Translation of English economic news always draws attention from students of English as a second language and from translators who are working for newspapers as well. And equivalence in translation is one of the factors to which people above should attach great importance. In this study, the translations of economic news were analyzed in order to identify the most popular types of equivalence and the translation methods used. Thirty economics news which was translated from English and published on four major online newspapers in Vietnam were chosen as participants of this study. Terms in those economic news were categorized into three groups: headlines, economic terminologies and proper names and the types of equivalence between English and Vietnamese versions were identified. Given the analysis of data, the calculation was made to figure out the most popular types of equivalence occuring in the translations and draw out the translation methods. Some strategies to deal with nonequivalence cases are also provided in this study.
ABSTRACT Translation of English economic news always draws attention from students of English as a second language and from translators who are working for newspapers as well. And equivalence in translation is one of the factors to which people above should attach great importance. In this study, the translations of economic news were analyzed in order to identify the most popular types of equivalence and the translation methods used. Thirty economics news which was translated from English and published on four major online newspapers in Vietnam were chosen as participants of this study. Terms in those economic news were categorized into three groups: headlines, economic terminologies and proper names and the types of equivalence between English and Vietnamese versions were identified. Given the analysis of data, the calculation was made to figure out the most popular types of equivalence occuring in the translations and draw out the translation methods. Some strategies to deal with non- equivalence cases are also provided in this study. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT i tABLE OF CONTENTs ii LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF APPENDIXES vi CHAPTER 1: iNTRODUCTION 1 1.1.Rationale 1 1.2.Significance of the research 2 1.3.Research objectives 2 CHAPTER 2: Literature review 5 2.1.News 5 2.1.1.Definition of news 5 2.1.2.Types of news 5 2.1.3.Characteristics of news 6 2.1.4.English economic news 8 2.2.Translation 8 2.2.1.Definition of translation 8 2.2.2.Translation methods 8 2.2.3.Translation procedures 10 2.2.4.Equivalence in translation 12 CHAPTER 3: Research methodology 17 3.1.Sampling 17 3.2.Data collection instruments 17 ii 3.3.Data analysis procedure 18 CHAPTER 4: Findings AND DISCUSSION 19 4.1.Equivalence in translating headlines 19 4.2.Equivalence in translating economic terminology 25 4.3.Equivalence in translating proper names 36 4.4.The implications of the study 40 4.4.1.Strategies for translating news headlines 40 4.4.2.Strategies for translating economic terminologies 41 4.4.3.Strategies for translation proper names 42 4.4.4.Strategies to deal with non-equivalence terms 43 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45 5.1. Overview and summury of the study 45 5.2.Strengths and weaknesses of the study 46 5.3.Suggestions for further study 46 References 47 APPENDIXES 49 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Equivalence in translating news headlines 20 2 Equivalence in translating economic terminology 25 3 Equivalence in translating proper names 36 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL Source Language TL Target Language ST Source Text TT Target Text v LIST OF APPENDIXES Appendix 1 - Analysis of samples 48 Appendix 2 - List of English news 62 Appendix 3 - List of Vietnamese news 65 Appendix 4 - Samples 68 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the research topic and the reason for choosing it. Besides, the aim, objectives and the scope of the study are also provided in this chapter. 1.1. Rationale As Vietnam is involved in more and more economic activities around the world, economic information, of which economics news is an important source, becomes a major focus in people’s daily life. Therefore, news translation is increasingly important, which poses a chance of job for translators and translators-to-be to deliver the updated information from English economic newspapers to Vietnamese. Translators of economic news are required to have not only linguistic skills but also knowledge of economics. And one of fundamental issues should be paid much attention to by translators is equivalence, which turns out to be one of the most important notions in translation theories. As a student of translating and interpreting major, the reasearcher have faced many difficulties related to equivalence when translating news, particularly economic ones. Being a freelancer to the business column on Vnexpress.net over the past two years, the reasearcher have had a chance to meet a lot of English economic news, and saw that the knowledge and awareness of equivalence could help translators to create their products effectively. Economic translation is always attractive to students of translating and interpreting major, however it also has challenges, particularly when transferring meanings of words from English to appropriate Vietnamese equivalents, to make it fully conceivable and contain a flavor of Vietnamese culture. Additionally, translators may encounter problems related to non-equivalence when translating English economic news, in other words, there is no equivalent word in Vietnamese. Therefore, the reasearcher hereof would like to study more about equivalence, different types of equivalence and strategies to overcome non-equivalence cases in translation, 1 specifically in translating economic news. Through the study, the reasearcher hereof hopes to help other students gain deeper understanding of equivalence and to provide them with some solutions to deal with related issues in translation, which is likely to be useful in their prospective career as translators. 1.2. Significance of the research The study would be particularly for students of translation and interpretation major, whose prospective jobs are translators and interpreters, lecturers of translation and interpretation and researchers who have interest in the topic. First, for students of translation and interpretation major, they will have chance to enhance their knowledge on equivalence, the most important factor in translation. In addition, they will be provided with some suggestions to deal with difficulties related to equivalence in translating English economic news into Vietnamese. Second, some lecturers of translation and interpretation may find the study useful in their lectures. The conclusion and results hereof could be a helpful source of information for lecturers to diversify their lectures. Besides, examples in the study could be used by them to add to the lectures as illustrations of translation in a specific field. Last but not least, the study is expected to be a source for further studies on the issue. Researchers interested in the issue could carried out studying on equivalence of other specific fields such as medical, laws, politics, technology, etc. 1.3. Research objectives This research is designed with purposes to: (i) provide students of translating and interpreting major with a thorough grasp of equivalence in translation; (ii) help students of translating and interpreting major understand deeply types of equivalence in translating economic news; (iii) propose some strategies to deal with difficulties arising from different types of equivalence and non-equivalence in translating economic news. 2 In order to gain the objectives, the study is conducted to answer the following research questions: 1) What are different types of equivalence which frequently appear in English – Vietnamese translation of economic news? 2) What are the translation methods following these types of equivalence in English – Vietnamese translation of economic news? 3) How to deal with difficulties related to different types of equivalence and non- equivalence in English – Vietnamese translation of economic news? 1.4. Scope of the study As for news translation, there are many types of news, from medical, cultural, technical, social, to law, etc. However, this study only focuses on Vietnamese economic news that was translated from English and published on four major online newspapers: http://vnexpress.net/gl/kinh-doanh/ http://dantri.com.vn/c76/kinhdoanh.htm http://vneconomy.vn/ http://vef.vn/. Besides, due to the limitation of time and capacity, researching all fields of translation (errors, methods, etc) would be difficult. Therefore, the study covers equivalence in translation of English – Vietnamese economic news. Furthermore, all the assessments and conclusions in the study are involved words and phrases collected from samples and their English – Vietnamese translation. 1.5. The organization of the study The paper is divided into 5 chapters as below: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter provides readers an overview of the study including the reason for choosing the topic, significance, objectives, scope, and its organization. Chapter 2: Literature Review 3 Theoretical background in the light of which the research matters are discussed in this chapter. Chapter 3: Methodology The chapter describes the methods applied to investigate the research matters. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion The outcome of the study and providing answers to the research questions are presented in this chapter. Chapter 5: Conclusion The chapter summarizes the overall study and suggests some forms of further studies on the field. 4 [...]... create the target version – ‘danh mục đầu tư’ Some more examples of literal translation are marginal utility – lợi ích biên, trade surplus - thặng dư thương mại, core inflation – lạm phát lõi, savings rate – lãi suất tiết kiệm, real disposable income growth – tăng trưởng thu nhập khả dụng thực tế, gross domestic product – tổng sản phẩm quốc nội, marginal rate of substitution – tỷ lệ thay thế biên, etc... Obviously, in economic texts, there must be a high amount of economic usage (Eg: Futures – hợp đồng tương lai, spot - giao dịch giao ngay, forward - giao dịch kỳ hạn) And in different regions, the same economic concepts could be expressed by different words (Eg Sovereign debt = public debt = government borrowing – nợ công/nợ chính phủ) The second highest density belongs to formal equivalence which refers... which refers to the form and aesthetics of the text, including word plays (Tax holiday - thời kỳ miễn thuế, macroeconomic weather - tình hình kinh tế vĩ mô) and individual stylistic features of the source text (Eg: Cash-rich – dồi dào tiền mặt, black letter – chứng thư bảo lãnh) The type which has third highest density is denotative equivalence and the rest two types funcional quivalence and non-equivalence... gái nhỏ So deep in luve am I Anh đắm say em tự bao giờ And I’ll luve thee still, my dear Anh sẽ mãi còn yêu em đó Till a’ seas gang dry Yêu đến ngày biển cạn sông mòn (A red, red rose Robert Burns Translated by: N.X.Thom) 15 16 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter mentions the sampling including the selecting of data, the reason for selection and the process of selecting data In this chapter,... by omitting the detail of ‘global warning’ The Vietnamese headline on VnExpress was: Hong Kong có nguy cơ rơi vào suy thoái Or the headline on MSNBC Chinese tourists flock to Japan, Boost Economy was rendered by Khách Trung Quốc đổ xô sang Nhật mua sắm in Vietnamese (VnExpress) By literal translation, the target version should have been ‘Du khách Trung Quốc đổ xô 20 đến Nhật Bản, thúc đẩy kinh tế Howewer,... readers at first sight Another example of non-equivalence in translating headline is Hunting down the hoarders (Trung Quốc quyết tâm kiềm chế lạm phát), etc Despite the fact that the content or form of headlines in the TL were changed by the translators, the headlines remained the outstanding message and followed the criteria of writing a headline In all data collected, Vietnamese headlines still give... Most investors attempting to take advantage of the rise in the price of oil futures have a few options Since most investors do not have a futures account, the option of buying and selling oil futures is out of the question (See appendix) ‘Futures’ is often used with the meaning of the time that will come after the present (tương lai) In this example, that meaning does not work, tương lai’ is not an... đồng giao sau, hợp đồng tương lai) Although the word still has the nature of something that happens in the future, it is used with economic sense – a contract in future This is the contextual meaning of the word ‘future’ A typical feature of ‘futures’ is that it is always used in plural form In this example, options is also the word which is understood with the contextual meaning – hợp đồng quyền chọn... the contextual meaning – hợp đồng quyền chọn Some other examples of terminologies which is translated by their contextual meaning are Spot - Giao dịch giao ngay (‘Spot’ has first popular meaning as a small place with distinctive features), Forward - Giao dịch kỳ hạn (‘Forward’ is usually understood with meaning of towards to places or postions that is in front) Due to the usage of contextual meaning,... while translating the phrase ‘liquidity crisis’, the translator simply combined the meanings of the two words Specifically, the word ‘liquidity’ refers to the state of owing things of value that can be easily exchanged for cash (thanh khoản) and ‘crisis’ 28 mean a time of great danger when problems are at its worst point (khủng hoảng) Literal combination of this two words is ‘khủng hoảng thanh khoản’ . translating and interpreting major with a thorough grasp of equivalence in translation; (ii) help students of translating and interpreting major understand deeply types of equivalence in translating. translating headlines 19 4.2.Equivalence in translating economic terminology 25 4.3.Equivalence in translating proper names 36 4.4.The implications of the study 40 4.4.1.Strategies for translating. English and published on four major online newspapers: http://vnexpress.net/gl /kinh- doanh/ http://dantri.com.vn/c76/kinhdoanh.htm http://vneconomy.vn/ http://vef.vn/. Besides, due to the limitation