ông nói, nhìn thiệt lẹ sang hướng khác như thể sợ làm đau mắt mình
“Đây …” Ông đưa ly rượu cho cụ Dumbledore, cụ đã ngồi xuống mà không cần mời mọc, […]
Concluding remarks
Generally speaking, the translation of the verbs of Giving/Receiving is influenced phrase and the original word choice However, it can be seen that the variants of Giving verbs outnumber the variants of Receiving verbs It might be the result of the fact that the elements affecting the Giving verbs‟ translation are more than those of the Receiving verbs Particularly, while the relationship between the giver and the recipient might have a significant impact on the word choice of Vietnamese Giving verbs, it does not make any considerable difference between the Vietnamese Receiving verbs So does the manner of the act of Giving/Receiving; that is, how the thing is given/received is not taken into account in the case of Receiving verbs
Besides, the preposition in the verb phrases only impacts the translator‟s decision in translating Giving verbs
Generally speaking, the number of occurrence of the English verbs of Giving/Receving in the original version and their corresponding variants has been exposed In order to acquire the final results, both the English (original) and the Vietnamese translation versions are examined Once again, the fact that the Giving verbs are undoubtedly far overweighed in comparison with the Receiving verbs is compellingly demonstrated through the analysis of the whole novel Moreover, give and get are the verbs with the highest number of occurrence as well as number of variants among the Giving and Receiving verbs, correspondingly This variety of word choice in the Vietnamese version might be derived from the difference between particular contexts of the utterance; the structure of the verb phrase in the utterance and the original word choice However, the factors that influence the translation of Giving verbs tend to not coincide with those of Receiving verbs This distinction could lead to some notices for the other translators when translating the verbs of Giving/Receiving into Vietnamese.
Implications
Using the novel “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K Rowling as the promising learning sources, the investigation of how the verbs of Giving/Receiving are translated into Vietnamese tends to hold an important role in facilitating studying English and Vietnamese in general and translation in particular
For translation study, it is noteworthy that the concepts of one language may differ radically from those of another (Culler, 1976, as mentioned in Baker, 1992) That is, each language has its own way to articulate or organize the world This results in the variety of expressions of a certain meaning within a language or between the different languages Therefore, the choice of the translator in the translation process varies according to several factors As pointed out in the above part, the translator‟s choice might depend on the distinctive features of a particular context, the structure of the phrase as well as the word selection of the original version Thus, it is highly recommended that the translator should pay the attention to these elements to pick up the appropriate translated counterparts For example, if the positions of the giver and the recipient are at different status, it might be taken into consideration: mời – the giver is in lower status, cho – the giver is in higher status The attitude of the act and the manner of the act are also the two important elements Besides, the difference between the act of Giving and Receiving has to be noticed This distinction could lead to the degree of influence of the same factor on the choice of the translator Some factos might affect the translation of Giving verbs, but not the Receiving verbs.
Limitations of the study
First, as presented before, this paper has been simply carried out on the sixth novel of the Harry Potter series and the Vietnamese translation by Ly Lan; therefore, to some extents, the number of examined verbs and their variants are not plentiful
Another limitation of the study is that the writer merely presents the data in terms of the number of occurrence Moreover, the description of the meaning of the verbs in each context is not fully mentioned Besides, the factors that affect the translation process proposed in this thesis are the most common elements raised from the translation variants appearing the the investigated novel This might not be applied to explain any translation variants Another limitation of the study is that it is completely subjective since no questionnaires or interviews conducted so as to collect the ideas from the other people on this issue Consequently, all the judgments and comments on the gathered data are personal.
Suggestions for further study
A further research focusing on the meanings of the verbs of Giving/Receiving expressed in the original version and how they are conveyed in the translated novel should be welcomed Besides, extending the scope of the investigation to more than one novel is strongly believed to verify the findings of this study Moreover, the evaluation of the translated version might be another suggestion for further studies
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Spatial Sciences, Embodied Meaning, and Cognition Cambridge: Cambridge
1 Diệp Quang Ban (2004) Ngữ pháp Việt Nam – Phần câu Hà Nội: NXB Đại học Sư phạm
2 Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1993) Từ xưng hô trong tiếng Việt Việt Nam những vấn đề văn hóa và ngôn ngữ, Hội Ngôn ngữ học Việt Nam, Hà Nội, 60-65
3 Nguyễn Đức Dân (1993) Phạm trù thứ tự trong tâm thức người Việt Việt
Nam những vấn đề ngôn ngữ và văn hóa, Hội Ngôn ngữ học Việt Nam, Hà Nội, 47-
4 Lâm Quang Đông (2008) Cấu trúc nghĩa biểu hiện của câu với nhóm vị từ trao/tặng (trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt) Hà Nội: NXB Khoa học Xã hội
5 Trần Ngọc Thêm (1997) Tìm về bản sắc văn hóa Việt Nam TP Hồ Chí Minh: NXB TP Hồ Chí Minh
1 J.K Rowling (2015) The Biography.com website Retrieved 09:56,
Jun 11, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/jk-rowling-40998
2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/drop
3 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/press
THE ENGLISH VERBS OF GIVING/RECEIVING AND THEIR VIETNAMESE
VARIANTS IN THE EXAMINED NOVEL
No Verbs in English Vietnamese Variants
Accept + Accepted (p172, Line 13); accepted (p398, Line
Allow + have […] allowed (p71, Line 16) + should allow for (p567, Line 13)
+ has been assigned (p27, Line 9) + ủy thác nhiệm vụ
Bring + bring us drink (p35, Line 1) + bringing (p101, Line 10); was brought (p309, Line 30)
+‟s bringing you up a tray (p111, Line 17) + brought (p128, Line 13), bring (p151, Line 16) + brought (p128 Line 16)
+ bưng lên + đem + mang tới + mang đến cho
Carry + can carry (p37, Line 11) + carry (p37, Line 12) + was carrying (p113, Line 18)
+ nói lại + loan truyền + bưng đến Catch
+ caught hold of (p62, Line 22) + đón lấy
Convey + has been conveyed (p41, Line 1) + chuyển giao
Drop + dropped (p35, Line 8) + shall drop (p208, Line 4)
+ had been delivered (p56, Line 19) + are delivered (p99, Line 17) + to deliver (p169, Line 11) + had to deliver (p297, Line 28) + to deliver (p300, Line 3) + to deliver (p304, Line 14) + have been delivered (p462, Line 27)
+ được gởi + được giao + đưa cho + trao lại + giao + trao + được đem đến
Encase + would encase (p588, Line 1); encase (p588, Line
Entrust +has[…] entrusted (p41, Line 11) + giao phó
+ to fling (p592, Line 3) + ném vung vít
Get + will get (p34, Line 15) + got (p78, Line 17); used to get back (p88, Line 10); get (p229, Line 17); are getting (p363, Line 28); „ve got (p701, Line 14)
+ got (p88, Line 25) +‟ve got (p124, Line 6) + got (p145, Line 25) + to get (p154, Line 5); got (p463, Line 24) + to get (p191, Line 9); get (p310, Line 11) + „d get (p209, Line 28)
+ got (p210, Line 19) + „ve got (p280, Line 16) + „ve got (p416, Line 18) + gets (p449, Line 25) + „s got hold of (p492, Line 8)
+ được + đạt + kiếm ra + tặng + nhận + cũng được + bị giao + đem cho + có cái này cho + thừa hưởng + chụp được Give
+ had given (p14, Line 16) + wouldn‟t give (p38, Line 25); to give (p39, Line 5); to give (p303, Line 27); am giving (p441, Line
7) + give (p42, Line 10) + gave (p84, Line 11), gave (p219, Line 24); to give (p287, Line 19); give (p292, Line 6); „d given (p298, Line 3); would‟ve given (p304, Line 11); giving (p441, Line 21); to give (p503, Line 4); to
+ nhường + đưa cho give (p556, Line 1); giving (p600, Line 7); gave (p610, Line 6); gave (p610, Line 24); give (p620, Line 28); had given (p670, Line 12)
+ still gives (p89, Line 15); gave (p89, Line 27); used to give (p129, Line 16); gives (p213, Line 13); gave (p331, Line 10); to give (p444, Line 1); wouldn‟t give (p506, Line 22); gave (p578, Line 28); won‟t give (p578, Line 29); to give (p661, Line 5);
+ has been given (p99, Line 27) + having given (p164, Line 13) + „d give (p166, Line 25) + gave (p173, Line 9) + be given (p199, Line 6); was […] given (p512, Line 21)
+ can give[ …] back(p262, Line 4); „ll give[ …] back (p262, Line 16); give […] back (p492, Line
15) + gives (p210, Line 24) + Gimme (p291, Line16) + gave (p310, Line 16) + giving (p 402, Line 18); give(p402, Line 19); had given (p463, Line 14); gave (p467, Line 23); to give (p471, Line 11); to give (p476, Line 13) + to give (p443, Line 4)
+ had been given (p561, Line 10) + giving (p580, Line 3); gave (p603, Line 13) + have given (p602, Line 23)
+ được canh phòng + dành cho
+ đánh đổi + tặng cho + được giao cho
+ sẽ ra + đưa giùm + trả
+ ném cho + giao cho + trao cho + tạo được cho
Grab + to grab hold of (p295, Line 3) + chụp lấy Grant
Hand + handed (p35, Line 12); handed (p325, Line 16); handing (p347, Line 1); handing (p470, Line 23) + was handed down (p64, Line 13)
+ handed (p143, Line 3); handed (p208, Line 9); could‟ve handed (p229, Line 16); handing (p471, Line 24); handed (p503; Line 4); having handed (p523, Line 27); handed (p590, Line 27); handed […] over (p621, Line 2)
+ hand […] over (p205, Line 14) + handed over (p205, Line 15) + handing […] back (p314, Line 26) + handed […] over (p332, Line 26) + hand […] over (p334, Line 24) + handed over (p434, Line 26); handed it over (p623, Line 8)
+ handing over (p473, Line 11) + has been handed down (p517, Line 9) + to hand over (p530, Line 2)
+ handing back (p533, Line 27) + handed (p603,Line 4)
+ được truyền lại + đưa cho
+ đưa … đây + giao nộp + đưa lại + chuyền tới + đưa … lại đây + nộp
+ trao quà + được lưu truyền + giao
+ đưa trả lại + trao cho Have
+ Have we had (p40, Line 30) + can have (p64, Line 18)
+ nhận được + cứ lấy đi
+ to have (p64, Line 18) + have […] back (p230, Line 19) + „d rather have (p402, Line 29)
+ thừa hưởng + lấy lại + nhận Hold
+ was holding out (p169, Line 14) + held out (p367, Line 24)
+ đưa ra + đưa trả + giơ ra
Impart + have imparted (p602, Line 20) + gieo vào lòng Inherit
Leave + left (p63, Line 4); also left (p63, Line 23); „s been left (p63, Line 25)
+ left (p70, Line 18) + had left (p278, Line 20)
+ to lend (p209, Line 10); can lend (p219, Line 18); had lent (p225, Line 14)
Offer + were going to offer (p62, Line 11) + offering around (p173, Line 19) + shall be offering (p224, Line 11) + to offer Tom a place (p314, Line 3) + offer (p314, Line 29); to offer (p320, Line6);
+ thiết đãi + đưa … mời quanh + tặng
+ đề nghị nhận Tom vào học offered (p467, Line 17); offer (p523, Line 22) + offered (p676, Line 25)
Pass + to pass (p40, Line 17); have passed (p42, Line 6); to pass into (p67, Line 2); has passed into (p67, Line 18); to be passed to (p591, Line 28)
+ to pass (p64, Line 28) + to pass into (p67, Line 7) + passed (p129, Line 1); passed (p33, Line 27); passed (p744, Line 9) + passed (p131, Line 16) + passing around (p172, Line 17) + shall pass (p209, Line 14) + Passed (p314, Line 20) + Pass (p332, Line 25) + passed […] across (p580, Line 9) + pass (p695, Line 20)
+ truyền lại + chuyển sang cho + đưa cho
+ đưa + đưa mình + đẩy qua + chuyển cho + báo cho Press
+ can provide (P99, Line 28) + bố trí
Push + pushed (p16, Line 5) + pushed under (p725, Line 12)
+ ấn + đặt xuống đỡ Put
+can‟t just put (p27, Line 11) + put (p128, Line 8)
+ cài đặt + dọn ra + trả lại
Receive + Received (p78, Line 20) + were receiving (p261, Line 16); „ve received (p280, Line 24); had received (p452, Line 19); received (p600, Line 6) + had received (p261, Line 19) + had received (p426, Line 24)
+ cũng nhận được + nhận được
+ will return (p323, Line 29); to return (p422, Line
+would reward (p47, Line 12) + ban thưởng
Send + sending (p8, Line 6) + send (p57, Line 1); had once sent (p60, Line 24); could send (p68, Line 11); shall send (p72, Line 10); to send (p90, Line 7); sent (p243, Line 6); „s sent (p279, Line 24); send (p263, Line 16); sent (p366, Line 3); sending (p694, Line 3)
+ had sent back (p57, Line 11); sent (p695, Line
24) + being sent on (p100, Line 1) + to send (p137, Line 17) + had sent (p289, Line 14); sending (p584, Line 24) + sent (p313, Line 15)
+ được gởi đi + gởi tặng + Gởi cho + đã gởi Set
+ set (p108, Line 8) + had set (p443, Line 2); set (p506, Line 12) + set (p507, Line 17); setting (p630, Line 1)
+ đặt + giao cho + giao Shove
Show + showed (p164, Line 30); to show (p298, Line 16); showed (p363, Line 22); had shown (p748, Line
+ to slip (p695, Line 10) + dúi vô giỏ
+ to smuggle (p600, Line 1) + lén đưa
+ spared (p260,L18) + để dành cho … một cái nhìn khinh bỉ Stuff
+ stufffing (p375, Line 5) + nhét vào tay
Take + taking possession (p53, Line 24) + taking up (p90, Line 21), took (p169, Line 15),