an assessment of the translation of the fault in our stars chapter 13

In this essay, I will discuss some translation theories by Newmark, Nida, Nord,… I will explain some translation procedures as well as the errors that the translator might meet while tra

THANG LONG UNIVERSITYENGLISH DEPARTMENT -o0o -

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE TRANSLATION

OF “THE FAULT IN OUR STARS –

CHAPTER 13”

By Nguyễn Huy Hoàng

Hanoi, October 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 Theoretical framework 2

1.1 What is translation? 2

1.1.1 Definition: 2

1.1.2 Type of translation 2

1.2 Text analysis 2

1.2.1 The intention of the text 2

1.2.2 The intention of the translator 2

1.2.3 Text type 3

1.2.4 Readership 3

1.2.5 Stylistic scales 3

1.2.6 Quality of the source language 3

1.3 Translation method 3

1.3.1 Faithful translation 3

1.4 Translation procedures 4

1.4.1 Literal translation 4

1.4.2 Transference 4

1.4.3 Shift/transposition 4

1.4.4 Modulation 4

1.5 Translation errors 4

1.5.1 Syntactic errors 4

1.5.2 Misunderstanding of SL 4

CHAPTER 2 An evaluation of “The Fault In Our Stars” by Nguyễn huy hoàng 5

2.1 The author’s purpose 5

2.2 Text type 5

2.3 The translator’s purpose 5

2.4 Comparing the translation with the original 5

2.4.1 Title 5

2.4.2 Stylistic scales 5

2.4.3 Translation procedures 6

2.4.4 Translation errors 7

Conclusion 8

Appendices 9

Language has become an important tool for human to communicate It is pointed outthat there are 5,000 to 7,000 languages in the world Thanks to language, human can expresstheir opinions and points of views about different problems However, they cannot understandevery language in this world This is the reason why translation exists There are translatorswho can help everyone to understand what the writers intention and attitude from their books

or research

I have a soft spot for books, which is why “The Fault In Our Stars” has caught myattention In this essay, I will discuss some translation theories by Newmark, Nida, Nord,… Iwill explain some translation procedures as well as the errors that the translator might meetwhile translating a text

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CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1.1 What is translation?

Over time, translation has many different meanings According to Catford (1965), hestated that translation is the replacement of material in the source language by anotherequivalence material in the target language In an other hand, by Nida and Taber (1982),translation is the process consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest naturalequivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms ofstyle But in this essay, I will follow Newmark’s theory and here is his definition: “Translation

is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intendedthe text” In this essay, I will follow Newmark’s definition and try my best to clarify it

1.2.1 The intention of the text

Understanding the purpose of the text is very important This step helps the translatorknow author’s attitude through the subject matter in the source text Even if it is the sameproblem but when the author use different kind of word to show their point of view then thepurpose of the text has also changed The translator must pay attention to author’s languagesand grammar to analyze the text in a best way

1.2.2 The intention of the translator

Basically, the translator has the same intention with the author But when translate sometext like advertisement or a notice, the translator may use their own way to make thetranslation more attractive to the readers Otherwise, the translator might change the wayhe/she translate the source text into another translation which suitable for different kind ofreaders

1.2.3 Text type

Based on Nida’s theory, Newmark stated that there are four types of text When readingnarrative text, we can see the sequence of action or events and the author emphasis thoseverbs which describe action or background In description text, mainly focus on which isstatic and emphasis the linking verbs, adjectives and adjectival nouns The third type isdiscussion, this type is a treatment of ideas with emphasis on concepts, verbs of thought,mental activity, logical argument and connective The last type is dialogue which focus oncolloquialism and phaticisms

3 types of readerships (experts, the educated layman, the uniformed) which are divided from 4criteria such as the education level, the class, age and sex You will decide to use words intarget language Reaching readers of each type is necessary to convey the content of thesource language After determining the right way to express from simple to complex, oramateur to professional will help the readership fully absorb

1.2.6 Quality of the source language

The quality of the source text and the authority are the two factor influence the choice ofchoosing suitable translation method The quality of the text has to be rated base on theauthor’s intention or the requirements of the topic A text is considered to be good depend onauthor’s writing skill, use the suitable word at the right place

1.3 Translation method

By choosing a good and right method for each text, translator can bring out the TTwithout changing the context of the writer This is the reason why the method is veryimportant for the translator to choose

1.3.1 Faithful translation

Words are now translated in context, cultural words are transfer to have the similarmeanings to the text language This method makes the translation seem unnatural but itattempts to be completely faithful to the intention of the author

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CHAPTER 2 AN EVALUATION OF “THE FAULT IN OUR STARS” BY

NGUYỄN HUY HOÀNG

2.1 The author’s purpose

John Michael Green is an American author who is well-known for teen and young adultfiction “The Fault In Our Stars”, which is published in 2012, became the #1 bestsellers inNew York Because of its popularity, two years later, the film adaption released

His works aims to readerships from teen to adult, especially young adults and encouragethem to live despite of whatever can happen to them Life can be tough, and it has ups anddowns, not everything has happy ending John Green wants to convey to all of them to keepmoving forward, learn to give and to accept

2.2 Text type

The text type is a mix of narration, description, and dialogue The whole story was told

in Hazel’s point of view as she was the one who told us the story of hers and Gus It can berealized in the sentence “Mom and Augustus and I walked…”, the pronoun “I”

describes Hazel She described the scenery of Amsterdam: “The creek

carving a path around the huge tree, a heron standing still at the water’s

edge, searching for a breakfast amid the millions of elm petals floating in

the water.” I used to watch the film adaption before, so I can easily

visualize how Amsterdam looks

2.3 The translator’s purpose

In the translated text, the translator used faithful method to translate the text In general,the TL remains the same meaning as the SL

2.4 Comparing the translation with the original

The original title is “The Fault In Our Stars” and it is translated into: “Khi Lỗi Thuộc VềNhững Vì Sao” The translator added the word “Khi” in the TL However, the TL still has thesame meaning as the SL and the word “Khi” does not make any effect on the TL In myopinion, “Khi” is not needed in the TL as the word does not affect the whole title

2.4.2 Stylistic scales

The author used a small amount of slang and taboo language because that is how mostteenagers and young adults communicate to each other today For example, we can see thesewords: “horseshit” and “bullshit” Those words can be very offensive when we talk with olderpeople (parents, teachers,…) and they will find themselves are being disrespected However,with people in the same generation (group of friends, gangs,…), the words can be foundnormal

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Those words were said by Hazel We can clearly understand her emotion as shedescribed it in the story The words were emphasizing her feelings For example: “It’s justbullshit, the whole thing,” Hazel felt very sad and disappointed because

Gus was dying and there was nothing they could do about it

In the TT, the translator did not translate the slang words completely

Those words, like I have mentioned and explained above, they were meant

to describe Hazel’s feelings, so they did not need to be translated The

translator decided to not completely translate them However, the TL

remains the actual meaning of the SL without being too vulgar or offensive

for readers

…unable to reach for love and

respect and art and whatever else,

which is, of course, utter

Next, I would like to discuss about the misspelled words in the SL: “naht”, “uggy”, and

“nah” In reality, “naht” is “not”, “uggy” is “ugly”, and “nah” is “no” However, “naht” and

“uggy” are meant for Hazel to mimic Van Houten’s attitude As for “nah”, “nah” is theinformal expression while having conversation with friends or family

In the TT, the translator translated them into “xấu òm” and “không”, because the readerscan still understand the context As for the “naht”, which was translated into “hông”, thetranslator kept the mimic tone of the sentence

Addition:

If the translator used literal translation, the TT would be hard to understand for readers.Instead, the translator decided to use addition procedure to clarify the meaning of “wrongcoffee”, base on the description of “wrong coffee” from the ST

you move up to the next set of

needs, security, and then the next

and the next

bạn sẽ tiến đến bậc nhu cầu tiếptheo, nhu cầu an toàn, rồi cứ thếtiếp nữa tiếp nữa

In the ST, “needs” is a plural noun However, in the TT, the translator translated into

“nhu cầu”, instead of “những nhu cầu” In this case,

2.4.4 Translation errors

There are a few errors that can be found in the TT:

Misunderstanding the ST:

“…I knelt at the base of the chair and put my head in his lap and

hugged him by the waist.” The translator translated into “quỳ xuống trước

chân ghế và dịu đầu vào lòng anh, vòng tay ôm lấy eo anh.” “lap” means

“đùi” However, I found this mistake does not completely affect the

context If the translator use literal translation in the whole sentence, it

will not clearly and the readers will find them hard to understand and

In short, I have discussed about translation in general I have mentioned the definition oftranslation, how to analyze a text, translation procedures and errors that can be found in the

TT in Chapter 1 After that, based on the theories I had mentioned before, I analyzed the TT

“Khi Lỗi Thuộc Về Những Vì Sao – Chương Mười Ba” by Nguyễn Huy Hoàng Overall, the

TT sticks to the original The translator had successfully put out the TT that conveyed themessage that the writer desired to

I have mentioned about translation theories in general, with the translation procedureand text analysis, as well as translation errors that translator might meet By using thosetheories, I made an evaluation of the TT of “The Fault In Our Stars” by Nguyễn Huy Hoàng.Overall, the TT did not make too many errors There is only a few minor errors but they donot affect the whole TT in general

ST: 12292230Vr3R6.pdf

https://books-library.net/files/books-library.online-(Page 113-118)

The next morning, our last full day in Amsterdam, Mom and Augustus

half block from the hotel to the Vondelpark, where we found a café in the

shadow of the Dutch national film museum Over lattes—which, the waiter

explained to us, the Dutch called “wrong coffee” because it had more milk

than coffee—we sat in the lacy shade of ahuge chestnut tree and recounted for Mom our encounter with the great

We made the story funny You have a choice in this world, I believe, about

stories, and we made the funny choice: Augustus, slumped in the café

be the tongue-tied, word-slurring Van Houten who could not so much as

of his chair; I stood up to play a me all full of bluster and machismo,

you fat ugly old man!”

“Did you call him ugly?” Augustus asked

“Just go with it,” I told him

“I’m naht uggy You’re the uggy one, nosetube girl.”

“You’re a coward!” I rumbled, and Augustus broke character to laugh

We told Mom about the Anne Frank House, leaving out the kissing

“Did you go back to chez Van Houten afterward?” Mom asked

Augustus didn’t even give me time to blush “Nah, we just hung out at

amused me with some Venn diagram humor.” He glanced at me God, he

was sexy

“Sounds lovely,” she said “Listen, I’m going to go for a walk Give the

two of you time to talk,” she said at Gus, an edge in it “Then maybe later

we can go for a tour on a canal boat.”

“Um, okay?” I said Mom left a five-euro note under her saucer and

then kissed me on the top of the head, whispering, “I love love love you,”

Gus motioned down to the shadows of the branches intersecting and

coming apart on the concrete “Beautiful, huh?”

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“Yeah,” I said.

“Such a good metaphor,” he mumbled

“Is it now?” I asked

“The negative image of things blown together and then blown apart,”

us, hundreds of people passed, jogging and biking and Rollerblading

city designed for movement and activity, a city that would rather not

inevitably I felt excluded from it But God, was it beautiful, the creek

around the huge tree, a heron standing still at the water’s edge, searching

amid the millions of elm petals floating in the water

But Augustus didn’t notice He was too busy watching the shadows

said, “I could look at this all day, but we should go to the hotel.”

“Do we have time?” I asked

He smiled sadly “If only,” he said

“What’s wrong?” I asked

He nodded back in the direction of the hotel

We walked in silence, Augustus a half step in front of me I was too

reason to be scared

So there is this thing called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Basically,

Abraham Maslow became famous for his theory that certain needs must

can even have other kinds of needs It looks like this:

Once your needs for food and water are fulfilled, you move up to the

or social needs, let alone “self-actualization,” which is when you start to,

and think about morality and quantum physics and stuff

According to Maslow, I was stuck on the second level of the pyramid,

unable to feel secure in my health and therefore unable to reach for love

and respect and art and whatever else, which is, of course, utter horseshit:

The urge to make art or contemplate philosophy does not go away when

you are sick Those urges just become transfigured by illness

Maslow’s pyramid seemed to imply that I was less human than other

most people seemed to agree with him But not Augustus I always

me because he’d once been sick Only now did it occur to me that maybe

he still was

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