The influences of culture on translation

Graduation Paper HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH ====o0o==== GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES THE INFLUENCES OF CULTURE ON TRANSLATION Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, M.A Student : Bien Thi Van Anh Date of birth : 20/02/1993 Course : K18A2 (2011-2015) Hanoi – 2015 Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Graduation Paper DECLARATION Title: The Influences of Culture on Translation I certify that no part of 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, 03 May, 2015 Student Supervisor signature signature Full name Full name Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Graduation Paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Mrs.Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, lecturer of Hanoi Open University This study could have probably not completed without her patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all the lecturers in the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge over the past years My special thanks go as well as to the English Department of Hanoi Open University for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this study Besides, I am deeply indebted to my beloved family for their wholehearted support and encouragement I also would like to dedicate my special thanks to my classmates in K18-A2, who have supported, cooperated and provided me with valuable suggestions Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Graduation Paper Table of Contents Part A: Introduction 1 Rationale 2.Aims and Objective of the study 3.Scope of the study 4.Research questions 5.Methods of the study 6.Design of the study Part B: Contents Chapter 1: Some basis theories of translation 1.1 Definition of translation 1.2 Development direction of translation 1.3 The nature of translation 1.4 Some main methods of translation 1.4.1 Word_ for_word translation 1.4.2 Literal translation 1.4.3 Faithful translation 1.4.4 Semantic translation 1.4.5 Communicative translation 10 1.4.6 Idiomatic translation 10 1.4.7 Free translation 10 1.4.8 Adaptation translation 11 Chapter 2: Some concepts of culture 12 2.1 Origin of the term "culture" 12 2.2 Inadequate Conceptions of Culture 13 2.2.1 Culture is homogenous 13 2.2.2 Culture is a thing 14 2.2.3 Culture is uniformly distributed among members of a group 14 2.2.4 An individual possesses but a single culture 14 Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Graduation Paper 2.2.5 Culture is custom 15 2.2.6 Culture is timeless 15 2.3 Conclusion About the Conceptualization of Culture 15 Chapter 3: Influences of culture on translation 17 3.1 The relation between language and culture 17 3.2 The influence of culture on translation at word level 19 3.2.1 Word relating to festival 19 3.2.2 Word relating to custom 20 3.2.3 Vocative and personal pronouns 22 3.2.4 Verb 23 3.2.5 Adjective 25 3.2.6 Preposition 26 3.2.7 Noun of symbolic images 27 3.3 The influences of culture on translation at phrase level 30 3.3.1 Comparative idiom 30 3.3.1.1 Comparative idiom of shape and appearance 30 3.3.1.2 Comparative idiom of personality 32 3.3.1.3 Comparative idiom of colour 33 3.3.2 Metaphoric idiom 35 3.3.2.1 Idiom relating to food 35 3.3.2.2 Metaphoric idiom relating to animal 37 3.3.2.2 Metaphoric idiom relating to body part 39 Chapter 4: Recommendations 42 4.1 Some basic principles of translation 42 4.1.1 The first general principle 42 4.1.2 The second general principle 43 4.1.3 The third general principle 43 4.2 Strategies to tackle non-equivalent at word level 43 4.2.1 Translating by a more specific word 44 4.2.2 Translating by a more general word 45 Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Graduation Paper 4.2.3 Translating by a more neutral / less expressive word 45 4.2.4 Translating by substitution 46 4.2.5 Translating by using a loan word plus explanation 47 4.2.6 Translating by using a paraphrase 47 4.2.7 Translating by omission 48 4.2.8 Translating by illustratation 49 4.3 Strategies to tackle non-equivalence at phrasal level 49 4.3.1 Using an idiom of similar mean and form 49 4.3.2 Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form 50 4.3.3 Translating by paraphrase 51 Part C: Conclusion 53 References 55 Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Part A: Introduction Rationale Language is a phenomenon and a factor that links different cultures and a way to express feeling and ideas that people try to convey Study on language, culture and translation and the relationship between them are valuable issues because of their importance to human communication in the world The variety of languages and the cultural difference and necessity of communication in human life caused translation to be a very effective factor in communicating, exchanging cultures and knowledge Hence, the role of translators is more and more highly appreciated Although there might be no specific frame and force on how translation must be done, all translators who desire perfect translations often base on many factors, especially culture There have been many studies so far on the influences of culture on translation However, they have not focused much on lexical level but on pragmatic or syntactic one Thus, in this study, I choose cultural barrier in translation of words and phrases in English and Vietnamese as the main subject in my study 2.Aims and Objective of the study Understanding about the influence of culture on translation on word and phrase level is the prime aim of my study from that we can know how to apply translation techniques and skills Moreover, we can understand more about cultural concerns in translation, know the way to solve problems, how to use specialized terminology in some fields, such as, political-social, literary-art, scientific-technical terms In addition, the paper concentrates on analyzing in details the cultural influence on Vietnamese-English translation and English-Vietnamese one The primary aim of the study is to share with students of English, who would be translators, an overview of the frequently Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 seen influence of culture on Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese translation So that they are fully aware and able to produce a correct translation The paper also aims at finding some possible strategies to improve the difficulties to Vietnamese-English translation Nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it a useful reference to improve their translating skills 3.Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on the impacts of culture on VietnameseEnglish and English-Vietnamese translation on word and phrase level 4.Research questions - What is the concept of culture? - What is translation? - How does culture affect translation? - What are some types of cultural problems of translation of words and phrases from English into Vietnamese and vice versa? - How can we to translate effectively? 5.Methods of the study Collecting sample and data analysis are the two main methods used in the study I collect examples and samples on word and phrase level to analyze the influence of culture on Vietnamese-English and English-Vietnamese translation, from that I recommend solutions for translator to transfer text containing cultural factor effectively Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 6.Design of the study As can be seen from the content page, I divided my study into parts: The first part is an introduction, this part focuses on rationale, aims and objective, scope, methods, research questions and design of the study The second part is the main contents of the report including: Chapter 1: Some basis theories of translation (this part focuses on definition of translation, development direction of translation, nature of translation, some main methods of translation) Chapter 2: Some concepts of culture (in this chapter, I will show origin of the term "culture", inadequate conceptions of culture and conclusion about the conceptualization of culture) Chapter 3: Influences of culture on translation (focus on the relation between language and culture, the influence of culture on translation in term of word, the influences of culture on translation in term of phrase) Chapter 4: My recommendation (focus on principles of translation, strategies to deal with non-equivalence at word and phrase level) The third part is conclusion (brief overview and summary of the study, final comments) Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 Part B: Contents Chapter 1: Some basis theories of translation 1.1 Definition of translation Translation plays an important role in human communication, and the importance of it has grown dramatically in the 20th century, the amount of information and ideas exchanged among different languages has increased Yet, the emergence of translation as a recent profession that is still surrounded with controversy much of which emotionally inspired (Citroen, 1966:12) The fact that translation has been a subject of constant controversy and that many scholars have different views about it, has resulted in presenting several definitions concerning the process of translation Culture is defined as the way of life and its manifestations which are unique to a society that uses a particular language as it means of expression (Newmark, 1988: 94) Nida and Taber (1974:12) mention that translation is concerned with reproducing in the target language the closet natural equivalence of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style, but in contrast to others, translation is approached as a search for equivalent not sameness of meaning Suleiman (1999:145) states that translation, is an art and skill, is an intergrated process which involves the comprehension, analysis, reformulation of text by incorporating the contextual, semantic and sociocultural aspects of source language and target language text In short, translation is the communication of the meaning of a source language text by means of an equivalent target language text Translation is a Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 All things considered, in terms of fixed expression, especially idioms, we can see that the amount of word in English idioms are unstable and diverse while the number of word in Vietnamese idioms are often four This is due to the difference between the two cultures Meanwhile, nomadic culture with dynamic nature has free way of expression, agricultural culture with static nature has rythmical way of expression representing settled lifestyle In the content aspect, idioms of the two languages also express theirs unique mindset and culture This requires translator to master not only knowledge of skills but also extensive knowledge of Vietnamese and British cultures in order to translate idioms effectively Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 41 Chapter 4: Recommendations Translating requires not only translating skills but also knowledge of different cultures to make sure to convey the message of the original text rightly Translator must follow some basic principles of translation to ensure the accuracy of the source language text when translating into the target language 4.1 Some basic principles of translation 4.1.1 The first general principle A translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work In order that a translator may be enabled to give a complete comprehension of the ideas of the original work, it is indispensably necessary, that he should have a perfect knowledge of the language of the original, and a competent acquaintance with the subject of which it treats If he is deficient in either of these requisites, he can never be certain of thoroughly comprehending the sense of his author The first seems obvious enough It means no errors or omissions, but also includes the idea that a translation is not a copy or a reproduction, but an original work in and of itself, even if its content is based entirely on another work The translator is not supposed to make additions, amendment, or annotations, except possibly when working esoteric literary texts The extreme difficulty of translating from the work of ancients is most discernible to those who are best acquainted with the ancient languages It is but a small part of genius and powers of a language which is to be learnt from dictionaries and grammars There are innumerable niceties, not only of Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 42 construction and of idiom, but even in the signification of words, which are discovered only by much reading and critical attention 4.1.2 The second general principle The style and manner of writing in a translation should be of the same character with that of the original The second principle is similarly obvious, though difficult to execute in practice It means that the translator must not only have a complete command of writing in the target language, but also must be able to perceive stylistic touches and understand their meaning in the original text A simple example from the realm of patent translation should suffice; “means” in the term of choice in a U.S patent when explaining how the invention operates; by custom, it takes no article, which in any other document would be grammatically and stylistically peculiar, but in a patent is what we A patent translator working into English must know this, otherwise the character of the translation will be flawed 4.1.3 The third general principle A translation should have all ease of the original composition The third principle is the hardest to achieve There is a delicate balance to achieve here, in other words, and translators must aspire to be good writers in their native language, and must know all the finer points of writing in the subject and language they are working in so as to produce a translation with "all the ease of original composition." In other words, a translation should not sound like a translation 4.2 Strategies to tackle non-equivalent at word level Because of the difference of culture between Vietnamese and English, translators have to deal with the non-equivalent at word level After dealing Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 43 the difficulties implied in the lack of equivalence at word level, Baker (1992, p 26-42) proposes nine strategies to solve non-equivalence at word level When applying to English-Vietnamese circumstance, a strategy is omitted; hence, totally there are eight strategies to be introduced in the following section 4.2.1 Translating by a more specific word The strategy of translation by a more specific term (hyponym) might lead to over interpretation of the source language meaning, which in the majority of cases seems to be more dangerous than over generalization However, in some cases, it may be appropriate or necessary to use more specific wordto translate an English word into Vietnamese This usually involves choosing among several different words, as they may be many Vietnmaese words that correspond to the general categoryor meaning expressed by English word For example : Source text : Almost a quarter of people in the UK not wear sunscreen to protect themselves from the sun’s rays Target language: Gần phần tư người dân Anh quốc không thoa kem chống nắng để bảo vệ da khỏi tia từ mặt trời There is no Vietnamese general word correspond with the verb “wear” in all cases But depending on each, translator needs to use a different Vietnamese word which is suitable and applicable in that context In this example it is necessary to use word “thoa” instead of “mặc” in Vietnamese since it sounds more natural Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 44 4.2.2 Translating by a more general word Translation by generalisation is one of the most commonly applied strategies in dealing with various kinds of problems i translation The translator usually use a more general word (superordinate) or a more commonly known to replace the more specific one Yet, the possibility of relative ease of rendering a problematic specific concept with a more general one may result in excessive generalization and eventually in oversimplification (loss in meaning) in translated text For example : Source text : She is interested in how the message on the sweater evolve overt time Target language : Cô quan tâm tới việc thông điệp áo len thay đổi theo thời gian Unlike “change”, “evolve” denotes the change during millions of years or a gradual process of change What the translator did is finding the semantic field then grasping the core propositional meaning 4.2.3 Translating by a more neutral / less expressive word This strategy is particular useful when a translator encounters an expressive word If carelessly, he might fail to convey the true meaning or even cause misunderstanding There are cases even the translator picks up a word which seems to equivalent but perceived differently in the target language Therefore, using a less expressive correspondence in the target language to avoid the risk and to sound natural is a good recommendation Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 45 For example : Source text : Overseas Vietnamese was delighted with remarkable changes in the motherland Target language : Việt Kiều vui mừng trước thay đổi đáng kể quê hương Back – translation : Overseas Vietnamese was delighted with remarkable changes in the homeland It is quite dangerous to translate “motherland” as “mẫu quốc” as each single syllable meaning People from the United States and former British colonists would sometimes describe the United Kingdom as the “Mother Country”, often carrying a strong British Imperialist connotation Other Vietnamese versions such as “đất mẹ, quê mẹ”, still, bring about an unnatural feeling; hence, “quê hương” should be the best translation 4.2.4 Translating by substitution This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expressio with one of the different meanings but similar impact in the translated text Most Vietnamese translator dislike this strategy and prefer direct translation claiming that it is a way to respect for the original text For example : “HSC” – the abbreviation of Higher School Certificate in New South Wale should be translated as “bằng tú tài Úc” or “Bằng tốt nghiệp phổ thông trung học Úc” “Junior High School” and “Senior High School” in the United State of America are transferred as “Trường Trung Học Cơ Sở” and “Trường Tung Học Phổ Thông” respectively Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 46 Likewise, “The baby weighs six pounds” (đứa bé cân cân Anh) should be translated as “đứa bé nặng kí 7” or “the two house are 100 yards apart” (Hai nhà cách 100 mã Anh) will be translated as “Hai nhà cách chừng 100 thước” 4.2.5 Translating by using a loan word plus explanation Another strategy which is particularly useful in dealing with culturespecific items is the strategy of using a loan word The loan word can, and very often even should, be followed with an explanation This strategy is very useful when the translator deal with concepts or ideas that are new to Vietnamese audience, culture-specific items and proper names of deseases or medicines that are widely known in English names For instance, HIV and AIDS are two loan words that are frequently used in Vietnamese, as they are referred to by their English names in almost every part of the world Because these words have been in common used in Vietnam for a long time , they are often used without any accompanying explanation Whenever a loan word is used, it is better to give an explanation ORESOL, for instance, stands for Oral Rehydration Solution (dung dịch bù nước đường uống) In many packages, it is written in English with the explanation in parenthesis as ORESOL (muối uống để bù nước) 4.2.6 Translating by using a paraphrase Translation by paraphrasing is another of the possible ways in coping with problematic items in translation It is advantage is that it is possible to achieve a high level of precision in specifying the meaning of a word or concept that poses difficulties in translation The main disadvantage of this Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 47 strategy is that it usually involves replacing one item with an explanation consisting of several items For example : Source text : An international annual workshopon the prospect of Vietnam farm produce in 2010 is likely to spotlight animal husbandry and coffe growing Target language : Hội thảo quốc tế thường niên triển vọng sản xuất nông nghiệp Việt Nam chắn hướng ý công chúng vào ngành chăn nuôi trồng cà phê Back-translation : An international annual workshopon the prospect of Vietnam farm produce in 2010 is likely to draw public attention animal husbandry and coffe growing The verb “spotlight” is an interesting example of paraphrasing techniquebeacuse when functioning as a verb it means “receiving a lot of public attention” Due to the absent of Vietnamese equivalence word for a already known concept, it is chance for a translator to paraphrase it as “hướng ý công chúng”, which even will produce a beautiful expression 4.2.7 Translating by omission Baker (1992) states further that this strategy may sound rather drastic, but in fact it does not harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts Nida (1964) also shares there are cases where omission is requiredto avoid redundancy and awkwardness and this strategy is applied if the source language tends to be a redundant language For example : Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 48 Source language : Long hours and shares stress at work are leading to office romance Target language : Thời gian làm việc chung chia sẻ khó khăn làm việc nguyên nhân dẫn tới tình công sở Back-translation : Long hours and shares stress at work are leading to more office affection “Romance” sometimes should be translated as “tình” or “chuyện tình” instead of “câu chuyện tình lãng mạn” as stated in the dictionary The shorter version, though, can convey the implication which is enough for reader to understand 4.2.8 Translating by illustratation This is useful option if the word which lacks an equivalence in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space or if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point “Tò he” toys are sculptured figurines fashioned from coloured rice dough It is made to depict different heroes and ordinary people of daily life, symbolic animals However, it is stll difficult for the readers to visualize what exactly a “tò he” is, what size is it etc The best way to illustrate a “tò he” is showing a photo of it 4.3 Strategies to tackle non-equivalence at phrasal level 4.3.1 Using an idiom of similar mean and form This strategy involves using an idiom in the target language which conveys roughly the same meaning as that of the source language idiom and, Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 49 in addition, consists of equivalence lexical items This kind of match can only occasionally be achieved It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar meaning to an English idiom or expression, and which is expressed in the same way One example is the idiom “to fight like cats and dogs”, which is expressed using the same words in Vietnamese “cãi chó với mèo”; another is “Better late than never”, which is translated as “Thà muộn không” It is ideal if such a match can be found, but this kind of correspondence is not common, and it is usually necessary to use other strategies in dealing with idioms and fixed expressions One example is the idiom “It is raining cats and dogs” This idiom does not have any meaning related to the pets (cats or dogs), but it just means “It is raining heavily” – “Trời mưa to.” or “Mưa tầm tã.” in Vietnamese If this English idiom is translated in the way of literal translation which just focuses on the meaning in dictionary of the word “cat”- “con mèo” and the word “dog” – “con chó” like “Trời mưa mèo chó”, the sentence is totally nonsense Thus, it is clear that no Vietnamese idiom or expression with a similar meaning to this English idiom can be found 4.3.2 Using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form It is often possible to find an idiom or fixed expression in the target language which has a meaning similar to that of the source idiom or expresion It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with a similar meaning to an English idiom or set expression, but which is expressed differently A good example is the translation for “chở củi rừng”, which is translated as “to carry firewood to the forest” However, in English “to carry firewood to the forest” is not an idiom and does not have the meaning as the Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 50 Vietnamese idiom “chở củi rừng” The correct English equivalent of the Vietnamese idiom is “to carry coals to Newcastle” The meaning here is clearly the same for both idioms - to bring something to a place that already has an abundance of that thing - but the way in which each language expresses it is bound to the culture of that language It would be far more cumbersome to translate this idiom word-for-word into Vietnamese with an explanation that Newcastle is a well-known coal-producing city in England (as was suggested by some Vietnamese translators), which would unduly interrupt the flow of the text and greatly diminish the idiom’s impact By substituting a similar Vietnamese idiom, then, the flow and the impact of the original text are retained in the translation 4.3.3 Translating by paraphrase This is by far the most common way of translating idioms when a match cannot be found in the target language or when it seems inappropriate to use idiomatic language in the target text because of differences in stylistic preferences of the source and target languages When Vietnamese equivalents cannot be found, paraphrasing may be the best way to deal with an idiom or fixed expression A good example can be found in an article on maternal mortality, which includes the sentence, “But before the new estimates replace the old as a way of packaging up the problem, it should be said that a mistake has been made in allowing statistics such as these to slip into easy language” The expression “packaging up the problem” presented problems in translation, as it was misinterpreted to mean “assembling” or “gathering together” However, even if this phrase were clearly understood, it would be difficult to find a concise equivalent in Vietnamese; in fact, it would be difficult to re-state concisely in English This phrase is best dealt with by paraphrasing, which in English should read Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 51 something like, “summing up the problem by referring to it simply as number, which does not reflect its true magnitude or impact” The expression “to slip into easy usage” is problematic for the same reasons, and is also best dealt with by paraphrasing, as a direct translation into Vietnamese would nonsensical Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 52 Part C: Conclusion All in all, culture has influence on translation at word and phrase level Examples provided in this paper, however, cannot cover all cases in real practice of translating non-equivalence at word and phrase level There is a potential space for further study and analysis nominated from international translators and professionals to better explore and share knowledge and experiences in this field Translation equivalence is always long to achieve since it depends on the text, the translators, and the receptors It is a fact that no matter how competent the translator is, the translation might lose a contain degree of meaning relative to the original text Not only the linguistic but also the cultural gaps among languages create the possibility of non-equivalence in translation Obviously, the larger the gap is, the harder the translation process will be Hence, it is a must for a translator to continuously improve the personal knowledge on various areas and cultures of different countries Despite of the recommended strategies, the creativeness of a translator is particularly important as no book can cover all the cases happen in reality In my study, I distinguish the influence of culture on VietnameseEnglish and English-Vietnamese translation in term of word and fix expression In terms of word, culture influences the word relating to festival, word relating to custom, vocative and personal pronouns, verb, adjective, preposition, noun of symbolic images At phrasal level, culture influences comparative idiom of shape and appearance, comparative idiom of personality, comparative idiom of colour, metaphoric idiom relating to food, animal and the body part Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 53 Last but not least, the study is unable to avoid certain limitations Quality of the study is restricted due to the time limit of research, the scarcity of references, the broad scope and complex nature of the issue as well as the humble experience of the writer However, the researcher’s strong hope that the study, in its scope, is able to contribute its usefulness to the students of English in particular and the students of English major at the school in general as well as readers who are interested in Vietnamese-English and EnglishVietnamese translation If I have chance, I will more studies in other fields related to cultural influence on translation Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 54 References English materials Al-sulaimaan, M.M(2011) Semantics and Pragmatics Mosul: Dar Ibn Altheer liltibaati Wa-Alnashr Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words : A Coursebook of Translation London Routledge Catford, John C (1965) A Linguistic Theory of Translation : an Essay on Applied Linguistics London : Oxford University Press 4.Citroen, I.(1996) The Myth of the Two Professions: Literary and NonLiterary In: Babel, vol.x11, No.4, pp181-8 New Mark, P (1988) Approaches to Translation Cambridge : Cambridge University Press Nida, Eugene A (1964), Towards a Science of Translating Leiden : E J Brill Nida, E and Taber.J (1974) The Theory and Practice of Translation Leiden : E.J.Brill Vietnamese materials Vũ Ngọc Cân (2007) Các khó khăn dịch phương hướng khắc phục, Language and Life Journal , Vol (142) Trần Ngọc Thêm (1996) Tìm sắc văn hóa Việt Nam NXB Tp.Hồ Chí Minh Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 55 [...]... professional associations Because of the laboriousness of translation, since the 1940s engineers have sought to automate translation (machine translation) The rise of the Internet has fostered a worldwide market for translation services and has facilitated language localization Translation studies deal with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation Nowadays,... all, of the above-mentioned positions on the nature of culture and its definitions The scientific study of culture should have a practical orientation but this cannot be achieved without defining culture; therefore discussions on the concept of Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015 15 culture are not quite useless The goal of such discussions should not be to arrive at one right and commonly... lifestyle, the Vietnamese often set the object and place in the correlation to people For example, the British say “There are many stars in the sky” (there are many stars on the sky), but the Vietnamese say “Có nhiều sao trên trời”, because when speaking, Vietnamese people often consider the speaker the centre In another situation, when Hung is on the third floor, Minh is on the first floor and Nam is on the. .. 1.Intralingual translation, translation within the same language, which can involve rewording or paraphrase 2 Interlingual translation, translation from one language to another 3.Intersemiotic translation, translation of the verbal sign by non-verbal sign for example music or image The update methods of translation are those suggested by Newmark (1982) In what follows, each one of them will be talked about... definition that will once and for all lay the issue to rest Rather, we should stay open to diverse conceptualizations of culture, provided they are clearly explained by their proponents and make sense to others Consequently, the question of whether culture is a system of behaviors, meanings, mental characteristics, or artifacts, or of all of these, cannot and need not be answered categorically It can be conceptualized... quality to culture, especially to so-called traditional ones These six inadequate ideas about culture are related and mutually reinforcing Using them, we argue, greatly diminish the utility of the culture concept as an analytical tool for understanding social action, in this case, conflict and conflict resolution 2.3 Conclusion About the Conceptualization of Culture It is possible to integrate and reconcile... because of the integration process, translation study is increasingly developed Translation studies still focus on describing the process of translation between languages and proposing principles as well as models for translation Reseachers are required to administer different methods with different point of views of related sciences to carry out the mission of translation studies It can be seen that translation. .. history It is profoundly influenced by the geographical position, natural and social conditions of the culture in which the language is used Thus, the sets of idioms and fixed expressions in different language vary in many ways Hence, as mentioned in the scope of the study, I focus the influences of cultural elements on translating idiom only 3.3.1 Comparative idiom In comparative idioms, the comparative... (Chúng giống nhau như hai giọt nước) 1.4.7 Free translation As indicated by the word “free”, free translation focuses more on content than form in the target language; as a result, sometimes the grammar structure of the form of the words in the target language may change; the number of words and the sentence length may vary, depending on the subjectivity of the Bien Thi Van Anh - Group K18A2 – Course 2011-2015... ngồi xuống đi”, etc 1.4.3 Faithful translation Faithful translation can be described as one kind of translation which tries to convey the meaning of words and context situation according to the grammar rules of the target language; however, if the sentence “Tôi e rằng cô ta không làm được việc đó” (I think she cannot do it) was translated this way, then the structure of the target language (English) does