Vietnamese – English translation of Vietnamese cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” by Tran Manh Thuong

Vietnamese – English translation of Vietnamese cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” by Tran Manh Thuong Nguyễn Thị Xuân Phương Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS..

Vietnamese – English translation of Vietnamese cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient

Features” by Tran Manh Thuong

Nguyễn Thị Xuân Phương

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: Assoc Prof Dr Le Hung Tien

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: The need for the translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English is a

matter-of-fact since the world has become smaller nowadays when countries come together to exchange not only in terms of economy and technology but also culture With the English translation of Vietnamese cultural words in hand, the Vietnamese can introduce such a diversified but unique culture to the world as well as better preserve the quintessence of the national culture However, it is not an easy task at all due to sharp differences in the culture – specific notions between Vietnam and English – speaking countries

Keywords: Dịch; Tiếng Việt; Tiếng Anh; Tác phẩm

Content

PART A – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Cultural knowledge and cultural differences have been a major focus of translator training and translation theory for as long as either has been in existence

Long debate have been held over when to paraphrase, when to use the nearest local equivalent, when to coin a new word by translating literally, and when to transcribe culture – bound words The translation of Vietnamese cultural words is now an inevitable part in our integrating life since we have become a member of WTO It is important for any Vietnamese to match cultural equivalence between English and Vietnamese to introduce our culture into the world However, not many empirical studies have been conducted so far on the issue of translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English

2 Scope of the study

The researcher focuses only on cultural words occurring in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”

by Tran Manh Thuong Specifically, the study takes into consideration such major aspects as follows:

 The most common types of equivalence

 The possible reasons for the non – equivalence

 Their translations

3 Aims of the study

The main aims of the study are:

 To work out the most common types of equivalence used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words

 To draw out the common problems of equivalence seen in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words into English

 To draw out strategies and procedures that may apply to the translation of Vietnamese cultural words and suggest some implications for the translation of the cultural words

4 Methodology

4.1 Research questions

The thesis seeks answers for the following research questions:

a What is the most typical type of equivalence used in the translation of cultural words in the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features”?

b What are the most common problems in translating Vietnamese cultural words into English that can be seen in the book?

c What are the common methods used in the translation of Vietnamese cultural words?

4.2 Research methods

 The main method is contrastive analysis

4.3 Data collection

The Vietnamese cultural words studied are taken from the book “Hanoi’s Ancient Features” and their equivalents are picked out from the translation by the Vietnamese translator Tran Manh Thuong

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