HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY MID -TERM TEST ON TRANSLATION THEORIES FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH (No 1) Subject Code: EN43 BÀI GIẢI I Answer the following questions: (40 points) What are the different current views on translation? There are several views on translation: First of all, Eugene Albert Nida believes that “translation consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” This view is an entirely sociolinguistic approach, in which the translator must have thorough knowledge of both the subject matter he translates and his own sociocultural background Secondly, John Cunnison Catford defines “translation is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language” His definition emphasizes equivalence and correspondence between the source language and the target language He divides translation into three aspects, including: extent, level and ranks Similarly, Roger Bell defines the translation as “the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent in a second language” He emphasizes on the ability to recognise the alternatives that are available in the original, the choices that can be found in the target language and realization that choices foreclose others Besides, Wilss’s translation theories state that translation is a process to transfer a written Source language text into an optimally equivalent Target language text This process requires syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the Source Translators will develop a certain degree of awareness in terms of environment, training, motivation, practical work, or a constant interplay between these factors This requires translation creativity, knowledge and intuition In addition, the viewpoint of Hatim and Mason on translation is that it is “an act of communication” which permanently deals with at least two different languages with a broad network of elements including cultural, historical, political, and ideological differences Ideology is taken as the set of beliefs and values which inform an individual’s or institution’s view of the world and assist their interpretation of events or facts, ect The translation is categorized into genre, text and discourse The translator’s communicative competence is attuned to what is communicatively appropriate in both Source and Target language communities and individual acts of translation may be evaluated in terms of their appropriateness to the context of their use Another viewpoint is of Malinowski whose approach takes as its point of departure a consideration of the problem of translating primitive languages In her view, the context of culture is the environment for the total set of these options while the context of the situation is the environment of any particular selection that is made from within them Therefore, translation is simply how people relate to each other and culture is the linguistic code for the social context This means that Malinowski looks at language by its function and context with semantics before linguistic analysis Last but not least, Firth and Hyme models an approach of translation that emphasizes the importance of an ethnographic view of communicative events within communities This shows the relevant features of the participants, including persons and personalities, of the relevant objects and of the effect of speech art Particularly, contexts of situation are the participants of the speech events, described as members of a speech community, as well as in terms of their personality What is Nida's general theory of translating? Eugene Albert Nida defines Translation as consisting “of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” From this definition, it can be seen that Nida's approach to the translation is entirely sociolinguistics, in which the translator must have the thorough knowledge of the subject matter he translates as well as possess the stylistic facility in the Target Language The translator must have effective empathy with the original author and the content of the text Nida stresses that "a natural rendering must fit the receptor language and culture as a whole; the context of the particular message; and the receptor-language audience" He puts forward dynamic equivalence in opposition to formal correspondence In Nida's principles and procedures of translation, a language is a series of verbal habits that represent aspects of a culture The meaning of a verbal symbol is defined indirectly by all contrastive symbols Within any symbolic system the context normally contains more information than any focal term In addition, there are no complete synonyms within a language or between different languages, but such a statement seems evidently incorrect because almost all dictionaries have extensive lists of synonyms According to Nida, all languages and cultures are continually in the process of change, and such changes occur on all levels of structure Stylistic models have a very important role in communication, and proper adherence to such models is imperative Some universal models of discourse are very important for translators and interpreters There are some defects in Nida’s theory of dynamic equivalence in translation The theory omits the abstract nature of dynamic equivalence as a translation criterion, contradictions in regard to the cultural elements in translation, the degree of "naturalness" in translation, and the simplification of the source language However, Nida's dynamic-equivalence theory studies translation from a totally new perspective, deviating from the traditional source text-centered theories II Translation practice Read the text and find out the features of the situational context (30 points) Fluctuation is a term which is used for describing the interdependence between episodic, fragmentary experiences which we make everyday, and structured knowledge which we need to accommodate anew, haphazardly made experiences, such as the meaning of hitherto unknown words or metaphors, the impact of new stories, and all the other experiences we make when we try to find adequate solutions for translation problems Like any language user, translators strive to develop standard translation procedures which enable them, consciously or subconsciously, to render textual input by projecting source-text items onto the standard lexical (terminological), phraseological, syntactic, and textual patterns of the target linguistic repertoires At least for translators who in their professional life enjoy the tremendous privilege of having to cope only with a fairly homogeneous spectrum of texts, translation is in part a habit In order to practise habits, a translator has to learn them This seems to be commonplace observation, but to be aware of its pedagogical significance, it is fundamental to the preparation of translation-teaching materials ………… Field: Field of this text is about “fluctuation” in translation process and how to deal with “fluctuation” This text is filled with words related to the field, such as: “a term, anew, haphazardly, standard translation procedures, render textual input, a fairly homogeneous spectrum, habits, translation-teaching materials” Tenor: The tenor of this text is referred to the reader (translators) and the writer The purposes of this text centralized around the definition of “fluctuation” in translating and giving the suggestion for the translators to develop a habit to deal with fluctuation Mode: This text is in the written channel and in a form of monologue The focus is on getting the field accomplished (delivering the definition of “fluctuation” and how to deal with it) Thus, there is the use of the word “translators” or “a translator” to refer to the reader of the text Translate the text into Vietnamese (30 points) Biến động thuật ngữ sử dụng để mô tả phụ thuộc lẫn trải nghiệm liên tiếp rời rạc mà tạo hàng ngày với kiến thức có cấu trúc mà cần để đáp ứng trải nghiệm mới, tạo cách ngẫu nhiên, chẳng hạn ý nghĩa từ ẩn dụ chưa biết nay, tác động câu chuyện tất trải nghiệm khác mà thực cố gắng tìm giải pháp thích hợp cho vấn đề dịch thuật Giống người dùng ngôn ngữ nào, người dịch cố gắng phát triển quy trình dịch tiêu chuẩn cho phép họ, cách có ý thức tiềm thức, hiển thị đầu vào văn cách tham chiếu mục văn nguồn lên mẫu từ vựng (thuật ngữ), cụm từ, cú pháp văn tiêu chuẩn vốn ngôn ngữ đích Ít dịch giả chun nghiệp, người có thuận lợi to lớn phải đối phó với phổ văn đồng nhất, dịch thuật phần trở thành thói quen Để rèn luyện thói quen, người phiên dịch phải học chúng Đây dường quan sát theo cách thông thường, để nhận thức ý nghĩa sư phạm nó, việc chuẩn bị tài liệu giảng dạy dịch thuật điều Một số yêu cầu: + Sinh viên nộp file word lên hệ thống + Ghi rõ mã đề làm Chú ý: + Chế tài xử lý phát có chép ( VD: phát chép làm sinh viên khơng công nhận nhận điểm 0….) + Giảng viên trao đổi, nhận xét góp ý cho làm sinh viên diễn đàn buổi Vclass (SV tham gia lớp Vclass đầy đủ để giải đáp)