THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

ABSTRACT This is a study on the strategies used in rendering Vietnamese of Vietnamese nominalisations in the book ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and 250 samples of Vietnamese nominalisations in

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH PHỤNG

STRATEGIES IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF NOMINALISATIONS DENOTING MINDFULNESS IN

"ĐƯỜNG XƯA MÂY TRẮNG" AND “PHÉP LẠ CỦA SỰ TỈNH

THỨC” BY THICH NHAT HANH

MASTER THESIS

IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Da Nang, 2017

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH PHỤNG

STRATEGIES IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF NOMINALISATIONS DENOTING MINDFULNESS IN

"ĐƯỜNG XƯA MÂY TRẮNG" AND “PHÉP LẠ CỦA SỰ TỈNH

THỨC” BY THICH NHAT HANH

Major : The English Language Code :

MASTER THESIS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

SUPERVISOR: LÊ THỊ GIAO CHI, Ph.D

Da Nang, 2017

ABSTRACT

This is a study on the strategies used in rendering Vietnamese

of Vietnamese nominalisations in the book ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and 250 samples of Vietnamese nominalisations in ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich

Nhat Hanh denoting mindfulness and their English translational equivalents were extracted and analysed, which based on Vinay and Darbelnet‘s (1995/2000) methodology of translation and the other strategies such as explicitation and simplification according to translation theory of Baker (1996) and Blum-Kulla (1986/2000).

This research is also intended to draw out some implications in teaching, learning and translating Besides, some suggestions are made for further study in this area

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

After conducting a research on the topic ―strategies in English Translation

―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖, I would like to give many words of thanks to many

peoples that supported and helped me

First at all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Le Thi Giao Chi, Ph.D who has given me her devoted guidances and valuable comments as well as provided me with useful sources of materials and spent her priceless time for my paper

Next, I would like to thanks my master and my loving family for encouraging and supporting me with the best advices

Finally, I wish to give my sincere thanks to my close friends who always assisted me in the process of completing this research

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V TABLE OF CONTENTS VI LIST OF TABLES XI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XII

Chapter One INTRODUTION - 1 -

1.1 Rationale - 1 -

1.2 Aims and Objectives - 2 -

1.2.1 Aims - 2 -

1.2.2 Objectives - 3 -

1.3 Scope of study - 3 -

1.4 Research questions - 4 -

1.5 Definition of terms - 4 -

1.6 Organisation of the Study - 5 -

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND - 6 -

2.1 Literature Review - 6 -

2.2 Theoretical Background - 8 -

2.2.1 Definition of Translation - 8 -

2.2.2 Translation Equivalence - 10 -

2.2.3 Translation Universals - 12 -

2.2.3.1 The Notion of Translation Universals - 12 -

2.2.3.2 Common Translation Universals - 13 -

2.2.3.2.1 Explicitation - 13 -

2.2.3.2.2 Simplification - 16 -

2.2.4 Vinay and Darbelnet’s Methodology of Translation - 17 -

2.2.5 Nominalisation in English and Vietnamese - 19 -

2.2.5.1 The Notion of Nominalisation - 19 -

2.2.5.2 Nominalisation in English - 21 -

2.2.5.2.1 Nominalisations Derived by Affixation - 21 -

2.2.5.2.2 Nominalisations Derived by Conversion or Zero-sufixation - 22 -

2.2.5.3 Nominalisations in Vietnamese - 23 -

2.2.5.3.1 Nominalisations Derived by Nominal Classifiers - 23 -

2.2.5.3.2 Nominalisations Derived by Conversion or Zero-sufixation - 24 -

Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - 26 -

3.1 Research Design and Methodology - 26 -

3.1.1 Research Design - 26 -

3.1.2 Methodology - 26 -

3.2 Research Procedures - 27 -

3.2.1 Data collection and corpus building - 27 -

3.2.2 Data Analysis - 28 -

3.2.3 Research Procedures - 29 -

Chapter Four DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS - 30 -

4.1 An overview of nominalisations formulation in Vietnamese - 30 -

4.1.1 De-verbal nominalisations with sự, việc, cái, nỗi, cuộc, con đường, nếp sống, đạo, đạo lý, tình, công phu, trạng thái, cánh cửa, chìa khóa, hạt giống - 31 -

4.1.1.1 De-verbal Nominalisation with Sự - 31 -

4.1.1.2 De-verbal nominalisation with Việc - 32 -

4.1.1.3 De-verbal nominalisation with Cuộc - 32 -

4.1.1.4 De-verbal nominalisation with Cái - 33 -

4.1.1.6 De-verbal nominalisation by conversion - 35 -

4.1.2 De-adjectival nominalisations with Sự, Niềm, Lòng, Cái - 36 -

4.1.2.1 De-adjectival nominalisation with Sự - 36 -

4.1.2.2 De-adjectival nominalisation with Niềm - 37 -

4.1.2.3 De-adjectival nominalisation with Lòng - 37 -

4.1.2.4 De-adjectival nominalisation with Cái - 37 -

4.1.2.5 De-adjectival nominalisation by conversion - 38 -

4.2 Strategies in English Translation of Nominalisations Denoting Mindfulness in “Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” - 39 -

4.2.1 Literal Translation in Translating Nominalisations denoting mindfulness in “Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” - 39 -

4.2.1.1 Literal Translation in translating de-verbal nominalisations denoting mindfulness - 39 -

4.2.1.2 Literal Translation in translating de-adjectival nominalisations denoting mindfulness - 45 -

4.2.1.3 Literal Translation in translating Nominalisations derived by conversion denoting mindfulness - 46 -

4.2.2 Transposition in Translating Nominalisations denoting mindfulness in “Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” - 50 -

4.2.2.1 Transposition in translating de-verbal nominalisations denoting mindfulness - 53 - 4.2.2.2 Transposition in translating de-adjectival nominalisations denoting mindfulness - 55 - 4.2.2.3 Transposition in translating Nominalisations derived by conversion denoting mindfulness - 56 - 4.2.3 Explicitation in translating nominalisations denoting

mindfulness in “Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” - 59 -

4.2.3.1 Lexical Explicitation in translating verbalised, adjectivized and converted nouns - 60 - 4.2.3.2 Syntactic Explicitation in translating de-verbalised, de- adjectivized and converted nouns - 64 - 4.2.3.3 Stylistic Explicitation in translating de-verbalised, de- adjectivized and converted nouns - 65 - 4.2.4 Simplification in Translating Nominalisations denoting

de-mindfulness in “Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” - 69 -

4.2.4.1 Lexical Simplification in translating verbalised, adjectivized and converted nouns - 70 - 4.2.4.2 Syntactic Simplification in translating de-verbalised, de- adjectivized and converted nouns - 74 - 4.2.4.3 Stylistic Simplification in translating de-verbalised, de- adjectivized and converted nouns - 75 - 4.2.5 Summary - 78 - 4.3 Summary of the chapter - 80 -

de-Chapter Five - 82 -

CONCLUSION - 82 -

5.1 Conclusion - 82 -

5.2 Some Implications for Teaching, Learning and Translating Vietnamese Nominalisations in "Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and “Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức” into English - 85 -

5.2.1 Implication on the Language Teaching and Learning - 85 -

5.2.2 Implication on Translation Work - 86 -

5.3 Limitation of the study - 87 -

5.4 Suggestions for the study - 87 -

REFERENCES - 89 -

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Distribution of occurrences of literal translation in translating

kinds of nominalisations in both texts 49 Table 4.2 Types of Transposition of Word Class in Translating

Nominalisations Denoting Mindfulness 50 Table 4.3 Distribution of occurrences of transposition in translating kinds of

nominalisations in both texts 58

-Table 4.4 Distribution of occurrences of explicitation types in translating

nominalisations in both texts 68

-Table 4.5 Distribution of occurrences of simplification types in translating

nominalisations in both texts 77

-Table 4.6 Summary of Frequencies of strategies used in ―Đường Xưa Mây

Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ - 78 -

Table 4.7 Distribution of occurrences and percentages of strategies found in

rendering nominalisations in both ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and

―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ texts - 79 -

Chapter One INTRODUTION

1.1 Rationale

As a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh has made a great contribution to the career of Buddhist development in the country as well as in the world He has been known as a zen master who offered practical exercises or methods of mindfulness, which have the ability to bring human beings to come back

an awakened and joyful state in the present life In the process of his studying and practising based on the foundation of the basic doctrines of Shakyamuni Buddha more than 2500 years ago, he also published many books relating to the Buddhist issues in Vietnamese; and many of them have been translated into many other

languages Among these are such English translational versions as An Lạc Từng

Bước Chân, Trái Tim Mặt Trời, Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức, Trái Tim Của Bụt, Tỉnh Lặng, Đường Xưa Mây Trắng, Trái Tim Của Hiểu Biết, Sen Búp Từng Cánh

Hé, Thương Yêu Theo Phương Pháp Bụt Dạy, Nuôi Dưỡng Tâm Bồ Đề , to name just a few, which have so far attracted great interest from readers and Buddhism followers from many countries

More interestingly, with his famous works, people have discovered his condensed and sophisticated style of writing in hiding the bold marks of Buddhism Thanks to the fact that the language of writing is condensed but deeply- expressed,

he enhanced in his Buddhism books the value of messages from the inner implicit layers of meanings, which from the linguistic perspective, could be realized by means of of nominalisation Nominalisation, as its name implies, refers to ‗a process that derives nouns from roots or stems belonging to some other category‘ (Kroeger 2005: 254) This phenomenon allows us to make information become more condensed or implicit in written discourses For example, in the two published

books by Thich Nhat Hanh master, the appearance of such words as sự giác ngộ,

việc thực tập thiền quán, sự tỉnh thức, sự hiểu biết, cái thấy, cái không, chơn tâm, tỉnh giác, chánh niệm, quán niệm, tỉnh thức, giác ngộ, an lạc, giải thoát, vắng lặng,…could often be considered as Vietnamese nominalisations denoting

mindfulness in Buddhism However, through the prism of translation, the rendering

of these Vietnamese nominalisations into English requires the adoption of several strategies - techniques or methods - utilized by the translators, which this thesis

wishes to examine under the overarching term of universal strategies used in the

process of translating nominalisations

The problem is that the expression of nominalisations in English and Vietnamese are not completely similar Each country has private features of language, which translator can not sometimes deeply understand Therefore, depending on viewpoint of different concepts, equivalence in translation can be also different That is required using the means of unsimilar language as well as the methods of various wording It causes lots of difficulties for translators and foreign language learners

For the above reasons, it is very excited and interested in conducting a

research on the topic ―Strategies in the English Translation of Nominalisations

Denoting Mindfulness in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh Hopefully, the researcher can bring useful values and

true significances to teaching and learning of language and those who are concerned about translation study

1.2 Aims and Objectives

1.2.1 Aims

This study aims to investigate how nominalisations denoting minfulness in

―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh

are translated into English, and what strategies are commonly used in the process of rendering these nominalisations into English

translated into English;

- To identify what strategies are commonly used in translating those nominalisations;

- To analyse strategies involved in translating nominalisations denoting

mindfulness in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖

by Thich Nhat Hanh into English;

- To put forward implications for the teaching and learning of English and for the practice of translation;

1.3 Scope of study

As earlier mentioned, this study focuses only on investigating to a sample of

650 nominalisations denoting mindfulness in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and of 250 nominalizations in ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ written by Thich Nhat Hanh and

their English equivalents Also, according to Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000)‘s methodology of translation, strategies in translation, including literal translation, and transposition in combination with such other strategies as simplification and explicitation as introduced by (Baker 1996) and (Blum-Kulka 1986/2000) as useful tools for analysis of nominalisations denoting expressing mindfulness in the corpus are transferred into English Furthermore, this research also studies what strategies are commonly used in translating those nominalisations

1.4 Research questions

To achieve the final aims mentioned above, we attempt to answer the

following research questions:

1 What kinds of nominalisations are prevalent in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh?

2 In what ways nominalisations denoting mindfulness in

―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ are translated

into English?

3 What strategies are commonly used in translating these nominalisations into English?

1.5 Definition of terms

Nominalisation is the process of making a noun from a verb or adjective It is

―the single most powerful resource for creating grammatical metaphor in rewording processes or properties, congruently worded as verbs and adjectives respectively, as noun‖ (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004: 656)

Mindfulness is the term which belongs to the field of religion, namely

Buddhism religion It refers to the ability of right concentration on only a certain object or a state of the mind in meditation

Source language (SL) is the language in which a text appears that is to be

translated into another language The term is used to refer to ‗the language of the source text‘ (Munday 2009: 227)

Target language (TL) is the language into which text is to be translated from

another language The term is used to refer to ‗the language of the target language‘ (Munday 2009: 230)

1.6 Organisation of the Study

This study will be presented in five chapters as follows

Chapter One, ―Introduction‖, presents the reason why the topic is chosen, the

aims and objectives, the scope of the study, research questions, the justification for the study The definition of key terms such as strategies of translation, nominalisation, mindfulness, source language, target language is also given here

Chapter Two, ―Literature Review‖, provides the brief review of the previous

studies and the theoretical background for the subsequent chapters This chapter is devoted to the presentation of the definitions related to translation theory

Chapter Three, ―Research Design and Methodology‖, presents the research

design and method, and procedures of data collection and analysis

Chapter Four, “Findings and Discussion”, is written to describe the formation

of Vietnamese nominalisations translated into English Also, this chapter analyzes and discusses strategies used in translating nominalisations denoting mindfulness in

―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat

Hanh

Chapter Five, ―Conclusion and Implications‖, draws some major conclusions

and the practical implications related to the study Finally, the study puts forwards some limitations and unsolved problems for further research

and Littau (2007) In the coursebook ―In Other Words: A Coursebook on

Translation”, Baker (1992) has discovered the different kinds of equivalence – at

the levels of the word, phrase, grammar, text, pragmatics, etc She emphasizes that

‗equivalence is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors‖ (Baker 1992: 6)

Furthermore, among the big names in linguistics, Vinay and Darbelnet

(1995/2000), in their book entitled “A Methodology for Translation” made mention

of seven different methods or procedures, including the first three methods

(borrowing, calque, literal translation) are direct and the others (transposition,

modulation, equivalence and adaptation) are oblique And the concept

―explicitation‖ of the author was introduced as the supplementary translation

procedures to the above seven methods

Similarly, some other scholars such as Baker (1996), Blum-Kulka

(1986/2000) used this term and the other three are simplification, normalization and

leveling out as the four features of translation

Besides, the work on translation theory “A Textbook of Translation” by Peter Newmark (1988) interested much on focus translation methods, namely, word-for-

word translation, literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation, adaptation, free translation, idiomatic translation and communicative translation

In Vietnamese, in the book ―Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật phiên dịch Anh-Việt Anh‖ (or Interpreting Techniques), Nguyen Quoc Hung (2007) also presented a number of techniques as useful tools that aim to help English learners become successful in communication as well as in translation

Việt-Tran Thuy Hang (2013) investigated the translation of adverbs in Harry

Potter and the Philosophers‟s Stone from English into Vietnamese (i.e the

strategies used in English-Vietnamese Translation of adverbs of manner, frequency, time, place and degree) The translation of English adverbs also interested Tran Thi Thanh Nha (2015), who, in her BA dissertation, looks at the procedures which are commonly adopted in translating the English adverbs as seen in ―The Thorn Birds‖ by Colleen Mccullough‖ She applied the methods and proceduces of translation that are raised by Peter Newmark (1988) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000)

Ngo Thi Phuong Loan (2015), with ―Explicitation and Simplification in English Translation of Nominal Groups in Vietnamese Tourist Brochures‖ deals with how Nominal Groups in Vietnamese tourist brochures are translated into English She explored some general rules of translation, namely, explicitation and simplification, that can be applicable in the process of going from Vietnamese into English

Nominalisation from the perspective of Functional Grammar was examined

by Nguyen Van Vui (2011) In his MA thesis, he attempted to explore the cases of nominalisation which have been used in English and Vietnamese newspapers in different levels of clause and some functions of nominalization

Most recently, the study entitled ―Grammatical Metaphor in English Official Documentation - A Corpus Approach to the Vietnamese Translation of Nominalisation‖ was conducted by Le Thi Giao Chi (2014) In her doctoral thesis, she looks into the different metaphorical representations of nominalisations as

grammatical metaphor, from which to explore the translation of English nominalisations as grammatical metaphors from the lens of translation universals and translation shifts Up to now, there are hardly any pieces of research done in the arena of nominalisations related to Buddhism issues; therefore, this study attempts

to find out and analyze strategies in the English translation of Vietnamese

nominalisations expressing mindfulness in two books ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh through the translation

According to many linguists, for example, Newmark (1988), translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text As meaning plays an important role of the message, without meaning, the communication is hardly undertaken So, translation first is transferring the meaning in a text into another

To have a good translation, in Principles of Correspondence, the translator

must (1) understand the original word thematically and stylistically; (2) overcome the differences between the two linguistic structures; and reconstruct the stylistic structures of the original work in his translation‘ (Garvin 1955, as cited in Nida (1964: 131)

Catfold (2000), on the other hand, also proposes that translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material

in another language (TL) The concept of translation, in the position of Bassnett (2002: 35), is ―the process which ‗involves discarding the basic linguistic elements

of the SL text so as to achieve Popovic‘s goal of ‗expressive identity‘ between the

SL and the TL texts"

The notion of source language (SL) and target language (TL) as essential in understanding translation is mentioned by Nida and Taber (2003: 12) who approach the concept of translation as ―reproducing in the receptor language the natural equivalent of the source message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style‖

And in Munday (2008)‘s description, translation is stated as follows:

―It can refer to the general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or the process (the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating) The process of translation between two different written languages involves the translator changing an original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text

or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL)‖ (p 5)

From the above mentioned definitions, it can be concluded that translation is the process of rendering the meaning, structure and style of a text from the source language to the target language via factors of equivalence between two languages

As translation is a process of communication, it can be referred to as a decision process The translator has decided in favour of one of the alternatives, he has predetermined his own choice in a number of subsequent moves (Lev in Venuti 2000: 148) It is a process of choosing a number of alternatives in order to be suitable for the messages in the source text

On the other hand, Frenz (as quoted by Bassnett 2002: 2) pronounces that

―translation is neither a creative art nor an imitative art, but stands somewhere between the two‖ Generally, the simplest one is that translation is the transfer of

the message of a text from a language to another To have a good translation, it is essential that the translator must combine with a creative head and abundant knowledge to effectively convey the message

‗equivalence in difference is the cardinal problem of language and the pivotal concern of linguistics‘ and ―there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units‘

As far as translation is concerned, Nida (1964: 159) makes an important distinction between two types of equivalence, namely formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence The former is defined by Nida that it ‗focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content One is concerned that the message in the receptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language‘ Meanwhile, the latter is based on what Nida calls ‗the principle of equivalent effect‘, whereby ‗the relationship between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message‘ (Nida 1964: 159) Its goal is considered as seeking ‗the closest natural equivalent to the source-language message‘ (Nida and Taber 1969: 12) Equivalence involves equivalent items in specific ST-TT pairs and contexts (Munday 2008: 47) Besides, Munday (2008: 60) also presents that ‗textual equivalence is tied to a particular ST-TT pair whereas formal equivalence is more general system-based concept between a pair of languages‘ A formal correspondent

is ‗any TL category (unit, class, element of structure, etc.) which can be said occupy, as nearly as possible, the ―sameness‖ place in the ―economy‖ of the TL as the given SL category occupied in the SL‘ (Catford 1965: 27, in Munday 2008: 60)

A textual equivalent is ‗any TL text or portion of text which is observed on a particular occasion… to be the equivalent of a given SL text or portion of text‘

On the other hand, in examining the problem of equivalence according to Catford‘s distinction of equivalence, Koller (1979: 99-104) classifies five different types of equivalence as follows:

(1) Denotative equivalence is related to equivalence of the extralinguistic

content of a text Other literature, says Koller, calls this ‗content invariance‘

(2) Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especially

between near-synonyms Koller sees this type of equivalence as elsewhere being referred to as ‗stylistic equivalence‘

(3) Text-normative equivalence is related to text types, with different

kinds of texts behaving in different ways

(4) Pragmatic equivalence, or „communicative equivalence‟, is oriented

towards the receiver of the text or message This is Nida‘s ‗dynamic equivalence‘

(5) Formal equivalence, which is related to the form and aesthetics of the

text, includes wordplays and the individual stylistic features of the ST It is elsewhere referred to as ‗expressive equivalence‘ and is not to be confused with Nida‘s term (cited in Munday 2008: 47)

Translation theorists found the different directions of equivalence in

translation studies For example, in his coursebook Translation Studies, Bassnett

(2002: 39), on the one hand, lists Neubert‘s three semiotic categories comprising a syntactic, semantic and prag matic component These components will be arranged

in a hierarchical relationship, where semantic equivalence takes priority over syntactic equivalence, and pragmatic equivalence conditions and modifies both the

other elements Bassnett (2002: 35), on the other hand, shows four types of equivalence offered by Popovic These comprise:

(1) Linguistic equivalence, where there is homogeneity on the linguistic

level of both SL and TL text, i.e word for word translation

(2) Paradigmatic equivalence, where there is equivalence of ‗the

elements of a paradigmatic expressive axis‘, i.e elements of grammar, which Popovic see as being a higher category than lexical equivalence

(3) Stylistic (translational) equivalence, where there is ‗functional

equivalence of elements in both original and translation aiming at an expressive identity with an invariant of identical meaning‘

(4) Textual (syntagmatic) equivalence, where there is equivalence of

syntagmatic structuring of a text, i.e equivalence of form and shape

Equivalence‘s approach in translation, according to Bassnett (2002: 39), should not be ‗a search for sameness, because sameness cannot exist between two

TL versions of the same text, let alone between the SL and the TL version‘ He suggests that case of equivalence in translation should be considered as ‗a dialectic between the signs and the structures within and surrounding the SL and TL texts‘ Once the concept of translation equivalence is probed into, it is now important to turn the attention to universals of translation

2.2.3 Translation Universals

2.2.3.1 The Notion of Translation Universals

‗Universals‘ is the common characteristics of the system of language and has now gained increasing attention in translation studies Translation universals as a concept has been introduced by Laviosa (2002: 43) that it is ―linguistic features which typically occur in translated texts and are thought to be the almost inevitable

by-products of the process of mediation between two languages rather than being the result of the interference of one language with another‖

Many translation theorists have also paid attention to the concept of translation universals in translation studies This notion has been developed by Blum-Kulka (1986/2000) in her research which related to shifts of cohesion and coherence As Pym (2014) proposes five basic universals which characterize as ‗lexical simplification‘, ‗explicitation‘, ‗adaptation‘, ‗equalizing‘ and a reduced occurrence

of ‗unique items‘ in translation Moreover, Baker defined translation universals as

‗features that typically occur in translated text rather than original utterances and which are not the result of interference from specific linguistic systems These linguistic features include ‗explicitation‘, ‗simplification‘,

‗normalization/conservatism‘, and ‗levelling out‘ (Baker 1993: 243) The notion of

‗universals‘ involves the linguistic features that characterize translation

In line with Baker, Laviosa (2008) offers Andrew Chesterman (2000/2004)‘s perspective for universal features of translations as ‗the descriptive route through which scholars propose and look for generalizations about translation‘ On the other hand, Chesterman shows that the causes of universals are sought in neighbouring fields of scientific enquiry, such as human cognition (Laviosa, 2008)

2.2.3.2 Common Translation Universals

2.2.3.2.1 Explicitation

According to Vinay and Darbelnet‘s (1995/2000) definition, explicitation is

―the process of introducing information into the TL which is present only implicit in the SL, but which can be derived from the context or the situation" (cited in Klaudy 1998: 80) The notion of explicitation was known as explicitness or clarification by Vinay and Dalbelnet (1995/2000) to describe ―a stylistic translation technique which consists of making explicit in the target language what remains implicit in

the source language because it is apparent from either the context or the situation‖

It is to express clearly the meanings implied in the source language, that is, the meanings that can be inferred from the context or the environment in the source language However, explicitation was first studied by Blum-Kulla (1986/2000) and Toury (1991) as ‗a universal strategy inherent in the process of language mediation,

as practiced by language learners, non-professional translators and professional translators alike‘ (cited in Venuti 2000: 302)

In the process of translation, the translator can lead to a TL text which is more redundant than the SL text This redundancy is the result of a rise in the level of cohesive explicitness in the TL text This process can be stated as ―the exploitation hypothesis, which postulates an observed cohesive explicitness from SL to TL texts regardless of the increase traceable to the differences between the two linguistic and textual systems involved‖ (cited in Venuti 2000: 300) As Blum-Kulla (1986/2000) defined explicitation once viewed as inherent in the process of translation showed changes in cohesive forms In fact, it is the process that the translator simply expands the TL text, building into it a semantic redundancy absent in the original

In short, the process of interpretation that occurs in translation leads to a more explicit target text

In addition, explicitation was also introduced by Baker (1996) as one of the four linguistic features, the other three include simplification, normalization and leveling out (cited in Olohan 2004: 91) Baker‘s phenomenon of explicitation, which refers to ―overall tendency to spell things out rather than leave them implicit

in translation‖ (Baker 1996: 180)

As translation frequently has to do with linguistic and cultural differences (Nida & Taber 1969), it is so common a fact that the translator may show his/her effort in bringing the original text closer to target readers by means of explicitation (cited in Olohan 2004: 87) A good translation often involves a tendency to be longer than its original because the translator could indicate meaning implied in the original

On the other hand, Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997: 55) see explicitation as ‗the phenomenon which frequently leads to TT [target text] stating ST [source text] information in a more explicit form than the original‘ They suggest explicitation as addition of explanatory elements by translators to convey the original information

in a clearer manner

Vanderauwera (1985) identified several types of explicitation including insertion in the translated text to show the thought processes of a character or to stress a specific point; expansion of a condensed chapter; explicitness which results from the addition of modifiers, determiners, and connectives; addition of information; addition of explanations; repetition of details for clarity; explicit presentation of the implied or vague information; more precise description, such as substituting the exact location or the exact person for the pronoun in the original text (cited in Olohan 2004: 87)

In an often cited encyclopedia article, Klaudy (2008: 107) distinguishes four kinds of explicitation in translation, namely, obligatory explicitation (i.e lexicogrammatical differences); optional explicitation (i.e differences in stylistic preferences); pragmatic explicitation (i.e differences in cultural and/ or world knowledge) and translation-inherent explicitation (i.e the nature of the translation process itself) He formulated that explicitation takes place when a SL unit of a more general meaning is replaced by a TL unit of a more special meaning; the complex meaning of a SL word is distributed over several words in the TL; new meaningful elements appear in the TL text; one sentence in the SL is divided into two or several sentences in the TL; or, when SL phrases are extended or ―elevated‖ into clauses in the TL, etc

This thesis is based on models of translation strategies proposed by Baker (1996) and Blum-Kulka (1986/2000) but preferably labels explicitation as a universal translation strategy At the same time, Vanderauwera‘s (1985) theory is also used to analyze explicitation from the three levels of language including lexically, syntactically, and stylistically

2.2.3.2.2 Simplification

Similar to explicitation, simplification is also used as a universal strategy of translation in this thesis One of the first empirical researches of simplification is the analysis of Hebrew-English translations carried out Blum-Kulka (1986/2000) and Levenston (1986) Lexical simplification defined as ―the process and/ or result of making do with less words‖ (Blum-Kulka and Levenston (1986), as cited in Pym et

al (2008: 123))

According to Baker (1996: 176), simplification is conceived as ―the idea that translators subconsciously simplify the language or message or both‖ As pointed out by Laviosa (2002: 60-62), simplification is approached by Baker as a translation-specific phenomenon In her study of a multi-source-language comparable corpus of English, three representations of simplification are tested These include (1) the range of vocabulary used in the translational texts is narrower than that in the non-translational text (i.e there will be less variety in the lexis); (2) the translated texts have a lower proportion of lexical to running words than the original texts; and (3) in the translated text, the length of sentence will be shorter

In line with Baker and Laviosa, Vanderauwera (1985) analysed stylistic simplification in her study of Dutch literary texts and their translations into English She provides several instances for different forms of stylistic simplification such as breaking up long sequences and sentences, replacing elaborate phraseology with shorter collocations, reducing or omitting repetitions and redundant information, shortening overlong circumlocutions and leaving out modifying phrases and words (cited in Petrilli 2003: 153-154)

This thesis bases on the categorization of Laviosa (2002) and Le (2014) to examine simplification from the three levels of language, namely lexical, syntactic

and stylistic simplification As Le (2014) suggested, lexical simplification may be

identified if the range of vocabulary in the target language is smaller than that of the

source text, or syntactical simplification may have taken place in case shorter

sentences are used in the target text compared to the source text And in similar vein, stylistic simplification may have a connection with lexical normalisation when more generic words are used to transfer the meaning of a more complicated concept, and this rendering is assumed to conform to TL norms

2.2.4 Vinay and Darbelnet’s Methodology of Translation

In the process of translating, translators identity and examine relationships between two languages so as to search for a solution The author of a target text assures that the elements of the source text have not been omitted during the transfering process So, describing the methods are so useful for translation In translation theory, the different methods or procedures seem to be uncountable, Vinay and Darbelnet, of the linguistic theorists, described in detail seven strategies

in order to deal with incompatibilities between the source and target language

In ―A methodology for translation‖, it was written by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000), translators can choose from two major methods of translating, namely direct, or literal translation (e.g borrowing, calque and literal translation) and oblique translation (e.g transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation) The tasks of translator transpose the message of the source language into another, because it is based on either parallel categories, in which case we can speak of structural parallelism, or on parallel concepts (metalinguistic parallelisms) However, in some cases, because of structural or metalinguistic differences, people can use such more complex strategies as transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation Moreover, a translator may combine with one or more of the others According to Vinay and Darnelbet (1995/2000), borrowing is described as follows:

To overcome a lacuna or gap, usually a metalinguistic one (e.g a new technical process or unknown concepts due to the cultural differences between two

linguistic systems), borrowing is considered as the simplest of seven translation methods For example, the English phrase ‗client-oriented‘ is translated into ‗định

hướng khách hàng‘

As for calque, Vinay and Darnelbet (1958/2000) state that it is a special kind

of borrowing whereby a language borrows an expression form of another, but then translated literally each of its elements as in the example of English-Vietnamese

calque (e.g Shakyamuni  Thích Ca Mâu Ni; Nirvana  Niết bàn)

About strategy of literal translation, Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000) see it

as a unique solution which is reversible and complete in itself Literal or word for word translation is the direct transfer of a SL text into a grammartically and

idiomatically appropriate TL text from a SL text (e.g Mindfulness is a miracle 

Quán niệm là một phép lạ)

It can be concluded that the above procedures play a very important in translating from one to another However, if translators realize that a literal or direct translation is not acceptable to convey the desired message, they can turn to the methods of oblique translation

Transposition as described by Vinay and Darbelnet (1958/2000), it ―involves

replacing one word class with another without changing the meaning of the message‖ (p.36) In contrast to the procedure of literal translation, we refer to this methods as the transposed expression In the perspective of Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000), transposition is ‗probably the most common structural change undertaken by translators‘ There are at least ten different categories such as

changing a verb into a noun or adverb into verb, for instance, the Vietnamese ‗a

calm heart‘ can be transposed into ‗sự bình tâm‘

Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000) also defines modulation as ―a variation of

the form of the message‖ (p 36) As with transposition, modulation is also distinguished into such two types as fixed or obligatory modulation and free or

optional modulation A classical example of an obligatory modulation is the phrase

―the time when‖ which is translated as ―le moment ó‖ Meanwhile, free

modulation changes a negative SL expression into a positive TL expression, for

example, the structure of the English language ‗it is not difficult to show‘ transferred

as ‗il est facile de démontrer‘ in French

The next proceduce expressed by Vinay and Darbelnet is equivalence This

term is used to refer to cases where the translator describes the same situation by different stylistic or structural means Normally, equivalence is considered as a useful tool in translating idioms and proverbs For instanse, in English proverb ‗like

father like son‘can be changed as ‗cha nào, con nấy‟ or ‗t he more, the merrier‘ can

be translated into ‗càng đơng càng vui‘ in Vietnamese

With Vinay and Darbelnet‘s (1995/2000) classical model, researcher can identify the strategies adopted in the process of analysing nominalisations denoting

mindfulness in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by

Thich Nhat Hanh and their English equivalents This thesis also based on some strategies such as literal translation and transposition are introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995/2000) and hopes that they will shed light on identifing what strategies are commonly used in translating those nominalisations

2.2.5 Nominalisation in English and Vietnamese

2.2.5.1 The Notion of Nominalisation

In the definition given by Quirk et al (1985), nominalisation is referred to as

a noun phrase which has a systematic correspondence with a clause structure, and nominalisation that affects lexical variation because it results in new coinages According to Crystal (1997: 260), nominalisation is ‗the process of forming a

noun from some other word-class such as redness (red + ness) or the derivation of a noun phrase from an underlying clause, for example, ‗her answering of the letter‘

from „she answered the letter‟ Nominalisation in the position of Trask

(2007:186-187) refers to ―any grammatical unit which behaves like a noun or a noun phrase but it is built up from something very different‖

The notion of nominalisation in translation is also described by Janigova (2008: 9) as ‗the process of conveying a verb-related meaning by a noun phrase whose underlying structure is clausal‘ By so doing, nominalisation can be formulated by means of affixation In the position of Kroeger (2005: 254), ‗a process that derives nouns from roots or stems belonging to some other category, as

in freedom derived from free, is referred to as nominalisation‘ Nominalsations derived from verbs are very productive in English and are usually created by means

of suffixation (i.e suffixes that form nouns are attached to verb bases) It means derivation of an abstract noun from a verb The derived noun is normally labeled a

‗de-verbal noun‘, or a ‗nominalized verb‘ (e.g a noun evaluation is derived from a verb evaluate)

Put it simply, the concept of nomonalisation can be described as the process of going from verbs which denote processes, or adjectives which denote qualities, into nouns which denote things As observed by Le (2014:6), this is the process whereby ―a verbal construction (e.g we study chemistry) can be presented in the form of a noun phrase (e.g the study of chemistry); or put another, activities or processes, which would naturally be coded by verbs, become things, and verbs changed into nouns‖

According to Chomsky (1970: 215), there are three types of nominalisations, particularly including the gerundive nominal (e.g John‘s refusing the offer); the derived nominals (John‘s refusal of the offer); and the mixed forms (e.g John‘s refusing of the offer) Meanwhile, Quirk et al (1985) mentioned three kinds of nominalization, namely gerund, verbal noun and deverbal noun (cited in Taher 2015: 32) From some basic understanding of nominalisation, the shift of focus now

is on some description of nominalisation in English

2.2.5.2 Nominalisation in English

2.2.5.2.1 Nominalisations Derived by Affixation

In English language, nominalisation is often done through affixation This can

be either suffixation or prefixation When an affix is added word-initially, it is referred to as a prefix Similar to prefixation, when an affix is added word-finally, it

is referred to as a suffix The term ‗nominaliser‘ is used by Kroeger (2005) to refer

to abstract nouns which are formed by means of a suffix, and a noun derived from a verb is called a de-verbal noun ―When a nominaliser combines with an adjective root, it forms a noun that refers to the state or quality named by the adjective When

it combines with a verb root, it forms a noun that refers to the event or process named by the verb‖ (Kroeger 2005: 254) Plag (2003) and Hamawand (2008) also use such terms as de-verbaliser and de-adjectival to refer to suffixes that derive nouns from verbs and from adjectives respectively In short, nominal suffixes are referred to those that derive abstract nouns from verbs, adjectives and nouns (Kroeger 2005; Plag 2003; Hamawand 2008)

In English, nominalisers are divided into two basic types, including de-verbal nominalisers and de-adjectival nominalisers De-verbal nominalisers are elements, namely suffixes that are added to the verb stem to form nouns The affixes are often

used such as -ment (e.g enhancement, equipment, agreement); -ance (e.g

resistance, assistance); -al (e.g arrival, refusal, revival); -age (e.g coverage, breakage); -ence (e.g ); -ing (e.g building, meeting, driving); -er (e.g teacher, driver); -ee (e.g employee, payee); -or (e.g., actor, donor); -ion, or its variants like

–ation, -xion, -sion (e.g exploration, organization, destruction, decision); -th (e.g

growth, stealth); These affixes form nominalisations that denote action, event or

process In addition to these de-verbal nominalisers, some nouns are derived from adjectives, which express the movement from the quality to more abstract qualities

in the noun form Common de-adjectival nominalisers are –ness (e.g bitterness,

darkness, kindness), -ity (e.g purity, honesty, safety); -dom (e.g freedom, wisdom);

-ce (e.g significance, dependence, importance)

As noted by Kroeger (2005:253), ―a derivational process which changes the syntactic category of a word generally involves some semantic effect as well‖ Therefore, we also need to consider the process from a verb or an adjective into a noun by adding the factors of suffixes because this shift in lexical categories triggers some change in the semantic and syntactic properties of lexemes involved Besides the de-verbal nouns derived by affixation means, this thesis also considers nomminalisation derived by means of conversion in the next section

2.2.5.2.2 Nominalisations Derived by Conversion or sufixation

Zero-In Jackson and Amvela (2007: 100)‘s description, conversion may be defined

as ―a process by which a word belonging to one word class is transferred to another word class without any concomitant change of form, either in pronunciation or spelling‖ Quirk et al (1985:441) also defined conversion as ―the derivational process whereby an item changes its word class without the addition of an affix‖

As Bauer (1983:226) emphasizes ―conversion is a totally free process and any lexeme can undergo conversion into any of the open form classes‖ It involves a shift in category, namely a change from one category to another category The major cases of conversion include noun to verb (e.g to bottle); verb to noun (e.g a call); adjective to noun (e.g the poor); and adjective to verb (e.g to better)

Bartolomé and Cabrera (2005) also noted that nouns change from verbs can express (1) state of mind or state of sensation such as experience, feel, hope; (2) events or activities as in the case of attack, alert, laugh; (3) the object of the verb like visit, command; (4) the subject of the original verb such as contact, judge (5)

the instrument of the primitive verb, like in cover, start; and (6) a place of the verb,

as in the case of turn or rise

In addition, the process of conversion occurs to conversion from adjective to verb which labeled de-adjectival verbs They get the meaning of ‗to make (adjective) like in black(ed) (to make black) Finally, Jackson and Amvela (2000: 100) claim that conversion from adjective to verb are relatively rare and restricted

in their syntactic occurrences It can be exemplified with the poor, the rich, a daily,

a double

The term ―Zero-derivation‖ or ―Zero-suffixation‖ is used by some linguists (e.g Quirk et al 1985: 1558; Bauer 1983: 32) to refer to the process when a word from one word class to another without change in shape Conversion is called ―zero-modification‖ by Jackson and Amvela (2000:4) as in the examples of words such as call, guess, which can be either verbs or nouns, or in such cases as dirty, clean, which can be either adjectives or verbs

2.2.5.3 Nominalisations in Vietnamese

2.2.5.3.1 Nominalisations Derived by Nominal Classifiers

In Vietnamese, nominalisation is formed by adding some specialized elements

for nominalisation labelled nominalisers such as việc, sự, cuộc, cái, nỗi, niềm, cơn,

trận, chuyến, những, mỗi, một, mọi, etc before a verb (Nguyen 2013)

Nominalisers in Vietnamese can be added before a verb or an adjective in order to form a noun Nominalisers are often combined with verbs, which are

considered as de-verbal nominalisations, such as việc (e.g việc ăn, việc học), sự (e.g sự im lặng, sự lo lắng), cái (e.g cái hiểu biết, cái nhìn), cuộc (e.g cuộc chơi,

cuộc gặp gỡ), cơn (e.g cơn mưa, cơn động đất), trận (e.g trận bão, trận đấu),

chuyến (e.g chuyến đi) Besides verbs, adjectives can be also combined with nominalisers, which are called as de-adjectival nominalisations, such as niềm (e.g

niềm vui, niềm hạnh phúc), cái (e.g cái khổ, cái đẹp), nỗi (e.g nỗi sợ hãi, nỗi buồn), điều (e.g điều hay, điều tốt), tính (e.g tính thiện, tính ác)

In addition, nominalisations in Vietnamese can be the combination of the

factors of quantifiers or sub-elements such as những (e.g những buồn vui, những hi

vọng), mỗi (e.g mỗi đam mê, mỗi thách thức), mọi (e.g mọi khó khăn, mọi gian khổ), một (e.g một hạnh phúc)

2.2.5.3.2 Nominalisations Derived by Conversion or sufixation

Zero-Conversion is a popular phenomenon in languages, especially in isolated languages, for example, in the Vietnamese language According to Le (2014), conversion is seen as ‗the derivational process that enables a word to change its category without adding an affix, and in the case of Vietnamese, a particle‘ In examining the category in Vietnamese, there are words which function either this category or another category It can be exemplified by Truong (2005) as follows

(a1) Công việc tiến hành rất thuận lợi

(a2) Những thuận lợi ấy làm anh ta rất phấn khởi

It can be seen that thuận lợi in (a1) functions as an adjective whereas thuận lợi in (a2) performs the function of a noun

As Ho (2003) mentioned, there are two major types of conversion in

Vietnamese It is described as (1) conversion from verb to noun such as yêu cầu,

quyết định, đề nghị is either a verb (i.e to require, to decide, to suggest) or a noun

(i.e requirement, decision, suggestion) and (2) conversion from noun to verb like in

the case of the noun cuốc (i.e a hoe) is converted into the verb cuốc (i.e to hoe)

This type of conversion is exemplified by Truong (2005) as follows:

(1) Anh ấy vác cuốc ra cuốc đám đất trước nhà để trồng khoai

(2) Anh ấy mượn cưa để cưa gỗ

From the above description, it can be seen that the process of nominalisations derived by nominal makers as well as conversion is quite popular in both English and Vietnamese We hope that this overview of nominalisations will shed light on the process of analyzing changes through Vietnamese nominalizations and its English equivalents

Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design and Methodology

3.1.2 Methodology

For the purpose of making an investigation into the strategies used in

translating Vietnamese nominalisations denoting mindfulness in ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ into English, this study chose the

qualitative approach to provide the findings of research This approach included two subsequent methods as follows

- Descriptive method was employed to analyse and describe the collected data

It was considered as the important method used to describe the formation of different types of Vietnamese nominalisations denoting mindfulness and their English equivalents

- Analytical method was applied to find out the strategies commonly used in transfering Vietnamese nominalisations into English

In addition, the study also used the quantitative method aiming to show the frequencies of occurrences of strategies found in rendering nominalisations

denoting mindfulness in both ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ texts

3.2 Research Procedures

3.2.1 Data collection and corpus building

Firstly, data was collected from the two Vietnamese versions of ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng‖ and ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh and their English versions ―Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha‖ [30]” and ―The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice

of Meditation‖ [29] translated by Mobi Ho, nominalisations expressing

mindfulness were identified

Secondly, a sample of 650 Vietnamese nominalisations in the book ―Đường Xưa Mây Trắng” and 250 Vietnamese nominalisations in ―Phép Lạ Của Sự Tỉnh Thức‖ by Thich Nhat Hanh denoting mindfulness and their English translational

equivalents were extracted from collected samples for the study

Finally, after collecting nominalisations denoting mindfulness, the writer analysed those Vietnamese nominalizations and its English equivalents, based on Vinay and Darbelnet‘s (1995/2000) methodology of translation and the other strategies such as explicitation and simplification according to translation theory of Baker (1996) and Blum-Kulla (1986/2000)

3.2.2 Data Analysis

After nominalisations denoting mindfulness had been collected, the samples of nominalisations in both Vietnamese and English were examined and analyzed Firstly, nominalisations denoting mindfulness were identified from the samples

Secondly, a classification of Vietnamese nominalisations was carried out according to how they were formulated, and it was examined that changes occured

in the prosess of translating to their English equivalents

Thirdly, depending on the samples, the Vietnamese nominalisations and their English equivalents were compared, analyzed and categorized the strategies of translation according to Vinay and Darbelnet‘ (1995/2000) approach including literal translation, transposition as well as the models of other strategies such as explicitation and simplification by Baker(1996) and Blum-Kulla (1986)

Next, the frequency of each strategy was shown in the tables and figures, and the data were quantitatively shown in percentages

Furthermore, reliability and validity were two most essential factors to guarantee the quality of the data collection procedures As presented above, the data collection was mainly based on written discourses by native speakers of English and Vietnamese

Thich Nhat Hanh has been the Vietnamese Buddhist monk ―Old Path White Clouds:Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha‖ [30] and ―The Miracle Of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation‖ [29] were two books

which have been translated into English language by Mobi Ho Of course, the researcher chose the version of Mobi Ho because of three reasons The first reason,

we could confirm certainly that he has been an American translator that was introduced his preface of the book ―I was living as an American volunteer with theVietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation in Paris when Thay was writing the