HIỆN TƯỢNG KHÔNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG ở cấp độ từ DO NHỮNG KHÁC BIỆT về văn hóa TRONG BIÊN DỊCH ANH VIỆT

Equivalence is one of the crucial issues in translation studies that have constantly received much attention of researchers since the birth of translation studies. Translation equivalence is linked to both linguistic and cultural aspects; however, in the thesis, equivalence is studied in the relation to culture. This paper attempted to discuss the importance and evaluate effects of cultural factors in the process of written translation. It was carried out into the problems of nonequivalence caused by cultural differences at word level from English into Vietnamese. In terms of its theoretical framework, the study was mainly based on Baker’s concepts (1992) about nonequivalence at word level. In the thesis, the research method of contrastive analysis was adopted to compare and contrast distinctive cultural features between two languages. Its purpose was to evaluate the degree of translatability that target language text can achieve and the degree of untranslatability, i.e. nonequivalence, between two languages. The research outcome confirmed that nonequivalence in the English – Vietnamese translation was associated with the existence of cultural factors in the source language text. In addition, the applicability of Baker’s classification about common problems could be found in the chapter of findings and discussion. Finally, crosscultural knowledge between English and Vietnamese was also demonstrated.

Equivalence is one of the crucial issues in translation studies that haveconstantly received much attention of researchers since the birth of translationstudies Translation equivalence is linked to both linguistic and cultural aspects;however, in the thesis, equivalence is studied in the relation to culture

This paper attempted to discuss the importance and evaluate effects ofcultural factors in the process of written translation It was carried out into theproblems of non-equivalence caused by cultural differences at word level fromEnglish into Vietnamese In terms of its theoretical framework, the study was mainlybased on Baker’s concepts (1992) about non-equivalence at word level In the thesis,the research method of contrastive analysis was adopted to compare and contrastdistinctive cultural features between two languages Its purpose was to evaluate thedegree of translatability that target language text can achieve and the degree ofuntranslatability, i.e non-equivalence, between two languages The researchoutcome confirmed that non-equivalence in the English – Vietnamese translationwas associated with the existence of cultural factors in the source language text Inaddition, the applicability of Baker’s classification about common problems could befound in the chapter of findings and discussion Finally, cross-cultural knowledgebetween English and Vietnamese was also demonstrated

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………

iv LIST OF FIGURES……… vii

LIST OF TABLES……… viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… ix

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale of the Study……… 1

1.2 Aims of the Study and Research Questions……… 2

1.3 Scope of the Study……… 3

1.4 Significance of the Study……… 3

1.5 Organization of the Study……… 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Translation……… 6

2.2 Culture……… 7

2.2.1 Definition of Culture……… 7

2.2.2 Cultural Categories……… 8

2.3 Translation and Culture……… 10

2.4 The concepts of equivalence from different views of theorists……… 11

2.4.1 Jakobson’s concept of equivalence (1959)……… 11

2.4.2 Nida and Taber’s formal and dynamic equivalences (1965)……… 12

2.4.3 Catford (1965) and the introduction of translation shifts……… 12

2.4.4 Baker’s view on translation equivalence (1992)……… 13

2.5 Non-equivalence at word level proposed by Baker (1992)……… 14

2.6 Strategies to overcome non-equivalence……….… 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Subjects of the study……… 20

3.2 Data collection methods and procedures……… 21

3.3 Data analysis methods and procedures……… 22

4.1 Untranslatability caused by culture – specific concepts……… 23

4.1.1 Ecology……… 24

4.1.2 Material culture……… 26

4.1.3 Social culture……… 28

4.1.4 Organizations, Customs, Ideas and Habits……….……… 29

4.2 Problems relating to the source language……… 34

4.2.1 Lack of lexical sets ……… 34

4.2.2 Different expressive meanings……… 36

4.2.3 Specific forms in English……… 37

4.3 Problems relating to the target language……… 38

4.3.1 Lack of superordinates (general words)……… 38

4.3.2 Lack of hyponyms (specific words) ……… 39

4.2.3 Differences in physical or interpersonal perspectives……… 41

4.4 Discussion of findings……… 41

CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION……… 45

5.1 Suggestions to overcome the problems……… 45

5.1.1 Translation by cultural substitution……… 45

5.1.2 Translating by explanation after a loan word……… 46

5.1.3 Translating by a paraphrase……… 47

5.1.4 Translating by omission……… 47

5.1 Summary of findings……… 48

5.2 Limitations of the study……… 49

5.3 Suggestions for further studies……… 50

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Different equivalents for “bamboo” 26 Figure 2 Possible translations of the pronoun “he” 34

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Translations of the word “rice” into Vietnamese 25 Table 2 Different meanings of rice in certain contexts 25 Table 3 Related English words have the same equivalent 26 Table 4 Translation of several culture-specific terms by cultural

borrowings

28

Table 5 Translation of words relating to religion 29

Table 7 Possible translations of the term “aunt” into Vietnamese 31

Table 9 Comparison the use of plural and singular forms between

Table 12 Example of further explanation added in the TL 46

OALD: Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary

EVLD: English Vietnamese Lac Viet Dictionary

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the Study

In the era of globalization, translation has become an important aspect for thedevelopment of the world culture and society since the need to exchange thoughts andopinions among different nations has been ever increasing It is considered a bridgeamong unfamiliar languages, indigenous cultures and experiences As stated byNewmark (1988) “translation has been instrumental in transmitting culture” (p 7),which means translation is the solution to challenges of cultural barriers amongcountries

In Western translation theory, translation equivalence is a principal concept Thetheory of equivalence has been interpreted and approached in separate ways bytranslation theorists In his work on translation equivalence, Catford (1965) stresses theimportance of equivalence in translation by stating that the nature of translation is “areplacement of a textual material in the source language (SL) by equivalent textualmaterial in the target language (TL)” and adds that “central problem of translationpractice is that of finding translation equivalents” (p 21) Approaching with a similarpoint, Leonardi (2000) also confirms that the notion of equivalence was undoubtedlyone of the most problematic and controversial areas in the field of translation theory Inaddition, Nida and Taber (1969) highlight the importance of equivalence in translationtheory They argue “translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language theclosest natural equivalent of the SL message, first in meaning and secondly in terms ofstyle” (p 12) In brief, equivalence is crucial to translation because it is closely linked

to the process of transferring information in translation

In general, the role of equivalence in the translation theories has drawn muchattention of scholars, researchers and translators since the birth of translation studies inthe late twentieth century Despite examining the issue in a relatively different view,

this thesis, entitled “Non-Equivalence Relating to Cultural Differences at Word Level

in English-Vietnamese Translation” was still dedicated to the subject of translation

equivalence on a smaller scale It also aimed at raising the knowledge for translatorswhen encountering English and Vietnamese documents and their awareness to thelinguistic and cultural elements of the ST

1.2 Aims of the Study and Research questions

This thesis was a methodical investigation into the subject of non-equivalenceproblems caused by cultural differences affecting the process of translating fromEnglish to Vietnamese The first aim of the research was to show the relationshipbetween cultural differences and the occurrence of non-equivalence in English-Vietnamese translation Secondly, based on Baker’s general theories (1992) in the field

of translation, the thesis analyzed and evaluated the applicability of her theories to thecase of English-Vietnamese translation More specifically, the study investigated theproblems relating to cultural distinctions between Western countries and Vietnam, onerepresentative of Eastern countries The study also provided answers to the tworesearch questions:

(1) What is the relationship between cultural differences and non-equivalence inthe case of English-Vietnamese translation?

(2) How could Baker’s theory about non-equivalence at word level (1992) beapplied to the case of English-Vietnamese translation?

Likewise, the study proposed possible strategies and general guidelines forachieving equivalence at word level in the two languages Last but not least, the studywas expected to raise readers’ attention to the matter of culture in translation It should

be noted that translation is a conscious process of linguistics learning as well ascultural knowledge revising In other words, translation is not about conveying single

from one language into another indeed However, a lot of inexperienced translatorsmay not properly appreciate the importance of the issue Therefore it is hoped that thestudy would give a modest contribution to the further strivings in translation practiceamong translators.

1.3 Scope of the Study

This paper examined the phenomena of non-equivalence involved in culturaldifferences in translation when translators convey information or ideas from English toVietnamese It showed the ways the cultural variations have been transferred bytranslators between two languages Moreover, this research dealt with translationproblems from English into Vietnamese only at the level of word instead of at variouslevels since word is the basic unit of meaning in linguistics The study mainly took anapproach to typical words with high frequency of occurrence in two cultures wheneach of them stands separately or depends on a certain context An analysis was carriedout into some specific sentences or paragraphs translated into Vietnamese at wordlevel The study of their Vietnamese translations contributed to the clarification of thefindings of the cultural contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese

1.4 Significance of the Study

Language and culture are always in a state of flux over time As a result of theirconstant change and evolution, no complete theories are general and universal enough

to cover every issue in the realm of language and culture Similarly, a great variety ofresearch activities by scholars such as Peter Newmark, Susan Bassnett, LawrenceVenuti, etc in translation studies demonstrate the most popular matters which can befound in many languages Nevertheless, to some extents, the disadvantage is that thosetheories may not correctly and fully reflect existing problems in a specific language.Therefore, the study could be regarded as a bridge between internationally recognizedtranslation theories and their relevance and applicability to the case of English-

Vietnamese translation It is believed that this study is one of the studies emphasizingthe problems relating to cultural difference in the process of transferring ideas fromEnglish into Vietnamese Accordingly, the writer of this research focused on culturalaspects as the most crucial factors that cause non-equivalence issues at word level

Further it also pinpointed the applicability of suggested procedures to deal withthe phenomena of non-equivalence at word level in English-Vietnamese translation Inaddition, this research provided students majoring in translation with prominentcultural knowledge and useful techniques to overcome difficulties when they encounterEnglish texts Not limited in written translation, it could be among some useful sources

to those who wish to become interpreters in the future as well The findings couldmake them more aware of problematic areas in translation and culture In addition,teachers, other students and also experts who are interested in linguistics and culture ofWestern countries and Vietnam may find part of this research useful

1.5 Organization of the Study

The thesis includes the following five chapters

Chapter 1 (Introduction) describes an overview of the study including five

sub-sections: Rationale of the Study, Aims of the Study and Research questions, Scope ofthe Study, Significance of the Study and Organization of the Study

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) discusses critically relevant information and

establish a theoretical framework for the subject area

Chapter 3 (Methodology) explicates the subjects of the study, data collection

methods and procedures and data analysis methods and procedures

Chapter 4 (Findings and discussion) presents, analyzes and explains the results

that were achieved from collected data

Chapter 5 (Suggestions and Conclusion) provides suggestions to overcome the

problems, a summary of findings, limitations as well as some suggestions for furtherresearch

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, outstanding theories and ideas involved in the research problemare presented systematically to support the content and analysis of the paper Thischapter describes the definition of translation and culture, relationship betweentranslation and culture, the concepts of equivalence from different views of theorists,common problems of non-equivalence at word level proposed by Baker (1992) andstrategies to deal with non-equivalence proposed by Baker (1992)

2.1 Translation

Depending on each researcher’s interest and expertise in the field, translationhas been defined and stressed on specific elements Newmark (1988, p 5) definestranslation as “renderring the meaning of a text into another language in the way thatthe author intended the text” With this definition, he puts an emphasis on the essence

of translation that is to convey meaning between two languages On the other hand,

Wilss (1982) highlights the term “equivalent” and translation requirements in his

definition: “Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of awritten SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic,the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the SL.” (p.3)

In a larger scope, Bell (1991) clarifies the notion of “translation” in three

distinguishable meanings: 1) Translating (the process); 2) A translation (the product ofthe process of translating) and 3) The translation (the abstract concept whichencompasses both the process of translating and the product of that process) (p 13)

A more comprehensive definition is suggested by Bassnett (1980) Sheemphasizes on the accuracy of transferred meaning in comparison with the originalmeaning and similarity between two structures after translation:

Nida and Taber (1969) also similarly approach the issue like Bassnett (1980)when stating the two requirements of a translation process: “Translating consists inreproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the SL message,

first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” (p 21).

From all the above definitions, in spite of differences in each researcher’s word

choice and expression, a general idea about the definition of “translation” can be found In short, the term “translation” refers to the process of conveying the meaning

of one language to another language as clearly as possible without changing themeaning of the ST

The translation process involves in transferring both written and spoken SLtexts to equivalents in TL texts but due to a time limit, the thesis covered only writtenone

2.2 Culture

2.2.1 Definition

As a very broad category, it is undoubtedly hard to propose a comprehensive

definition for the term “culture” In 1984, Larson defines culture as “a complex of

beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules which a group of people share” (p 431) He notesthat the translator needs to understand beliefs, attitudes, values, and the rules of the SLaudience in order to adequately understand the ST and adequately translate it forpeople who have a different set of beliefs, attitudes, values, and rules Morespecifically concerned with language and translation, Newmark (1988, p 94) affirms

“culture as the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that

translation involves the rendering of a source language (SL) text into the target

language (TL) so as to ensure that (1) the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and (2) the structure of the SL will be preserved as closely as

possible, but not so closely that the TL structure will be seriously distorted (p 12)

uses a peculiar language as its means of expression.” Foley (1997) contributes ageneral overview about definition of culture: “A culture is a mental system whichgenerates all and only the proper cultural behavior” (p 108) Moreover, Kluckhohn(1951) presents a more concrete definition which shows numerous signified aspects ofculture:

(cited in Culture’s Consequences:

Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations (2nd

ed), Hofstede 2000, p 9)

Throughout history, culture has been defined in a spread of ways since everycommunity or society shapes its own unique culture and has distinctive methods tofoster the culture From the above concepts, it can be shortly concluded that culturerefers to physical objects that can be touched, seen, etc and spiritual realms such aslanguage, arts, beliefs and customs, religions and rituals that are passed down throughgenerations

features can be normally distinguished from other cultural terms in that they areusually value-free, politically and commercially” (p 96).

(2) Material Culture

Material culture involves: food, clothes, houses and towns and transport inwhich food is the most sensitive and important expression of national culture for manycountries because food has the widest variety in translation procedures (Newmark,

1988, p 97)

(3) Social Culture

Vocabulary related to work and leisure such as cricket, bull-fighting, squash,etc can be defined as part of social culture Newmark (1988) also mentions that “inconsidering social culture one has to distinguish between denotative and connotationproblems of translation” (p 98) Connotative meaning in each country is different; aword may have a positive connotative meaning in one culture but not in another

(4) Organizations, Customs, Activities, Procedures, Concepts

Newmark (1988) defines three sub-divisions of the fourth classificationincluding political and administrative, religious and artistic concepts (p 99)

(5) Gestures and Habits

Gestures and customary of each and every country are long built up withuniqueness Newmark (1988) comments that “there is a distinction between descriptionand function which can be made where necessary in ambiguous cases” (p 102) since agesture or a habit may occur in one culture but not in others, or maybe there aredifferences in meaning among cultures

In the next chapter, the study utilized the cultural typology suggested byNewmark (1988) to categorize cultural elements taken from STs in English.

2.3 Translation and Culture

Translation is no longer just a process of conveying meaning words for wordsbut has developed as an instrument of language analysis Owing to “language is largelyculture oriented” (Ray, 2008, p 48), cultural factors are obviously seen in the ST inaddition to linguistic ones Komissarov (1991), from a similar standpoint, states that

“the cultural factor in translation is also undeniable if not so obvious” Understandingthe hindrances caused by cultural barriers, Ray (2008) concludes that “culture andculture-words create a good deal of problems in translation” and “….culture-words…are difficult to translate for there is no one to one correspondence between one cultureand another or one language to another” (p 48) In brief, culture is unquestionably asource of difficulties for translators Accordingly, cultural knowledge problems should

be taken into serious consideration due to their important impacts on translationperformance In other words, intercultural awareness should be among translators’priorities in the process of translating because translating means we are encounteringwith an alien culture containing “long historical background and various culturalconnotations” (Cui, 2012) A wide variety of cultural differences such as dialects,proverbs, idiomatic expressions and so forth can be found in such an alien languagesetting Apart from their linguistic expertise, they need to build up a thoroughunderstanding of the culture of the SL as well as that of the TL As a result, culturalsensitivity is one of the important factors translators need to consider

Cultural and social background is significantly important to people who practicetranslating as their profession It is English that “contains more words than any otherlanguage on the planet” and “more than 14 words are added to English every day”(Sutter, 2009) Due to English’s complex and constant expansion, a translator needs to

stay informed and enhance his awareness of cultural knowledge to convey the messageappropriately to the TL.

To sum up, “culture includes and affects language, it is this ground from whichlanguage grows and develops” (Komissarov, 1991) All languages are the product ofthe culture as well as of the nation They all have long historical backgrounds andvarious cultural connotations Each society will interpret a message in terms of its ownculture The meaning of a word in a language is derived from its culture and representsthe main connection between language and culture

2.4 The notion of equivalence from different views of theorists.

2.4.1 Jakobson’s concept of equivalence (1959)

Roman Jakobson introduces the notion of “equivalence in difference” in his paper

“On linguistic aspects of translation”, which paves the way for the theoretical analysis

of translation (1959, p 232) He suggests three kinds of translations:

(1) Intralingual translation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of othersigns of the same language

(2) Interlingual translation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of someother language

(3) Intersemiotic translation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs ofnon-verbal sign system

These types of translation bring translation studies closer to direct translationequivalence as the cornerstone, the starting and finishing point of the translationactivity Jakobson (1959) states clearly that “Equivalence in difference is the cardinalproblem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics Like any receiver of verbalmessages, the linguist acts as their interpreter” (p 224) He acknowledges in the case

of interlingual translation, the aim of a translator is to transfer codes in differentlanguages but still to keep the same message and purpose that the ST wants to transmit

at first

2.4.2 Nida and Taber’s formal and dynamic equivalences (1965)

Another influential concept of translational equivalence is Nida and Taber’sdichotomy of formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence in 1965:

(1) Formal correspondence consists of a TL item which represents the closestequivalent of a SL word or phrase Nida and Taber clarify that there are not alwaysformal equivalents between language pairs because it creates problems in translatingcultural expressions

(2) A dynamic equivalence is to reproduce “in the receptor language the closestnatural equivalence of the source-language message…” The essence of dynamicequivalence is the receptor’s response However, it could provoke misunderstanding tothe target audience

2.4.3 Catford (1965) and the introduction of translation shifts

Catford’s approach to translation equivalence (1965) is more linguistic-basedand this approach is based on the linguistic work of Firth (1957) and Halliday (1961)

He defines translation in terms of equivalence: “Translation may be defined as follows:The replacement of textual material in SL by equivalent textual material in another TL(1965) Catford proposes very broad types of translation in terms of three criteria:

(1) The extent of translation (full translation vs partial translation);

(2) The grammatical rank at which the translation equivalence is established(rank-bound translation vs unbounded translation);

(3) The levels of language involved in translation (total translation vs restrictedtranslation).

The role of translation, therefore, is to introduce one culture to another by means

of translating However, translatability is a substantial issue Catford (1965) points outthe problems of untranslatability divided into: linguistic and cultural untranslatability.According to Catford (1965, p 94), linguistic untranslatability is due to lack offormally corresponding feature in the TL, meanwhile untranslatability arises when “asituation feature, functionally relevant for the SL text, is completely absent in theculture of which the TL is a part” (p 99) However, in later part, he “invalidates hisown categories of cultural untranslatability” (Bassnett 1980, p 41) and considers that

“this would be a type of linguistic untranslatability” (Catford 1965, p 101)

2.4.4 Baker’s view on translation equivalence (1992)

One outstanding feature of Baker’s studies is that new adjectives have beenassigned to the notion of equivalence such as grammatical and textual equivalence.Baker (1992) makes a more specific list of concepts where equivalence is explained.She explores the notion of equivalence at different levels, in relation to the translationprocess, including all different aspects of translation and hence putting together thelinguistic and the communicative approach She distinguishes between:

(1) Equivalence that can appear at word level and above word level, whentranslating from one language into another

(2) Grammatical equivalence, when referring to the diversity of grammaticalcategories across languages

(3) Textual equivalence, when referring to the equivalence between a SL textand a TL text in terms of information and cohesion

(4) Pragmatic equivalence, when referring to implicatures and strategies ofavoidance during the translation process

2.5 Non-equivalence at word level proposed by Baker (1992)

When a translator reads a text, he tries to communicate the overall meaning ofthe text To achieve this aim, he needs first to understand the meaning of the smallerunits that carry the meaning in the text Words and their meanings that are amongfactors affecting non-equivalence in translation have been researched for a long time.Baker (1992) affirms that, in a bottom-up approach to translation, equivalence at wordlevel is the first element to be taken into consideration by the translator (p 18) In fact,when the translator starts analyzing the ST he looks at the words as single units inorder to find a direct “equivalent” term in the TL

An extremely interesting discussion of the notion of equivalence can be found inBaker (1992) who offers a more detailed list of conditions upon which the concept ofequivalence can be defined She develops a clear classification of non-equivalences atword level in translation which has received a lot of support from researchers

(a) Culture-specific concepts (CSCs)

Baker (1992) refers to such cultural words and concedes that the SL words mayexpress a concept which is totally unknown in the target culture The concept inquestion may be abstract or concrete; it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom,

or even a type of food She points out that the concept in question may be “abstract orconcrete, it may relate to a religious belief, a social custom, or even a type of food.”Such concepts are called “culture-specific items” (Baker, 1992, p 21)

(b) The source-language concept is not lexicalized in the TL

The source-language word may express a concept which is known in the targetculture but simply not lexicalized, that is not “allocated” a target-language word toexpress it.

(c) The source-language word is semantically complex

According to Baker (1992, p 22), it refers to the circumstance that “a singleword which consists of a single morpheme can sometimes express a more complex set

of meanings than a whole sentence” The problem emphasizes the non-existence ofone-to-one relationship between SL words and TL words Words in SL can beparaphrased or explained into long sentences rather than equivalents in TL

(d) The source and TLs make different distinctions in meaning

In this case, the TL makes more or fewer distinctions in meaning than the SL(Baker, 1992, p 22) It is the cultural identity of each country that regulates when andhow to use the words to refer to a similarly recognized phenomenon in real world

(e) The TL lacks a superordinate

Superordinate is a general word covering similar or the same sematic meaningsthat can be found in some words A superordinate acts as an “umbrella” coveringgeneral sematic meanings of related words (Baker, 1992, p 22)

For example, the super-ordinate meaning of the English word “meal” has a division (hyponym) of several kinds of feed such as “breakfast”, “lunch”, “dinner”, and

sub-“supper”

(f) The TL lacks a specific term (hyponym)

Languages tend to have general words (superordinates) but lack specific ones(hyponyms) (Baker, 1992, p 23), since each language makes only those distinctions inmeaning which seem relevant to its particular environment.

(g) Differences in physical or interpersonal perspective

Physical perspective may be of more importance in one language than it is inanother Perspective may also include the relationship between participants in thediscourse

(h) Differences in expressive meaning

TL may have a different expressive meaning that may be considerable or subtle,but important enough in encountering translation problems The translator cansometimes add the evaluative element by means of a modifier or adverb if necessary,

or building it in somewhere else in the text

(i) Differences in form

There is often no equivalent in the TL for a particular form in the ST Certainsuffixes and prefixes which convey propositional and other types of meaning inEnglish often have no direct equivalents in other languages

(j) Differences in frequency and purpose using specific forms

There may be a difference in the frequency or purpose that is used when aparticular form has a ready equivalent in the TL For example, “English uses the

continuous –ing form for binding clauses much more frequently than other languages

which have equivalents for it” (Baker, 1992, p 25)

(k) The use of loan words in the ST

Loan words are used when even the source language has no appropriate words

to name or denote new concepts and situations The problem causes translatorsconfused as they may not know the exact meaning and/or additional meaning of theword used In this case, a translator has to work with the third language, which canbring about the loss in translation because of the increasing mismatch amonglanguages

Leonardi (2000) investigates the equivalence in translation between myth andreality She mentions that Baker (1992) discovers the notion of equivalence at wordlevel in translation procedures When translating from one language to another, theequivalence at word level is the first element to be taken into consideration bytranslators They should remember and pay attention to a single word that could beassigned different meanings in different languages The different meanings in the SLand the TL may cause remarkable changes in the way that the message is carriedacross Particularly, in her study, non-equivalence at word level of Baker (1992) isthoroughly introduced and analyzed as a way to confirm the validity and dependability

of the theory

Trinh (2002) is also a supporter for Baker’s theories (1992) His article aboutequivalence and strategies to deal with the problems in interpreting is based on theanalysis of most common problems as in Baker’s taxonomy (1992) about types of non-

equivalence In the fourth part about – “Đi tìm cái tương đương” (How to achieve

equivalence) one of the central parts of his article, he adopts four out of eleven

problems in Baker’s taxonomy (1992) to analyze the cases of English-Vietnamesetranslation and vice versa This part is a combination of detailed explanations for thenotable professor’s and his own sharp arguments and evidence However, the fourproblems are not limited at the level of word but Trinh also opens the scope to the level

of phrase Consequently, it can be seen that Trinh (2002) appreciates and highly valueBaker’s scheme

In summary, Baker (1992) is one of many translation professors whoextensively explored the non-equivalence at word level Her categories of non-equivalence at word level and strategies to address the problem have been employed bymany scholars to study and solve the non-equivalence at word level With the hope toexamine translation theories in a specific language, the study applied Baker’staxonomy of non-equivalence at word level and strategies as an instrument of analysis

in English-Vietnamese translation

2.6 Strategies to overcome non-equivalence at word level

Baker’s translation strategies for non-equivalence at word level (1992) are listed

as follows:

(1) Translation by a more general word

This strategy is about using a more general word to translate a word in thesource language with no specific equivalent in the target language

(2) Translation by a more / less expressive word

The strategy uses more neutral /less word to replace words which don’t haveequivalent words TL near-equivalents which are close to both propositional andexpressive meaning of the original word are used to translate the ST

(3) Translation by cultural substitution

This strategy refers to the replacement of a culture-specific items or expressionwith a TL item which does not have the same propositional meaning but can make asimilar impact in the target text

(4) Translation by using a loan word or loan word plus explanation

This strategy is particularly useful when the translator deal with culture-specificitems, modern concepts or ideas and buzzy words

(5) Translation by paraphrasing using a related word

This strategy tends to be used when the concept expressed by the source item islexical in the TL but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certainform is used in the ST is significantly higher than would be natural in the TL

(6) Translation by paraphrasing using unrelated words

If the concept expressed by the source item is not lexicalized at all the TL, theparaphrase strategy can still be used in some context Instead of a related word, theparaphrase may be based on modifying a superordinate or simply on unpacking themeaning the source item

(7) Translation by omission

If the meaning conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough tothe development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations,translators can often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question

(8) Translation by illustration

This is a useful option if the word which lacks an equivalent in the TL refers to

a physical entity which can be illustrated by pictures or images

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of three sub-divisions: subjects of the study, data

collection methods and procedures, and data analysis methods and procedures applied

in the thesis

3.1 Subjects of the Study

This research was carried out into the problems of translation from English intoVietnamese only at the level of word instead of at various levels The study mainlytook an approach to typical words of high frequency of occurrence in two cultures.Additionally, the unique linguistic phenomena were also paid attention to

For its scope, the study associated with cultural aspects adopted Newmark’sclassification (1988) for cultural categories Based on Nida's ideas (1964), histaxonomy primarily covers various aspects of culture as follows: (1) ecology, (2)material culture, (3) social culture, (4) organizations, customs, activities, procedures,concepts and (5) gestures and habits However, it may be difficult to draw a cleardistinction between them and overlapping is inevitable

Selected words were be analyzed and considered in terms of common sense(sematic meanings are shared by almost all people in one culture) or in a specificcontext (pragmatic meanings in dependent contexts)

Apart from single words, two categories of texts, literary text types and factualtext types, were examined alternately in the study

The data used in the study derived from the electronic as well as print media.The main materials were collected from the following major sources: bilingualmagazines and books, English journals, the Internet webpages

The content of the materials covered almost all typical aspects of cultural fieldssuch as economy, education, health, science, society, etc Therefore, the diversity oflanguage use and translation methods could be surely found in the book Data were

were ensured at highest level Several popular language phenomena or applicabletranslated versions of other translators were also employed for the goal of the research.

3.2 Data Collection Methods and Procedures

The data collection was developed on the ground of Baker’s taxonomy in her

book For each sub-division in the section of “Common problems of non-equivalence”,

she shows a wide range of examples to increase the persuasiveness of her explanation.Therefore, at first, the researcher weighed up all the evidences and evaluated theirapplicability into the case of English-Vietnamese translation as the author analysesnumerous non-equivalent cases from one SL (English) to other TLs like Russian,Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese and so on In Baker’s examples, it could be drawn thatVietnam and various foreign languages (excluding English) has similarities in notion

so some of them were employed as evidence to illustrate the case of Vietnamese translation

English-Secondly, from Bakers’ detailed illustrations, the researcher put them into fourspecific cultural categories, namely, (1) ecology, (2) material culture, (3) social culture(4) organizations, customs, ideas and habits Then appropriate materials linked to eachgroups were gather This was a combined process of brainstorming and knowledgeaccumulation New ideas then carefully revised and rechecked through a spread ofreliable sources such as books, academic journals, official dictionaries, etc

On the other hand, knowledge accumulation was based on researcher’sextensive reading for a long time Concerns and interests were given for documentsrelated to culture in English speaking countries or western countries, especiallycontrastive linguistics studies

This process was aimed at finding outstanding differences or new conceptsbetween the two languages

During the procedure of data collection, a translator-biased approach alsoadopted In this approach, reasons for choosing a certain kinds of evidence for thestudy came from researcher’s interest and experience.

3.3 Data Analysis Methods and Procedures

The main method was comparative and contrastive analysis to identify equivalence between the two languages concerning aspects of culture

non-Firstly, the data was picked out and organized into coherent cultural categories

or culture-specific items Secondly, English words and their equivalence were analyzed in order to assess how the translated versions could conveythe meaning of original words and what the weaknesses could be found in the TL.Moreover, the loss in translation (weaknesses) or non-equivalence will be analyzed,evaluated and extensively discussed in terms of cultural and semantic feature.Examples were presented in the form of table or couples of sentences including boththe SL and the TL, which benefited a comparison and contrast between English andVietnamese

equivalence/non-Furthermore, the results served as the foundation for discussing the strategies todeal with the English and the equivalents in Vietnamese cultural words in general

In last chapter of strategies and suggestions, the data was mainly taken from the

bilingual book “Hướng dẫn đọc và dịch báo chí Anh Việt” by bright translators

(Nguyen & Hoang, 2013) in which translation strategies were illustrated The authoranalyzed which strategies were applied to deal with discussed problems and theireffectiveness

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is a contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese at wordlevel Three sub-topics are presented in the chapter: cultural untranslatability intranslation, problems related to the SL and problems related to the TL

In the first part, the writer analyses the phenomena of untranslatability caused

by culture-specific terms This part is considered a further explanation of the effects ofcultural-specific terms on translation In addition to Baker’s theories (1992),Newmark’s cultural groupings (1998) are integrated to clarify cultural categories.Moreover, typical cases and examples of difficult situations can be seen in the part.The researcher defines, describes, and explains the cultural factors which affect theuntranslatability in each category

In the next two sections, the author shows a classification of problems at wordlevel about non-equivalence between English and Vietnamese based on the taxonomy

of Baker (1992) Each problem is carefully considered whether it is linked to the SL or

TL The author also examines the link between the theory and the reality and analyses

if the classification suggested by Baker is properly applied to typical phenomena ofnon-equivalence at word level for English - Vietnamese translation

4.1 Untranslatability caused by Culture-specific concepts (CSCs)

As shown in the previous chapter, words closely linked to cultural informationare difficult to translate since they involve cultural knowledge and a culturalbackground In other words, the ST concepts may have a word for a concept which has

no direct equivalent in the TL Baker (1992) gives an example and explains that

“Speaker (of the House of Commons) has no equivalent in many languages, such as

Russian, Chinese, and Arabic among others” (p 21)