Unnatural mistakes in english vietnamese translation difficulties and solutions

Graduation Paper HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH Code: 21 FACULTY OF ENGLISH - GRADUATION THESIS THESIS B.A DEGREEGRADUATION IN ENGLISH STUDIES B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION DIFFICULTIES ANDAND SOLUTIONS DIFFICULTIES SOLUTION Supervisor Supervisor Thị Vân Đông,PhD PhD : Nguyễn: Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông, Student Student Date of birth Date of birth : 26/03/1993 Course : K18 (2011-2015) Course Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang : Nguyễn :Thi Thu Trang : 26/03/1993 : K18 (2011-2015) HANOI, 2015 HANOI, 2015 Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper DECLARATION Title: Unnatural Mistakes in English – Vietnamese TranslationDifficulties and Solutions I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, June 2015 Student Supervisor Signature Signature Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis I want to thank the Faculty of English, Ha Noi Open University for giving me permission to commence this thesis in the first instance and to the necessary research work I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Mrs Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this thesis My classmates from class K18A1 supported me a great deal and I want to thank them for all their support, cooperation and valuable suggestions I would like to express my sincere appreciation to other fellow students of the Faculty of English for providing me their translation exercises and assignments to use as references Especially, I am obliged to my friends who looked closely at the final version of the thesis for English style and grammar, correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect supports helped me complete my thesis in time Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and Purposes of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Translation definition 1.2 Kinds of translation 1.3 Translation process 1.4 Naturalness and unnaturalness in translation CHAPTER UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION 12 2.1 Linguistic aspects 12 2.1.1 At word level 12 2.1.1.1 Loss of connotative meaning 12 2.1.1.3 Word-for-word translation 16 2.1.1.4 Plural form 17 2.1.2 At phrase level 19 2.1.2.1 Word order 19 Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper 2.1.2.2 Noun phrase 20 2.1.3 At sentence level 22 2.1.3.1 Passive voice 22 2.1.3.2 Relative clause 25 2.1.3.3 Past tense: 28 2.2 Cultural Aspects 30 2.2.1 Translation of Simile 31 2.2.2 Translation of Metaphor 33 2.2.3 Translation of Proverb 34 CHAPTER CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS OF UNNATURALNESS 36 3.1.1 Subjective reasons 36 3.1.1.1 Inadequate language competence 36 3.1.1.2 Inadequate cultural background 36 3.1.2 Objective reasons 37 3.1.2.1 Linguistic differences between Vietnamese and English 37 3.1.2.2 Cultural differences among nations 39 3.2 Solutions to avoid unnaturalness 39 3.2.1 Linguistic problems 39 3.2.1.1 Choose the right words 39 3.2.1.2 Choose the right structure 40 3.2.2 Cultural problems 40 PART C 42 CONCLUSION 42 REFERENCES 43 Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1.1 Nida’s Translation Process Figure 1.2 Larson’s Translation Process Table 2.1 Words with same denotation but different connotations Table 2.2 Translations with vocabulary errors Table 2.3 Different translations of “output” Table 2.4 Word-for-word translation errors Table 2.5 Plural errors Table 2.6 Errors with passive voice Table 2.7 Errors with passive voice (1) Table 2.8 Students’ Translation of sentences with Relative clauses Table 2.9 “đã” in past tense translations Table 2.10 Differences between English and Vietnamese similes Table 2.11 Coincidences in English and Vietnamese similes Table 2.12 English and Vietnamese metaphors Table 2.13 English proverbs and Vietnamese equivalence Table 3.1 The difference about nuance of expression Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source Language TL: Target Language Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Human beings, throughout history, have made an effort to take advantage of various methods of communication with the intention of utilizing the knowledge of other nations and endeavoring to preserve this knowledge for the coming generations As the most effective methods of communication, language has been employed to satisfy the very need of communication The predicament that may emerge as an obstacle in the way of communication seems to be the fact of dissimilarity of languages throughout the world In today's world, communication between different nations with different languages is feasible through translation Throughout the past years and up till now, translation theorists and language researchers have been doing their best to define translation; to draw up its limits as to put forward its foundations to figure out the accurate way for carrying out an effective translation Certainly, almost no translation is perfect even when the general message is conveyed This is due to the many linguistic and cultural differences between one language and another Perfecting the practice of translation has been a great desire of generations of translators all over the world There have been several senior translators devoting their life to finding ways to overcome difficulties in their work In other words, they have tried to figure out and resolve common pitfalls that make a translation unnatural and sometimes even incomprehensible Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper Aims and Purposes of the study The primary aim of the report is to give students of English, the wouldbe translators, an overview of the frequently seen type of mistakes in EnglishVietnamese translation that may take their translations unnatural and incomprehensible so that they are fully aware of and able to avoid them The report also aims at finding causes of translation unnaturalness and then suggesting some possible strategies to overcome the problems The targeted subjects of this report are mainly student; nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work cab consider of a useful reference helping improve their translating skill In addition, the report touches upon a field of study that is still rather insufficient in Vietnam for further discussion by other researches Scope of the study The transferring of written texts from one language into another requires high accuracy and smoothness This is because translation tasks allow considerable time for translators to find the best substitutions while interpreters hardly have time to consider the wording and structure carefully Inaccuracy and unnaturalness in translation, therefore, need to be studied more cautiously than those in interpretation Moreover, the thesis concentrates on analyzing in details the English Vietnamese translation, which is much more popular in Vietnam today than Vietnamese - English translation It touches upon translations of this kind by students of English as well as translators for Vietnamese magazines, newspapers and publishers This is due to the fact that not only translations by students but, worryingly, those by some contemporary professional translators Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper in Vietnam can be dubbed unnatural This is a mistake we need to eliminate or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view to purifying our mother tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources of knowledge and enjoyment This is of importance to the development of Vietnamese culture and society in the future The thesis may mention the theoretical base in each of its parts, but it concentrates largely on dealing with translation in practice In Vietnam, there have been quite little research work like this and most of the publications are for internal circulation in universities only For that reason, this thesis is mostly based on the combination and analysis of minute details picked from these publications and available materials acquired from personal sources and surveys from juniors at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University Methods of the study In order to achieve the above aims, this report has been carried out with the following approaches: basing on the theory and principles of translation, major characteristics of a good translation, the results of the interviews, and the survey to collect information from students Design of the study This study is organized in three parts: Part A is the introduction, which includes the brief information about the study Next part is the development, which consists of Literature Review indicating some information about translation along with analysis of students’ mistakes and solutions to these errors Additionally, the entire thesis will be summarized in the ConclusionPart C Finally, part D is the references of this study Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 Graduation Paper There are a small proportion of students still translate sentences mechanically that brings the unnaturalness to readers 2.2 Cultural Aspects The purpose and characteristics of translation are to promote understanding among different countries and nations Because of the differences in histories, geographic locations, local customs and religious beliefs, etc., there are some translation obstacles, which hinder people from understanding each other properly So, translation not only involves translator ’s or interpreter’s linguistic competence, but also calls for the acquaintance with the respective cultures In this sense, translation means more that merely translating the words, sentences or articles from the source language into the target language It means also to transfer between cultures Idioms and fixed expressions are an inalienable part of each language found in large numbers in most of the languages Since the meaning of these collocations cannot be understood from the superficial meanings of the single words constituting them, so there are some problems in both processes of understanding and translating them People of different languages use completely different expressions to convey a similar meaning, in a way that while an expression might be completely tangible and easy-to-understand for the interlocutors of a specific language, the same set of words and expressions may seem fully vague and dim and even in some cases nonsense to the speakers of the other This originates in the fact that each language has got some culture-specific items that are completely different from the corresponding items in another language what could be a challenging obstacle for translators Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 30 Graduation Paper Baker (1992) believes that "the main problems that idiomatic and fixed expressions pose in translation relate to two main areas: the ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly and the difficulties in rendering various aspects of meaning that an idiom or a fixed expression conveys into the target language” (p 65) Thus, unnaturalness in translation, on cultural aspect, can be divided into three following main problems 2.2.1 Translation of Simile Culture always has a huge amount of influence on language, which is, on its part, much like a mirror truthfully reflecting most of culture English and Vietnamese cultures are not comparatively the same In fact, there are many dissimilarities between them Differences in culture indubitably entail differences in language, including idioms of comparison There are many other cases in which English and Vietnamese idioms, despite having similar meaning, use different images of comparison Below are some illustrations: No 10 English similes Vietnamese similes As easy as ABC Dễ bỡn As smooth as butter Mượt nhung As pale as a ghost Xanh tàu As merry as a cricket Vui Tết As dumb as a statue Câm hến As lazy as a lizard Lười hủi As strong as a horse Khỏe trâu As red as lipstick Đỏ gấc As dry as a bone Khô ngói As silent as the dead Lặng tờ Table 2.10: Differences between English and Vietnamese similes Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 31 Graduation Paper Those dissimilarities are the inevitable result of different cultures, living condition as well as ways of thinking, observing and interpreting the world As we can see, some concepts are obviously distinct in a certain region or culture, which makes it easier to explain the unlikeness in language and particularly, in similes For instant, “ice, ABC, butter,…” are quite strange to Vietnamese people just as “hến, ngói, gấc, trâu, nhung,…” to people in other English countries This is an obvious obstacle for inexperienced students in finding Vietnamese equivalences In 120 students, percentage of students giving blanks in translation accounts for 48% There is a small proportion of students can translate maximum out of 10 above similes However, no culture is completely isolated and unique People of various cultures can sometimes share the same ways of thinking and viewing in some matters That has to say, although Vietnamese culture and English culture are remarkably different from each other, there still exists some cases in which the ways of observing the world of the two peoples are so similar Vietnamese people and English people can at times express concepts and ideas in the same ways In fact, many comparative similes in English have the exact equivalents in Vietnamese that creates favorable conditions for students when translating: Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 32 Graduation Paper No 10 English similes Vietnamese similes As brilliant as stars Sáng As fierce as tiger Dữ cọp As fresh as a rose Tươi hoa As green as a leaf Xanh tàu As heavy as lead Nặng chì As hot as fire Nóng lửa As light as a feather Nhẹ tựa long hồng As quick as lighting Nhanh chớp As sour as vinegar Chua giấm As wet as drowned mouse Ướt chuột lột Table 2.11: Coincidences in English and Vietnamese similes As we can see, there are lots of English idioms of comparison which have exact equivalents in Vietnamese language concerning not only meaning but also vocabulary 100% of students give correct answers with all 10 similes 2.2.2 Translation of Metaphor A metaphor can consist of a word, an entire sentence, an idiom or a certain collocation According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD), it is “a word or phrase which is frequently used with another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning” According to Max Black:“metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else; the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on grounds of analogy” (The poetic, p.174) Some people may conclude based on this view that after all, metaphor was no more than are placement of a different expression Below is an illustration: Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 33 Graduation Paper No English metaphors Vietnamese metaphors Cast pearls before swine Đàn gảy tai trâu Diamond cuts diamond Vỏ quýt dày có móng tay nhọn When the cat’s away, the mice will play Vắng chủ nhà, gà vọc đuôi tôm Kill two birds with one stone Một công đôi việc Table 2.12: English and Vietnamese metaphors 2.2.3 Translation of Proverb Proverbs are popularly defined as simple and concrete expressions of popular wisdom, which are widely known and repeated in certain culture or community This wisdom is in the form of observations that based on common sense or practical experience of humanity Proverbs can be seen as a bit of advice or simply an attitude toward a situation Many efforts were made to reach an academic definition However, it seems that they have not led to a more precise one You can find in Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary (2005) a brief definition of proverbs as “A short sentence, usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced or giving advice”.(p.1017) Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 34 Graduation Paper Here are examples: No English proverbs Vietnamese proverbs Birds of a feather flock together Ngưu tầm ngưa, mã tầmmã Put all one’s egg in one basket Được ăn ngã không Man proposes, God disposes Mưu nhân, thành thiên Like father, like son Cha nào, Haste makes waste Dục tốc bất đạt Better safe than sorry Cẩn tắc vô ưu Every dog has his day Không giàu ba họ, không khó ba đời A thief knows a thief as a wolf Suy bụng ta bụng người knows a wolf Judge not, that you be not judged Dĩ hoà vi quý 10 If you cannot bite, never show your Miệng hùm gan sứa teeth Table 2.13: English proverbs and Vietnamese equivalence Translating these sayings requires students, even skilled translators great background on both languages and cultures Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 35 Graduation Paper CHAPTER CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS OF UNNATURALNESS 3.1 Causes of unnatural translation 3.1.1 Subjective reasons 3.1.1.1 Inadequate language competence Language competence is the basic competence a translator must have It departs from the definition of translation as has been mentioned with some considerations above Without mastering languages, someone is disabled to translate a text from source language to target language Jakobson (in Munday, 2001:5) categorizes the linguistic aspects of translation, and one of them is interlingua translation: an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language Here, a translator at least must have competence in both source language and target language The translator is demanded to have a good understanding of language aspects of source language and target language The translator is not only demanded to master target language in one rank, but also every rank As mentioned before, language ranks are lexical (word), to phrasal, clausal, sentence and discourse 3.1.1.2 Inadequate cultural background Language is one of the culture elements, and nothing to be translated but language As a culture element, language contains a good number of social conventions in using and understanding words and cultural identities As well as text that is actually information, intention and ideas, those are packaging in language itself It (text) contains social conventions and cultural identity Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 36 Graduation Paper A translator must have cultural competence of both source language and target language (Kastberg, 2007) Some of the expressions in source language may have different way to express in target language, or even does not exist at all By having cultural competence, the translator may need not to look the substitution but enough to see the equivalence Some translators may focus on the text and some other translators may focus on the reader of the target text Cultural competence in text-based translation is important in terms of translating some expressions that the equivalence or substitution word does not exist in the translator’s native language Some texts may be created for internal culture use only, when the text are translated into other language(s) which have different culture, it can be guessed if the text will be dysfunctional unless the translator does not have enough capability to acquire the culture where the text was created and used 3.1.2 Objective reasons 3.1.2.1 Linguistic differences between Vietnamese and English As mentioned above, the English language belongs to the Indo-European language family, and the Vietnamese language belongs to the Austro-Asiatic family Therefore the two languages have various differences in terms of vocabulary and grammatical rules When translate the alteration in Vietnamese in to English is so difficult to ensure equivalence of form and increasingly did not reflect the nuances of meaning Because of English have very few alteration and type of the alteration In the Vietnamese-English dictionary (Le Kha Ke-the chief author, Education Publishing House in 1991) translate: Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 37 Graduation Paper Vietnamese English Héo Héo hon Wither Héo hắt Heo héo Lạnh Lạnh lùng Cold Lạnh lẽo Table 3.1: The difference about nuance of expression Vietnamese does not inflect (that is, words don't change to show grammatical case or plurals or possession, etc) This means you must explain very carefully and specifically how words change and why In Vietnamese verbs not conjugate like English verbs to show tense Instead, time is often shown simply by using adverbs Although there are similarities between Vietnamese and English in regards to word order, in Vietnamese it is a lot more flexible This means that, for example, question words (who, what, where, etc) can end up at the end of a question rather than at the beginning which must happen in English English grammar is very inflexible compared to other languages English goes by very strict structures while the Vietnamese language is much more flexible For instance, the Vietnamese language does not always use articles and the rules are not as clear as those of the English language Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 38 Graduation Paper 3.1.2.2 Cultural differences among nations Translation is not simple a linguistic transformations of texts, but it is also a rendering of cultural concepts from one language to another Asian culture in general and Vietnamese culture in particular has few things in common with Western and American culture Unless a translator is capable of breaking through "decayed barriers" of his own culture and opening his mind to new and sometimes alien concepts, his translation cannot be considered successful and natural Difficulties occur when you have to translate foreign nations like much up day, New Year’s resolution, fair go, and wife swapping because they are typical of the culture in English-speaking countries but not in Vietnam However, most alien concepts can be rendered with some translation technique 3.2 Solutions to avoid unnaturalness 3.2.1 Linguistic problems 3.2.1.1 Choose the right words The students must enlarge vocabulary by studying whenever and wherever they can The most effective way to learn new words is reading It is necessary for the students to try to form a habit of regular reading newspapers, magazines articles or news on the Internet like Thanhniennews, Saigontimes, Vietnamnews, which will supply much knowledge about vocabulary, grammar and ways of translation Thanks to reading them, they not only enlarge their vocabulary but also have more background knowledge about aspects or fields, which are strange with them so far as well as learn some new ways or techniques of translation and then choose a suitable way for themselves Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 39 Graduation Paper In addition, students should carefully consider the synonyms before using them It would be better for them to consider the differences of the pairs of synonyms when translating Students tend to affected by the knowledge of their mother tongue when learning the target langue Hence, due to differences in between English and Vietnamese noun plurality forms, it’s easy for students to make mistakes when translating from English to Vietnamese 3.2.1.2 Choose the right structure Students should pay more attention on extend their grammar knowledge because of the giant differences between English and Vietnamese grammar by reading books, doing grammar exercise to be flexible in using grammar Needless to say, most of the times, passive voice in the original English text should be replaced with active voice in Vietnamese It would be unnatural to try to translate an English long complex sentence to a Vietnamese sentence of the same structure The excessive use of markers like “mà”, “nơi mà”, etc can make the sentence too complicated for an average Vietnamese reader to understand fully 3.2.2 Cultural problems Although idioms of comparison are just a small part of language, there are many things for us to pay attention Besides some certain similarities, coincidences, which make translation a bit easier, idioms of comparison in English and those in Vietnamese, have many striking dissimilarities The same comparative images can lead to different meanings and vice versa, the same meanings can be expressed by various images Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 40 Graduation Paper Since each country has its own culture and differences in language are usually caused by unalike cultures, a translator need to keep in mind that a good understanding of culture is a must if he/she wants to make proper translation Mastering other cultures is indisputably strenuous and timeconsuming In fact, the most important thing is that we should foster a general and keen awareness of cultural differences, which will in some ways help us to avoid such unnatural and maladroit translating works and improve ourselves in translation Additionally, encountering some unfamiliar concepts, exceptionally different viewpoints or some idioms as well as expressions that appear hard to understand is something we cannot help shunning in translation It is of paramount significance to have an open-minded view to accept the thought and belief of oversea people, to feel what they feel and to say what they say It is also necessary to “think twice” and base on the context, the circumstances or the situations in order to deduce, render the exact meanings Never should we firmly cling to word-by-word translation, especially when it comes to idioms since they are separate semantic units whose meanings generally cannot be elucidated by translating all of the component words Moreover, we need to be flexible when translating In many cases, a translator has to carefully make a decision on whether he/she should keep the literal denotation or change it if necessary to make better and the most satisfactory translations Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 41 Graduation Paper PART C CONCLUSION In the time to come, Vietnam will further incorporate into the world economy and society This advancement obliges translations of high quality, particularly from English to Vietnamese and vice versa Hence, more studies ought to be completed to recognize and how to adapt to regular mix-ups in these translations Additionally, studies on what can be known as an unadulterated Vietnamese dialect and how to keep up it through the techniques of translation ought to be executed These studies should bring readers a review of the contemporary circumstance of Vietnamese translated works, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to enhance it In conclusion, I want to significantly contribute to the investigation of English –Vietnamese translation in colleges and on the media through this proposal As I would like to think, it can be viewed as a friendly of all individuals why should looking for enhance their English – Vietnamese translation aptitudes and the nature of their translations Ideally, readers of this thesis can think that it valuable in their future work Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 42 Graduation Paper REFERENCES English materials Alireza Sadeghi Ghadi (2010) All New Theories And Concepts About Translation In New Century Articlebase Douglas Robinson (1998) Becoming a Translator-An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation(Second Edition) Routledge Iver Larson (2001) The fourth Criterion of a Good Translator Notes on Translation Vol.15 J.C.Catford (1965) A linguistic Theory of Translation Oxford University Press Nida, E & C Taber (1974) The Theory and Practice of Translation California: Stanford University Press Peter Newmark (October, 1988) A Textbook of Translation New York: Prentice Hall Vietnamese materials Bùi Tiến Bảo, & Đặng Xuân Thu (1999) Interpreting and Translation Course Book Hanoi: Education Publishing House Bùi Việt Bắc ( 2005) Dịch sai phá hỏng tiếng Việt Văn nghệ, No.1 Frank Trinh (2002) Vietnamese translation in Australia: A missing link Retrieved April 19, 2006, from www.vny2k.net/Hocthuat/FrankTrinh_VNTranslation_AMissingLink.htm Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 43 Graduation Paper 10 Hoàng Văn Vân (2006) Translation: Theory and Practice Nhà xuất Giáo Dục 11 Nguyễn Quốc Hùng (2005) Huớng dẫn kỹ thuật dịch Anh - Việt Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House 12 Nguyễn Đăng Sửu, Đặng Quốc Tuấn & Nguyễn Thu Hường (2013) Translation - Advanced Level (For internal use) Hanoi 13 Phạm Văn Vinh et al (2003) Tục ngữ so sánh Hanoi: Hanoi Publishing House Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 44 [...]... Leonardi (2000) identifies three kinds of translation: intralingua translation (monolingual translation) , Interlingua translation (bilingual or multilingual translation) , and intersemiotic translation (verbal sign into non-verbal sign) Intralingua translation refers to a translation in which verbal signs are interpreted by means of other signs of the same language It happens within Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015... a guide in translating text from the source language into the target language Nida and Taber explained simple and generally about the process of translation Nida and Taber (1974: 33) introduce three stages in the process of translation This process begins by analyzing SL into grammatical and semantic structure of the TL, transferring the meaning and at last by reconstructing the grammatical and semantic... cosmos” (Brislin 1976:79) 1.2 Kinds of translation According to Larson (1984: 15) translation is classified into two main types, namely form-based translation and meaning-based translation Formsbased translation attempts to follow the form of the source language (SL) and it is known as literal translation, while meaning-based translation makes every effort to communicate the meaning of the SL text in the... between ease of understanding the meaning of a text and the level of naturalness, which it has In his preface to Tianyanlun, Yan Fu (1853 – 1921), a Chinese scholar famous for introducing Western thoughts into China during the late 19th century, explained the three problems in achieving an ideal translation: the “faithfulness to the original text (xin), communication of the ideas (da), and literary elegance... must think about the meaning carefully, and find the corresponding expression in target language Almost people instinctively have in mind a set of words they believe is of proper use in certain situations However, in some circumstances, some inexperienced translators, especially students, when translating foreign language into mother tongue language may fail to realize the importance of finding the... difficulty in the translation, and the ability to provide the translation of something that has no equal in the target language Translation is, in Enani's (1997) view, a modern science at the interface of philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and sociology Literary translation in particular is relevant to all these sciences, audio-visual arts, as well as cultural and intellectual study Translation is, in Chabban's... textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL) (Catford 1965:20) Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 4 Graduation Paper Unlike such vivid sayings of famous figures, Bùi Tiến Bảo and Đặng Xuân dThu in their “Interpreting and Translation Course Book”(1997) point out another interesting way for the definition ‘ Translation is rendering a written text into another... language”, making the translation imperfect and not literarily elegant (Newmark, 1988) This may be considered a definition of translation unnaturalness, on which the following detailed analysis is based to judge the translations taken out from different sources Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang _A01_2011-2015 11 Graduation Paper CHAPTER 2 UNNATURAL MISTAKES IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION To translate well and accurately,... (Frank Trinh, 2002) However, using them automatically is unnatural to Vietnamese people Students tend to be affected by the knowledge of their mother tongue when learning the target language Hence, due to differences in between English and Vietnamese noun plurality forms, it is easy for students to make mistakes when translating from English to Vietnamese The following table shows some sentences: English. .. 2.1.1.2 Inappropriate word choice The choice of word, just as its name implies, is the choice and use of word, which is the first t o be affected in translation No matter in English or in Vietnamese, polysemy is quite common to see Moreover, English and Vietnamese languages have great differences in cultural backgrounds, words may have opposite connotation, and social customs varies according to many