a translation quality assessment of vietnamese versionof harrypotterand the chamberof secrets

Therefore, I do this essay to analysis and evaluation the translation of the book in term of: Text analysis; The translator’s purpose; comparing the translation with the original and the

THANG LONG UNIVERSITY

HA NOI -2020Table of content

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2

1 The definition of translation 2

2 The analysis of the text 2

2.1 The intention of the text 2

2.2 The readership 3

2.3 The text styles 3

2.4 The intention of the translator 4

2.5 The translation methods 4

2.6 Translation procedures 5

CHAPTER 2: A TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF VIETNAMESE VERSION OF“HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS” 7

1 The analysis of the text 7

2 The translator’s purpose 8

3 Comparing the translation with the origial 8

4 The evaluation of the translation 9

Translation studies has been established for ages and expanded throughout the world The knowledge base of translation studies has been opportunely prepared, in fact it has been paved the way from the work of scholars such as British linguists J.C.Catford, Eugene Nida - an American Bible translator and Peter Newmark - a professor of English translation, etc… Nowadays, translation studies is a new subject, a branch of science and it is an essential part of studying languages

In the 21st century, the period of integration and globalization in the context of foreign language proficiency, translation studies play a very important role First, the learner will gain the differences between mother and foreign tongue Which gives them an ability to anticipate their linguistic problems and other benefits Secondly, Translation makes effective communication between people around the world easy The last, Translation exists in all fields of life, society and economy Therefore, people are more and more interest in translation studies In my point of view, This branch of science will develop strongly and make great achievements

The overall goal of the essay is to give theories of Peter Newmark about translation studies In particular, how many translation methods are there ?; What are the rules and hints for the process of translation? And How to evaluate a translation ? I will discuss them more in this essay Specifically, I will analyze and evaluate the translation of short story in the popular novel “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” I choose this work because it is a well-known novel all over the world, the best-selling novel of all time In addition, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is associated with my childhood memories I don’t remember exactly how many times I read this book It’s an excellent book about the content and language Therefore, I do this essay to analysis and evaluation the translation of the book in term of: Text analysis; The translator’s purpose; comparing the translation with the original and the evaluation of the translation.

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1.The definition of translation

There are several difference definitions of translation that has been given by some popular and talented authors

The first definition is produced by Catford (1965), “Translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (Source Language) by equivalent textual material in another language (Target Language)”.

Next, Nida and Taber (1982) interpret translation as “Translating 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”

According to explain of Koller, the process of translating is “Translation can be understood as the result of a text-processing activity, by means of which a source-language text between the resulting text in L2 (the target-language text) and the source text L1 (the source-language text) there exists a relationship, or equivalence relation”.

However, the definition of Peter Newmark is the most popular and precise: “Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text”

The variety of definitions show that the experts' point of view on translation theory is applied in the translation of all types of material, including scientific, technical, culture or legal texts.

2.The analysis of the text

Text Analysis in Translation has become a classic in Translation Studies People must read the text It is classificated into two kinds of reading when analyzing the text as General and Close reading The function of text analysis for understanding the text, what it is about, determine it’s intention, analyses it from a translator’s view and determine the way it’s written to select a suitable translation method According to Newmark, the reader had to find out the intention of the text, the intention of the translator, text types, the readership, stylistic scales, setting of the text and quality of the ST.

2.1 The intention of the text

Each text is written for a reason The writer will have an aim or purpose Therefore, people need to in quest of the goal of the text According to Newmark “the intention of the text represents the SL writer’s attitude to the subject matter” To look for the intention everyone should focus on the title that expresses nearly all content of the text The title and reading the content are partly represent the text’s purpose In addition, people must base on several elements:

Form and source: Before you read a text the important step is looking right at text’s form For instance, is it a magazine, a letter, a brochure or a web page The source of a text (where it comes from) also gives you clues about purpose.

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Content including grammatical structure, style and vocabulary People need to observe carefully the language the writer uses This means reading a text in detail and concentrate on the choice of vocabulary (words, phrases and idioms), style, and sentence structure (passive or condition).

Format that the way a text is presented and structured The format of a text means the way it is structured and laid out (e.g headings, title, bullets, paragraphs, bold print, etc….) The author will select both language and format to obtain of the text’s intention

Figure 1 Some examples of common purposes of texts.

( https://www.walesessentialskills.com/s/pdfs/tsl15/L2_Understanding_the_purpose.pdf )

2.2 The readership

Readership is the most vital aspect in translation The translator must to pay attention to the characteristic of audience such as education level, class, age and sex Moreover, people divided 3 typical types: expert; the educated layman; the uniformed.

The average text for translation tends to be for an educated, middle-class readership in an informal, not colloquial style If the translator knows and applies these features, the reader will clearly understand the version.

2.3 The text styles

According to Nida’s theory, there are four kinds of text (literary or non-literary): Narrative: “a dynamic sequence of events, where the emphasis is on the verbs” Description, “which is static, with emphasis on linking verbs, adjectives, adjectival nouns”.

Discussion, “a treatment of ideas, with emphasis on abstract nouns (concepts), verbs off thought, mental activity, logical argument and connectives”.

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Dialogue, “with emphasis on colloquialisms and phaticisms”

2.4 The intention of the translator

After you searched for the intention of the text, you need to find the intention of the translator According to Newmark “The translator’s intention is identical with that of the author of the SL text”.

2.5 The translation methods

Translation methods are the strategy and the techniques that the translator use to whole texts Newmark mentions in his book “the purpose of the translation, the nature of the readership, the type of text, was not discussed Too often, writer, translator and reader were implicitly identified with each other” Newmark proposed 8 translation methods which can be illustrated in the diagram as follows:

Figure 2 Translation methods.

(Source: http://lythuyetdichanhuy.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/6/5/10656110/handout_2.pdf )

Word-for-word translation “Word-for-word translation is often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with the TL immediately below the SL words The SL word-order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context”

Literal translation: “The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalent but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context”.

Faithful translation “It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures It ‘transfers’ cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical ‘abnormality’ (deviation from SL norms) in the translation It attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realisation of the SL writer”.

Semantic translation “This kind of translation differs from ‘faithful translation’ The semantic translation is more flexible than faithful translation Which allows for the translator’s intuitive empathy with the original In addition, it must take more account of the aesthetic value

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(that is, the beautiful and natural sound) of the SL text, compromising on ‘meaning’ where appropriate so that no assonance, word-play or repetition jars in the finished version”

Communicative translation “Communicative translation is freer than semantic translation It attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership”.

Idiomatic translation “It reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original”.

Free translation “Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original”.

Adaptation “Adaptation is the ‘freest’ form of translation It is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL culture and the text rewritten”.

Although, there are 8 kind of translation methods, Semantic translation and Communicative translation are two main methods for translation.

2.6 Translation procedures

Peter Newmark point out “Translation procedures are used for sentences and smaller units of language within that text” The following are the translation procedures that Newmark (1988) proposes:

Literal translation “This translation procedure is basic translation procedure, both in communicative and semantic translation The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalent but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of content”.

Transference “Transference is the process of transferring an SL word to a TL text as a translation procedure The word then becomes a “loan word””.

Naturalization “It adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then to the normal morphology (word-forms) of the TL”.

Through-translation “It is the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations and components of compounds It can also be called: calque or loan translation”.

Shifts or transpositions “It involves a change in the grammar from SL to TL When an SL grammatical structure does not exist in the TL or where literal translation is grammatically possible but may not accord with natural usage in TL In addition, the Shift gives natural expressions in the TL”.

Modulation “Modulation to define a variation through a change of viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought”.

Cultural equivalent “This is an approximate translation where a SL cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word Moreover, it helps bridge the cultural overlap between 2 languages”.

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Functional equivalent “This common procedure, applied to cultural word, requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimes with a new specific term to neutralize or generalize the SL word”.

Descriptive equivalent “In this procedure the meaning of the SL word is explained in several words and it gives clear images of SL concepts to the TL readers”.

Couplets “Couplets, triplets, quadruplets combine two, three or four of the above procedures respectively for dealing with a single problem They are particularly common for cultural words, if transference is combined with a functional or a cultural equivalent”.

That are some translation procedures of Peter Newmark, the translator appropriately use can help to achieve an excellent version Besides, the audience will understand the purport of translation

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OF “HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS”1.The analysis of the text

J K Rowling (1965) is one of the most well-known writers in the world She had a source of inspiration for Harry Potter So, she was writing about the Harry Potter and Philosopher’s stone After manuscript was given a lot of fat refusal, the book has finally been accepted for publication 6/1997, the publisher shakes off 1000 copies of “Harry Potter and philosopher’s stone” Immediately, this book was becoming famous and attracted a great deal of readers After 4 months, the book was awarded “The Nestle Smarties Book Prize” This went on for several years The following sections was published The series Harry Potter has 7 episodes The story is about a young boy named Harry Potter and his adventures as he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns how to perform magic and comes face to face with his archenemy, Lord Voldemort Harry Potter was becoming more and more famous It was translated into 200 languages ang remade as the film

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a fantasy novel and the second novel in the Harry Potter series The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, during which a series of messages on the walls of the school's corridors warn that the "Chamber of Secrets" has been opened and that the "Heir of Slytherin" would kill all pupils who do not come from all-magical families These threats are found after attacks that leave residents of the school petrified Throughout the year, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione investigate the attacks The book was the recipient of several awards such as the novel also won Children's Book of the Year British Book Award; and it was shortlisted for the 1998 Guardian Children's Award and the 1998 Carnegie Award

J.K Rowling wrote this book because she has a passion for writing, especially about things that are mythical and fiction She loves to make up stuff other people would not think about and she has her own style Besides, the novel could be both entertaining and educational In Harry Potter's magical world, everything there seemed to the reader strange and simply wonderful That didn’t exist in real-life In addition, the author wanted to convey messages which were “willing to lend a helping hand” and “bravery in the face of danger” In the detail, Harry and Ron was so courage when they go to the forest and confront enormous spiders to confirm that Hagrid is innocent Similarly, Harry and Ron entered the Chamber of Secrets and taking a big risk of their lives to save Ginny

Rowling said that “She did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books What excited me was how much I would enjoy writing Harry Potter I never thought about writing for children - children's books chose me." When the second book in the series was published, this story took the children’s fancy Due to, Firstly, the kid usually is fascinated by strange things, and Harry Potter exactly has these features such as Magic, Quidditch, Flying car Which the reader can’t find and see in the life Another, the characters in

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