The following five kinds of connotative equivalence are the most typical and well achieved in the source text: connotations of speech level elevated, normal, poetic, and colloquial, conn
Trang 1Nghiên cứu tương đương biểu cảm giữa tác phẩm "Cuốn theo chiều gió" và bản dịch tiếng
Việt của Dương Tương Nguyễn Thị Diệu Thúy
Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến
Năm bảo vệ: 2012
Abstract: The researcher conducted a study to investigate the kinds of connotative
equivalence between the novel "Gone with the wind" and its translated version by Duong Tuong Different kinds of connotative equivalence have been identified Technical data from both the source text and target text was collected Then the data was examined carefully to assess the degree of connotative equivalence achieved The following five kinds of connotative equivalence are the most typical and well achieved in the source text: connotations of speech level (elevated, normal, poetic, and colloquial), connotations of socially determined usage (the language of the upper class and the slaves), connotations of geographical origin (comparative structures), connotations of register (military and religious), and connotations of evaluation (pejorative, positive and ironic) All in all, it can be concluded that connotative
equivalence is achieved between the novel and the translation by Duong Tuong Keywords: Ngôn ngữ học; Tiếng Anh; Dịch thuật
Content
PART A: INTRODUCTION
I Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Over the past few decades, international exchange is processing vigorously in various aspects, especially in culture By using language to bridge the gap between different cultures, inevitably, translation has contributed significantly to this process Besides, literature has been chosen as a rich source for translation Literary works are not only written in different languages but they also feature different cultures and civilizations Accordingly, the literary translation process is quite complex as it requires the translator to consider every aspect of
Trang 2the material, or even beyond the material in order to produce a good translation It poses a great challenge for anyone who attempts to assess the quality of translated literary works
According to Chesterman (1989) “Equivalence is obviously a central concept in translation theory” “The notion of equivalence held sway as a key issue in translation throughout the 1970s and beyond.” (Munday, 2008, p 49) Various works on translation theories have been carried out just to show how vital equivalence is in translation Great importance has been attached to equivalence since this is a controversial issue and it is likely
to cause debates in the coming time However, despite its significance, little investigation has been carried out in the field of translation evaluation, particularly evaluation of equivalence between English and Vietnamese literary works
All the above made the researcher decide to carry out the study on equivalence in literary translation Specifically, the study investigates connotation equivalence achieved in the translation of “Gone with the wind” – one of the most famous novels of the 20th
century This novel has been chosen as the source language text due to its distinctive features, aesthetic values and popularity worldwide The novel was first translated into Vietnamese more than 20 years ago Among several versions of the translation, the one translated by Duong Tuong is most praised by readers With the aim of investigating one of Duong Tuong's best translated works, the researcher chose his translation as the target text
II Research aims and research questions
The study firstly aims at providing a theoretical background on some issues relevant
to the topic of the study, which are translation, literary translation, equivalence in translation and strategies to achieve equivalence.Secondly, the study is to investigate the types of connotative equivalence achieved between the novel and its translated version Thirdly, the study is also aimed at finding out what strategies adopted by the translator in order to achieve that equivalence
Addressing the above issues is hoped to help English learners, especially those specialize in translation enhance their awareness of various expressive means employed in a particular literary text and decide the most appropriate strategies to deal with different translation situations
The study is also expected to be a good reference of criteria to any Vietnamese readers who love romantic novel, and are fans “Gone with the wind” for a good translation These aims can be formulated into the following research questions
Trang 31 What types of connotative equivalence achieved between the novel "Gone with the wind" and its translation by Duong Tuong?
2 What strategies adopted by the translator to achieve such types of connotative equivalence?
III Scope of the study
Firstly, the theoretical background of the study only focuses on some fundamental issues in translation theory which are of vital importance to the issue examined, which are translation, equivalence, methods, and procedures
Secondly, the research focuses on one kind of equivalence, which is connotative equivalence Then only the most outstanding types of connotative equivalence are examined
IV Methods of the study
1 Data collection
The study is designed in accordance with the theory proposed by Koller (1979), that
is characterizes the connotative dimensions of a source language (with the support of stylistic studies) to analyse their features and structural elements, and then relate these to the connotative dimenstions of a given target language In the first stage, the study explores the source language text to find out the different dimensions of connotations The features and structural elements of each connotative dimension are defined Data are collected in both English and Vietnamese to illustrate these dimensions Even though the novel is almost six hundred pages long, the researcher tries to collect comprehensive data by investigating almost every chapter Subsequently, the examples are grouped according to the stated catergory for the sake of comparison and assessment
2 Data analysis
In the second stage of the study, an assessment of the features in the target language text
is carried out with the criteria established in the first stage The translation and the data are considered from various viewpoints The study is based on technical data of semantic densities, occurrence probabilities and repetition rates of both the source language and target language text to evaluate the degree of connotative equivalence achieved As stated by Koller (1979), equivalence is defined in terms of the frame and conditions that the target text must fulfill if there exists equivalence between a given source text and a given target text The conditions can be content, style, function, etc Therefore, the requirement of equivalence has
Trang 4the following form: quality (qualities) X in the source language text must be preserved, meaning the source language content, form, style, function, etc must be preserved or at least the translation must seek to preserve them as far as possible (Koller, 1979) Besides, the connotations are transmitted by means of the word choice Thus, the word choices that can affect the content, form, style or function of translation are investigated carefully After that, conclusions on types of connotative equivalence achieved are drawn Furthermore, based on the translation of Duong Tuong, the researcher also figures out the strategies employed to achieve connotative equivalence The strategies are categorized according to Newmark's theory about translation methods and translation procedures
PART B - DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 – LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Definitions of translation
Translation, as one of the most ancient activity of human beings, has intrigued numerous researchers all over the world They all attempt to define translation for the sake of research, and their definitions share one common thing: the relationship between the source text and the target text
In the “Dictionary of Translation Studies”, Shuttleworth and Cowie acknowledge that translation is an “incredibly broad notion which can be understood in many different ways” And this idea is proved by numerous definitions proposed by different researchers around the world
Nida and Taber (1982, p.12) claim that “Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style”
Catford (1965, p.20) defines translation as “the replacement of textual material in one language (Source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language)." This idea is shared by Hartmann and Stock (1972, p713) with their definition
“Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of another equivalent text in a second language.”
Interestingly, Dubois (as cited in Bell, 1991, p.5) expresses the same notion “Translation
is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic in equivalences”
Trang 51.2 Translation equivalence
1.2.1 Roman Jakobson and the concept of equivalence in difference
Roman Jakobson claims “equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics” and introduced the notion of "equivalence in difference" In his point of view, “there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units” because “the translator recodes and transmits the message from another source Thus translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes” (p.139) The problem of meaning and equivalence lies in the structure and terminology of languages rather than the inability of one language to render a message into another language
1.2.2.Nida and Taber's Formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence
Nida categorizes equivalence into two fundamental types: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence Formal equivalence focuses on the source text structure, whose role is
to determine the accuracy of the translation Formal equivalence is used to get closer to the language and customs of the source culture The second type of equivalence proposed by Nida is dynamic equivalence (or functional equivalence), in which “the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message” (Nida, 1964, p.159) Nida claims that previously, translating only focused on the form of the message, meaning that translator only searched for “formal equivalence” - Nida’s term However, the new focus in the response of the receptor or the reader, meaning that translator should look for what Nida calls “dynamic equivalence” “Dynamic equivalence” was discussed in Nida’s work in 1964, and was further discussed in this book The impacts of dynamic equivalence on the translation of grammatical meaning, referential meaning and connotative meaning are studied Furthermore, the effect on translation of idioms, discourse structure, language variety, types
of discourse and style are also the topic of discussion
1.2.3 Catford and translation shifts
Catford approaches the issue of textual equivalence through translation “shifts”, meaning "departures from formal correspondence in the process of going from the source language to the target language" (p.73) He categorizes shifts into four types, which are structure shifts, class shifts, unit shifts and intra – system shifts In his viewpoint, two utterances can be equivalent but they do not have the same meaning as different languages will verbalize different situational features Equivalence can be achieved when the source
Trang 6and target words are “interchangeable in a given situation” and this happens when “a source language and a target language text or item are relatable (at least some of) the same features
of substance” (Catford, 1965, 50)
1.2.4 Kade and quantitative equivalence
Otto Kade (as quoted in Pym, 2010) develops a theory that categorizes equivalence at word
or phrase- level into four modes: “One – to- one”, “One- to – several” or “several-to-one”,
“One- to- part”, “One – to- none” Kade’s quantitative approach has been criticized because
it is restricted to the word level and it assumes that the language system can be equated with concrete realization in text (Snell – Hornby, 1988, 20)
1.2.5.Baker's approach to translation equivalence
Baker (1992) explores the notion of equivalence at different levels, in relation to the translation process, including all different aspects of translation putting together the linguistic and the communicative approach The first level is equivalence at word- level and above word- level The second level is grammatical equivalence, referring to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages The third level is textual equivalence, which refers
to the equivalence between a source language text and a target language text in terms of information and cohesion The final level is pragmatic equivalence, referring to implicatures and strategies of avoidance during the translation process
1.2.6.Koller's theory of equivalence
According to Koller (1979), equivalence refers to the relationship between source language text and target language text, rather than between two languages When mentioning the concept of equivalence, it is necessary to define the frame and conditions Then, if the target text fulfill certain conditions as defined, there exists equivalence between a given source text and a given target text Koller claims that the relevant conditions refer to such aspects as content, style, function, etc thus, the requirement of equivalence has the following form: quality (qualities) X in the source language text must be preserved, or at least the translation must seek to preserve them as far as possible
After defining the conditions of equivalence, Koller categorizes equivalence into five types.: denotative, connotative, pragmatic, text – normative, and formal equivalence Especially, connotative equivalence is further categorized into nine subcategories, that are
Trang 7connotations of speech level (connotative values such as elevated, poetic, normal, colloquial, slang, vulgar), connotations of socially determined usage (student language, military usage, working –class language, educated class, etc), connotations of geographical relation or origin (non-regional, American English, dialects, etc, connotations of medium (spoken language, written language), Connotations of stylistic effect (archaic, pompous, artificial, fashionable, euphemistic, plain, descriptive, etc), Connotations of frequency (common, uncommon), Connotations of register (normal usage, technical, medical), connotations of evaluation (positively evaluative, pejorative, ironic, etc), connotations of emotion (emotive, neutral)
1.3 Translation of literature
Stockwell (2002, a), Venuti (1996), Pilkington (2000), Berman (1985/2000) all mention the typical features of literary translation, and collected by Baker, including: they have a written – based form, they enjoy canonicity (high social prestige), they fulfill and effective/aesthetic rather than transactional or informational function, they aim to evoke emotions and/or entertain rather than influence or inform; they have no real- world truth- value (meaning they are judged as fictional, whether fact-based or not); they feature words, images with ambiguous and/or indeterminable meanings; they are characterized by “poetic” language use Conventional “core literary” genres are drama, poetry, and fictional prose However, a text only display some of the features listed above
According to Baker, the focus of literary translation studies is source- target text relations Specifically, equivalence and communicative purpose are the main focus of attention Holmes (1988, 53) & Jones (1989) claim that the pivotal issue regarding equivalence is the translator’s ability to convey exactly the stylistic features of literary texts In case that situation is impossible, what should be given priority? Another school of thought is that the translator should attach importance to communicative effectiveness instead of equivalence
In terms of communicative purpose, the question posed here is to what extent should the translator be loyal to the original text?
1.4 Translation methods
There are eight methods proposed by Newmark (1988): word – for – word translation, literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation, communicative translation, idiomatic translation, free translation and adaptation
1.5 Translation procedures
Trang 8The following procedures are proposed by Newmark (1988) to translate sentences and smaller units of sentences: naturalization, transference, shifts, cultural equivalent, funct ional equivalent, descriptive equivalent, synonym, through translation, modulation, componential analysis, paraphrase, couplets
1.6 The writer Margaret Mitchell and the novel "Gone with the wind"
1.7 The translator Duong Tuong and the translation "Cuon theo chieu gio"
CHAPTER 2 – CONNOTATIVE EQUIVALENCE
2.1 Connotations of socially determined usage
Firsly, in terms of connotations of socially determined usage, two contrast kinds have been achieved: the language of the upper class in the society, and the language of the slaves The language of the upper class is is highly formal and Duong Tuong also used literal translation, with focus on formal expressions to achieve this connotation successfully The upper class in the novel is also the slave owners, therefore, apart from formal language, short sentences and commands with simple words are also used when talking to the slaves Duong Tuong takes advantage of the address system in Vietnamese, which is different from that of English but of great help to show the language style The novel also features the language of the slaves, which are grammatically incorrect and misspelt Duong Tuong takes this seriously and tries to convey the intention of the writer by choosing word choices that can also illustrate the slaves' lack of education Even though Duong Tuong seems to lessen the significance of grammatical and spelling mistakes made by slaves so that the target readers might understand the subject matter much more easily, the translation still achieves this connotation thanks to the appropriate word choices of the translator
2.2 Connotations of speech level
As regards connotations of speech level, four types of connotations are achieved, which are elevated, poetic, normal and colloquial Elevate speech is dedicated to the South's army, the heroes in the heart of all Southerners The greatness of the Cause, and the Southern people are emphasized in the novel by elevated style Literal translation with semantic
Trang 9orientation is employed by Duong Tuong to reproduce the epic paragraphs so that the intention of the writer is fully conveyed to the target readers For poetic language, which is clearly illustrated in the songs and poems in the novel, Duong Tuong also successfully achieves connotative equivalence by adopting adaptation translation method to recreate the poems and songs in the target language Vietnamese readers can sense the spirit of poetic language in his translation The last type of speech level is colloquial, and the translation of interjections and exclamations are investigated carefully The result is that in most cases, interjections and exclamations in English are translated by literal translation - appropriate interjections and exclamations in Vietnamese, producing the equivalent effect However, Duong Tuong does have some bizarre translation, making it hard for the target readers to understand But in general, connotative equivalence is still achieved
2.3 Connotations of geographical origin
The third type of connotations is connotation of geographical origin, with the focus
on comparative structures because the majority of them are culture – and language – specific
To treat the structures in such a way that the target readers can obtain an understading of the source culture, literal translation is employed by Duong Tuong In some cases, Duong Tuong uses cultural equivalent to make the translation sound natural to the target readers Obviously, in such cases, connotation of geographical origin is not achieved However, such cases only accounted for a small proportion All in all, connotation of geographical origin is achieved
2.4 Connotations of register
Military, religious and normal usages are the three types of connotations of register which have been examined For military and religious register, appropriate word choices bearing military and religious connotations successfully conveys the "spirit" of the two kinds
of register As regards noun phrases in normal usage, literal translation plays an important role Besides, shifts are also used quite frequently to ensure the appropriatness of grammatical structures in the target language
2.5 Connotations of evaluation
Finally, three kinds of connotations of evaluation, which are pejorative, positive and ironic, are examined Literal translation is still the main procedure Besides, to achieve
Trang 10pejorative connotation, Duong Tuong focuses on the address system, and the use of words of negative connotations Similarly, to achieve connotation of positive evaluation, words of positive connotation are used As for ironic evaluation, expressive words which can convey fully the intention made by the writer are intensively used In general, connotation of evaluation is another success of Duong Tuong
All in all, what can be inferred from the analysis is that these above five dimensions of connotative equivalence is achieved between the novel and and its translation