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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 Rationale Translation studies has gone through a long history in which turning points appeared and developed into the mainstream research trends of this discipline, especial[.]
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Translation studies has gone through a long history in which turning points appeared and developed into the mainstream research trends of this discipline, especially “cultural turn” dated from the 1980s with many well-known studies, such as the works of Bochner (1981), Bassnett & Lefevere (1998), SnellHornby (2006), Munday (2006) and Katan (2014), etc In practice, translating texts from English into Vietnamese, especially non-literary texts has always put many challenges for translators, interpreters and publishing houses Among the non-literary texts, the texts of both scientific and economic genres reveal their own difficulties due to Vietnam is a developing country, so almost all materials about science, technology and commerce are translated from the publications in foreign languages, in Russian formerly and in English currently In any language, nouns and verbs are always assessed as the most essential parts of speech, so their collocations also play crucial roles in conveying semantic meanings Meanwhile, comparative previous studies on English-Vietnamese in business mainly focus on formation of economic terms (Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, 2017), of marketing terms (Hà Thị Hương Sơn, 2019), on sentence structure of advertisings texts (Bùi Diễm Hạnh, 2013), on language usage of posters (Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, 2009), or the use of capital letters in English-Latvian marketing texts (Birzniece, 2006) In fact, the equivalence assessment on semantic modification embedded in nominal groups and verbal groups of English – Vietnamese translation of marketing texts has not been researched so far This is actually a gap for the present study to be conducted Thus, this study attempts to investigate the equivalence in semantic modifications of nominal groups (hereafter nominal groups- NGs), and verbal groups (hereafter verbal groups – VGs) related to market segments and the core marketing strategy of digital era 4.0 manifest in an English-Vietnamese marketing translation Because of the aforementioned reasons, the research entitled “A comparative study on English-Vietnamese translation of business texts” is carried out to partly fill in the existing gaps in translation studies on business texts, specifically marketing texts 1.2 Research aim and objectives of the study The overarching aim of the study is to assess the equivalence extent of semantic modifications embedded in nominal groups and verbal groups of a Vietnamese marketing translated text compared to its English original As the theoretical background, House’s model (2015) is applied to identify the translation equivalence of nominal groups (NGs) and verbal groups (VGs) of a marketing text in the context of English-Vietnamese translation, the study is expected to draw out the theoretical supplementation for such context of non-literary texts In order to achieve this aim, the objective set for this study is to investigate the extent of equivalence of the NGs and VGs with semantic modifications in the Vietnamese translation compared with those in the English original on the basis of the functional-pragmatic perspective of House’s model NGs and VGs related to market segments and 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 and comparison to find out the differences between the two texts 1.3 Research question To achieve the overarching aim of this study, the research question is formulated as follows: “To what extent are English-Vietnamese translation of nominal groups and verbal groups with semantic modification related to market segments and human-centric marketing strategy in a marketing text equivalent from the functional-pragmatic perspective of House (2015)?” 1.4 Scope of the study The present study concentrates on uncovering the equivalence extent of the English-Vietnamese translation at lexical level namely nominal groups (661 cases) and verbal groups (392 cases) related to market segments and human-centric marketing strategy with semantic modifications in the chosen translated marketing text “Tiếp thị 4.0: Dịch chuyển từ Truyền thống sang Công nghệ số” published by Trẻ Publisher in 2018 (5th edition) Only NGs and VGs in the translation which contain semantic meaning differences from those in the ST are taken into consideration in the present study 1.5 Methods of the study The research approach employed for this study is mainly the qualitative On the theoretical basis of House’s model (2015) with the combination of Appraisal theory by Martin and White (2005) as a benchmark to measure the equivalence extent, comparative, descriptive, interpretive and evaluative methods of qualitative approach are applied to reach an in-depth analysis It can be argued that, this present study heavily relies on the qualitative approach while the quantitative approach just contributes to calculating the statistics Therefore, by nature, this study is descriptive, comparative, interpretive and evaluative 1.6 Significance of the study Theoretically, House’s functional-pragmatic model (2015) is proven to be effective and valuable not only with literary texts, but also with non-literary texts The extension of House’s model with the adoption of Attitudinal and Gradational resources of Appraisal Theory (Martin & White, 2005) is confirmed in a marketing text – a non-literary text The extended supplementary along with the achievements of the previous studies faciliates the researcher explore the translators’ attitudes embedded in the semantic modifications of NGs and VGs in the translation Practically, the research findings enable translators and translator training with the strategies to translate NGs and VGs in a non-literary text, particularly a marketing text Unlike the common assumptions of arguing that for non-literary texts the most popular translation strategy is the literal or word-for-word, the chosen translated marketing text resorts several strategies at the same time Additionally, the linguistic and cultural differences between English and Vietnamese settled down in the translation also bring the practical significance to the translation practitioners 1.7 Organization of the thesis The study consists of six major chapters, with the total of 188 pages including the Introduction and Conclusion Chapter - Introduction Chapter – Literature Review Chapter 3- Research Methodology Chapter 4- Translation Equivalence of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to market segments Chapter 5- Translation Equivalence of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy Chapter 6- Conclusion CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, previous studies on Comparative Translation Studies (CTS) as well as previous studies on Marketing Texts, the theories about translation studies, the central issues of translation studies, and the notion ‘translation equivalence’, popular models of translation quality assessment, House’s functional-pragmatic model (2015) as the theoretical framework, Appraisal Theory (Martin and White, 2005) with Gradational and Attitudinal resources as the supplementation for the theoretical framework are thoroughly reviewed Also, the study-related concepts including the genre of marketing texts, nominal groups and verbal groups with semantic modifications are clearly defined 2.1 Issue of translation equivalence The issue of translation equivalence is regarded as one of the central problems and is probably the most heated issue of translation studies Well-know scholars have different points of view on translation equivalence and its classification (Catford 1965, Dagut 1976, Bassnett 2005, Nida 1969, Venuti 2000, Nemark 1988, House 2005) This thesis follows Koller’s (1979) classification of equivalence including ‘denotative’, ‘connotative’, ‘text-normative’, and ‘pragmatic’ equivalence because its clarity and applicability 2.2 House’s model (2015) House’s model of translation assessment as the theoretical background for the study consists of three levels: Language/ Text; Register and Genre; Individual textual function The present study focuses on analyzing the first and second level, especially on Register in which Field and Tenor of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and marketing human-centric marketing strategy are deeply explored Field refers to the content of the text, that means it addresses the subject matter, which is happening in the text including the related situations and events, entities, activities, and processes, which the text is describing and conveying to the readers Meanwhile, Tenor addresses the relationship between participants involved in the actions of the text ‘Tenor’ consists of the author’s provenance (temporal, geographical and social provenance), author’s stance (intellectual, emotional and affective position and point of view), social role relationship (symmetrical or asymmetrical), social attitude (formality or informality), and participation (simple or complex participation) 2.3 Overt, covert translation and culture filters House also adopts the terms of overt and covert translation to identify SL-oriented translation or TL-oriented translation, the same as the terms SL emphasis or TL emphasis of Newmark In an overt translation, the ST is tied in a particular manner to the community and culture of SL and is regularly specifically directed at addressees of the source culture Meanwhile, a covert translation gains the status of the ST in the target culture and typical examples of this often lie in science texts, or economic texts In addition to the notions ‘overt’ and covert, the concept ‘culture filter’ (or cultural filter) is also identified by House as ‘a means of capturing socio-cultural differences in expectation norms and stylistic conventions between the source and target linguistic-cultural communities’ (House, 2015:68) Thus, cultural filters are crucial points because the translator uses them as a compensation for the ‘culture specialty’ (House, 2010:36) To investigate the culture filters in the translation, the assumptions of cultural differences should be an in-depth examination 2.4 Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005) in House’s model The Appraisal theory includes three branches including Engagement, Attitude, and Graduation with their components and sub-components Among the three components of the Appraisal theory, Engagement is overlapped with ‘Participation’ in House’s model (in Tenor) It is easily to recognize that ‘Engagement’ is actually a part of Tenor (Participation) ‘Engagement’ in the Appraisal theory consists of ‘monoglosic’ which is concerned with excluding the author’s utterance and heteroglossic which is concerned with admitting any external positions These categories of ‘Engagement’ are coincided with ‘simple’ participation – monologue and ‘complex’ participation – dialogue of ‘Participation’ in House’s model Therefore, the component ‘Engagement’ of the Appraisal theory is left in the incorporation with House’s model for this research Only components Graduation and Attitude with their specifications are taken into consideration in the present study Graduation is realized across two axes of scalability, namely Force and Focus Force refers to grading according to intensity (intensification) or amount (quantification) which involve inherently scalar assessments Degree of assessment in intensity can operate through qualities, through processes, or through the verbal modalities of likelihood, usuality, inclination and obligation The details of Force-intensification and Force-quantification are clearly realized via the signals of language use Under focus, it can be ‘up-scale’, or ‘sharpen’ type, in which the prototypicality is indicated In the opposite direction, down-scale, or ‘soften’ type mentions the specification to characterize a phenomenon as having only marginal membership in the category According to the Appraisal theory, Attitude conveys feelings, emotions and values which can be defined into three main categories, namely Affect, Judgement, and Appreciation The factors of polarity and explicitness go along these types Affect deals with language resources for expressing emotional reactions, either negative or positive ones and it can be realized through three variants, including dis/inclination, un/happiness, in/security, and dis/satisfaction Judgement category is defined as language resources used to evaluate behaviours based on various normative principles of social esteem and social sanction While Judgement esteem covers normality (how special), capacity (how capable), and tenacity (how dependable), Judgement of sanction deals with veracity (how honest) and propriety (how ethical) Appreciation category is identified as language resources used for expressing the values of thing, that is the evaluation of natural phenomena Three variables of Appreciation category include reaction, composition, and valuation Reaction refers to the emotional impact of a text on human beings, composition deals with perceptions of proportionality and detail in the text, while valuation mentions the human assessment of the social significance of the text 2.5 Nominal and verbal groups Nominal groups contain the head noun preceded and followed by various other items, all of which in some way characterize the head noun The experiential structure of the nominal group, according to functional grammar perspective (Halliday, 2014) is expressed via the functional elements extending from Deictic, Numerative, Epithet and Classifier before the head noun, and Qualifier after the noun It can possibly exist the case where a verb also lies in the nominal group complex as in the NG ‘new content, which can be in multiple formats’ (code 116.1) Likewise, a verbal group is the expansion of a verb, the same as the expansion of a noun in a nominal group The verbal group consists of a sequence of words of the primary class of verb, is the consistituent that functions as Finite and Predicator For the cases of gerunds standing as the subject of a clause as in these examples ‘targeting youth is the most exciting’ (code 85.1-ST) or ‘Marketing to them always involves either cool advertisements’ (code 85.2-ST), they are still classified as verbal groups because gerunds also originate from verbs 2.6 Semantic modification Semantic modification can be understood as the modulation or the shifting of meaning in the process of translation Meaning shifting usually occurs sometimes because of a shift or change in a shape from SL to TL This happens due to changes in viewpoint, perspective, other meaningful terms or cultural factors Vinay & Darbelnet (in Newmark, 1988: 88) states that the term modulation refers to "a variation through a change of viewpoint, of perspective and very often of a category of thought " Semantic modification or change in meaning happening in the translation process is actually an event that is natural and common CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter indicates the methodology applied to the present study First, the rationales for applying appropriate research approaches and methods are examined and selected Next, it delineates the argument for the marketing text selection, the analytical framework, the collection procedures of data, and data analysis 3.1 Research approach This study applies House’s model integrated with two parts of Appraisal theory by Martin and White to evaluate the equivalence extent of nominal groups and verbal groups in the selected marketing ST and TT, that means qualitative analysis of some linguistic characteristics under discussion are the focus of the study So, the qualitative method plays the fundamental role in research approach of this study However, although the qualitative analysis serves as the primary method, the quantitative analysis also partly contributes to calculating the statistics 3.2 Qualitative method The qualitative method including descriptive step, followed by comparative and interpretive steps, in which evaluative step is involved in the end (i) describe the functions (meanings) of nominal groups and verbal groups in the chosen text with the application of describing co-texts and contexts (ii) compare and explain the differences between the functions of the groups in the ST and in the TT; (iii) interpret the differences based on the contexts of the texts and evaluate the equivalence extent While the qualitative approach is the primary research method for this study, quantitative method is just used to calculate the statistics of frequency 3.3 Analytical framework House’s model (2015) is argued to be applicable and effective for the present study because of its popularity for various types of texts including marketing texts As a broad umbrella, the model covers not only micro linguistic level, but also the macro linguistic level embedded in the text The model goes through the text analysis in the context of situation and context of culture via Register analysis and Genre description In turn, the Register analyses consisting of analysis of components Field, of Tenor, and of Mode reveal the situational context while Genre description brings the cultural context From the theoretical framework of House, in which the starting point of this study begins from level of ‘Language/Text’- the lowest level of House’s model, in which NGs and VGs from marketing-related clauses in the ST are selected, and their translation in the TT are collected respectively Next, the Register analysis through components of Field, Tenor, and Mode, in which Field is analyzed in integration with Gradational resources (Force and Focus) to fully explore the scale of ideational function of NGs and VGs in ST, while Tenor is analyzed in combination with Attitudinal resources (Affect, Judgment, Appreciation) to fully uncover the polarity of interpersonal function The third component - Mode is just briefly mentioned as it is discussed in the previous section that it contains unremarkable changes Then, the findings of these analyses are put in the comparison with the translation of these groups in the TT, from which similarities and differences are uncovered Furthermore, the cultural filter is also incorporated into the model as a means of explaining socio-cultural differences in stylistic conventions and expectation norms of the two linguistics - cultural communities 3.4 Data collection 3.4.1 Selection of the Source text and Target text The text ‘Marketing 4.0: from Traditional to Digital’ written by Kotler, Kartajaya, and Setiawan and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2017 is selected as the source text (ST) for this stud) This publication is chosen because it is written by the leading experts in marketing: Kotler has been regarded as the Father of modern marketing, who is the excellent distinguished professor in the international marketing at Business School Kellogg, Northwestern University, Illinois, America He is also the author of over 50 worldwide well-known books in marketing Meanwhile, Kartajaya is the founder of MarkPlus – the biggest marketing firm in Indonesia and Setiawan works as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company Moreover, this book is published in English and its translation is available and approachable in Vietnamese Last but not least, it is a newly-published book, released in English in 2017 and the Vietnamese translation in 2018 The translation by translators Nguyễn Khoa Hồng Thành, Hoàng Thùy Minh Anh and Nguyễn Quỳnh Như published by Trẻ Publishing House in 2018 is selected as the target text (TT) for the study The reason lies in the fact that the team leader of the translators Nguyễn Khoa Hồng Thành is COO of Isobar Vietnam – a big marketing consultancy company of Vietnam, which services global and local businesses and brands including Huawei, Prudential, Sapporo, Moony, Mead Johnson, LG, Google He gained an MBA at University of Hawaii at Manoa, America with many experiences in marketing, assuring the high prestige for the chosen translation 3.4.2 Collection of Nominal groups and Verbal groups After the selection of ST and TT is completed, data of NGs and VGs are gathered from the texts in the next step First, the ST is gathered by paragraphs for the researcher’s easier observation The ST is 262 page-long divided into three parts of content with 445 paragraphs all together, in which the number of sentences in each paragraph ranges from two to eleven sentences The paragraphs of the ST are arranged into the left of a table, while the right of the table contains the translation paragraphs of the TT, thus the ST and TT are put by paragraphs in parallel in the table Next, the paragraphs of the ST discuss market segments and human-centric marketing strategy are selected with a mark of page number as the word ‘customer’ is also one of the keywords ranked in the eight place in the wordlist of our recent marketing corpus study (Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hà, 2020) and also the keyword of the ST in which ‘customers’ are considered the most powerful player in marketing The following step is identifying the NGs and VGs related to market segments first, then those related to the marketing strategy The chosen NGs and VGs are coded in number of paragraph and number of sentence in the paragraph For instance, a NG code 313.7-ST means that the NG is in the seventh sentence in paragraph 313 of the source text, a VG code 126.3-TT means the VG lies in the third sentence in paragraph 126 of the target text Similarly, their translation are arranged in the same way and put in parallel with the ST for comparison 3.4.3 Procedures of data analysis The procedure of data analysis goes through the following path with three phases The data are analyzed under the linguistic unit of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and marketing strategy separately to identify the extent of translation equivalence Each data set goes through the analytical framework across the analysis steps, from Language/Text level, Register analysis level in the situational context, to Genre description level in the cultural context • Phase Description of the nominal groups and verbal groups in ST; • Phase Comparison of the nominal groups and verbal groups between ST and TT; • Phase Interpretation, evaluation of translation equivalence extent between the ST and TT In the first phase, the nominal groups and verbal groups of the ST are described through the textual analysis process on the analytical framework The qualitative analysis in line with House’s adapted model integrated with Appraisal theory (Martin and While, 2005) is conducted with each set of data, particularly with analyses of Field, Tenor and Mode Next, the second phase is responsible for comparing nominal groups and verbal groups in the ST and TT to investigate the translation equivalence extent Finally, after the descriptive and comparative steps have been implemented, the subsequently essential step is interpretive in the third phase CHAPTER TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND VERBAL GROUPS RELATED TO MARKET SEGMENTS 4.1 Translation equivalence of nominal groups related to market segments In most of the cases, the positive denotative equivalence to the ST is well kept in the TT though there is a partial semantic loss when the ideational meaning of several NGs is downscaled in the force-quantification of number, mass amount or the force-intensification of quality as above analyzed It seems to compensate for the loss of the ideational meaning, the more positive interpersonal meaning is gained in other cases Especially, the use of metaphor or Sino-Vietnamese also contributes to increasing the figurative locution and formality for the TT of NGs about YWN customers The comparison of NGs related to customers-the young between the ST and TT has uncovered differences along the dimension of Field and Tenor from House’s model supplanted with Gradational and Attitudinal resources In terms of Field, the translation in some NGs weakens the force-intensification of quality or the force-quantification of number or mass when the ST mentions challenges the young face in their life, for example There are some words omitted, also causing the partial loss of the ideational meaning The transformation of part of speech in the NGs in the translation sometimes causes the ideational meaning loss However, as a compensation, apart from strategy of synonymy to guarantee equivalence, some explanation and expansion are added, making the translation more informative than the ST Especially, metaphor and figurative locution which are not available in the ST are applied to the TT, creating the aesthetic factor for the non-fiction translated text Regarding Tenor, the authors’ positive attitude is pushed up in the translation when discussing good qualities the young own and their huge potential in digital era Moreover, the traditional society’s negative assessment on the young behaviors is diminished in the translation, showing the translators’ more tolerant attitude towards the young With translators’ efforts, proper names of products or programs in the ST are translated into TL accompanied with a repetition of the ST name in bracket as a proof for the target readers to check their accuracy The translators have made great efforts in transferring the meaning equivalence of NGs related to customers-women to the TT compared those in the ST Specifically, along the dimension of Field, the proper name of a publication about this market segment is translated into the TL with the repetition of the English name in a round bracket afterwards This shows their respect for the target readers and professionalism for translating practice In order to convey the ideational meaning apart from strategy of synonymy, the figurative locution is resorted in the TT through the metaphor ‘đổ sông, đổ biển’ or the culture filter ‘người gác cửa’, enhacing the aesthetic nuance for the translation and bringing pragmatic equivalence to the translation On Tenor, like the view on customers -the young, the authors’ attitude towards this market segment indicates a positive judgment and appreciation on wome’s abilities and roles through a series of positive adjectives In parallel, in the TT the translators transfer most of the connotative meaning, even in some cases it reaches a higer level with the addressing forms like ‘bà nội trợ’, ‘nhà quản lý’, with some Sino-Vietnamese words ‘đa nhiệm’, ‘đa chiều’ or with more formal style like ‘người nắm quyền định’ All of these strategies contribute to fostering the connotative equivalence for the NGs related to customers-women in the TT Through the comparison and analyses along the dimensions of Field, Tenor, and Mode of House’s model, the translation of NGs related to customers-netizens achieves the certain extent of equivalence Regarding to Field, generally speaking the denotative equivalence is gained in most of the NGs in the TT, and the number of NGs with semantic modifications is not remarkable Particularly, the ideational meaning seems to be partially lost when some of the comparative factors are not translated Although translation strategy of synonymy is applied to some cases, some NGs such as ‘digital natives’, ‘evangelists’ or ‘amplifiers’ are not fully explored in their ideational meaning In other cases, the longer explanation is added to the translation to reach the denotative equivalence In terms of Tenor, the authors’ positive attitude is mostly conveyed in the translation with the translators’ efforts, though there is a partial loss of connotative equivalence in the NG ‘expressive evangelists’, or a gain in the NG ‘haters’, for instance 4.2 Translation equivalence of verbal groups related to market segments For VGs about YWN customers, the authors resort mainly verbs of material process in present active voice expressing activities and actions marketers should implement to appeal to these segments after analyzing the huge influence of YWN segments in digital society The translation 10 conveys all of these contents through gaining both the ideational and interpersonal meaning to reach the denotative and connotative equivalence The translation strategy of synonymy is applied to achieve the equivalence However, there is a partial loss when the business collocation ‘place their bets on’ is not fully conveyed into the TT It seems to compensate this loss, an idiom of SL ‘cânđong-đo-đếm’ is used as culture filter to figuratively express the verb ‘tailor’ in another NG This translation contributes to touching the pragmatic equivalence of the TT Furthermore, the unpopular assessment of traditional society on YWN is pushed up higher in the TT, leading to a more negative connotation of the translators compared to that of the authors in the ST In spite of the ellipsis of word and shift of part of speech or transference in some the VGs related to customers-the young in the TT, generally speaking most of the VGs of the TT reach the denotative equivalence and connotative equivalence compared to those in the ST By adding the modal verb of strong obligation ‘phải’ before the main verb of some VGs, the ideational meaning is strengthened, leading to a gain in denotative equivalence The authors’ positive judgment and appreciation on the young’s capacity as well as effectiveness of their activities and actions are sometimes pushed up to a higher level in the TT Especially, when addressing the strong criticism from the society demonstrated in the ST, the translators often have a more tolerant and protective attitude towards the young via the linguistic softeners manifested in the TT With VGs of the ST mainly using upscaled Gradational resources and positive Attitudinal resources, the translations of the TT generally achieve the denotative and connotative equivalence in most of cases of VGs related to women’s segment There are only some cases in which denotation and connotation are intensified when mentioning the winning position of women in arguments on purchase decision, their difficulty in choosing between work and family, or both, their willingness to adopting assistance from others Likewise, on the side of opposite gender, men’s quickness and simplicity in buying process are also raised in the translation compared to the ST All of these contribute to gaining both denotative and connotative equivalence for the TT On the other hand, when referring to men’s feelings about purchase experience, the translators decrease their negative perception embedded in the ST, resulting in a partial loss in denotation and connotation of the original text Through the comparison of VGs related to netizens between the ST and TT, some differences along dimension of Field and Tenor are disclosed Regarding Field, there is a partial loss of denotative equivalence in some cases due to the ellipsis of the modal verb ‘can’ in several translated VGs However, in many VGs the ideational meaning is strengthened by the emphasis of adverbs like ‘chính là’ (‘is’), ‘ln cởi mở’ (‘embrace openess’), ‘một cách áp đảo’ (‘overwhelmingly’) or verb of forceintensification of process like ‘tuôn chảy’ (‘flow’) in the TT The enhancement of ideational meaning in these VGs also reveals the translators’ positive attitude leading to a gain in both denotative and connotative equivalence in the translations compared to those in the ST 11 To summarize, with three main segments: customers-the young, customers-women and customers-netizens who are briefly named YWN market segment in the ST, the authors tend to use many locutions of upscaled force-intensification or upscaled force-quantification to express Field ideational meaning of NGs and VGs, while the locution of focus is seen rare Along with dimension of Field, Tenor – interpersonal meaning, also witnesses the authors’ positive attitude mainly in ‘good judgment’ and ‘high appreciation’ towards these market segments, but ‘affect’ is almost unavailable in the ST Regarding the translation of NGs, with great efforts of the translators, the TT reaches a quite good extent of equivalence though there is a partial loss of both denotative and connotative equivalence in some cases, especially via locutions of the society’s negative judgment on the young However, it seems to compensate this loss, the TT gains the equivalence of denotation and connotation in some other cases when highly appreciating women’s roles in families and in making purchase decision Especially, ‘culture filter’ and figurative locutions with metaphors, idioms are appropriately resorted in the TT, bringing the aesthetic value to the translation of the ST’s non-literary text Moreover, some Sino-Vietnamese words are also applied to increase the formality, thus making the translation more formal in the academically writing style CHAPTER TRANSLATION EQUIVAENCE OF NOMINAL GROUPS AND VERBAL GROUPS RELATED TO HUMAN-CENTRIC MARKETING STRATEGY 5.1 Translation equivalence of nominal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy The comparison of NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy reveals differences along the dimension of Field and Tenor of House’s model, resulting in full equivalence, loss or gain of the translation On Field, the denotative meaning of most of the NGs in the TT reach the full equivalence with those in the ST by different translation strategies First, it is the strategy of synonymy when words having similar meaning are resorted (code 277.4, code 280.2, code 280.3, code 280.4,…) or the negative meaning of the opposite (code 277.5,…) Second, the equivalence is also reached based on the context of the ST although the translation is quite different from the word in the ST (code 276.1) Third, another strategy is the shift or transposition of part of speech used for achieving the equivalence Usually, the move is from a verb to a noun (code 277.2), or from a question word to a noun (code 281) In some cases of NGs, the Field is pushed up to higher level or expanded to a wider range of denotation through force-intensification or force-quantification, leading to a partial gain of denotative equivalence (code 279.2, code 282.2, code 282.3,…) This strengthened ideational meaning is also conveyed via the addition or supplementation for the NGs which is not available in 12 the ST such as in code 303.1 (Denny’s Diner - Denny’s Diner-nhà hàng ẩm thực truyền thống kiểu Mỹ),…in which the additional explanation is put into the translation for providing the target readers with further information Furthermore, the end-of-page explanation of some unfamiliar terms and concepts contributes to enhancing the meaning of Field The gain is also seen in the cases where the semantic meaning is expanded like in code 282.2 (marketers - giới làm tiếp thị),… or via a stronger modality like in code 282.3 (should address- cần tiếp cận),…, or through paraphrasing into a longer translation in code 283.1,…(social listening- Lắng nghe người dùng phương tiện truyền thông xã hội) By contrary, the partial loss of denotative meaning happens when the proper names are not translated into the TL in code 292.1, code 294.1, code 296.3,…What is more, there is a phenomenon of ellipsis in code 292.3, code 292.4, code 294.2,…causing the ideational meaning of the NGs partially lost The translation also decreases the ideational meaning due to the weakened force intensification of the ST such as in code 291.1, code 291.4, … However, generally speaking, the number of NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy in the TT achieving the gain of Field factor still outweighs those partially losing their denotative meaning (48/188 cases) Thus, it can be concluded that the translation of the NGs related to this marketing strategy mainly reaches a gain, rather than a loss, resulting in a high level of equivalence Similar to Field, in terms of Tenor, the translators have made great efforts to keep the authors’ positive attitude embedded in NGs related to human-centric marketing strategy Especially, the human side of this strategy is more emphasized in the translation by prioritizing human first (tiếp thị lấy người làm trung tâm: code 277-code 282,… ), enhancing its good attributes (đáng tin cậy, thấu cảm, thân thiện, tự tin – code 277.3, code 280.3, code 297.4, and 301.1 respectively,…), or using Sino-Vietnamese words (thực thể-code 278.2, ngã- code 279.3,…) Moreover, the repetition of some NGs in a bracket like (các nhóm trọng điểm- focus group: code 285.4), (Human-Centered Design-HCD: code 290.1), (like-code 303.2) and (retweet-code 303.2),…also contributes to increasing the clarity for the NGs, showing the translators’ respectful attitude towards the target readers Besides, the end-of-page explanation of some NGs provide more additional information for the TT All of these translation strategies help enhance the positive direction of Tenor in the translation, making it reach a gain in connotative equivalence However, there are still a few cases in which connotative meaning is partially lost such as in code 276.2, code 282.4, code 286.2,… 5.2 Translation equivalence of verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy Through the comparison of VGs related to human centric marketing strategy in the ST and TT, in most of the cases the ideational and interpersonal meaning of the VGs in the ST is carefully retained in the translation, thus the translation equivalence of denotation and connotation is reached 13 with the translators’ efforts Based on the dimension of Field and Tenor of House’s model, the efforts of the translators can be seen in selecting synonyms, appropriate lucutions such as ‘tiếp nhận’, ‘gia tăng’, giải quyết’, ‘chống lại’, ‘giải mã’, ‘chia sẻ’, ‘bày tỏ’, ‘hịa mình’,…to express activities based on this marketing strategy brands bring to the community in digital society The content of issues embedded in the VGs which is discussed the human-centric marketing strategy in the ST is relatively fully transferred into the TT with the positive attitude Furthermore, there is a gain in some VGs where a modal verb of strong modulation or adverb of extremely high level is added, making the meaning of the VG more intensified than that in the ST Sometimes, the main verb in the VG is pushed up to a higher grade of meaning such as in ‘address’-‘giải quyết’ (code 305.3, code 311.3) , ‘unlocking’ – ‘giải mã’ (code 311.2), ‘tell’- ‘chia sẻ’ (code 279.1), ‘expect’- ‘kỳ vọng’(code 285.2), In spite of that, the translation reveals a partial loss in a few other cases, in which the adverb of frequency is omitted or the meaning of the main verb is not fully denotated in the TT as analyzed Similar to NGs, the same analytical tools are applied to the VGs of human-centric marketing strategy to find out the differences Through the aforementioned analyses of comparison between the VGs related to this marketing strategy in the ST and TT, most of the cases the ideational and interpersonal meaning of the VGs in the ST is carefully retained in the translation The translation equivalence of denotation and connotation is relatively fully reached with the translators’ efforts Based on the dimension of Field and Tenor of House’s model, the efforts of the translators can be recognized in choosing synonyms, appropriate locutions to express activities based on this marketing strategy brands bring to the community in digital society The content of issues embedded in the VGs which are discussed the human-centric marketing strategy in the ST is relatively fully transferred into the TT with the positive attitude as in the ST Furthermore, there is a gain in some VGs where a modal verb of strong modulation or adverb of extremely high level is added, making the meaning of the VG more intensified than that in the ST Sometimes, the main verb in some VGs is pushed up to a higher grade of meaning, making the translation enhanced in terms of ideational meaning, from which the interpersonal meaning is more strengthened In spite of that, the translation still reveals a partial loss in a few other cases, in which the adverb of frequency is ignored or the meaning of the head verb is not fully denotated in the TT, resulting to a partial loss of denotative and connotative equivalence Nevertheless, in the total, full translation equivalence and gain in translating VGs related to this marketing strategy outweigh the partial loss which is unremarkable in the translation CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION This chapter retraces the study by providing the recapitulation, addressing the implications, and referring to the contributions of this study to the field Moreover, the limitations of the study will be acknowledged and suggestions for further research is also mentioned 14 6.1 Recapitulation of the study With the attempts to assess the equivalence extent of English-Vietnamese translation of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and human-centric marketing strategy in a marketing text, based on the functional-pragmatic perspective of House’s model (2015) The supplementation of Gradational and Attitudinal resources of Appraisal theory by Martin and White (2005) is integraded during the analyses of Field and Tenor dimension The research aim is formulated into the question “To what extent are English-Vietnamese translation of nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and human-centric marketing strategy in a marketing text equivalent from the functional-pragmatic perspective of House (2015)?” This descriptive, comparative, interpretive and evaluative study focuses on the analyses of three market segemts of YWN (young, women, netizens) and human-centric marketing strategy, which are regarded as the core characteristics of Marketing 4.0 in the original text “Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital” and its Vietnamese translated version “Tiếp thị 4.0: Dịch chuyển từ Truyền thống sang Công nghệ số” In terms of methodology, in order to answer the aforementioned research question, the qualitative approach is primarily adopted in this study The source of data belong to the Source text in English “Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital” (2017) and the Target text in Vietnamese “Tiếp thị 4.0: Dịch chuyển từ Truyền thống sang Công nghệ số” (2018) The analyses are processed from the ST analysis with the dimensions of Register including Field, Tenor in combination of Graduation and Attitude of Appraisal theory, Mode and of Genre, followed by comparison the language units between the two texts As a result, the differences in the TT are uncovered and the assessment of their equivalence extent is taken into consideration Along with dimension of Field and Tenor of House’s model as an analytical tool in supplementation with Appraisal theory by Martin and White, with the assistance of Oxford and Cambridge dictionary online, Oxford Business English dictionary (2008), and Vietnamese dictionary by Hoàng Phê (2020), based on the context on the ST, it can be concluded for this study as follows 6.2 English-Vietnamese translation of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to market segments There are three main segments, including the young, women and netizens briefly called YWN market segment in the ST, the authors mainly apply the upscaled forceintensification or upscaled force-quantification to express the Field - ideational meaning of NGs and VGs The authors disscuss the outstanding strengths of YWN market segments, so the Gradational resources focus on upscale more than downscale direction Similar on Field, the Attitudinal resources are also resorted in positive more than negative direction as a result, leading to more positiveness on Tenor which conveys the interpersonal meaning With great 15 efforts from the translators, the translated text reaches a more upscaled equivalence in translating nominal groups and verbal groups related to YWN segments compared the original text mainly through using synonyms, paraphrase, shift or transportation In some cases, the translators push the ideational and interpersonal function of NGs up to a higher level than in the ST, resulting in gaining the denotative and connotative equivalence at a greater extent than those in the ST The translation strategies for these cases include the way of figurative expressions, using ‘stronger’, more formal words instead of neutral and informal, explanations, and applying metaphors which are put in double quotation mark Especially, when using metaphors, the cultural filters are employed to be more familiar to the target readers, creating the covert translation for the cases Thus, the translation of these becomes more ‘forced’ and ‘upgraded’ Apart from that, for the unfamiliar and abstract terms which may raise confusion for the target readers, careful notes of explanation at the end of the page are added, revealing a respectful attitude towards the readership and enhancing the interpersonal function of the translation Under investigation of this study, some cases of this group in the translation also gain a more positively connotative equivalence than those in the ST thanks to the translators’ respectful and positive attitudes embedded in their strengthened locutions, especially the repetition of some cases from the ST is carefully put in a bracket as a proof after translated into Vietnamese For several proper names, the extension and additional explanation are used in the translation, providing further information for the target readers What is more, the pragmatic equivalence is also reached in several cases of the strengthened nominal groups showing a good professional and linguistics sociocultural knowledge of the translators For the VGs related to YWN segments, the authors use mostly verbs in material process, present tense and active voice expressing activities of the young, women and netizens in currently digital society and of human-centric marketing strategy Verbal groups related to market segments focus on the outstanding abilities of the young in the social connection which the digital era 4.0 brings to them This offers them superior advantages over the seniors who seem to have, more or less, a limited access to the information technology Thus, in the ST the authors resort many verbal groups in upscale to express the quickness and flexibility of the young described as the ‘now generation’ and ‘netizens’ who settle the trends, adopt the trends early and change the game rapidly At the same time, the ST also shows a positive attitude of the authors toward the young’s activities Based on the ST, the translators have also completed their roles very well by transferring the whole meaning embedded in the original to reach the translation equivalence Even, in some cases, verbs in 16 the VGs are pushed up to a higher level or expanded to a larger range thanks to the additional adverbs, leading to the upscale of equivalence extent of the groups in the translation Especially, women’ activities in families and their advantage in purchase decision are also mentioned with a higher respect in the translation There are some TT’s cases in which denotation and connotation are intensified when mentioning the winning position of women in arguments on purchase decision, their difficulty in choosing between work and family, or both, their willingness to adopting assistance from others Similarly, for the opposite gender, men’s quickness and simplicity in making decision and purchase process are also enhanced in the translation compared to the ST On the other hand, the cases of downscale accounts for only a third compared to the cases of upscale, mainly in the locutions of the society’s negative judgment on the young, resulting in a partial loss of both denotative and connotative equivalence of some cases in the TT The partial loss of denotative and connotative function of the NGs and VGs in the TT is due to the ellipsis of the adjective preceding a noun, weakening the supplementary meaning or lowering the meaning of elements in the NGs Consequently, the ideational function of the NGs partly drops, leading to a decreased denotative equivalence compared to those in the ST In spite of unremarkable rate, this still makes the translation of these NGs become partially equivalent when they partially lose the denotative equivalence, at the same time the connotative equivalence is also somewhat influenced Moreover, for some NGs inherently containing the negative ideational function, when the denotative meaning is diminished, the connotative nuance tends to increase, revealing a more positive attitude of the translators towards the negative issues mentioned in the ST Especially, when discussing the young customers – the millennials of the digital era, the translators tend to show a more tolerant point of view on their mistakes than the authors of the ST Another reason for the partial loss of the translation lies in the non-translated NGs of proper names Although they are completely translatable and replaceable in the TT, they remain the same as in the ST Obviously, the non-translation strategy resorted by the translators loses the denotative equivalence and connotative equivalence, but non-translated proper names may contain some linguistic and cultural merits which the translators want to preserve as their identities, flavor and aesthetics of the target language and culture Thus, it can be considered the translators’ purposeful intention when keeping some proper names untranslated into TL 6.3 English-Vietnamese translation of Nominal groups and Verbal groups related to humancentric marketing strategy 17 Nominal and verbal groups related to human-centric marketing strategy are used to discuss the practical advice on actions marketers should take to successfully attract these segments through human-centric marketing strategy after analyzing the huge benefits of YWN segments in the digital era The authors’ attitude contains positive affect, good judgment and high appreciation towards the behaviors of these segments and they highly recommend activities of human-centric marketing strategy for the target readers – professional marketers to follow In return, the Vietnamese translation also fully conveys these contents through gaining both the ideational and interpersonal meaning to reach the denotative and connotative equivalence for the TT In order to touch full equivalence, translation strategy of synonymy is commonly applied, plus the paraphrase strategy The efforts of the translators can be seen in selecting synonyms, using appropriate locutions to express activities based on this marketing strategy The content of issues embedded in the VGs which is discussed for human-centric marketing strategy in the ST is relatively fully transferred into the TT with the positive attitude The popular strategy used for the semantic intensification of these VGs is the emphasis of adverbs or verb of force- intensification of process in the TT Especially, a few ‘culture filters’ and figurative locutions with metaphors, idioms are appropriately resorted in the TT, bringing the aesthetic value to the translation of the non-literary text Furthermore, a partial gain of denotative and connotative equivalence also happens in some cases of the TT when women’s roles are more highly appreciated in families and in making purchase decision In spite of their limited use, some SinoVietnamese words are still applied to increase the formality, thus making the translation more formal in the academically writing style What is more, there is a gain in some VGs where a modal verb of strong modulation or adverb of extremely high level is added, making the meaning of the VGs more intensified than that in the ST All of these techniques help the TT reach an upscaled equivalence extent for the NGs and VGs with semantic modification in the TT On the other hand, some VGs of the TT also witness a loss of semantic meaning in other cases, especially via locutions of the society’s negative judgment on the young’s behaviors Although the society plunges a seriously critical view on the young manifest in the ST, the translators’ use of downgraded material and mental verbs decreases the criticism in the TT, leading to a partial loss of denotation and connotation When referring to men’s feelings about purchase experience, the translators also diminish their negative perception embedded in the ST, resulting in a partial loss in denotation and connotation of the original text Additionally, not fully conveying some business terms like ‘place their bets on’ also 18 contributes to this loss The ellipsis of the modal verb ‘can’ or the adverb of frequency in a few cases of VGs causes a partial loss of meaning for the VGs In conclusion, for both NGs and VGs related to YWN market segments and humancentric marketing strategy in the ST, their semantic modification in the translation shows an upscaled trend of equivalence extent, in which the ideational and interpersonal meaning of a large number of cases in the TT go beyond those of the ST while only a small proportion of cases go below the ST due to partial loss of denotative and connotative meaning, resulting in the downscale in the TT In other words, the NGs and VGs related to human-centric market segments with their semantic modification in the translation of this study gain more semantic ‘upscale’ than ‘downscale’ in terms of equivalence extent 6.4 Contributions of the study 6.4.1 Theoretical contribution This study is carried out based on the theoretical framework of House’s model (2015) in corporation with Appraisal theory of Martin and White (2005) Once again, House’s model proves its applicability and effectiveness applied to any kind of texts, even a non-literary text as this study Register analysis and Genre description uncover both denotative and connotative equivalence of the texts while the supplementation of Appraisal theory allows a deeper analysis of the authors and translators’ graduation and attitude It can be argued that without Gradational and Attitudinal resources of Appraisal theory integrated into the analytical framework, the present research could hardly reach the depth of analyzing the language locutions to explore the beauty of the ST and TT and the authors’ and translators’ hidden intention embbeded in nominal groups and verbal groups related to market segments and human-centric marketing strategy Thus, it is highly recommended for the following translation studies to approach this combination, including Field plus Graduation and Tenor plus Attitude in the theoretical framework and analytical framework to guarantee tightness when examining the translation equivalence extent Additionally, this study also reveals that House’s model effectively operates with studies not only on English-German translation, but also on English-Vietnamese translation, not only of literary texts, but also of non-literary texts The combination of this model with another theory helps to sharpen and validate the study findings However, from this practical research, the researcher would highly recommend more terms of equivalence extent as the existing terms including non-functional equivalence, partial functional equivalence and full equivalence seem to be inadequate for assessing a translated text They should be added with equivalence extent beyond the ST in which cases of TT are more enhanced and fostered than those of ST in terms of language metafunctions Meanwhile, non- 19 functional equivalence and partial functional equivalence obviouly lie under the ST in terms of equivalence extent In addition, it can be frankly admitted that the component Mode does not show much modification in comparing the ST and the translation as the translators tend to be completely loyal to the academically written style with complex languge medium of the authors Likewise, the level Genre of House’s model in the translation also fully demonstrates the scientific, non-fiction characteristics of a non-literary text, leading to remarkably unspecial description of Genre in this study 20 ... protective attitude towards the young via the linguistic softeners manifested in the TT With VGs of the ST mainly using upscaled Gradational resources and positive Attitudinal resources, the... strengths of YWN market segments, so the Gradational resources focus on upscale more than downscale direction Similar on Field, the Attitudinal resources are also resorted in positive more than negative... of these techniques help the TT reach an upscaled equivalence extent for the NGs and VGs with semantic modification in the TT On the other hand, some VGs of the TT also witness a loss of semantic