The study: An analysis of common errors on verb tenses and word choices in VietnameseEnglish translation by the secondyear English majors at Dong Thap University

their own limited language ability, etc, Vietnamese students of English in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translating Vietnamese texts into English.. B

INTRODUCTION

1 Motivation for the study

It is popularly admitted that language is an indispensable part of our society‟s cultural richness in particular and of the world‟s in general However, in order to keep ourselves on a par with the global standards in the today‟s world which is called international community, we need to have the understanding of English - an international language English is considered as the most popular language popularly used to exchange information and ideas among different nations and cultures today Thanks to their English translated versions, countries are able to have mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in this multilingual world It is considered as an effective means to learn how to appreciate different countries‟ cultures, communities and people By making comparisons, people are able to gain insight into their own culture and society as well as mutually exchange countries‟ beauty of cultural values Moreover, English translation makes people understand each other more in the process of diplomatic relations and economic cooperation and other fields in today‟s era when countries tend to integrate for the whole development As a result, English translation has gradually become an indispensable and pressing tool which set the path for the global success of individuals, organizations, and even businesses in the modern time when society is more developed and competition is relentless Therefore, nowadays when Vietnam becomes one of the members of World Trade Organization, it is necessary for Vietnamese students of English to have expert translation skill in order to meet the demand of integration into the world economy and exchange of culture with other countries As a result, learning translation skill is undoubtedly an advantage for Vietnamese students‟ ideal future jobs

However, in reality, Vietnamese-English translation skill is not easy for Vietnamese students to master, so learners can not avoid mistakes in their translating prsctice Perhaps, because of some influence on the differences about cultures or

their own limited language ability, etc, Vietnamese students of English in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translating Vietnamese

texts into English The study Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University (Duong Thi Thuy Hang

and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen, 2010, p.32-p.33) found the followings:

Lack of vocabulary causes many problems in translation process, frequently; they could not choose the right word in the context and tried or code it did not know

In the final text for BA English 2006 class, in the part of Vietnamese-to-English translation, there was a phrase: “Đơn xin thị thực”- and the large percentage of the students could not understand the meaning of the phrase Therefore, they translated with a wrong meaning or skipped it Many students did not know what

“thị thực” means, and they thought that it was a thing related to food, so in many test papers, it is translated into “food” as in the following: “Đơn xin thị thực” The answer is “Visa Application Form” The translated phrases by the students:

 “Declaration going food”

 “Enter-exit food”

 “Form of beg for food”

 “Giving foods form”…

The mistakes in tenses as in:

“Con bé dường như buồn ngủ” (this sentence was extracted from the first semester final test papers for BA English 2007 class)

The key is “The little girl seems sleepy” But many students translated into: “The little girl is seem sleepy”, they were confused with the verb “to be” and the verb

“seem”

In these situations, foreigners will misunderstand, even be not able to understand the meaning of the passage when they read

Located on Mekong Delta which is considered as the agriculture and aquaculture area, a special place in the strategy of economic and social development, and national security of the country, Dong Thap University has experienced nine years of establishment and development It has had great achievements in training human resources for the Mekong Delta and the country According to PhD Nguyen Van De, Rector of Dong Thap University, one of the main tasks of the school is training and fostering teachers with professional skills at all educational levels and highly qualified personnel in other areas in order to contribute to the development of the Mekong Delta and the country (Đại học Đồng Tháp: Hướng tới “Chất lượng - Hiệu quả - Uy tín - Chuyên nghiệp - Hiện đại”)

Nowadays, in the integrated period, the school also show special concern for training English majors who have expert translation skill as well as other skills of English so that they are able to contribute their own real linguist abilities to the society‟s development

To complete this task, understanding the difficulties of Vietnamese students when learning translation subject, Vietnamese–English translation is considered as a significant class for Vietnamese students of English major by Dong Thap University Students of English major start to take the course of translation in the second–year Comprehending the importance of learning Vietnamese–English translation, the students always want to improve their translation skill However, most of the students still have problems in translating According to Duong Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen (2010), the students have tended to have common mistakes on verb tenses and word choices when doing translation from Vietnamese texts into English ones They do not know how to avoid those mistakes

to make the text look smooth and fluent which accord with the standard of English

For those reasons, the researcher decided to choose the study “An analysis of common errors on verb tenses and word choices in Vietnamese–English translation by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University” which

aims at finding out what the second–year English majors‟ common mistakes on verb tenses and word choices, which reasons causing those mistakes as well as how to avoid them It is a strong hope that the study will be a useful reference helping improve translation skill for not only the second–year students majoring in English

at Dong Thap University but also all Vietnamese people who are interested in translation work and really want to become expert translators

2 Aims of the study

The primary aim of the thesis is to find out the second-year English majors‟ common errors on verb tenses and word choices in translating Vietnamese texts into English The study also aims at finding causes of these problems and then suggesting some possible strategies to overcome the problems The targeted subjects

of this thesis are mainly students; nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it as a useful reference for improving their translation skills as well

3 Scope of the study

When the second-year students of English major at Dong Thap University (2010-2014 curriculum) translation courses, they have to study both English-Vietnamese translation and Vietnamese-English translation This thesis focuses on analyzing the errors on verb tenses and word choices found in the Vietnamese-English translation part of the final tests and the extra test papers made by the second-year students of English major at Dong Thap University and making some suggestions to help avoid those errors

4 Significance of the study

The thesis will help the students recognize their common errors on verb tenses and word choices in translating Vietnamese texts into English The study will be a useful reference with the solutions suggested which help the students be able to self-correct their common mistakes and find out their own effective ways in leaning in

order to improve their translation skill Furthermore, it helps the students not only improve their language learning in general but also have a great advantage for their future ideal job

5 Related previous studies

 “Errors in the translation of topic-comment structures of Vietnamese into English”, Pham Phu Quynh Na, School of Languages and Literature-University of Western Syney, Australia.(n.d)

 “Problems in Vietnamese-English translation of the third-year students of English major at Dong Thap University: cause and solutions” (The B.A thesis), Nguyen Ngo Minh Tri and Le Thi My Duyen, Dong Thap University,

2009

 “Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University” (The B.A thesis), Duong Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam Xuyen, 2010

6 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of the following parts:

1.3.1 Literal translation versus idiomatic translation

1.3.2 Translating grammatical features

1.3.3 Translating lexical features

1.4 Strategies for translation

1.5 The factors influencing translation process

1.5.1 The mother tongue

1.5.2 Words and choice of word meanings

2.4 Data collect instruments

2.4.1 The test papers analysis and statistic

3.1 Results

3.1.1 Result collected from the questionnaire

3.1.2 Result collected from the interview questions

3.1.3 Result collected from the test papers

3.2 Discussion

Chapter 4: CONCLUTION AND SUGGESTION

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of translation:

Translation has been variously defined The following definitions are selected because they are typical in some senses

Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written source language text into an optimally equivalent target language text, and which requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the source language (Wilss, 1982)

Translation is the expression in another language (target language) of what has been expressed in one language (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalencies (Bell R., 1991)

Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in s second language (Bell R., 1991)

For example, the Vietnamese sentence “Người bắt đầu học ngoại ngữ luôn luôn gặp khó khăn ngay từ bước đầu.” can be translated into the English sentence

“Beginners of foreign language always meet difficulties from the outset.” (Tran Van

Diem, Dong A Language School, 1998)

The author continues, and makes the problems of equivalence very plain:

Texts in different languages can be equivalent in different degrees (fully or partially different), in respect of different levels of presentation (in respect of context, of semantics, of grammar, of lexis, etc.) and at different ranks (word-for-word, phrase-for-phrase, sentence-for-sentence)

Translation is the transmission of a thought expressed in one language by means of another language The language used to express the thought directly is

called the source language, and the language used to translate that thought is called the target language (Tu Anh, 2005)

In Vietnamese-into-English translation, the Vietnamese is the source language and the English is the target language as in the following example:

The source language: Dịch thuật là môn học bắt buộc đối với sinh viên chuyên Anh ngữ

The target language: Translation is a compulsory subject for students of English major

Translation is rendering a written text into another language in the way that the author intended the text (Bui Tien Bao and Dang xuan Thu, 1997)

“Translators are concerned with the written word They render written texts from one language into another Translators are required to undertake assignments, which range from simple items, such as birth certificates and driving licenses, to more complex written materials, such as articles in specialized professional journals, business contracts and legal documents.” (Bui Tien Bao and Dang xuan Thu, 1997)

Translation, by dictionary definition, consists of changing from one state or form to another, to turn into one’s own or another’s language (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1974) Translation is basically a change of form When we speak of the form of a language, we are referring to the actual words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc The forms are referred to as the surface structure of a language It is the structural part of language which is actually seen in print or heard

in speech In translation the form of the source language is replaced by the form of the receptor/target language But how is this change accomplished? What determines the choices of form in the translation?

1.2 The importance of translation

Even with the most up-to-date and sophisticated communication system, we can never know how many languages man uses today in the world; let alone how many languages man has used during the course of his development Some sources say there are some two or three thousand languages being used in the world, but

some others say the number may be as large as eight thousand What a habit man has that of speaking different tongues! And thus he offers himself difficulties and obstacles

Since communication within only one community is not enough, certainly there has a great number of times arisen a situation in which some individuals are unable

to understand the words or expressions of some others This phenomenon creates a barrier to understanding whenever man tries to communicate across a great distance

of space or across a great interval of time Something has to be done to overcome this restriction One way to cope with the restriction is for individuals to know the foreign language But this is not the final solution because apparently no individual

in the world can know all the languages in use The best polyglot so far knows only about twenty five languages, and still people want to read what other people write and what people say Translation and interpreting may be considered as the most universally accepted solution for surmounting the obstacle And thus there is a need for professional translators and interpreters (Bui Tien Bao and Dang Xuan Thu, 1997)

Stuart stated that translation as the product of language learning projected onto

an interlanguage framework Therefore, translation skills should be evaluated according to the state of learners‟ interlanguage in any stage of its development (Stuart Campbell, 1980)

Translation is a real-life, natural activity and increasingly necessary in a global environment Many learners living in either their own countries or a new one need to translate language on a daily basis, both informally and formally This is even more important with the growing importance of online information

Translation can be support for the writing process, especially at lower levels Research has shown that learners seem able to access more information in their own L1, which they can then translate (Stuart Campbell, 1980)

The research totally agrees with the above ideas When the human language appears, translation becomes necessary and significant Translation becomes more important when all countries in the world have exchanged and cooperated together

in variety aspects like culture, education, business, etc In order to meet the demand

of the multilingual world‟s development, it is required an appearance of a common language to be used Nowadays, English has been used as the universal language all over the world In our country, English more and more plays an important role in the economic aspect It is really true in business when our country is in cooperation with foreign investors, contracts, emails, agreements or conventions, etc in English so it requires they have to be translated effectively Therefore, the role of translation was attached importantly to every field in society

1.3 Types of translation

1.3.1 Literal translation versus idiomatic translation

Because a text has both form and meaning, there are two main kinds of translation One is form-based and the other is meaning-based Form-based translation attempts to follow the form of the source language and is known as literal translation Meaning-based translation makes every effort to communicate the meaning of the source language text in the natural forms of the receptor language Such translation is called idiomatic translation An interlinear translation is a completely literal translation For some purposes, it is desirable to reproduce the linguistic features of the source text; as for example, in a linguistic study of that language Literal translation can be considered as a very low level of translation A literal translation sounds like nonsense and has little communication value

For example:

Vietnamese: Mời bạn về nhà tôi chơi

Literal translation: Invite friend about my house play (nonsense)

This literal translation makes little sense in English The appropriate translation

could be a question: Would you like to come to my house?

Idiomatic translations use the natural forms of the receptor language, both in the grammatical constructions and in the choice of lexical items A truly idiomatic translation does not sound like a translation It sounds like it was written originally

in the receptor language Therefore, a good translator will try to translate idiomatically This is his goal However, translations are often a mixture of a literal transfer of the grammatical units along with some idiomatic translation of the meaning of the text It is not easy to consistently translate

In one translation, the source text said, “Nhiều du khách nước ngoài đã giới thiệu cho chúng tôi về khách sạn Hương Giang” It was translated, “Many foreign tourists have introduced us about Huong Giang Hotel.” (literal translation) It would have been translated idiomatically, “Huong Giang Hotel has been recommended to

us by a number of foreign tourists.”

The translator‟s goal should be to reproduce in a receptor language a text which communicates the same message as the source language but using the natural grammatical and lexical choices of the receptor language The basic overriding principle is that an idiomatic translation reproduces the meaning of the source language in the natural form of the receptor language

1.3.2 Translating grammatical features

Each language has its own division of the lexicon into classes such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on Different languages will have different classes and subclasses It will not always be possible to translate a source language noun with a noun in the receptor language

Grammatical constructions vary between the source language and the receptor language The order of the words in the sentence may be completely reserved The following Vietnamese simple sentence is given with a literal English translation:

Vietnamese: Chị sống ở đâu?

Literal English translation: You live where?

Understandable translation into English requires a complete reversal of the

word order: Where do you live?

It is common that passive constructions will need to be translated with an active construction or vice versa, depending on the natural form of the receptor language

For example, Vietnamese people tend to use active constructions to express their ideas whereas English people prefer to use passive constructions

Vietnamese: Người ta xem Nguyen Du là một nhà thơ vĩ đại (Active)

English: Nguyen Du is considered to be a great poet (Passive)

The above translated sentences are only examples to show some types of grammatical adjustments which will result if a translator translates idiomatically in the source language Certainly, there will be times by coincidence they match, but a translator should translate the meaning not concern himself with whether the forms turn out the same or not

1.3.3 Translating lexical features

Each language has its own idiomatic way of expressing meaning lexical items Languages abound in idioms, secondary meanings, metaphors and other figurative meanings All languages have idioms – the string of words whose meaning is different than the meaning conveyed by the individual words In English to say that

someone is “bullheaded” means that the person is “stubborn” The meaning has little to do with “bull” or “head” Similarly, in Vietnamese to say that someone is

“cứng đầu, cứng cổ” means that the person is “stubborn” The meaning has little to

do with “đầu” or “cổ” Languages abound in such idioms The following are a few English idioms using in and into: run into debt, rush into print, step into a practice,

jump into a fight, dive into a book, stumble into acquaintance, fall in love, break into society, etc In spite of all these combinations, one cannot say the following break into debt, fall into print, rush into a fight or dive into debt The combinations are

fixed as to form and their meaning comes from their combination A literal for-word translation of these idioms into another language will not make sense The form cannot be kept, but the receptor language word or phrase which has the equivalent meaning will be the correct one to use in the translation

word-For example, the Vietnamese idiom “mạnh như trâu” is literally translated into

English as in the first column and is idiomatically as in the second column The literal English is misleading

Literal Idiomatic

He is as strong as a buffalo He is as strong as a horse

Translators who want to make a good idiomatic translation often find figures of

speech especially challenging A little translation of “strong as a horse” might

sound really strange in a language where the comparison between a strong person and a horse has never been used as a figure of speech In Vietnamese it would be

more natural to say “strong as a buffalo” Similarly, a literal translation of “blind as

a bat” might sound really strange in a language where the comparison between a

blind person and a bat has never been used as a figure of speech

Names of animals are used metaphorically in most languages But the comparison is often different and so the figure will be misunderstood unless aome adjustment is made For example, when someone is called a pig in English, it usually means he is dirty or a greedy eater In Vietnamese, it has different meanings

It could means that the person is stupid or that the person is a greedy

Some lexical combinations of the source language may be ambiguous The

meaning is not clear For example, “It is too hot to eat”, could mean any of the following: The food is too hot to eat; the weather is too hot for us to feel like eating;

the horse is too hot after running a race and does not want to eat In the process of

making an idiomatic translation, such ambiguities must often be resolved to keep the intended meaning in the context of communication

In short, there are four typical types of translation: literal translation, idiomatic translation, translation grammatical features, and translation lexical features However, one of them, literal translation, should be avoided because it will make the translation meaningless or nonsense Idiomatic translation, in contract, is considered

to be a strongly recommended mean

1.4 Strategies for translation

Strategy 1: How to deal with non-equivalence at word level

It is often the case that no direct equivalents can be found in Vietnamese for English words It may be that the concept or idea is new to Vietnam, as is the case

with “gender”, which is in fact a relatively new concept in general, and a difficult

one to understand and explain in many languages Or, it may be that the concept is known or readily understood but there is no specific word in Vietnamese to express

it Another difficulty id that, in addition to their concrete meaning, some words have special connotations that are not conveyed by the Vietnamese word for the same thing The strategies listed below can be used to handle cases of non-equivalence

Translating by a more specific word

In some case, it may be appropriate or necessary to use a more specific word to translate an English word into Vietnamese This usually involves choosing among several different words, as there may be many Vietnamese words that correspond to the general category or meaning expressed by the English term For example, the

English word for “rice” can be translated by many different Vietnamese words (hạt lúa, hạt thóc, hạt gạo, cơm), depending on whether one is planning it, harvesting it,

cooking it, or eating it In these cases, the English word alone is not enough to

determine the appropriate Vietnamese translation, and it is necessary to examine the English context in deciding which Vietnamese word is to be used

Translating by a more general word

In other cases, it may be appropriate to use a more general word to translate English with no specific Vietnamese equivalent For instance, English makes distinctions among mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles, the latter having larger wheels and engines than both mopeds and scooters; Vietnamese, on the order hand,

refers to all two-wheel, motorized vehicles as “xe máy” Similarly, the English words “paw”, “foot”, and “leg” may all be translated by the Vietnamese word

“chân”, which does not suggest any problem of comprehension in Vietnamese, as it

should be clear from the context which of these words is meant

Translating by paraphrase

This strategy can be used when translating an English word or concept that does not exist in Vietnamese, or when the Vietnamese term for it does not include all the meanings conveyed by the English term for the same concept For example,

in the sentence “Pregnant women should avoid alcohol.” In English the word

“alcohol” includes all alcoholic beverages in its meaning However, the Vietnamese word for alcohol, “rượu”, does not include beer in its definition, so the Vietnamese

translation should add the word beer to reflect the full meaning of the source

language sentence “Phụ nữ mang thai nên tránh uống rượu, bia.”

Strategy 2: How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions

According to English Idioms in Use (McCarthy & O‟Dell, 2004, p.6), an idiom

is defined as a fixed expression which “has a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words” In other words, words have lost their individual identity in the idiom The structure of the idiom is, to a large extent, fixed and unchangeable Every language has a set of idioms and fixed expressions of its own, which has been created and developed throughout history It is profoundly influenced by the

geographical position, natural and social conditions of the culture in which the language is used Thus, the sets of idioms and fixed expression in different languages vary in many ways Idioms and fixed expressions can be dealt with in ways similar to those discussed above With idioms, however, there is the added difficulty that the translator may not realize that she is dealing with an idiomatic expression, since more idioms may make sense when translated literally

Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form

It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar meaning to an English idiom or expression, and which is expressed in the

same way One example is the idiom “to fight like cats and dogs”, which is expressed using the same words in Vietnamese “cãi nhau như chó với mèo”; another is “Better late than never”, which is translated as “Thà muộn còn hơn không” It is ideal if such a match can be found, but this kind of correspondence is

not common, and it is usually necessary to use other strategies in dealing with

idioms and fixed expressions One example is the idiom “It is raining cats and dogs” This idiom does not have any meaning related to the pets (cats or dogs), but

it just means “It is raining heavily” – “Trời đang mưa to.” or “Mưa tầm tã.” in

Vietnamese If this English idiom is translated in the way of literal translation which just focuses on the meaning in dictionary of the word “cat”- “con mèo” and the word

“dog” – “con chó” like “Trời đang mưa những con mèo và chó”, the sentence is

totally nonsense Thus, it is clear that no Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar meaning to this English idiom can be found

Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form

It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with a similar meaning to an English idiom or set expression, but which is expressed differently A

good example is the translation for “chở củi về rừng”, which is translated as “to carry firewood to the forest” However, in English “to carry firewood to the forest”

is not an idiom and does not have the meaning as the Vietnamese idiom “chở củi về

rừng” The correct English equivalent of the Vietnamese idiom is “to carry coals to Newcastle” The meaning here is clearly the same for both idioms - to bring

something to a place that already has an abundance of that thing - but the way in which each language expresses it is bound to the culture of that language It would

be far more cumbersome to translate this idiom word-for-word into Vietnamese with

an explanation that Newcastle is a well-known coal-producing city in England (as was suggested by some Vietnamese translators), which would unduly interrupt the flow of the text and greatly diminish the idiom‟s impact By substituting a similar Vietnamese idiom, then, the flow and the impact of the original text are retained in the translation

However, even if this phrase were clearly understood, it would be difficult to find a concise equivalent in Vietnamese; in fact, it would be difficult to re-state concisely

in English This phrase is best dealt with by paraphrasing, which in English should

read something like, “summing up the problem by referring to it simply as number, which does not reflect its true magnitude or impact” The expression “to slip into easy usage” is problematic for the same reasons, and is also best dealt with by

paraphrasing, as a direct translation into Vietnamese would nonsensical

Strategy 3: How to deal with voice, number and person

VOICE: The passive voice is used very frequently in English and poses some

problems for translation from English into Vietnamese and vice versa in the following ways:

(a) - Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ + (bởi B) (positive meaning)

A được/do +(B) + động từ

(ii) A bị + động từ + (bởi B) (negative meaning)

A bị + (B) + động từ

- English: A to be done (by B) = A be + V 3/ed (by B)

For example: (1) Tom được Mary tặng một món quà

= Tom is given a present by Mary

(2) Ngôi nhà này do John xây năm 1930

= This house was built by John in 1930

(3) Tom bị một kẻ lạ mặt tấn công tối hôm qua

= Tom was attacked by a stranger last night

(b) - Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ (positive meaning)

(ii) A bị + động từ (negative meaning)

(iii) Người ta/ai đó + động từ + A

- English: A to be done = A be + V 3/ed or A has/have been + V 3/ed For example: (1) Tom mới được đề bạt gần đây

= Tom has been promoted recently

(2) Chiếc đĩa CD đã bị vỡ rồi, or

= Ai đó đã làm vỡ chiếc đĩa CD rồi

= The CD has been broken

The positive and negative connotation is often conveyed in English, it can be

difficult to know which verb to use in the Vietnamese

For example: English: The children were given injections

Vietnamese: “Các cháu được tiêm” or “Các cháu bị tiêm.”

Depending on whether receiving shots was considered a positive or negative

experience On the other hand, when the positive or negative connotation of the

sentence is clear, it is more appropriate to retain the passive voice in the Vietnamese

For example:

English: The H‟Mong people do not like to be called Meo,

they prefer to be called H‟Mong

Vietnamese: Người dân tộc Hơ Mông không thích bị gọi là dân tộc Mèo, họ thích được gọi là dân tộc Hơ Mông hơn

Note: In Vietnamese, there are some cases where you see the word bị/được,

but there are not passive sentences in English at all

For example:

- Anh ấy bị ngã = He falls

- Chị Lan bị ho = Lan has a cough

- Hôm nay chúng ta được đánh chén no nê

= We have an enormous and fantastic meal today

NUMBER: Through both languages have similar notions of number and

countability, each language expresses this in very different ways In Vietnamese,

number is often not expressed at all In English, number is expressed as a

grammatical category, that is, there are different grammatical forms for the singular

and plural nouns In Vietnamese, however, no such distinction is made

grammatically For example, “Phụ nữ” can mean either woman or women In Vietnamese, some plural makers such as “các”, “những”,”tất cả”,”mọi”,”mỗi”… can be used in addition to the noun “Các” generally means all of a given category

of thing, whereas “những” refers only to some of the total number of the things being discussed “Mỗi” emphasises the identity of the individual members of the category without connoting anything of their totality, while “mọi” expresses both

individuality of the items and the totality of the category If it is clear from the English context which of these plural markets should be used in the Vietnamese, then the translator should choose accordingly

Note: some words that can be countable in Vietnamese but are uncountable in

English For example: information, equipment, furniture, potential, advice …

PERSON: Participants roles and forms of address are expressed in Vietnamese

through a very complicated system of personal pronouns based largely on kinship (mối quan hệ họ hàng) terms Unlike their distinctions, depending on relationship within the family, familiarity, social status, and even one‟s particular mood or attitude in a given situation These distinctions are not always clear in English and can usually be determined by the context, if at all If it is not possible to determine the distinctions of the English pronouns, the decision should be based on consideration of tone and overall purpose of the document

For example: A manual on health care contains sections written specifically

for children and adults In the section for children, “you” should be translated as

“chúng ta”, which is the inclusive “we” – that is, the speaker is including the listener in a group with him/herself And in different contexts, “we” can be translated as “chúng tôi” meaning “other people and I, but not you” or “chúng ta” meaning “you and I”

Note: In English, age is often not important in the addressing system And

there is no distinction between the relatives of mother‟s side or father‟s side

Hai anh em = two brothers

Hai chị em = two sisters

Chú, bác = uncle

Cô, dì, bác gái = aunt

Strategy 4: How to deal with proper names

Geographical terms: either translated into another word in English or

translated phonologically („s‟ becomes „x‟) or remained unchanged

Example:

- Bắc Kinh = Beijing

- Vương quốc = Kingdom

- Singapore or Xingapo = Singapore

- Liên bang, Liên hiệp, Khối thịnh vượng = Commonwealth

- Úc or Ôxtraylia = Australia

- Xã hội chủ nghĩa = Socialist

- Braxin = Brazil

Names of organizations: Translation from Vietnamese into English: often

using the reverse order or adjective + noun or noun +preposition + noun

“Bộ”, “Sở” = Ministry of …, Department of …

“Ngân hàng” = Bank for …, or Adjective + Bank

“Tổng công ty” = Corporation

Example:

Ngân hàng phục vụ người nghèo = Bank for the poor

Ngân hàng công thương Việt Nam = Vietnam industrial and Commercial Bank

Sở giao thông công chính = Department of transport and public works

Văn phòng chính phủ = Government office

Tổng cục thống kê = General Statistic Office

Bộ kế hoạch và đầu tư = Ministry of Planning and investment

Strategy 5: How to deal with non-subject sentences

In Vietnamese-written passages, some non-subject sentences are often come across In this case, the following techniques of translation can be used:

- Cần đẩy mạnh công nghiệp hóa, hiện đại hóa

= Industrialization and modernization should be promoted

Or: It is necessary to promote industrialization and modernization

- Vẫn chưa có cách chữa trị bệnh AIDS

= There has been no cure for AIDS

1.5 The factors influencing translation process

1.5.1 Influence of the mother tongue

In the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue shapes our way of thinking, and, to some extent, our use of the target language (word order, choice of words)

Thanks to translation, we understand better the interference in the mother tongue when learning a foreign language and will be able to explore the potential of both languages – their merits and shortcoming – by using contrastive analysis

Word order:

The differences between word orders in Vietnamese and English are shown in the following example:

Vietnamese-into-English translation:

(i) “Anh ấy là một sinh viên giỏi Tên của anh ấy là Nam.”

In the phrase “sinh viên” is a noun, “giỏi” is an adjective, “tên” is a noun, and

“của anh ấy” is possessive adjective

As we know, in Vietnamese, an adjective or possessive follows a noun In contrast, an adjective precedes a noun or possessive adjective has the same position

And the above phrases are written:

“He is a good student His name is Nam.”

Beginners sometimes translate in this way:

“However, some companies software computer worry about software open source.”

Suggested English version:

“However, some computer software companies worry about opened source software.”

1.5.2 Words and choices of word meanings

Words are necessary for any language learners to build their own vocabulary to get advantages in their language learning Vocabulary is the fundamental component

of communication; it carries with the ability to communicate effectively Developing this basic tool will open up opportunities in learning translation subject well With a translation text, when learners have no difficulty in new words, it is easy for them to translate into the target language In contrast, they seem to fail translating

Most of the English words have many meanings; the exact meaning of one word can be expressed only in context, as in the following example:

“My uncle ran for governor so he was a fair game for the press The reporters dug back into his past and printed things about him that happened way back in

childhood But they found nothing that looked too bad and he did get elected.”

The word “ran” is the past and past participle of “run” which mean chạy, vận hành, chạy trốn, tranh cử, bò… and the meanings of the word “dig” are đào bới, xới thọc sâu, khơi, khai quật …

It is obvious that there will be a bad translated text if the meanings of the words are not selected appropriately

“Ông cậu của tôi chạy trốn thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báo giới soi mói Các phóng viên đã quay lại bới móc cái quá khứ của ông và đăng

những gì đã xảy ra trong thời thơ ấu Nhưng họ không tìm được cái gì quá xấu và chú tôi đã đắc cử.”

Suggested Vietnamese version:

“Ông chú tôi ra tranh cử vào chức vụ thống đốc vì thế ông là mục tiêu đáng chú ý cho báo giới soi mói Các phóng viên đã quay lại khơi dậy lại quá khứ của ông

và đăng những gì đã xảy ra trong thời thơ ấu Tuy nhiên, họ không tìm thấy điều gì quá tệ về ông và chú tôi đã đắc cử.”

Vocabulary plays an important role in translation texts How many we know about meanings of a words will bring to us many advantages in translation process and thus there will be many chances for us who are really interested in translation work to become expert translators

1.5.3 Grammatical structures

Vocabulary is not enough for translating It needs a special mean to make it meaningful in the sentence That is grammar or grammatical structures In the process of translation, the grammatical structures are indispensable means Insufficient knowledge on either of the two areas may lead to translation of poor quality English is very inflexible when compared to other languages It goes by very strict structures while the Vietnamese language is much more flexible For instance, the Vietnamese language does not always use articles; there are many tenses in English, they are used with a particular structure In case, an untrue tense is

used readers cannot understand or misunderstand For instance, “Tôi đã học tiếng

Trung Quốc 5 năm nay.”

Suggested English version: “I have learned Chinese for 5 years.”

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action which happened in the past, and up to now or in the future

However, there are no rules of using the different verb forms to express time when an action happens in the Vietnamese language With the above present perfect

tense, the sentence can be translated as “Tôi đã học tiếng Trung Quốc được 5 năm rồi.” In this way, the verb “học” has no inflection and the meaning of the sentence

is the same

In conclusion, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not easy to master It requires the learners have to find an effective way of learning to study and practice more if they want to limit grammar errors in using English in general and specifically in translation subject as skilled translators

1.5.4 Context

A language is the vehicle of our ideas, thoughts and perspectives of our world Translation is understood as an act of carrying the meaning of a text from one language to another one This process involves interpretation of meaning of the source text and producing the same meaning in another language Texts however, cannot exist out of context By context what is meant is the entire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed or stated Any word in the text is not present in isolation but interacts with other words in the text and with the whole text

at large This interaction among words determines their meaning rather than its

isolated meaning For example, the uses of the word “work” in the following

sentences:

(i) I work at Ministry of education and training

(ii) Kieu story is a famous work

(iii) After graduating, I will look for work

The word “work” in example (i) is a normal verb, it means the activity by

which one makes a living; in (ii), it means the output of a creative writer, whereas in

example (iii), the word “work” has another meaning – that is a job or an

There are certain characteristic of languages which have a very direct bearing

on principles of the translation process

Firstly, the characteristics of meaning components are referred as a phenomenon of the differences among languages Meaning components are packaged into lexical items, but they are packaged differently in one language than

in another one In most languages there is a meaning of plurality, for example the

English final letter “-s” This occurs in the grammar as a suffix on the nouns or

verbs or both However, in Vietnamese, plurality is expressed in an isolated word

“những, các or vài” Many times a single word in the source language, English, will

need to be translated by several words into the target language, Vietnamese, and vice versa

Example:

(i) English: Tom has just bought some English reference books

Vietnamese: Tom vừa mới mua vài quyển sách tham khảo tiếng Anh

(ii) Vietnamese: Các bạn trong lớp của tôi đều rất thân thiện

English: My classmates are all friendly

Secondly, it is the characteristic of languages that the same meaning components will occur in several surface structure lexical items Let us look at the

word “sheep” in English The words “lamb”, “ram” and “ewe” also include the

meaning “sheep” They include the additional meaning components of a young sheep in “lamb”, an adult male sheep in “ram” and an adult female sheep in “ewe”

Thirdly, it is about a further characteristic of language that one form will be used to represent several alternative meanings This again is obvious from looking at any good dictionary For instance, the Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary give

33 senses for the verb “run” Most words have more than one meaning There will

be a primary meaning – the one which usually comes to mind when the word is said

in isolation – and the contextual/secondary meaning – the additional meanings, which a word has in other contexts with other words in certain orders In English,

we can say “The boy runs.” with the meaning “The boy moves fast”, but in the

sentence “My uncle runs for governor.”, “run” has the contextual meaning - “to

stand as a candidate for the position of a governor of an office”

The principle is not limited to lexical items for it is also true that the same grammatical pattern may express several quite different meanings For instance, the

English possessive phrase “my house” may mean “the house I built”, “the house I rent”, “the house I live in”, or “the house for which I drew up in my plans.”

Whole sentences may also have several functions A question form may be

used for a non-question For instance, the question: “Daisy, why don‟t you wash the dishes?” has a form of a question, and may in some context be asking for

information, but it is often used with the meaning of a command rather than a real

question A simple English sentence like “He made the bed” may mean either “He,

a carpenter, made the bed.” or “He put the sheets, blanket, and pillows in neat order on the bed.” Just as words have primary and secondary meanings,

grammatical markers have their primary function and often have other contextual

functions The preposition “on” is used in English to signal a variety of meanings,

Compare the following uses of “on” with the corresponding form used in

Vietnamese

John found the book on the floor John tìm thấy cuốn sách trên sàn nhà

John found the book on mathematics John tìm thấy cuốn sách viết về môn toán John found the book on Tuesday John tìm thấy cuốn sách vào ngày thứ ba Compare also the following uses of the preposition “by”:

John was stopped by the policeman

John wax stopped by the bookstand

In the first sentence, “by” is used to signal the meaning that the policeman is

the agent of the action In the second sentence, “by” is used to signal that the

bookstand is the location

We have seen that one form may express many meanings On the other hand, another characteristic of language is that a single meaning may be expressed in a

variety of forms For example, the idea “that cat is black”, which is black,

depending on how that meaning relates to other meanings In addition, the meanings

of “Is this place taken?”, “Is there anyone sitting here?” and “May I sit here?” are

essentially the same Also, the meaning is essentially the same in the following English sentences:

Others blamed John because of the difficulty

Others blamed John for the difficulty

Others blamed the difficulty on John

Others said John was responsible for the difficulty

Others accused john of being responsible for the difficulty

Moreover, English has a very clear distinction between tenses while the tense distinction in Vietnamese is not clear For example, Vietnamese people tend to use

present simple tense instead of past simple tense (đã, rồi)

Vietnamese: Hôm qua là ngày Chủ nhật

English: Yesterday was Sunday

We have seen that even within a single language there are a great variety of ways in which form expresses meaning Only when a form is being used in its primary meaning or function is there a one-to-one correlation between form and meaning The other meanings are secondary meanings or figurative meanings Words have these extended meanings and in the same way grammatical forms have extended usages (secondary and figurative function) This characteristic of

“skewing”; that is, the diversity or the lack of one-to-one correlation between form

and meaning is the basic reason why translation is a complicated task If there were

no skewing, then all lexical items ad all grammatical forms would have only one meaning and a literal word-for-word and grammatical structure-for-grammatical structure translation would be possible But the fact is that a language a complex set

of skewed relationship between meaning (semantics) and form (lexicon and grammar) Each language has its own distinctive forms for representing the meaning Therefore, in translation the same meaning may have to be expressed in another language by a very different form

1.6 Common errors in Vietnamese-English translation

The following errors are usually found in Vietnamese-English translation

translators do not realize this, which leads to wrong and funny collocation For

instance, in Vietnamese the word “uống” (drink) can go with many different kinds

of liquid including water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison It is incorrect to

say “drink medicine” in English there are clear distinctions as follows:

Drink beer/ water/ wine/ coffee

But: Take medicine/ poison

Another example indicates that in Vietnamese the word “nói” (say) can be collocated with “dối” (a lie), “sự thật” (the truth),”ngôn ngữ” (English, French, Vietnamese…) However, in English it is incorrect

Say the truth (incorrect)

Say a lie (incorrect)

Say English/ French/ Vietnamese (incorrect)

In Vietnamese-English translation, the phrases must be corrected as “tell the truth, tell a lie, and speak English/French/Vietnamese”

In Vietnamese, the word “đàn” cab be collocated with many different nouns such as “cá” (fish), “chim” (bird), “sư tử” (lion), “gia súc”(cattle) On the contrary, in English there are many words meaning “đàn” as follows

A flock of birds/sheep: đàn chim/ cừu

A herd of cattle/buffaloes: đàn gia súc/ trâu

A pack of dogs/calves: đàn chó/ bê

A school of fish/chickens: đàn gà/ gà

A pride of lions: đàn sư tử

When the word “flock”, “herd”, “pack”, “school”, “pride” are used

interchangeably, errors will occur

The following examples are extracted from the book “Translation 1&2” (Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, 2006), and they show the wrong collocations of some translators:

1 “Chính phủ đã thực hiện nhiều biện pháp ngăn chặn việc buôn lậu ma túy.”

(The government has made many measures to stop the drug smuggling.)

2 “Sau khi nghiên cứu thị trường, chúng tôi đã quyết định đưa ra thị trường một sản phẩm gây ấn tượng có thể cạnh tranh với hàng ngoại nhập.”

(After making a market research, we decided to launch an impressive product

which can compete against the imported ones.)

It is the mother tongue interference that leads to the mechanic collocation which is unacceptable in target language In fact, each language has its own principles of word collocation Neither English nor Vietnamese is an exception As a result, the above- mentioned examples should be translated more accurately and idiomatically as follows:

1 “The government has made many measures to stop the drug smuggling.” should be corrected as “The government has taken many measures to stop

the drug smuggling.”

2 “After making a market research, we decide to launch an impressive product

which can compete against the imported ones.” should be corrected “After

doing a market research, we decided to launch an impressive product which

can compete against the imported ones.”

In a word, it is inevitable for translators to obey the principles of English and Vietnamese word collocations In order to avoid this type of errors, the translator should read as many English books and magazines to take notes of collocated words under the English standard

Misuse of prepositions

Due to the mother tongue interference of Vietnamese, the translators found themselves in a confusing situation when they use prepositions in English The following errors are extracted from the book “Translation 1&2” (Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, 2006):

1 “Tòa án nhân dân quyết định kết án họ 15 năm tù về tội buôn lậu ma túy.” (The People‟s Court decided to condemn them to 15 years imprisonment

about the drug smuggling.)

2 “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều king nghiệm về giáo dục và giảng dạy học sinh.”

(As a qualified teacher for many years, Mr Nam is experienced about

educating and teaching the students.)

As can be seen from the above-mentioned examples, the translators tended to choose the English prepositions basing on Vietnamese meanings without paying attention to their variations These errors could be corrected as follows:

1 “Tòa án nhân dân quyết định kết án họ 15 năm tù về tội buôn lậu ma túy.” should be translated “The People‟s Court decided to condemn them to 15

years imprisonment for the drug smuggling.”

2 “Là một giáo viên ưu tú trong nhiều năm, ông Nam có nhiều kinh nghiệm về giáo dục và giảng dạy học sinh.” should be translated “ As a qualified

teacher for many years, Mr Nam experienced in educating and teaching the

pupils.”

In English, prepositions themselves are difficult to use, so in English translation the use of prepositions become even more complicated Therefore, the errors related to the misuse of prepositions are common and unavoidable In order to avoid this type of errors the translators should learn the prepositions going with nouns, adjectives or verbs by heart If they do not know how

Vietnamese-to use prepositions exactly, they tend Vietnamese-to the Vietnamese ones inVietnamese-to English or vice versa As a result, the translators should be provided with as many structures with prepositions systematically as possible to help them take notes and draw out the formation and rules

Misuse of synonyms

Some translators depend largely on the meaning in dictionary picking out the synonyms without paying much to context In fact, the pairs of synonyms share at least one sense in common, but they do not share all their senses To some extent, they can hardly substitute for each other The misuse of synonyms makes the meaning of one of the following sentences unacceptable

“Con sông này sâu lắm.”

“This river is very profound.” (unacceptable)

“Profound” means “showing great knowledge or understanding”, and it cannot be used to describe the depth of the river The sentence “This river is very profound.” should be corrected: “This river is deep.”

The following misuses of the synonyms were made by some of the inexperienced translators

1 “Cậu bé này rất bướng bỉnh”

(This boy is very stubborn/ unyielding.” (Incorrect)

2 “Người Việt Nam có tinh thần bất khuất”

(The Vietnamese people are really stubborn.” (Incorrect)

3 “Chính phủ có kế hoạch xây dựng hàng nghìn ngôi nhà cho người

vô gia cư.”

“The government plans to build thousands of homes for homeless

discontent In example 3, “home” and “house” are places where one lives, meaning

“nhà” in Vietnamese However, in terms of the connotation meaning they are quire different “House” refers to the building or structure while “home” refers to the

atmosphere feeling found in the house

Example: “There is no place like home.”

“Home is where the heart is.”

Most of the synonyms have the same meaning in certain context If a translator uses synonyms without referring to the context, (s)/he can make wrong & funny for his readers In order to avoid the misuse, the translator should carefully take the synonyms into consideration before using them In addition, it would be better for the translator to consider the differences of the pairs of synonyms when translating

Spelling errors:

Spelling errors in translation are also the common errors like spelling errors in writing When people have to translate a Vietnamese text into English in a short period of time, surely they do not have much time to read their translation products before they submit it Sometimes, people are so careless that they dare to write out the words which they have not used for a long time Moreover, the misuse of the two similar words in written form can also lead to spelling errors

All in all, some inexperienced translators committed the vocabulary errors mentioned above in concluding those of word collocation, misuse of prepositions, misuse of synonyms, and spelling errors They are committed by those who have little knowledge of target language At the same time, they thought that although English is different from Vietnamese, both languages have a correlation about lexical items In practice, in terms of translation, it can be chosen the only one appropriate equivalent from this into that language Even more, that equivalent hardly keeps the meaning of the word itself but that of context

Another problem is that some translators did not realize the linking meaning of word units It is obvious that these units link together to create a larger unit of meaning in a given text to be translated The linking meaning itself does not exist in separate word units but in the link of the units constituting the whole text

1.6.2 Grammar errors

Grammar errors are also common in Vietnamese-English translation They are errors related to tenses, the forms of words, the sentence structures found in the translated

text These errors are caused by the misuse of verb forms, the misuse of relative pronoun, and the misuse of part of speech

Misuse of verb forms

The grammar errors which are related to the misuse of verb forms often occur when the translators keep Vietnamese structures to translate the Vietnamese sentences into English The following sentence is considered to have grammar error because the translator misused the voice

Vietnamese: “Giáo dục qua mạng, hay giáo dục trực tuyến là một loại hình giáo dục phát triển nhờ vào tiến bộ của ngành công nghệ thông tin.”

English: “Internet or on-line education is a form of education which develops thanks to information technology.” (Incorrect)

The error of this example is the verb “develops”, which is in active form It must be in passive form “is developed” because “Internet or on-line Education”

cannot develop by itself Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence should be translated

“Internet or on-line Education is a form of education which is developed thanks to

information technology.”

Misuse of relative pronouns

The grammar errors related to the misuse of relative pronouns often occur when the complex Vietnamese sentences are translated into English The following sentence is considered to have grammar error because the translator misused the part

of speech of pronoun

Vietnamese: “Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy những người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate trong suốt thời gian mang thai thì con của họ cười nhiều và năng động hơn những bà mẹ không hề ăn chocolate trong thời gian mang thai.”

English: “A research group observed that the children of mothers who eat

much chocolate during their pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the

children of other mothers.” (Incorrect)

(Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009) The error of this example is that the wrong combination of the noun phrase

“children of mothers” and the relative pronoun “who” fails to express the meaning

“the pregnant women eat chocolate” In this case, the relative pronoun “who” must

be replaced by the relative pronoun “whose” Therefore, the Vietnamese sentence

“Các nhà khoa học nhận thấy những người phụ nữ ăn nhiều chocolate trong suốt thời gian mang thai thì con của họ cười nhiều và năng động hơn những bà mẹ không

hề ăn chocolate trong thời gian mang thai.” should be translated “A research group

observed that the children whose mothers eat much chocolate during their

pregnancy frequently laugh and more active than the children of other mothers.”

Misuse of the part of speech

The following sentences are considered to have grammar mistakes because the translator misused the part of speech

The English sentence ““In people‟s lives, laugh is a sign of a healthy body.” is

incorrect because of the subject “laugh” In above Vietnamese sentence, “cười” has

a general meaning, so “a laugh”, “laughing”, or “to laugh” will be the suitable subject Therefore, there are three ways to translate the Vietnamese sentence “Trong

đời sống con người, cười là dấu hiệu của một cơ thể khỏe mạnh.” Into English as

follow:

“In people‟s lives, a laugh is a sign of a healthy body.”

“In people‟s lives, laughing is a sign of a healthy body.”

“In people‟s lives, to laugh is a sign of a healthy body.”

Example 2:

The Vietnamese sentence “Người có đầu óc hài hước thường dễ tạo được sự cảm thông của người khác.” is incorrect to be translated into English as “People

with sense of humor easily make others sympathy.” (Nguyễn Thành Đức, 2009)

In the example, the English sentence is incorrect because of the word

“sympathy” which is a noun In English, it is incorrect to use the structure “to make + somebody + noun” as in the sentence, but it has to be written as the structure “to make + somebody + adjective” Therefore, the noun “sympathy” must be changed

into the adjective “sympathetic”, and the correct sentence is “People with sense of humor easily make others sympathetic.”

The grammar errors which are related to the misuse of the part of speech occur when the translators do not remember the part of speech of words, the grammar structures, or they do not fully comprehend the meaning of the sentences that needs

to be translated

As can be seen from the examples mentioned above, some translators focused

on the structures of the source language - Vietnamese - so much that they fail to convey all the implicit meaning of the target language - English In fact, it is not necessary to keep the form at all The most important thing is that the translations must be done on the basic of the target language grammar that is familiar to the readers This principle suggests that the translator should not depend largely on the structures of the source language but break them to convey the meaning as much as possible in an appropriate structure in the target language

we will not translate from this to that language perfectly unless we know its relation

to its culture

It is commonly known that “ao dai” is a traditional costume of the Vietnamese

women and we never find an equivalent word in English to translate “ao dai” However, some translators translated mechanically “ao dai” into “a dress” How funny it is! It would be preferred to writing down “ao dai” to express the cultural feature to making foreign people misunderstand “ao dai” as “a dress” For example, “Trang phục truyền thống của người phụ nữ Việt Nam là chiếc áo dài, tượng trưng cho sự duyên dáng.” should be translated into English as “The traditional costume of the Vietnamese women is „„ao dai‟‟ which symbolizes the grace.”

Translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions As this statement implies, translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects implicit in a source text (ST) and of finding the most appropriate technique of successfully conveying these aspects in the target language (TL) These problems may vary in scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) languages concerned