THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY LE HUY BAC (LITERATURE PUBLISHING HOUSE) Supervis[.]
THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY - - GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY LE HUY BAC (LITERATURE PUBLISHING HOUSE) Supervisor: Nguyễn Thùy Linh, MA Student: Nguyễn Thị Hương Student code: 19D170021 Class: K55N1 HA NOI 2022 ABSTRACT The topic of this study is “A study on English – Vietnamese translation of personal pronouns in “The Old man and the Sea” by Le Huy Bac (Literature publishing house) The purpose is to analyze how to translate personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese in the work Personal pronouns are a small element in a sentence but extremely important It is used in all communication, all languages, all cultures For Vietnam is a country with a rich and complex system of personal pronouns, so it also causes many difficulties for translators My research studies the conversations of characters in the novel The Old man and the Sea, focusing on personal pronouns, thereby describing the relationships of characters Furthermore, the study shows how culture and lifestyle have influenced the use of personal pronouns in foreign literary works translated into Vietnamese Finally, the researcher proposes some solutions for professional translators and students majoring in translation to improve and hone their skills i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the entire time I've been at Thuong Mai University, I'd like to convey my gratitude to all of the instructors, particularly the English faculty lecturers Thank you for creating a welcoming and productive environment for teaching and learning I'd want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thuy Linh, my thesis supervisor, for her tolerance, enthusiastic passion, and insightful guidance throughout the writing process She is always willing to answer all of my questions and help me figure out the most efficient ways to my responsibilities In addition, I'd like to thank the authors of past studies on translation, translation techniques, personal pronouns, and other related areas for their contributions In order to produce my own research study, I gathered papers from reliable sources and referred to them Although I took great care when writing my thesis, errors are unavoidable, and I trust that our supervisors understand Furthermore, due to my lack of academic knowledge and practical experience, I want to seek supervisor recommendations in order to improve my comprehension Hanoi, November 20th, 2022 Student Nguyen Thi Huong ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .vi CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.2 Aims of the study .4 1.4 Research Subjects .4 1.5 Scope of the study .5 1.6.Methodology .5 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW .7 2.1 Translation theories 2.1.1 Definition of translation 2.1.2 The important definitions in translation .8 2.1.3 Translation methods 2.2 Theoretical of pronouns 12 2.2.1 Definition of pronouns 12 2.2.2 Classification of pronouns 13 2.2.3 Personal pronouns in English 13 2.2.4 Personal pronouns in Vietnamese .14 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20 3.1 The introduction of “The old man and the sea” 20 3.2 The translation of personal pronouns used by characters from English version into Vietnamese version 20 iii 3.3 The translation of the first personal pronoun from English into Vietnamese 21 3.3.1 Translation of the first personal pronouns “I” 21 3.3.2 Translation of the personal pronoun “we” 25 3.4 The translation of the second personal pronoun from the English version into the Vietnamese version 27 3.5 The translation of the third personal pronoun from the English version into the Vietnamese version 29 3.5.1 The translation of the personal pronoun “he” 29 3.5.2 The translation of the personal pronoun “she” 31 3.5.3 The translation of the personal pronoun “they” 32 3.6 Some comments on translating personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese in the novel The Old Man and the Sea 33 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 35 4.1 Recommendations for professional translators 35 4.2 Suggestions for students majoring in translation 37 4.3 Suggestions for further research 37 CONCLUSION 39 REFERENCES .40 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Term English meanings Vietnamese meanings MA Master of Arts Thạc sĩ SL Source language Ngơn ngữ nguồn TL Target language Ngơn ngữ đích v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1 Personal pronouns in English 13 Table 2.2 Vietnamese Personal Pronouns .15 Table 2.3 Summary the meanings and usages of the Vietnamese kinship terms 18 Figure 3.1 Summary of the translation of personal pronouns used by character from English version into Vietnamese version 21 Figure 3.2 Translation of personal pronouns “I” into Vietnamese 22 Figure 3.3 Translation of personal pronoun “we” into Vietnamese 25 Figure 3.4 Translation of the personal pronoun “you” into Vietnamese 27 Figure 3.5 Translation of personal pronoun “he” into Vietnamese 29 Figure 3.6 Translation of personal pronoun “she” into Vietnamese 31 Figure 3.7 Translation of personal pronoun “they” into Vietnamese .32 Figure 3.8 In terms of usage rate .33 vi CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale English is used as a second language worldwide In the context of economic integration and development, the use of English is increasingly necessary and important People all over the world use English as a common language to exchange, cooperate and expand relationships with each other in many fields, economy, culture, education However, it is extremely difficult to understand all the knowledge and content conveyed in languages other than the mother tongue Therefore, to help facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience, we need translators and interpreters Translation is like a bridge connecting people all over the world together To that well, translators are not only knowledgeable about the source and target languages, but also understand the culture and customs of that country Pronouns are words used to refer to someone or something in context so that we avoid repetition in the process of communication Personal pronouns play an extremely important role in communication in both English and Vietnamese The use of personal pronouns in communication shows politeness and mutual respect However, in Vietnamese, personal pronouns are more complicated, because they are classified by rank, position, and age Meanwhile, personal pronouns in English will be simpler, mainly divided into first person pronoun, second person pronouns and third person pronous So this is a challenge while translating personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese To be able to accurately translate personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese, translators need to know the exact relationship between the objects of communication and age to find suitable replacement personal pronouns Besides, there are many studies on English-Vietnamese translations of grammatical features such as relative clauses, conditional clauses, and indirect speech However, there are not many studies on the translation of the personal pronoun from English into Vietnamese Therefore, this topic will help people have a more specific and clear view of the similarities and differences between personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese For two main reasons above, the researcher decides to choose the topic "A study on English – Vietnamese translation of personal pronoun in “The Old man and the Sea” by Le Huy Bac” Through this research, it is expected to find strategies to deal with personal pronoun In addition, the researcher also hope that the graduation paper is considered as a material to help students majoring in translation limit mistakes when translating personal pronouns in their translation 1.2 Previous studies Pronouns in particular and personal pronouns in general are grammatical structures that are used a lot in both English and Vietnamese This is also a very interesting topic that is studied by many people, so both at home and abroad there are many research achievements on personal pronouns To begin with English research, we have “Personal pronouns in Present-day English” by Katie Wales, Wales Katie (1996) This study consists of chapters with a lot of contents such as: definition, description of personal pronouns, usage of each personal pronoun, factors affecting personal pronouns and inspiration to the millennium and personal pronouns in the twenty-first century He wrote “ definitions of the pronouns by English grammarians have changed little since the sixteenth century, when the term first appeared in English Even then, the term and its definitions were based on Latin and ultimately Greek sources: Latin pro-nomen, Greek anto-numia “standing for a noun” Not only that, he also took a lot of examples of personal pronouns, analyzed them for us to better understand About “Pronouns in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study” by Zainab Kadim Igaab & Intisar Raham Tarrad They pointed out similarities and differences between English and Arabic personal pronouns They have similar uses: “The purpose of using the pronouns is to avoid repeating the noun phrase and they are used to hide the explicit noun They help the writer or the speaker not to state his name and be kept away from unnecessary reiteration This makes the reference of the pronoun clear” But the diffirence is “ Concerning number and gender, in Arabic, there are pronouns which are used to refer to singularity, duality and plurality, while in English, there are only ... the Vietnamese translation in the novel "The Old Man and the Sea" The Old Man and the Sea is a very famous novel and has been translated into many other languages and has many different translations... translation strategies, personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese, and analyze for translating personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese in "The Old Man and the Sea" Not only that, the study also... study on English- Vietnamese translation of personal pronouns in ? ?The Old Man and the Sea? ?? by Le Huy Bac (Literature publishing house) 1.2 Aims of the study The study: A study the translation of personal