Common errors on word choices in translating cultural texts of the fourth year English linguistics students at Hung Vuong University

In the modern life, English has become the most widely used language all over the world. It is considered as the medium of communication in many different fields such as science, technology, aviation, international sport, diplomacy, and so on. Therefore, English translations have played a prominent part in globalization, and international integration in recent years. Thanks to English translated versions, countries are able to have mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in this multilingual world. Moreover, English translation makes people understand each other more in the process of diplomatic relations and economic cooperation and other fields in todays era when countries tend to integrate for the whole development. As a result, English translation has gradually become an indispensable and pressing tool which set the path for the global success of individuals, organizations, and even businesses in the modern time when society is more developed and competition is relentless. Therefore, nowadays when Vietnam becomes one of the members of World Trade Organization, it is necessary for Vietnamese students of English to have expert translation skill in order to meet the demand of integration into the world economy and exchange of culture with other countries. Nowadays, social and cultural documents display many linguistic peculiarities, as well as social and cultural aspects of our lives and, thus, we can assert that cultural translation is one of the main ways of communication across cultures. Translating these texts, however, is not an easy task, since it certainly poses many problems for the translator. One of the problems a translator can face arises from the fact that word choices. Some words or phrases denoting objects, facts, phenomena, etc, are so deeply rooted in their source culture (SC) and so specific (and perhaps exclusive or unique) to the culture that produced them that they have no equivalent in the target culture (TC), because they are unknown, or because they are not yet codified in the target language (TL). Word choices in translating is an important thing so it requires translators while translating carefully.However, in reality, VietnameseEnglish translation skill is not easy for Vietnamese students to master, so learners cant avoid mistakes in their translating practice. Perhaps, because of some influence on the differences about cultures or their own limited language ability, etc, Vietnamese students of English in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translating, and special in translating cultural texts from Vietnamese into English. Students in K12 English Linguistics are no exception. They made a lot of mistakeserrors in choosing vocabulary when translating texts. For those reasons, I decided to choose the study “Common errors on word choices in translating cultural texts of the fourth year English linguistics students at Hung Vuong University” with the aim of identifying common Vietnamese–English translation errors made by these students and thereby, proposing suggestions to improve the current practice.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor, Nguyen Thi To Loan, M.A for her guidance and encouragementduring my study I’m very grateful for being accepted as her student in thissubject and I really appreciate all her help and suggestions on various drafts ofthis graduate paper Without her valuable advice and support, this research couldnot have been completed on schedule

I would also like to express my full appreciation to all teachers at theForeign Language Faculty of Hung Vuong University who helped me so much

in my data collection

Besides, I want to use this opportunity to express my deepest thanks to all

45 members of class K12 – English Linguistics for having cooperated inproviding valuable information in the survey as well as doing the test If ithadn’t been for their help, I wouldn’t have finished my graduation paper withgreat success

Additionally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dear friendsfor their help and warm encouragement throughout my hard times carrying outthe study Without them, I could not have overcome such times and concentrated

on my study

Finally, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my loving parentsfor their continuous support during my study Their love and encouragementhelped me overcome the difficult times during the study I could not have beenable to complete this project without their intense devotion

The purpose of the study was to investigate the common errors in wordchoice in Vietnamese – English cutural translation committed by fourth - yearEnglish majors, Department of Foreign Languages, Hung Vuong University and

to propose some specific recommendations for students Together with theattempt to fulfill the graduation paper, the following processes were made:

Firstly, the researcher gave theoretical background about translation,translation methods, errors, and some common errors committed by Vietnamesetranslation when translating from Vietnamese into English

Secondly, the researcher presented the methodology of the study togetherwith giving a test and implementing a survey by delivering the questionnaire tostudents of class K12 – English Linguistics After that, the researcher carried outthe interview to lecturers of Department of Foreign languages in Hung VuongUniversity Having collected the data from the test results, survey questionnaireand the interview found that students make various lexical errors in Vietnamese– English translation Some common lexical errors of students when translatingand the causes of the errors were also identified

Based on the result of the interview, the researcher gives somerecommendations for English major students as well as lecturers of English toimprove students’ translation skills and help them get better translationperformance, especially in cutural translations

LIST OF TABLES

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous researches 2

1.2.1 In the world 2

1.2.2 In Vietnam 4

1.2.3 Gaps of previous researches 5

1.3 Research purposes 5

1.4 Research questions 5

1.5 Settings of the research 6

1.6 Significanceoftheresearch 6

1.7 Scope of the research 6

1.8 Design of the research 6

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 8

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

1.1 An overview on translation 8

1.1.1 Definition of Translation 8

1.1.2 Translation strategies 9

1.1.3 Factors affecting translation process 19

1.1.4 Translation methods 23

1.2 Translation errors 25

1.2.1 Errors 25

1.2.2 Translation errors 25

1.2.3 Classification of translation errors 26

1.2.4 Common errors in translation 29

1.3 An overview on cultural texts 34

1.3.1 The definition of culture 34

1.3.2 The definition and features of culture texts 36

1.3.3 The relation between translation and culture 39

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 42

2.1 Participants 42

2.2 Methods of the study 42

2.2.1 Qualitative research methods 42

2.2.2 The quantitative method 42

2.3 Data collection instruments 42

2.3.1 Test 42

2.3.2 Questionnaires 43

2.3.3 Interview 44

2.4 Research procedure 44

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 46

3.1 The results from test 46

3.1.1 Error 1: Word collocation 47

3.1.2 Error 2: Misuse of preposition 47

3.1.3 Error 3: Misuse of synonyms 48

3.1.4 Error 4: Misuse of part of speech 49

3.1.5 Error 5: Name of organization 49

3.2 The results from questionnaires 50

3.2.1 The students’ attitude towards translation and word choice in translating culture texts 50

3.2.2 The students’ difficulties and common errors in translating Vietnamese- English texts 52

3.2.4 Suggestions to improve the students’ translation 56

3.3 The result from interview 57

3.3.1 The result from question 1 58

3.3.2 The result from question 2 58

3.3.3 The result from question 3 58

3.3.4 The result from question 4 59

3.4 Discussions 60

3.4.1 Common errors in word choice made by 4 th year students 60

3.4.2 The causes of errors made by the students 60

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS’ TRANSLATION PERFORMANCE 62

4.1 Build up vocabulary – improve background knowledge 62

4.1.1 Using Word Cards 62

4.1.3 Create vocabulary notebook – enhance vocabulary 65

4.2 More translation practice 66

PART III: CONCLUSION 68

1 Summary 68

2 Suggestions 68

3 Implications 70

4 Limitations of the study 70

5 Suggestions for the further study 70

REFERENCES 72

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2.1: Errors and codes of errors 43Table 2.2: Contents of the questionnaires 44Table 3.1: The errors in the students’ translation test 46Table 3.1: The students’ attitude towards translation and word choice in

translating culture texts 50Table 3.2: Difficulties in types of translation texts 52Table 3.3: Topics of cultural translation texts that the students easily commit error 53Chart 3.1:Student’common errors in word choice in translating cutural texts from Vietnamese into English 54Chart 3.2: The causes for errors in word choice by students 55Table 3.4: Suggestions to improve the students’ translation 56

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In the modern life, English has become the most widely used language allover the world It is considered as the medium of communication in manydifferent fields such as science, technology, aviation, international sport,diplomacy, and so on Therefore, English translations have played a prominentpart in globalization, and international integration in recent years Thanks toEnglish translated versions, countries are able to have mutual understanding and

a sense of global citizenship in this multilingual world Moreover, Englishtranslation makes people understand each other more in the process ofdiplomatic relations and economic cooperation and other fields in today's erawhen countries tend to integrate for the whole development As a result, Englishtranslation has gradually become an indispensable and pressing tool which setthe path for the global success of individuals, organizations, and even businesses

in the modern time when society is more developed and competition isrelentless Therefore, nowadays when Vietnam becomes one of the members ofWorld Trade Organization, it is necessary for Vietnamese students of English tohave expert translation skill in order to meet the demand of integration into theworld economy and exchange of culture with other countries

Nowadays, social and cultural documents display many linguisticpeculiarities, as well as social and cultural aspects of our lives and, thus, we canassert that cultural translation is one of the main ways of communication acrosscultures Translating these texts, however, is not an easy task, since it certainlyposes many problems for the translator One of the problems a translator canface arises from the fact that word choices Some words or phrases denotingobjects, facts, phenomena, etc, are so deeply rooted in their source culture (SC)and so specific (and perhaps exclusive or unique) to the culture that producedthem that they have no equivalent in the target culture (TC), because they areunknown, or because they are not yet codified in the target language (TL) Wordchoices in translating is an important thing so it requires translators while

translating carefully.However, in reality, Vietnamese-English translation skill isnot easy for Vietnamese students to master, so learners can't avoid mistakes intheir translating practice Perhaps, because of some influence on the differencesabout cultures or their own limited language ability, etc, Vietnamese students ofEnglish in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on intranslating, and special in translating cultural texts from Vietnamese intoEnglish Students in K12 English Linguistics are no exception They made a lot

of mistakes/errors in choosing vocabulary when translating texts

For those reasons, I decided to choose the study “Common errors on word choices in translating cultural texts of the fourth year English linguistics students at Hung Vuong University” with the aim of identifying common

Vietnamese–English translation errors made by these students and thereby,proposing suggestions to improve the current practice

1.2 Previous researches

1.2.1 In the world

Translation is a complex process where fragile balance is achieved betweenthe equivalence of the text translated and the linguistic means chosen In reality,translation from one language into another language is a complex work In thetranslation processing, translators may make mistakes so there are manyresearchers studying on these problems They can be seen in the followingstudies:

Mossop, B (1989) in his study about “Objective and cultural norm of translation” describes translation errors as “a given rendering will be deemed to

be no translation if it fails to conform to the concept of translation predominant

in the target culture” He identifies translation errors in terms of cultural normand formal equivalence It means that the definition of translation error byMossop includes the achievement of formal equivalence but excludes othercritical factors such as smoothness, readability, and consistency in translationalproduct

A more thorough notion of error is proposed by Pym A (1992) in the

studyabout “Translation and text transfer: An Essay on the principles of intercultural communication” This scholar supposes that translation errors may

be attributed to lack of comprehension, misuse of time, inappropriateness toreadership, language, pragmatics, culture, over-translation, under-translation,discursive or semantic inadequacy

Krzysztof, H (1992), in his resarch about “Translation: A Cognitive Communicative Approach” divides translation errors into four main types: errors

-of syntagmatic surface translation, errors -of mistaken interpretation, realizationerrors and meta-translation errors The first type includes equivalents, falsefriends, calques and unjustified borrowings The second type covers misreadingsyntagms and wrong interpretation of verb frame, misinterpret scenes and scriptsand misreading the text modality The third type covers TL errors, wrongevaluation of recipients’ knowledge and insufficient of knowledge of subject-matter The final type comprises translation technique, additions, omissions, twoversions, too many or too few footnotes, a wrong translation strategy,corrections and changing the text’s intertextuality Nevertheless, this approach iscomplicated and troublesome for researchers to figure out translations errors ofprofessional translators in general and undergraduates in particular

Wang Baorong (2009) in his research about “Translating publicity texts in the light of the skopos theory: Problems and suggestions” arrives at a mutual

conclusion that translation errors should be classified into three main typesincluding pragmatic translation errors, cultural translation errors and linguistictranslation errors Pragmatic translation errors are caused by practical issuessuch as a lack of receiver orientation and background knowledge Culturaltranslation errors are related to equivalent problems and methods to deal withcultural words Linguistic errors occur due to the lack of the proficiency of thetranslator

1.2.2 In Vietnam

Duong T.T.H and Nguyen T.C.X (2010) intheir studies about “The study Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English majors at Dong Thap University” found out that Vietnamese students of English

in general still have mistakes on grammar, word choices and so on in translatingVietnamese texts into English The study also revealed that lack of vocabularycauses many problems in translation process, frequently; students could notchoose the right word in the context or use the right term

Nguyen T.T.H andTrieu T.H (2015) intheir studies about “Vietnamese – English Translation Errors Made by Second Year Translation - Major Students:

An Initial Step towards Enhancing Translation Standards” pointed out that

lexical choice posed the biggest challenges to students, and gave suggestions forimproving students’ performance

The study “Errors in the translation of topic-comment structures of Vietnamese into English” conducted by Pham (2005) aimed to investigate what

kind of errors the students made in translating topic – comment structure Theparticipants of the study were ninety-five students from English translationclasses in their first, second, third, and fourth years of the Department of EnglishLanguage and Literature at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities inVietnam The results showed that students made five types of errors includingomission of subject, repetition of subject, inappropriate choice of subject, nological connection between subject and predicate, and inappropriate connectionbetween subject and passive verbs The omission of subject was the mostfrequent type of error among all types of errors relating to the sentence’s subject

Huynh Thanh Thuy (2012) studied “An analysis of common errors on verb tenses and word choices in Vietnamese-English translation made by the second- year English majors at Dong Thap University” aimed to find out the common

errors on verb tense and word choice in Vietnamese – English translation made

by the second-year English major students at Dong Thap University Theparticipants of the study were the second-year students of English majors at the

University After the data was analyzed, grammatical errors about verb tense inmisuse of verb tense, misuse of verb forms and incorrect structures, and usingvocabulary in context inappropriately were indicated.

1.2.3 Gaps of previous researches

Many researchers in the world as well as in Vietnam studied on thetranslation and translation errors However, the above researchers have mainlyfocused on finding out the errors in translation in general, not particular inVietnamese – English translation, and cultural texts There have been causes thatlead to the errors and they have also proposed some possible solutions to dealwith the problems However, they did not suggest the specific solutions for acertain groups of learners

The present study would have two aspects that were different from theabove studies The first thing was that the study was conducted to investigateEnglish major students' common error types in word choice in translatingcultural text from Vietnamese – English, the causes leading to those error types,and propose specific recommendation Another was that the participants of thestudy were the fourth-year English major students and the translation teachingteachers at Hung Vuong University

1.3 Research purposes

The purpose of this research is to:

- Find out the majors' common errors in word choicesin translating culturaltexts from Vietnamese into English

- Find out the causes of these problems and then suggest some possiblestrategies to overcome the problems

1.4 Research questions

- What are the common errors on word choiceswhen translating culturaltexts made by fourth year English linguistics students?

- What are the possible causes of these common errors?

- What are the suggestions to rectify these errors?

1.5 Settings of the research

The study is conducted at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung VuongUniversity, Phu Tho Province

1.6 Significanceoftheresearch

The graduation paper will help the students recognize their common errors

on word choice in translating cultural texts The study will be a useful referencewith the solutions suggested which help the students to self-correct theircommon mistakes and find out their own effective ways in leaning in order toimprove their translation skill Furthermore, it helps the students not onlyimprove their language learning in general but also have a great advantage fortheir future ideal job

1.7 Scope of the research

The graduation paper focuses on finding out common errors on wordchoices in translating cultural texts from Vietnamese into English of the fourth-year English linguistic students at Hung Vuong University Moreover, the studyonly focuses on the following themes (ecology, material culture,andorganisations, customs, and ideals) of five culture themes which wereclassified by Newmark (1988)

1.8 Design of the research

This research consists of the following parts:

Chapter 1: Literature review

This part presents theoretical background of translation, translationstrategies, factors affecting translation process, translation methods, translationerrors, classification of translation errors, common errors in translation, cuturaltranslation and its significance, types and characteristics

Chapter 2: Research methodology

In this part will focus on the objectives of the research, the scope of theresearch, research participants, research methods, and data collectinginstruments

Chapter 3: Findings of the research

This chapter aims to present some common errors on word choices whenstudents translate cultural texts from Vietnamese into English and find out thecauses of the errors through the results got from the test, survey questionnaireand interview, thus propose some recommendations for teachers and students toimprove students’ translation skills

Chapter 4: Discussions and suggestions

Part III: Conclusion

The researcher summarizes the major findings, limmitations of theresearch, and provides suggestions for further studies

This chapter presents the background of the study and shows the rationalefor the study, lists limitations, its implications as well as mentions somesuggestions for future study and presents conclusion

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 An overview on translation

1.1.1 Definition of Translation

It has been long taken for granted that translation deals only with language.Cultural perspective, however, has not yet been brought into discussion Thefirst definition presented by Catford (1965: 20) refers to translation as the

“Replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material

in another language” Yet, it is still vague in terms of the type of equivalence.

Culture was not taken into account

Next, Nida and Taber (1969) explain the process of translating as follows:Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest naturalequivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning andsecondly in terms of style

Newmark’s definition about translation was introduced in 1981, with major

focus on linguistic aspect: "Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language"

Oxford University defines translation as “the process of translating words

or text fromone language into another” The Cambridge Dictionary also

endorses that This canmean the word to word rendering of the text in onelanguage to another or replacingthe equivalents of the words or phrases in one

text to another The translated text mayhave formal equivalence when the source text and the translated text look alike in form.It may have functional

equivalence when the source text and the target text or translatedtext convey the

same sense or perform the same function, though they have formal differences

It is often seen that the idiomsand usage of the source language creep intothetarget language through translationswhich often enrich and shape thetargetlanguage

Bell, RT (1991) says “Translation is the expression in another language (or TL) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences” Hatim and Mason (1990) see translation as

a communicative process which takes place within a social context Thesedefinitions attach importance to equivalence between SL and TL Indeed,translator should be the one of superior language ability in at least twolanguages

According to Andreea-RosaliaOlteanu (2012), translation is oftenassociated with the transliteration of literary works from one language toanother The question that has become sacramental is: what is translation, a

science or an art Regarding the artistic texts it can be said that translation is an

art based on science, and the interpretations made by linguists have often beenthe basis of the translators' actual experiences

In brief, it's not easy to give a complete definition of translation It can refer

to the general subject field, the products (the text that has been translated) or theprocess (the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating).The process of translation between two different languages involves thetranslator changing an original text (the source text or ST) in the original verballanguage (the source language or SL) in a different verbal language (the targetlanguage or TL) In a more general way, translation is considered the process oftransformation of a message expressed in one language, in the same message,but formulated in another language, provided that there are preserved all (orapproximately all) qualities of the original message

goal (Wikipedia Committee)

 A systematic plan, consciously adapted and mentioned, to improve one'slearning performance (Instruction Curriculum Reading Glossary)

 A strategy is a planned, deliberate, goal-oriented (has an identifiableoutcome) procedure achieved with a sequence of steps subject tomonitoring and modification (Curriculum Learning Literate-FuturesGlossary)

outcome (Deep Tranc)

Mona Baker (1992) lists different strategies in each catergory, which havebeen used by professional translators, to cope with the problematic issues whiledoing a translation task The analysis is based on the translation strategiesdescribed by Mona Baker and the strategies suggested by some translators,commissioners of translations, and others involved in translating as ways toapproach difficulties in translations

a Strategy 1: How to deal with non-equivalence at word level

It is often the case that no direct equivalents can be found in Vietnamesefor English words It may be that the concept or idea is new to Vietnam, which is

in fact a relatively new concept in general, and a difficult one to understand andexplain in many languages Or, it may be that the concept is known or readilyunderstood but there is no specific word in Vietnamese to express it Anotherdifficulty is that, in addition to their concrete meaning, some words have specialconnotations that are not conveyed by the Vietnamese word for the same thing.The strategies listed below can be used to handle cases of non-equivalence

+ Translating by a more specific word

In some cases, it may be appropriate or necessary to use a more specificword to translate an English word into Vietnamese This usually involveschoosing among several different words, as there may be many Vietnamesewords that correspond to the general category or meaning expressed by the

English term For example, the English word for “take” can be translated by

many different Vietnamese words (lấy, cầm, mang đi, chịu đựng), depending on the context (Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation 1&2) In these cases, the

English word alone is not enough to determine the appropriate Vietnamesetranslation, and it is necessary to examine the English context in deciding whichVietnamese word is to be used

+ Translating by a more general word

In other cases, it may be appropriate to use a more general word totranslate English with no specific Vietnamese equivalent Similarly, the English

words “niece” and “grand daughter”, “nephew” and “grand son” may all be translated by the Vietnamese word “cháu gái”, “cháu trai” which create

problems of comprehension in Vietnamese, as it should be clear from the contextwhich of these words is meant

+ Translating by cultural substitution

This strategy involves replacing a culture-specific item or expression withone of the different meanings but similar impact in the translated text Because

of their self-described “respect” 28 for the original text, most Vietnamesetranslators object to this strategy and tend to translate directly, even though it is

in appropriate For example, a farmer’s manual that has been translated intoVietnamese suggests the planting of different types of fruit trees which are noteven grown in Vietnam The original manual, which was developed in otherparts in Asia, was not modified at all for the Vietnamese context Though sometranslators argue that it is not the responsibility of the translator to chance thetext in this way, the translator is in fact playing an important role in this task.Translators should be encouraged to consider the appropriateness of thedocuments they are translating and suggest changes to make them moreculturally appropriate However, this is not only the burden of the translator, butalso of the commissioners of the translation and the editor

+ Translating by using a loan word plus explanation

There is some objection to this strategy in Vietnam, as many translatorprefer to coin new words in Vietnamese rather than borrow English words

However, this strategy is very useful when the translator deal with concepts orideas that are new to Vietnamese audience, culturespecific items, and propernames of diseases or medicines that are widely known in English names For

instance, TV and radio 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 along time, they are often used without any accompanying explanation.Whenever a loan word is used, it is better to give an explanation Anotherexample is the acronym for oral rehydration salts, or ORS, which is printed onevery package and hence easily recognized; this is normally written in Englishwith an explanation in Vietnamese: muối bù điện giải (Pham Thanh Binh, 2010)

+ Translating by paraphrase

This strategy can be used when translating an English word or conceptthat does not exist in Vietnamese, or when the Vietnamese term for it does notinclude all the meanings conveyed by the English term for the same concept

For example, in the sentence “Pregnant women should avoid alcohol.” In English the word “alcohol” includes all alcoholic beverages in its meaning However, the Vietnamese word for alcohol, “rượu”, does not include beer in its

definition, so the Vietnamese translation should add the word beer to reflect the

full meaning of the source language sentence “Phụ nữ mang thai nên tránh uống rượu, bia.” (Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation 1&2)

+ Translating by omission

Though some translators may reject this strategy as too drastic, it issometimes appropriate to omit words or phrases that are not essential to themeaning or impact of the text This is especially true for words that wouldrequire lengthy explanations, awkward paraphrases, or literal and unnaturaltranslations, which would interrupt the flow of the text and could distract the

readers from the overall meaning For example, the sentence “Much can be done even without being physically present in the meeting.” is best translated into Vietnamese by ‘‘Nhiều việc có thể được làm ngay cả khi không có mặt tại

cuộc họp” which omit the word “physically” in the translation (Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation 1&2) The difference in meaning between “being physically present” and being “present” is so minimal that it does not justify

translation into Vietnamese, which cannot easily express the slight emphasisimplied here by the author, and would not do so by emphasizing the physicality

of a person’s presence

b Strategy 2: How to deal with idioms and fixed expressions

According to English Idioms in Use (Mc Carthy & O’Dell, 2004, p.6), anidiom is defined as a fixed expression which “has a meaning that is not obviousfrom the individual words” In other words, words have lost their individualidentity in the idiom The structure of the idiom is, to a large extent, fixed andunchangeable Every language has a set of idioms and fixed expressions of itsown, which has been created and developed throughout history It is profoundlyinfluenced by the geographical position, natural and social conditions of theculture in which the language is used Thus, the sets of idioms and fixedexpression in different languages vary in many ways Idioms and fixedexpressions can be dealt with in ways similar to those discussed above Withidioms, however, there is the added difficulty that the translator may not realizethat she is dealing with an idiomatic expression, since more idioms may makesense when translated literally

+ Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning and form

It is sometimes possible to find a Vietnamese idiom or expression with asimilar meaning to an English idiom or expression, and which is expressed in

the same way One example is the idiom “Easier said than done”, which is expressed using the same words in Vietnamese “Nói dễ, làm khó”; another is

“Like father, like son”, which is translated as “Cha nào con nấy” 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 costs me an arm and a leg” This

idiom does not have any meaning related to the body parts (arms or legs), but it

just means“It is very expensive” – “Giá đắt cắt cổ.” or “Giá của nó rất đắt.” in

Vietnamese If this English idiom is translated in the way of literal translationwhich just focuses on the meaning in dictionary of the word “an arm”- “tay” and

the word “a leg” – “chân” like “Nó tốn của tôi một tay và một chân”, the

sentence is totally nonsense Thus, it is clear that no Vietnamese idiom orexpression with a similar meaning to this English idiom can be found (TranNgoc Que Chau, 2011)

+ Using an idiom or fixed expression of similar meaning but dissimilar form

It is also possible, and usually easier to find a Vietnamese idiom with asimilar meaning to an English idiom or set expression, but which is expressed

differently A good example is the translation for “nhập gia tùy tục”, which is translated as “join the family, follow the custom” However, in English “join the family, follow the custom” is not an idiom and does not have the meaning as the Vietnamese idiom “nhập gia tùy tục” The correct English equivalent of the Vietnamese idiom is “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” The meaning here

is clearly the same for both idioms, which is to behave however the peoplearound you behave, adapt yourselves to the custom of the places you visit, butthe way in which each language expresses it is bound to the culture of thatlanguage It would be far more cumbersome to translate this idiom word-for-word into Vietnamese with an explanation that the expression was found in aletter from Saint Augustine from 390AD In that letter, there is a sentence whichsays: “When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [in Milan] I do not Doyou also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to

give or receive scandal.” (The Oxford Dictionary of Quoations, 1999) It would

unduly interrupt the flow of the text and greatly diminish the idiom’s impact Bysubstituting a similar Vietnamese idiom, then, the flow and the impact of theoriginal text are retained in the translation

+ Translating by paraphrase

When Vietnamese equivalents cannot be found, paraphrasing may be thebest 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 inVietnamese; in fact, it would be difficult to re-state concisely in English Thisphrase is best dealt with by paraphrasing, which in English should read

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

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation 1&2).

c Strategy 3: How to deal with voice, number and person

VOICE: The passive voice is used very frequently in English and poses

some problems for translation from English into Vietnamese and vice versa inthe following ways:

(a) - Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ + (bởi B) (positive meaning)

A được/do + (B) + động từ (ii) A bị + động từ + (bởi B) (negative meaning)

A bị + (B) + động từ

- English: A to be done (by B) = A be + V 3/ed (by B)

For example: (1) Lily được Peter tặng một bó hoa

= Lily is given a bunch of flowers by Peter

(2) Tòa nhà này do ông Brown xây năm 1972

= This building was built by Mr Brown in 1972

(3) Tony bị một kẻ say rượu đâm xe vào tối hôm qua

= Tom was hit by a drunker last night

(b) - Vietnamese: (i) A được + động từ (positive meaning)

(ii) A bị + động từ (negative meaning)

(iii) Người ta/ai đó + động từ + A

- English:A to be done = A be + V 3/ed or A has/have been + V 3/ed

For example: (1) Tom mới được thăng chức gần đây

= Tom has been promoted recently

= Ai đó đã làm vỡ cái bình hoa rồi

= The flower vase has been broken

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation book 1&2)

The positive and negative connotation is often conveyed in English, it can

be difficult to know which verb to use in the Vietnamese

For example: English: The students were assigned a lot of homework

Vietnamese: “Các học sinh được giao rất nhiều bài tập về nhà.” or

“Các học sinh bị giao rất nhiều bài tập về nhà.”

(Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng, Triệu Thu Hằng, 2014)

Depending on whether doing a lot of homework was considered a positive

or negative experience On the other hand, when the positive or negativeconnotation of the sentence is clear, it is more appropriate to retain the passivevoice in the Vietnamese

Note: In Vietnamese, there are some cases where you see the word bị/được, but

there are not passive sentences in English at all

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation book 1&2)

For example:

- Anh ấy bị ngã = He falls

- Chị Lan bị ho = Lan has a cough

- Hôm nay chúng ta được đánh chén no nê

= We have an enormous and fantastic meal today

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation book 1&2)

NUMBER: Through both languages have similar notions of number and

countability, each language expresses this in very different ways In Vietnamese,number is often not expressed at all In English, number is expressed as agrammatical category, that is, there are different grammatical forms for thesingular and plural nouns In Vietnamese, however, no such distinction is made

grammatically For example, “Phụ huynh” can mean either Parent or parents In Vietnamese, some plural makers such as “các”, “những”, “tất cả”, “mọi”,

“mỗi”… can be used in addition to the noun “Các” generally means all of a given category of thing, whereas “những” refers only to some of the total number of the things being discussed “Mỗi” emphasizes the identity of the

individual members of the category without connoting anything of their totality,

while “mọi” expresses both individuality of the items and the totality of the

category If it is clear from the English context which of these plural marketsshould be used in the Vietnamese, then the translator should choose accordingly

Note: some words that can be countable in Vietnamese but are uncountable

in English For example: information, equipment, furniture, potential, advice …

PERSON: Participants roles and forms of address are expressed in

Vietnamese through a very complicated system of personal pronouns basedlargely on kinship (mối quan hệ họ hàng) terms Unlike their distinctions,depending on relationship within the family, familiarity, social status, and evenone’s particular mood or attitude in a given situation These distinctions are notalways clear in English and can usually be determined by the context, if at all If

it is not possible to determine the distinctions of the English pronouns, thedecision should be based on consideration of tone and overall purpose of thedocument

For example: A manual on health care contains sections written

specifically for children and adults In the section for children, “you” should be translated as “chúng ta”, which is the inclusive “we” – that is, the speaker is

including the listener in a group with him/herself And in different contexts,

“we” can be translated as “chúng tôi” meaning “other people and I, but not you” or “chúng ta” meaning “you and I”

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation book 1&2)

Note: In English, age is often not important in the addressing system And

there is no distinction between the relatives of mother’s side or father’s side

Hai anh em = two brothers

Hai chị em = two sisters

Chú, bác = uncle

Cô, dì, bác gái = aunt

d Strategy 4: How to deal with proper names

Geographical terms: either translated into another word in English or

translated phonologically (“s”becomes “x”) or remained unchanged

Example:

- Phi-lip-pin = The Philippines

- Vương quốc = Kingdom

- Singapore or Xingapo = Singapore

- Liên bang, Liên hiệp, Khối thịnh vượng = Common wealth

- Bỉ = Belgium

- Xã hội chủ nghĩa = Socialist

- Campuchia = Cambodia

Names of organizations: Translation from Vietnamese into English:

often using the reverse order or adjective + noun or noun +preposition + noun

“Bộ”, “Sở” = Ministry of …, Department of …

“Ngân hàng” = Bank for …, or Adjective + Bank

“Tổng công ty” = Corporation

Example:

Ngân hàng phục vụ người nghèo = Bank for the poor

Ngân hàng nhà nướcViệt Nam = The State Bank of Viet Nam

Bộ thông tin và truyền thông = Ministry of Information and Communications

Đài Truyền hình Việt Nam = Vietnam Television

Viện Khoa học và Công nghệ Việt Nam = Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology

Văn phòng Chủ tịch nước = Office of the President

e Strategy 5: How to deal with non-subject sentences

In Vietnamese-written passages, some non-subject sentences are oftencome across In this case, the following techniques of translation can be used:

- Cần triển khai những chiến lược phát triển toàn diện

= Comprehensive development schemes should be implemented

Or: It is necessary to implement comprehensive development schemes

- Vẫn chưa có cách chữa trị bệnh ung thư

= There has been no cure for cancer

(Nguyen Van Tuan, 2006, Translation book 1&2)

1.1.3 Factors affecting translation process

1.1.3.1 Linguistic Aspects

According to Mildred (1984) and Le Phuong Lan (2006), characteristics oflanguage, grammatical features and lexical features can affect translationprocess

Firstly, the translators can get both advantages and disadvantages from thepositive and negative transfer from their mother tongue During the process of

learning a foreign language, mother tongue has big influence on the learners’thinking and using the target language Mother tongue has potentially bothpositive and negative consequences: it may serve social and cognitive functions(Carless, 2008:331) It is claimed that students working in groups do not have tospeak English all the time The use of mother tongue relates to learner identity.Negative impact of mother tongue use is that too much reliance on the L1 mayundermine the interaction in English However, the students who are good atcomprehending authentic reading or listening materials, the majority keepsmentally translating from L2 into L1 and vice versa Numerous studies indicatedthat both negative and positive transfer between the L1 and L2 was importantfor development of the interlanguage, the complex system of the learners’ L2.Many teachers recognize that the L1 in the classroom is a positive representation

of the interlanguage Moreover, translation in the L2 classroom offers a way tohighlight similarities and differences between L1 and L2 forms The translation

is useful for L2 acquisition because, firstly, it uses authentic materials, secondly,

it is interactive, thirdly, it is learnercentered, and finally it promotes learnerautonomy (Mahmoud, 2006:30)

Secondly, in terms of grammatical features, parts of speech are specific.Each language has its own division of the lexicon into classes such as nouns,verbs, adjectives, etc Each language has its own different classes andsubclasses Therefore, it may not always possible to translate a source languagenoun with a noun in the target language Besides, English grammar is veryinflexible compared to other languages In reality, English goes by very strictstructures while Vietnamese language is much more flexible (Le Phuong Lan,2006) She also states that the Vietnamese language does not always use articlesand the rules are not as clear as those of the English language

Finally, in terms of lexical features, each language has its own idiomaticway of expressing meaning through lexical items such as words and phrases, etc.According to Le Phuong Lan (2006), the phrasal verbs are peculiar to English asillustrated by construction such as “look at” and “look for” In other languages,

single specific verbs are used in place of the English phrasal verbs Theconstruction as such is highly problematic because each English word hasnumerous meanings In fact, some English vocabularies are peculiar A word inEnglish may mean many other words in other languages For example, the word

“problem” may be translated into “vấn đề”, “khó khăn”, “lỗi” and “vấn nạn”,depending on the context Furthermore, according to Mildred (1984), meaningcomponents are not only “packaged” into lexical items, but they are alsopackaged” differently in one language than in another In most languages, there

is a meaning component of plurality, i.e the English –s in English, “các” and

“những” in Vietnamese Moreover, both Mildred (1984) and Le Phuong Lan(2006) agree that many times a single word in the source language will need to

be translated by several words In other words, a word in the source languagemay be translated into many words in the target language

In short, linguistic aspects such as grammatical features and lexical featuresare considered as linguistic aspects affecting translation process Besides thelinguistic aspects mentioned above, cultural aspects can directly affecttranslation process

1.1.3.2 Translators’ background knowledge

According to Haviland (1975) and Newmark (1988), culture can be defined

as a set of rules and standards which is unique to a society and followed bymembers of the society Similarly, culture is considered as a set of beliefs whichgoverns the behavior patterns of a society (Aziz &Muftah, 2000) and believed to

be one of the most complicated issues that can affect translation process(Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, 2004) Similarly, according to Aziz &Muftah (2000),translation is not simply a linguistic transformation of texts, but it is alsorendering of cultural concepts from one language to another Culture isconsidered as an important factor affecting translation process since translation

is not only a linguistic transformation of texts but also a rendering of culturalconcepts from one language to another Nida (2005) points out that “For trulysuccessful translating, biculturalism is even more important than bilingualism,

since words only have meanings in terms of the cultures in which theyfunction” According to Serdihun and Sivashish (2012), there is a closerelationship between culture, language and translation since translation involvesboth linguistic and cultural activities Supporting this point of view, Xuelian(2012) states that translation involves two different languages, which people use

to express their belief, thinking, ideas and cultures, etc Similarly, as a cultural communication event, translation is believed to involve not only twolanguages but also two cultures (Lulu, 2012) Xiantao (2010) also claimstranslation involves transferring the source language into the target language,while it is believed that language serves as a vehicle of culture Therefore, when

cross-a source text is trcross-anslcross-ated, the relevcross-ant culturcross-al trcross-anslcross-ation is more or lessinvolved Furthermore, the social context in translating a text is probably a moreimportant variable than its genre The act of translating takes place in the socio-cultural context (Hatim& Mason, 1990)

As mentioned above, culture is considered as an important factor affectingtranslation process Therefore, to translate two languages involving two differentcultures, the translator should cultivate the profound and comprehensive cultureknowledge as well as the full familiarity with the language symbols so as toobtain the deep comprehension of cultural differences (Xuelian, 2012).Similarly, Monireh (2013) believes that a good translator should haveknowledge of the culture, customs, and social settings of the source and targetlanguage speakers Besides, he should be familiar with different styles ofspeaking, and social norms of both languages This awareness can improve thequality of the translation to a great extent According to Paluszkiewicz (2005),apart from an excellent knowledge of both the source and the target language,which comprises vocabulary, word formation, grammar, spelling andpronunciation, the translator also has to possess sociolinguistic competence,which helps him to understand the text within its context, to determine itsfunctions and predict who is going to receive it Furthermore, different culturescan affect the way the members of a society view and perceive the world

Therefore, every translator should have some knowledge about how to deal withdifferent strategies of translating cultural specific items (Seyed&Hoda, 2011).

1.1.4 Translation methods

Newmark (1988) categorizes translation methods according to theiremphasis on SL or TL He mentions the difference between translation methodsand translation procedures He writes that "while translation methods relate towhole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units

of language" He goes on to refer to the following methods of translation:

Word-for-word translation: the translation is directly produced from the

source text, at word level The word order is preserved, no context is considered

when using this method For example: facebook – mặt sách; Hôm qua tôi đi chợ

 Yesterday I go market; He is a small boy. Anh ấy là một nhỏ cậu bé.

Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to

their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are translated singly, out of

context For example: He looked up at the Milky Way  Anh ấy nhìn lên vào con đường màu sữa.

Faithful translation: attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning

of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures Somecultural words are translates directly by copying from the source text to the

target text For example: He was a fast as a kangaroo -> Anh ấy nhanh như một con kangaroo The word “kangaroo” is a cultural word and it was picked

directly with any translation

Semantic translation: takes more account of the aesthetic value of the SL

text than does faithful translation, compromising on “meaning” whereappropriate so that assonance, word-lay or repetition jars in the finished version

For example: coral reefs fringing the Okinawan islands just like a necklace can

be seen only in warm and very clear water  Những rặng san hô bao quanh các đảo vùng Okinawa giống như một chiếc vòng cổ nổi bật trên nền nước biển trong xanh

Adaptation: In adaptation, the themes, characters, plots are preserved, and

the SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten Thistranslation method is often used in poem, stories or plays translations

Free translation: is when the translator gets out of the limitations of the SL

I terms of forms and expressions to produce a new translation This method isoften ised for songs translation

Idiomatic translation: reproduces the ‘message’ of the original but tends

to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms wherethese do not exist in the original This method is highly effective for the

translation of idiom For example: He was as quiet as a mouse Anh ta im như thóc

Communicative translation: attempts to render the exact contextual

meaning of the original so that the readership finds it easier to understand.Communicative translation is often used for translating a difficult document, forexample the original version of Sherlock Holmes for a child of 12 Many wordsand phrases should be changed or expressed in simpler expressions to avoidconfusion for the target readers

Among these 8 methods of translation, communicative and semantictranslations are the two major methods, and they are more frequently used for 2main aims of translation, namely accuracy and economy

Apart from these methods, when concluding the chapter on translation

methods in A Textbook of Translation, Newmark (1988) goes on to clarify five

more translation methods:

(1) Service translation: is translation from one’s language of habitual use

into another language

(2) Plain prose translation: this is translation of poems and poetic drama.

Usually stanzas become paragraphs, prose punctuation is introduced, originalmetaphors and SL culture retained, no sound-effects are reproduced

(3) Information translation: This conveys all the information in a

non-literary text, sometimes rearranged in a more logical form, sometimes partiallysummarized, and not in the form of a paraphrase

(4) Cognitive translation: This reproduces the information in a SL text

converting the SL grammar to its normal TL transpositions, normally reducingany figurative to literal language

(5) Academic translation: This reduces an original SL text to an ‘elegant’

idiomatic educated TL version which follows a literary register It irons out theexpressiveness of a writer with modish colloquialisms

When trying to look for the concept of the term “error”, the two terms,which may easily cause confusion: “error” and “mistake”, should bedifferentiated Although many people use both terms interchangeably, there is adistinction between the two terms “error” and “mistake” Goff-Kfouri (2004)

distinguishes the terms “error” and “mistake” when claiming that: “Scientifically speaking, a mistake is generally considered as a fault in performance; it does not occur systematically An error reflects a gap in student’s knowledge and is systematic”.

1.2.2 Translation errors

In the translation field, Neubert& Shreve (1995) describe a translationerror as something that is very complicated and difficult to define and identify.Viewed from the standpoint of equivalence, translation errors can be considered

as non-equivalence between source text and target text, or non-adequacy of thetarget text (Koller, 1979, p 216, cited in Dewi, 2015) Pym (1992, p 281)

considers errors in translation as a manifestation of a defect in any factorsentering into the skills in translation Hatim& Mason (1997, p 203) definetranslation errors as (1) significant (unmotivated) mismatches of denotationalmeaning between source and target text (subdivided into omissions, additionsand substitutions); and (2) breaches of the target-language system (e.g.orthography, grammar)

Viewed from a functionalistic approach, Seguinot (1990, p 172) defines

translation errors as “An offence against: (1) the function of the translation, (2) the coherence of the text, (3) the text type or text form, (4) linguistic conventions, (5) culture- and situation-specific conventions and conditions, (6) the language system” The “skopos theory” views a translation error “As a failure to carry out the instructions implied in the translation brief and as an inadequate solution to a translation problem” and how much the target text

function meets the expectations of the receivers (Nord, 2009, p 190)

As discussed previously, translations errors are defined differentlydepending on translation theories and norms (Hansen, 2010) Based on theprojects of this study, the concept of translation errors adopted in this study isstated by ATA Framework According to ATA, translation errors are negativeimpact(s) on the understanding or use of a target text

1.2.3 Classification of translation errors

Until now, there are still no universal translation error categories Theclassification of translation errors seems hard to obtain because there aredifferent translation theories, then different definitions of translation errorsleading to no universally accepted translation error classifications Furthermore,different translation language pairs, for instance, Vietnamese and English, orArabic English, could result in different types of errors (Dewi, 2015)

a Melis&Albir’ s classification

Melis&Albir (2001, p 208) suggest that the main questions that need to

be considered are the following:

- The difference between errors relating to the source text (opposite

sense, wrong sense, nonsense, addition and suppression) and errorsrelating to the target text (spelling, vocabulary, syntax, coherence andcohesion);

- The difference between functional errors and absolute errors;

- The difference in individual translators between systematic errors

(recurrent) and random errors (isolated);

- The difference between errors in the product and errors in the process.

b Benhaddou’sclassification

Benhaddou (1991) distinguishes two types of errors: Covertly erroneous errors (dimensional errors): those errors which result from a mismatch along the situational dimensions; and Overtly erroneous errors (non-dimensional errors):

those occur at the level of denotative meaning or a breach of the target languagesystem

c Krzysztof’s classification

Krzysztof (1992) divides translation errors intofour main types: errors ofsyntagmatic surfacetranslation, errors of mistaken interpretation,realizationerrors and meta-translation errors

- The first type includes equivalents, falsefriends, calques and unjustifiedborrowings

- The second type covers misreading syntagmsand wrong interpretation ofverb frame,misinterpret scenes and scripts and misreading the textmodality

- The third type covers TLerrors, wrong evaluation of recipients’knowledgeand insufficient of knowledge ofsubject-matter

- The final type comprisestranslation technique, additions, omissions,twoversions, too many or two few footnotes, awrong translation strategy,corrections andchanging the text’s intertextuality

Nevertheless, this approach is complicated andtroublesome for researcher

to figure outtranslations errors of professional translators ingeneral andundergraduates in particular

- Cultural translation errors, due to an inadequate decision with regard

to reproduction or adaptation of culture-specific conventions

- Linguistics translations errors, caused by an inadequate translationwhen the focus is on language structures

- Text-specific translation errors, which are related to a text-specifictranslation problem and, like the corresponding translation problems,can usually be evaluated from a functional or pragmatic point of view.e.Suksaeresup and TipaThep-Ackrapong’s classification

According to Suksaeresup and TipaThep-Ackrapong (2009) errors found atthis stage can be divided into the following categories:

- Miscue: is a term coined by Goodman (1969) referring to an incorrectguess made by a reader when reading a text For example, the word program isread as performance; ready as reading, county as country and so forth Usuallybeginner readers make a lot of miscue errors; however, when their readingimproves, they tend to make fewer of this type of errors In translation, somestudents with poor reading skills transfer the miscues into their translated text.For example, in an assignment, years ago, one of us was surprised by the factthat many students made the same error in translating the following

- The translator's wrong assumption of the background knowledge: Thefollowing case shows how a translator's miscues and his/her strong assumption

of the background knowledge can affect the translation In the 1970s, the pace ofcommunication was slower than today's When the Academy of Motion PictureArts and Sciences announced the movies nominated for awards, they sent in themovie titles to newspapers around the world Many years later probably in theearly 1980s, a hilarious anecdote appeared in a Thai newspaper recounting thetranslation of two movie titles: Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and The Deer Hunter(1978) In the first case, it was translated in Thai as Khmer fighting Khmer and

in the second as Hunting a Derogatory Title Liar Obviously, the translation was

a far cry from its original meaning Probably the translator made a miscue of thename Kramer as Khmer because he/she was influenced by the raging war inCambodia (1975-1979) during that period of time In the second translation, thedeer was miscued as dear, a term of endearment often used by American GIs toThai lovers during their furloughs during the Vietnam War Probably, thetranslator assumed that the movie was about an American soldier in the VietnamWar hunting for a girlfriend, or someone termed as a dear The movie was made

in 1978, shortly after the end of the Vietnam War (1965-1975) Therefore, thetranslator may have been influenced by the war events in his/her translation

1.2.4 Common errors in translation

Translation errors are considered as linguistic phenomena known to beproblematic in translation independent (Ahmad, 2010) According to PhamPhuQuynh Na (2005), translation errors can be comprehensive errors, linguisticerrors and translating errors In contrast, Le Phuong Lan (2006) and Ahmad(2010) divide translation errors into two groups such as linguistic errors andcultural errors On the other hand, Aleksandra (2009) believes that translationerrors include grammatical errors, terminological errors, phraseological errorsand stylistic errors Yunhon&Baoling (2011), Batoul (2012) and Diana

&Mihaela (2013) share the same idea that translation errors can include

grammatical errors and lexical errors In this study, translation errors aredescribed with two types including linguistic and cultural errors.

1.2.4.1 Linguistic Errors

According to Ahmad (2010), structural differences between languages intext sentence, structure and supra-segmental features give rise to linguistictranslation errors Moreover, on the ground of linguistics, the most importantaspect on which a translation is judged as good or bad, errors in translation can

be divided into grammatical errors, and vocabulary errors (Nguyen Thi HongTham& Bui ThiHuyen Tran, 2013)

- Lack of subject-object agreement: Floating house still exist (exists) andbecome (becomes) one of Palembang traditional houses (Cited in Hambali,2011)

- Incorrect verb tense: I have graduated (graduated) from university 2years ago (Cited in Abbasi et al, 2011)

- Incorrect declension of noun: Do all the childs (children) go through allthe stages? (Cited in Dulay, 1982).

- Incorrect declension of pronouns: Tam, a player of moon shaped guitar is

so wonderful that it (he) desperate, mysterious, frustrated whose giving andgesture is accurate with mood (Cited in Pham, 2005)

- Use of an adjective where an adverb is needed: And how natural(naturally) and profound (profoundly) they are portrayed (cited in PhamPhuQuynh Na, 2005)

- Misuse of prepositions: In English, prepositions themselves are difficult

to use So the use of prepositions becomes even more complicated The errorsrelates to the misuse of prepositions are common and unavoidable Thefollowing example is considered to have grammatical mistakes because thetranslator misused the preposition Some translators translate the Vietnamese

sentence “Nhờ nông nghiệp thích ứng với thị trường tự do nên Việt Nam được xếp là nước xuất khẩu gạo lớn thứ hai trên thế giới sau Thái Lan” as “Thanks to

agriculture’s adaption with free market, Vietnam was the second biggest rice

producer in the world behind Thailand”.

In above example, the English sentence is ungrammatical because thetranslator misused the preposition following the noun “adaption” In this case,

the above Vietnamese sentence should be translated as “Thanks to agriculture’s

adaption to free market, Vietnam was the second biggest rice producer in the

world behind Thailand”

1.2.4.1.2.Vocabulary Errors

a Word collocation

Word collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which occur more often than would be expected by chance Each of language has itsown principle on word collocation For instance, the word “beautiful” is oftenused for girls and women while the word “handsome” often goes with boys or

co-men However, some translators do not realize this, which leads to wrong andfunny collocation For example, the word “uống” in Vietnamese (which can betranslated as “drink” in English) can go with many diferent kinds of liquidincluding water, beer, alcohol, medicine and even poison (uốngnước, uốngbia,uốngrượu, uốngthuốc, uốngthuốcđộc) Yet, it is incorrect to say “drinkmedicine” or “drink poison” in English There are clear distinctions as follows:Drink beer/water/wine/coffee However, it should be “Take medicine/poison”.Another example indicates that in Vietnamese the word “nói” (say) can becollocated with “dối”, “sự thật”, “ngôn ngữ” (English, French, Vietnamese, etc.).However, in English it is incorrect to combine “say lie”, “say the truth”, and

“say English / French/Vietnamese” In Vietnamese-English transition, the phrasemust be corrected as “tell the truth, tell lie, speak French, and speakVietnamese”

b Misuse of Synonyms

It can be seen that a word can have many meanings; and vice versa, onemeaning can be expressed by many other words The misuse of synonyms isunavoidable Some translators depend largely on the meaning in dictionarypicking out the synonyms without paying much attention to context In fact, thepairs of synonyms share at least one sense in common but they do not share alltheir senses To some extent, these synonyms can hardly substitute for eachother For example, some translators translate the Vietnamese sentence “Consông này sâu lắm” into “This River is very profound” in English The Englishsentence “This River is very profound” is unacceptable in English “Profound”means “showing great knowledge or understanding”, so it cannot be used todescribe the depth of the river The sentence should be translated into “Thisriveris very deep”

The following example also indicates misuse of synonyms Sometranslators translate the Vietnamese sentence “Mai là một cô gái đẹp” into “Mai

is a handsome girl” in English The English sentence is incorrect since

“handsome” here is used for a boy or man, not a girl Therefore, it isunacceptable to use the word “handsome” in this sentence Instead, the adjective

“beautiful” or “pretty” is suggested to be used The sentence “Mai is a handsomegirl” must be corrected as Mai is a beautiful girl” or “Mai is a pretty girl”

As can be seen above, most of the synonyms have the same meaning incertain context If a translator uses synonyms without referring to the context, hecan make wrong and funny translation products for the readers

All in all, some inexperienced translators committed the vocabulary errorsmentioned above including those of word collocation, and misuse of synonyms

Societies of different cultures tend to have various beliefs In other words, abelief which seems to be quite positive in some cultures could be neutral or evennegative in other cultures Consequently, culture is also an obstacle intranslation