Translation strategies in trinh cong sons songs from vietnamese into english

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGL

HO THI BICH DAO

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8.22.02.01

Hanoi, 2019

HO THI BICH DAO

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dang Suu

Hanoi, 2019

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except for the indicated reference, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date: ………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance of many people First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to my thesis supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Dang Suu This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and instructive supervision and encouragement, whose constructive ideas and feedback have been invaluable during the process of revision

Faculty of Graduate Studies Department of Hanoi Open University for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and deepen my knowledge in the two years

I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to my Master, Bikkhuni Thich Nu Hue Thu, and Sr Teresa Mai Thi Thu Trang who accompanied and shared the joy of life with me during my time of live and study since I have become a nun I look up to her as a model of self-confidence and motivation for study

Of course, nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the members of my pagoda and my family I would like to thank all my Brothers and Sisters for their prayers and support To my parents and siblings, I am

so thankful for their love and encouragement which are always with me in whatever

I pursue

indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time

ABSTRACT

The thesis is designed to investigate into the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into English The fourteen songs studied are: Origin unknown (Biết đâu nguồn cội), Dusty sand (Cát bụi), Life has called you many times (Đời gọi em biết bao lần), You’ve come a long time (Em đến từ nghìn xưa), Something like despair (Gần như niềm tuyệt vọng), Sad Sunday Eve (Lời buồn Thánh), The quiet world of mine (Lặng lẽ nơi này), My own lonely world (Một cõi đi về), Hear all sounds around (Nghe tiếng muôn trùng), Like a flying heron (Như cánh vạc bay), A little rose, a little love (Quỳnh hương), In too large life (Tuổi đời mênh mông), The other eye (Con mắt còn lại), I paid my debt (Xin trả nợ người) These songs are used because they contain many human philosophies We find in these song a key to open the door of the soul, to be loved and given love

This paper is conducted through the documentary analysis and descriptive method The writer uses mainly on descriptive method to describe the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs Besides, some methods are used as the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods which contributes to this study The results show that the semantic features of lexicon and the syntactic features of phrases and sentences in Trinh Cong son’s songs when being translated from Vietnamese into English The research also puts forward some suggesting English translational versions to set the implications after studying those songs The study hopefully provides insights into the practice of translating Vietnamese songs into English, especially the strategies in handling the intricacies of semantic and syntactic features of great works such as those written by Trinh Cong Son

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Adv Adverb Adv.P Adverb phrase Conj Conjunction Link Linking

Prep Preposition Prep.P Prepositional phrase

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 2.1: Baker’s taxonomy of non-equivalence at word level (1992) 20 Table 2.2 Strategies of non-equivalence at word level 21 Table 2.3 Problems and strategies of non-equivalence above word level 24 Table 4.1: The density and percentage of translation equivalence strategies in

English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 48

Chart 4.1: The percentage of Translation Equivalence strategies in English and

Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 49

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6

Chapter 1:INTRODUCTION 8

1.1 Rationale of the study 8

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 9

1.2.1 Aims of the study 9

1.2.2 Objectives of the study 9

1.3 Research questions 10

1.4 Methods of the study 10

1.5 Scope of the study 10

1.6 Sifnificance of the study 10

1.7 Structure of the study 11

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 Previous studies 12

2.2 Theoretical background 14

2.2.1 Translation theory 14

2.2.1.1 Translation definition 14

2.2.1.2 Translation procedures 14

2.2.2 Overview on Equivalence 17

2.2.2.1 The concept of Equivalence 17

2.2.2.2 Types of equivalence 18

2.2.2.3 Equivalence and non-equivalence at word level 19

2.2.2.4 Equivalence and non-equivalence above word level 24

2.3 Summary 25

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 26

3.1 Research approach 26

3.2 Methods of the study 26

3.4 Research procedures 27

3.5 Summary 27

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29

4.1 The strategies in translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into

English 29

4.1.1 Translation by using omission 29

4.1.1.1 Full omission 30

4.1.1.2 Partial omission 34

4.1.2 Translation by using a more neutral/less expressive word 37

4.1.3 Translation by using a more general word 40

4.1.4 Translation by using expansion 43

4.1.5 Translation by using co-hyponym 44

4.1.6 Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word 46

4.1.7 Translation by using metonymy 47

4.2 Frequency of Translation Equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs 47

4.3 Summary 49

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 52

5.1 Concluding remarks 52

5.2 Limitation of the research 53

5.3 Suggestions for further study 53

REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX A: List of Songs Cited with Dates They Were Composed 58

APPENDIX B: Words and music by Trịnh Công Sơn Translated by Ton That Lan and Nguyen Quang Thanh 59

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Trịnh Công Sơn (1939 - 2001) was a song writer, musician, poet and painter

He wrote over 600 songs He often wrote about the ephemeral nature of life, as in the classic "Cát bụi" ["Sand and Dust"] The singer most associated with him is Khánh Ly, whose husky, mournful voice helped to popularize his music They often performed together on South Vietnamese university campuses

Trinh Cong Son’s songs are so strange, which were written by intellectual language In another way, they are ‘weaved’ by the most beautiful words in the treasure of Vietnamese language It takes years to understand some words or sentences in Trinh Cong Son’ songs, but not all of us can catch Son’s ideas, and some seem to be so different Son himself created his own unique school of music which is not only very sublime but also very sweet with simple melodies Son’s songs will be immortal in people’s hearts not only in Vietnam but also in many countries like: France, Japan and America, etc People love to sing his songs Many

of those songs have been translated into many languages, most of them are in English, French and Japanese with different versions

As a Buddhist nun and a fan of Trinh Cong Son’s music, I find it very interesting to study the English translations of Son’s songs which are various with more than 70 English translated works by many people Up to now, just a few researches on the lyrics of the English translational versions have been found For examples: Một Cõi Đi Về (My own lonely world), Cát bụi (Dusty sand / Sand and Dust)

It is clear that translating Trinh Cong Son's songs seems not an easy task since his music does not belong to any school of music and his new approach to lyrics is also different He employed the same techniques used by many modern poets; e.g., purposeful incoherence, unusual grammar, fresh diction, images, metaphors, startling word locations, and rhyme Those make his music sound new and hard for us to catch his ideas, but it still very sweet and easy to touch the hearts

of millions of people Hence, there must be loss and gain in meaning in the English translations, which need investigating thoroughly

However, researches on translation equivalence of English versus Vietnamese versions of Trinh have not been carried out Therefore, it is necessary to

do a research on this matter to have a total view about translating Trinh Cong Son’s songs into English

Practically, clarifying the translation equivalence helps us have a clear view about Son’s songs and their English-translated versions and find out another better way to translate Trinh Cong Son’s songs with full ideas of writer obtained

As a student of English, the writer finds a great interest in translation strategies as well as its application to linguistics, the mind, and teaching and learning language Besides, as a music fan of Trinh Cong Son, his music is a great source of inspiration to the writer find it necessary to take a closer look on the English translations of Trinh Cong Son's songs With above-mentioned reasons, the writer decided to carry out a research project entitled “TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN TRINH CONG SON’S SONGS FROM VIETNAMESE INTO ENGLISH”

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

Firstly, the study aims at stressing the significance of equivalence in translation process, as well as, raising reader’s awareness on the matter of non-equivalence The author will start with a brief literature review on previous researches and studies about this topic as a good way to provide readers background knowledge, ideas and approaches made by famous world scholars

Secondly, based on the semantic features of lexicon and syntactic features of phrases and sentences between English and Vietnamese, this research will take Trinh Cong Son’s English translated versions versus their originals in Vietnamese

to investigate the translation strategies when those songs are translated from Vietnamese into English

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

Interestingly, the study will not only analyze linguistic but also consider cultural perspective as important factors causing non-equivalence in translation It is easy to see cultural gap has always been a barrier among languages It is also desirable that the paper will give the reader a comprehensive view on the phenomenon, which, later, can be served as reference for students who want to get basic understanding or to develop their own study on the same problem To achieve this aim, the study will have the following specific objectives:

- To identify the strategies in translation of Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs from Vietnamese into English

- To find out the frequency of translation equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s songs and their English – translated versions

1.3 Research questions

This study will seek the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the strategies in translation of Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs from Vietnamese into English?

2 How is the frequency of translation equivalence strategies in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s songs?

1.4 Methods of the study

The main methods of the research are the descriptive, contrastive, quanlitative and qualitative in combination with the data collection and data analysis techniques

Then, it’s very important to identify and analyze possible linguistic and linguistic factors that influence consciously and unconsciously in choosing each strategy for translating Trinh Cong Son’s songs

non-1.5 Scope of the study

The study was compared in one-way direction from Vietnamese into English based on the 14 songs This study deals with investigating the procedures used in translating the semantic features of lexicon and the syntactic features of phrases and

sentences in Trinh Cong Son’s songs taken from Trịnh Công Sơn – The collection

of everlasting songs Music press 1997 (Trịnh Công Sơn – Tuyển tập những bài ca

không năm tháng Nxb Âm Nhạc 1997) and website en/songs

http://www.tcs-home.org/songs-1.6 Sifnificance of the study

Theorectical, the study deals with translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son's songs from Vietnamese into English As stated in the rationale of the study, studies

on the syntactic and semantic features of English compared to the Vietnamese version of Trinh have not been performed Therefore, we need to study this issue to get an overview of the translation of Trinh Cong Son's songs into English

Practically, the study expected to be used as a good reference for learning and researching language The result of the study through analysis and comparison

between two languages may be of great benefits for translaters and learners English,

as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life We hope this study will provide insights into the practice of translating Vietnamese songs into English, especially the strategies in translation equivalence of great works such as those written by Trinh Cong Son In addition, the study’s findings hope to make contributions to raising the importance of studying the cross-culture for English majors in Vietnam

1.7 Structure of the study

To gain the above goals, the study is devided into five chapters as follows:

- Chapter 1, INTRODUCTION, deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the aims, the objectives, the research questions, the methods, the scope and the significance of the thesis Structure of the study is also given out

- Chapter 2, LITERATURE REVIEW and background knowledge, summaries the results of the previous studies related to the research in Vietnam and overseas, presents theoretical background of the study in order to build the theoretical framework of the study

- Chapter 3, METHODOLOGY, points out the research orientations, describes the methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and analyzing techniques

- Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS, this chapter presents Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs and their English - translated version Since then, the study points out the translation equivalence in English and Vietnamese based on Trinh Cong Son’s collection of songs and gives the strategies to deal with non - equivalents in translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs

- Chapter 5, CONCLUSION, summarizes what have been done in the research with some comments on the limitations of this study and make suggestions for future studies

References come at the end of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is an overview of translation, translation strategies, equivalence, types of equivalence in order to formulate theoretical background and theoretical framework of the study At first, it is an overview of previous study related to the problems of the study

2.1 Previous studies

Usually a study is based on the other study, which can be used for a measuring rod in the next study Studies about equivalence in translation had been done by English Department students Kustanti (2006) did a study that is entitled Equivalence at Word Level in the J.K Rowling’s Novel Entitled “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” The purpose of this study is to analyze what strategies are used by a professional translator in creating grammatical equivalence and to classify the sentences in the novel into their strategies The suggestion which is presented by Kustanti (2006) is that the translator not only have to find the acceptable word and sentences but also find the equivalence word or sentences which convey the same message as that is intended by the author by understanding various problems in translation in each level, so that she can choose the nearest equivalence word and sentence in target language

All of the studies are about the equivalence in translation and the strategies: Kustanti did a study about equivalence at word and above word level, Nugroho did

a study about translation strategies, Hidayati’s study is about the textual equivalence

in translation, and Karimi’s study is about equivalents in translation involves decoding the SL text and an attempt to find an appropriate equivalent

Besides, there have been many works and research papers on Trinh Cong Son A number of articles mainly refer to Trinh Cong Son, his life and his family; Some of the other articles are Trinh Cong Son's lyrics research works in the direction of literature, linguistics and music There are articles that are general comments and others are very in-depth studies No matter what aspect Trinh Cong Son discusses, what aspects at what time, most of his articles express the attitude of praise and admiration for the talent and personality of this musician For example, Trinh Cung, Nguyen Quoc Thai with his book Trinh Cong Son - Life, music, poetry, painting & reflection (2001), Buu Y and Trinh Cong Son - a genius musician (2003), Nguyen Dac Xuan with Trinh Cong Son - There was a time like

that (in 2003), Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường with Trịnh Công Sơn and the lya by the Little Prince (2005), Bùi Vĩnh Phúc and Trinh Cong Son - Language and art obsessions (2008)

There are also dissertations on the study of Trinh's music, notably including the research works of foreign students such as the master thesis of author Yoshii Michiko in 1991 with the topic of Trinh Cong Son's antiwar songs (at the University

of Paris)

Especially, after his death, the number of articles increased greatly, most of which were content praising the talents of Trinh Cong Son, for example, in the Journal of Asian Studies Vol 66, No.3 (August) 2007, John C Schafer wrote “The Trinh Cong Son Phenomenon” This article attemps to explain the extraordinary popularity of Vietnamese composer and singer Trinh Cong Son Although he attracted attention with love songs composed in the late 1950s, it was his antiwar songs, particularly those collected in Songs of Golden Skin (1966), that created the

“Trinh Cong Son phenomenon”

Ms Ho Thi Kieu Oanh studied about Trinh Cong Son’s love song “Like a fliing heron” This article investigates the integrated rhetorical device used in the Trinh’s love song: “Like a Flying Heron” - one of the well-known love songs composed by the musician Trinh Cong Son She hopes the article could help Vietnamese natives and foreigners have a profound insight into the use and the affective effect of this rhetorical device in Vietnamese love songs

Being interested in the concept of “Relationship” in Trinh Cong Son’s songs, Phan Thị Phương identified the phenomena of loss and gain in meaning in the English translational versions of cognitive metaphors expressing the concept of

“Relationship” in Trinh Cong Son’s songs, and gave some significant implications

in English language teaching, translation and music fans

Although each of the above researches did not avoid shortcomings, it opened the dissertation to study the strategy of translating Trinh Cong Son's songs from Vietnamese into English This is a valuable resource, very helpful for learning, learning, drawing experience from the theoretical basis, the source of materials to apply linguistic theory to the case study of Trinh Cong Son lyrics In addition, the knowledge and relevant comments of those who have studied the lyrics, about the life of Trinh Cong Son are also an important and useful basis for the thesis to implement this topic

The books above are the background that the theory part of the study will be carried out

2.2 Theoretical background

In this section the issues relating to translation theory such as the definition

of translation, translation method, translation equivalence and relevant theory including:

2.2.1 Translation theory

2.2.1.1 Translation definition

There are many definitions of translation The simplest way is the transfer of text from the language A into language B Translation was mainly discussed in terms of the conflict between free and literal translation, and the contradiction between its inherent impossibility and its absolute necessity In addition, translation

is a term covers on three distinguishable meanings That is “translating”, the process (to translate), the activity rather than the tangible object “A translation” is the product of the process of translating (e.g the translated text), and the “translation”, the abstract concept which encompasses both the process of translating and the product of that process Furthermore, translation is also a communication bridge of two languages As a means of communication, translation is used for multilingual notices, which have at least appeared increasingly conspicuously in public places; for instructions issued by exporting companies; for tourist publicity, where it is too often produced from the native into the “foreign” language by natives as a matter of national pride; for official documents, such as treaties and contracts; for reports, papers, articles, correspondence, textbook to convey information, advice and recommendations for every branch of knowledge As a technique for learning foreign languages, translation is a two-edged instrument: it has the special purpose for demonstrating the learner’s knowledge of the foreign language, either as a form

of control or to exercise his intelligence in order to develop his competence The next section will discuss these

 A thorough study of the source language text before making attempts translate it;

b Organizational procedures:

Constant reevaluation of the attempt made; contrasting it with the existing available translations of the same text done by other translators, and checking the text's communicative effectiveness by asking the target language readers to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their reactions

Krings (1986) defines translation strategy as "translator's potentially conscious plans for solving concrete translation problems in the framework of a concrete translation task," and Seguinot (1989) believes that there are at least three global strategies employed by the translators: (i) translating without interruption for

as long as possible; (ii) correcting surface errors immediately; (iii) leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic errors in the text to the revision stage

Another popular translation scholar whose work on translation practice is widely adopted is Mona Baker (1992), pointed out 8 strategies for dealing with non-equivalence at word level

- Translation by a more general word (superordinate): this is one of the

commonest strategies for dealing with many types of non-equivalence, particularly

in the area of propositional meaning It works equally well in most, if not all, languages, since the hierarchical structure of semantic fields is not language-specific

- Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word: this is also one of the

commonest ways to set the equivalence between two or more languages by using a word or phrase to get the general meaning

- Translation by cultural substitution: This strategy involves replacing a

culture-specific item or expression with a target-language item which does not have the same propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader

- Translation by using a loan word or loan word plus explanation: this

strategy is particularly common in dealing with culture-specific items, modern concepts, and buzz words Following the loan word with an explanation is very useful when the word in questions repeated several times in the text Once

explained the loan word then can be used on its own; the reader can understand it and it is not distracted by further lengthy explanation

- Translation by paraphrase using a related word: this strategy tends to be

used when the concept expressed by the source item is lexicalized in the target language but in a different form, and when the frequency with which a certain form

is used in the source text is significantly higher than would be natural in the target language

- Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word: if the concept expressed

by the source item is not lexicalized at all in the target language, the paraphrase strategy can still be used in some contexts Instead of a related word, the paraphrased may be based on modifying the superordinate or simply on unpacking the meaning of the source item, particularly if the item in question semantically complex

- Translation by omission: this strategy may sound rather drastic, but in fact it

does no harm to omit translating a word or expression in some contexts If the meaning convey by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question

- Translate by illustration: this is a useful option if the word which lacks an

equivalent in the target language refers to a physical entity which can be illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise, and to the point

This summarizes what translation procedures are The next part will deal with the translation strategies

2.2.1.3 Translation strategies

The terms “strategies” and “methods” have not been distinguished clearly

by any translation scholars In this research, we stand on the point of view of John

Kearns (2009) in Routledge Encyclopedia or Translation studies, edited by Mona

Baker and Gabriela Saldanha He stated that those two terms can be used interchangeably to describe the ways of translating units smaller than text From this

point onwards, in this study, we use the term “strategies”

Newmark (1988) mentions the difference between translation methods and

translation procedures He writes that, “While translation methods relate to whole

text, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units of language.” He refers to the following strategies of translation:

- Word-for-word translation: in which the SL word order is preserved and the

words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context

- Literal translation: in which the SL grammatical constructions are converted

to their nearest equivalents, but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context

- Faithful translation: it attempts to produce the precise contextual meaning

of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures

- Semantic translation: which differs from “faithful translation” only in as far

as it must take more account of the aesthetic value of the SL text

- Adaptation: which is the freest form of translation, and is used mainly for

plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the

SL culture is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten

- Free translation: it produces the TL text without the style, form, or content

of the original

- Idiomatic translation: it reproduces the “message” of the original but tends

to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialism and idioms where these

do not exist in the original

- Communicative translation: it attempts to render the exact contextual

meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily

acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

Based on procedures and methods above, the study considers it as conceptual framework of the study when studying translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son's songs from Vietnamese into English

2.2.2 Overview on Equivalence

2.2.2.1 The concept of Equivalence

Both Vinay and Darbelnet as well as Jakobson conceive the translation task

as something which can always be carried out from one language to another, regardless of the cultural or grammatical differences between ST and TT According to them, equivalence is therefore the ideal method when the translator has to deal with proverbs, idioms, clichés, nominal or adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds

Nida argued that there are two different types of equivalence, namely formal equivalence - which in the second edition by Nida and Taber (1969/1982) is referred to as formal correspondence - and dynamic equivalence Formal correspondence 'focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content', unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect'

In the second edition (1982) or their work, the two theorists provide a more detailed explanation of each type of equivalence

2.2.2.2 Types of equivalence

Translation has been studied by many scholars from different notions of view Some of translation scholars defined their theories a source-oriented theory, others regarded the targetoriented theories These theorists have studied equivalence

in relation to the translation process, using a variety of approaches, namely quantitative and qualitative approach; however, all translation theories are related to the notion of equivalence in one way or another Not surprisingly, equivalence plays

a crucial role in translation which is the matter of establishing equivalence between S.L and T.L

2.2.2.2.1 Quantitative approach:

Kade (1968) and Hann (1992), regarding lexical equivalence, divided equivalence into 4 categories The first type is one - to - one equivalence, when a single expression in the TL for a single SL expression is used The second one is one - to - many equivalence; when more than one TL expression for a single SL expression is used Thirdly, when a TL expression covers part of a concept designated by a single SL expression, the phenomenon is called one - to - part - of - one equivalence Lastly, nil equivalence happens when there is no TL expression for an SL expression

2.2.2.2.2 Qualitative approach:

Many scholars dedicated themselves to study TE under qualitative approach Among thousands of paper works on this, some has become the famous and reliable foundations for the latter studies To date, there have been 3 subdivisions under qualitative approach including: functionbased, meaning-based and form-based approach Eugene A Nida, Koller and Baker are three linguistic researchers are credited as the founders of these above approaches with their major works of the time

b Meaning-based equivalence:

As cited in Mehrach (1997) and Munday (2001), Koller distinguishes 5 types

of equivalence as follow: denotative equivalence; connotative equivalence, text normative; pragmatic equivalence; formal equivalence

c Form-based equivalence:

Baker (1992) proposes 5 levels of equivalence: equivalence at word level, equivalence above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, pragmatic equivalence

This section summarizes types of equivalence The next part will deal with equivalence and non-equivalence at word level

2.2.2.3 Equivalence and non-equivalence at word level

2.2.2.3.1 Equivalence at word level

In the process of translating certain text, translator will focus on decoding linguistic element which conveys meaning The smallest unit which possess individual meaning is a word (Baker, 2011) Meaning is distinguished into four including propositional meaning referring to a real or imaginary world, as conceived by the speakers of the particular language to which theword or utterance belongs For example, Shirt means ‘a piece of clothing worn on the upper part of the body’, expressive meaning relating to the speaker’s feelings or attitude rather than

to what words and utterances refer to

2.2.2.3.2 Non-equivalence at word level

Among many approaches introduced above, Mona Baker was the most outstanding theorist dramatically focusing on equivalence at word level since, as being claimed by her, word is the basic unit to be considered in meaning of translation text Her analysis on word level is particularly clear, easy to comprehend As a brieft introduction, the following table will present common problems of non-equivalence at word level as specified by Mona Baker

Table 2.1: Baker’s taxonomy of non-equivalence at word level (1992)

Non - Equivalence at Word level

interpersonal perspective

2 The source language concept is not

lexicalized in the target language

4 The source and target language make

different distinctions in meaning

10 Differences in frequency and purpose of using specific forms

2.2.2.3.3 Problems of non-equivalence at word levels

The problem of non-equivalence has been drawing the attention of many researchers Jakobson claims that "there is ordinarily no full equivalence between code units" (as cited in Munday, 2001) Jakobson also explains the differences between structures, terminology, grammar and lexical forms of languages are the main reasons of non-equivalence In his theory, the general principle of cross-language difference and the concept ‘semantic field’ has been established

Catford (1996) found that there are two factors which affected the equivalence i.e linguistic and cultural factors, leading to two kinds of equivalents i.e linguistic and cultural equivalents This finding of Caford is very significant because it consists of both important approaches toward equivalence, namely, linguistic and cultural approaches

Equivalent effect, as judged by Newmark, is “the desirable result, rather than the aim of any translation” Accordingly, the equivalent effect is a result which all translators long to achieve Further, Newmark (1988) argues that the text may reach

a 'broad equivalent effect' only if it is 'universal' that means cross culture share common ideas

2.2.2.3.4 The strategies of non-equivalence at word levels

For solving the problems existing, Baker (2011) proposes some strategiesincluding translation by a more general word (superordinate), a more

neutral/less expressive word, cultural substitution, using a loan word or loan word plus explanation, paraphrase using a related word, paraphrase using unrelated words, omission, and illustration The brief explanation is showed in the table below:

Table 2.2 Strategies of non-equivalence at word level

by a more

general word

- It uses superordinate word

in case subordinate doesn’t exist in TL

- It’s the most common strategy for dealing many types of non - equivalence, particularly in the area of propositional meaning

distinctions among mopeds, scooters and motorcycles depending on wheels and engines

- But In Vietnamese: we use the general word “xe máy” for all

difficult to expressed exactly

E.g The word “sexy” should

be transferred as “quyến rũ”

in Vietnamese since it is more neutral and not likely

to convey a disapproving meaning as “gợi tình”

E.g The sentence “Oversea Vietnamese was delighted with remarkable change in the mother land” Should be translated: “Việt kiều vui mừng trước sự thay đổi của quê hương” It is better than

with a TL item which does

propositional meaning but is likely to have a similar impact on the target reader

E.g: In English “the baby

translate into Vietnamese, instead of “đứa bé nặng 6 cân Anh” we say “đứa bé nặng 2,7kg”

E.g “Mother day” in

- Most Vietnamese translators dislike this strategy and

claiming that is a way for the original text

English is translated as

“ngày lễ Vu lan” in Vietnamese Because both are a day to honor mother and motherhood in both countries

E.g: “HIV and AIDS” are two familiar concepts with most people in the word Therefore, they often used as

would be natural in the target language

- In English: “the integrated resorts are fully opened, gaming areas will take up less than 3 percent of the Gross Floor Area for Marina Bay Sands.”

- In Vietnamese: “Các khu nghỉ dưỡng kết hợp đa chức năng mở cửa hoàn toàn, khu vực sòng bài chỉ chiếm chưa tới 3% tổng diện tích mặt bằng của Marina Bay Sands.” - As in dictionary,

“integrated” is an Adj referring to the stated of combining many different parts are closely connected

together, but it is not

through grade five.”

The word “attendance” in Vietnamese means “sự tham dự” it seems to be not appropriate here Therefore

we translate into Vietnamese

“giáo dục bắt buộc chỉ hết lớp năm”

question

E.g SL “long hours and shared stress at work are leading to office romance.” The word “romance” in English can be translated as

“tình / chuyện tình / chuyện tình lãng mạn / mối tình lãng mạn” the shorter version, though can convey the implication which is enough for the reader to understand Therefore we translate the

SL into Vietnamese as “thời gian làm việc chung lâu và

sự chia sẻ khó khăn khi làm việc là tác nhân cho tình công sở”

by

illustration

language refers to a physical

illustrated, particularly if there are restrictions on space and if the text has to remain short, concise and to the point

E.g In Vietnam, having toys named “tò he” which made from colored rice dough It

is made to depict different heroes and ordinary people

animal It is difficult for a foreigner readers to visualize what exactly a “tò he” is showing a photo of it

Adapted from Baker (2011) with combination

2.2.2.4 Equivalence and non-equivalence above word level

2.2.2.4.1 Equivalence above word level

Equivalence above word level by Mona Baker includes collocations and idioms and fixed expressions Collocations are characterised by their range (items with which they are compatible) and markedness (marked collocations are unpopular ones, unmarked – popular) Idioms and fixed expressions are “at the extreme end of the scale from collocations” (1990)

2.2.2.4.2 Non-equivalence above word level

In the previous section, problems arising from non-equivalence at word level are discussed In this section, the study will go one step further to consider what happens when words collocate with other words to form stretches of language It goes without saying that words rarely occur on their own; they almost always occur

in the company of other words But words are not strung together at random in any language; there are always restrictions on the way they can be combined to convey meaning Restrictions which admit no exceptions, and particularly those which apply to classes of words rather than individual words, are usually written down in the form of rules Some restrictions are more likely to admit exceptions and apply to individual words rather than classes of words These cannot be expressed in terms

of rules, but they can be identified as recurrent patterns in the language In the following section, the study will concentrate on this type of lexical patterning, namely collocation and the difficulties encountered by translators as a result of differences in collocation of the source and target languages

2.2.2.4.3 Problems and strategies of non-equivalence above word levels

Another problem in translating is about finding equivalence above word level Words rarely occur on their own; they almost always occur in the company of other words However, the way in which languages construct words into a higher level is different As a result, a translator will find it difficult to find the equivalence above word level The brief explanation is showed in the table below:

Table 2.3 Problems and strategies of non-equivalence above word level

A beautiful girl

‘temperature’ referring to ‘hot’)

Breaking the ice

More than meets the eye

idiom in SL and TL

Using an idiom

of similar meaning and form/dissimilar form

Like father like

Adapted from Baker (2011) with combination 2.3 Summary

This chapter has just identified the theoretical background of the study, that

is, this study is based on translation strategies, especially equivalence and equivalence at word level in terms of semantics and syntastic features All of these are sources for the following chapters

non-Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter is designed with a view to mapping out the ways to conduct the whole study It comprises of the following main parts:

3.1 Research approach

On the purpose of carrying out an investigation into translation equivalence between Vietnamese and English translation by taking Trinh Cong Son’s songs as the data, we have decided to do research through descriptive and contrastive approaches The research design is planned to carry out such important things as:

- Providing some basic theoretical concepts related to translation, equivalence and translation equivalence

- Collecting and classify translation equivalence by taking Trinh Cong Son’s songs as the data

- Describing and analyzing the collected data to find out translation equivalence on the basis of translation theory

3.2 Methods of the study

In general, research methods may be understood as all those methods / techniques that are used for conduction of research In other words, all those methods or techniques the researchers use during the course of studying his research problem Since the object of research, particularly the applied research, is to arrive

at a solution for a given problem, the available data and the unknown aspects of the problem have to be related to each other to make a solution possible A comparative study is a diachronic comparison of two or more linguistic systems with a view to classifying languages into families It is concerned with the history and evolution of languages A comparative study is interested in establishing the similarities or correspondences between languages Therefore, in order to obtain the purposes of the study, descriptive and comparative methods are used

The descriptive method in the study is expressed in describing translation equivalence of Trinh Cong Son’s Vietnamese-version and English-translated version songs

The contrastive method in this study is expressed in comparing the similarities and differences, in terms of translation equivalence between Vietnamese and English versions in Trinh Cong Son’s songs

Due to the described and contrasted data, this study will find out the strategies and methods which are used more popularly

3.3 Data collection and data analysis

The data includes 14 songs taken from Trịnh Công Sơn – The collection of everlasting songs Music press 1997 (Trịnh Công Sơn – Tuyển tập những bài ca không năm tháng Nxb Âm Nhạc 1997) and more than 40 songs taken from the website http://www.tcs-home.org/songs-en/songs All of them have both Vietnamese and English versions with different translators

The lexicon (words and phrases) as well as the phrases and sentences will be examined and identified according to the sets of strategies suggested by Baker, Newmark and Catford

3.4 Research procedures

For the research to be carried out properly, the steps below will be taken:

- Collecting lexicon (words and phrases) and sentences from 14 songs of Trinh Cong Son (Vietnamese and English versions) in the data

- Doing literature review

- Sorting out the words - phrases and phrases - sentences according to the sets of strategies suggested by Baker, Newmark and Catford

- Calculate the exact percentage for each strategy used in translating the lexicon and phrases and sentences from Vietnamese to English in Trinh Cong Son’s songs

- Investigate the linguistic and non-linguistic factors influencing the choice

of using each strategy in translating the lexicon and phrases and sentences from Vietnamese to English in Trinh Cong Son’s songs

- Making some recommendations concerning translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into English as well as putting forward some suggestions for translating some of Son’s songs

3.5 Summary

In this chapter, besides mentioning the research design, research method and data collection, we presented fully the procedures we need to follow when doing research These are some conclusions:

Firstly, the paper is carried out through the descriptive and contrastive methods which are crucial to the aim and the objectives of the study

Secondly, due to the data collection and description, we focus on describing the process of collection, the kinds of data collected, the number of data collected from translated works both Vietnamese and English versions of Trinh Cong Son’s songs

Finally, the procedures of the study are clearly mentioned, which lay a good foundation to carry out investigation according to a proper direction

Based on this plentiful source of materials, the research will be executed based on the theoretical frame work of the study as below

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the translation strategies in Trinh Cong Son’s songs are analyzed in detail and, simultaneously, the comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents is also done thoroughly in order to help learners and translaters to have

a comprehensive view of the translation strategies in English

In this study, the followingare analized in depth: Origin unknown (Biết đâu nguồn cội), Dusty sand (Cát bụi), Life has called you many times (Đời gọi em biết bao lần), You’ve come a long time (Em đến từ nghìn xưa), Something like despair (Gần như niềm tuyệt vọng), Sad Sunday Eve (Lời buồn Thánh), The quiet world of mine (Lặng lẽ nơi này), My own lonely world (Một cõi đi về), Hear all sounds around (Nghe tiếng muôn trùng), Like a flying heron (Như cánh vạc bay), A little rose, a little love (Quỳnh hương), In too large life (Tuổi đời mênh mông), The other eye (Con mắt còn lại), I paid my debt (Xin trả nợ người) in terms of semantic and syntactic features

4.1 The strategies in translation of Trinh Cong Son’s songs from Vietnamese into English

4.1.1 Translation by using omission

Translation by using omission is sometimes appropriate to omit words or phrases that are not essential to the meaning or impact of the text This especially true for words that would require lengthy explanations, awkward paraphrases, or literal and unnatural translations, which would interrupt the flow of the text and could distract the reader from the overall meaning

According to Baker (1992) omission in translation might have three forms: 1- omission in word or expression, 2- omission in idiom, 3- omission in content of information

It has been amply demonstrated that many translators, at least between European - Asian languages, exceed their sources in length, comparatively fewer studies have approached instances in which for various reasons, translator have not translated, 'omitted' something from the source-text in their translation

Somewhere else Baker (1992) states:

"As with single words, an idiom may sometimes be omitted altogether in the target text This may be because it has no close match in the target language, its meaning cannot easily paraphrased or for stylistic reasons".1

1Baker, Mona (1992), In Other Words: a course book on Translation, London: Routledge.

Also Baker (1992) adds:

"The change in the information content of the message may be in the form of omitting information specified in the source text If the target language lacks a grammatical category which exists in the source language, the information expressed by that category may have to be ignored".2

In the English version, the translator only translates the verses which contain the ideas of the proverbs Because of the differences in culture, the readers can only understand the meaning of the verses and they can’t know the proverbs from which the writertakes idea… because there is no equivalent idiom or it is difficult to use 'explanatory idioms' or style reasons

Generally, there are various reasons, for example, it is also much related to the style of poetry: tone, rhymes, rhythms or related to the lyrics, the rhythm of the song

In this thesis, this strategy appears in all the 14 songs with the highest appearing times: 83 density and occupies nearly a half of the proportion in all strategies with 48.5% Besides, the Translation by using omission strategy also has its specific features

4.1.1.1 Full omission

In this case, we care about the missing words and phrases in the English translated versions which are opposed to Vietnamese lyrics This is a loss in meaning which occurs in all the 14 songs

It is true that translating singable texts is more different from other kinds and

it is more difficult to maintain the meaning of the source texts while getting along with the sound beats In the entire corpus examined, the most typical feature of Omission is the dropping meaning of words and phrases For example, in the song

“BIẾT ĐÂU NGUỒN CỘI – ORIGIN UNKOWN”, the phrase “ngày kia” is omitted in these two sentences, resulting in the complete loss of meaning of the phrase:

[line 13, Appendix 1]

2Baker, Mona (1992), In Other Words: a course book on Translation, London: Routledge.

Similarly, in the example below, to maintain the 6 sound beats like Vietnamese lyric, the translator omits the phrase “lắng nghe” and the word “nằm”:

by in these pairs of sentences:

In the song “CON MẮT CÒN LẠI – THE OTHER EYE”, the verb “nhìn” disappears in line 7:

[line 7, Appendix 3]

In the song “ĐỜI GỌI EM BIẾT BAO LẦN – LIFE HAS CALLED YOU MANY TIMES”, despite well setting the balance in terms of sound beat between Vietnamese lyric and its English translational version, the translator also passes by the meaning of some words and phrases This one is a typical example:

(5) Bước chân không chờ ai đón

[line 2, Appendix 5]

In the song “GẦN NHƯ NIỀM TUYỆT VỌNG - SOMETHING LIKE DESPAIR”, the adverbial phrase “có nhiều khi” is passed by:

[line 5, Appendix 6]

“nằm”and “đìu hiu” are omitted:

In the song “LẶNG LẼ NƠI NÀY - THE QUIET WORLD OF MINE”, the phrase “xa vắng” is also omitted:

Flies along a little love Ø

[line 12, Appendix 7]

In the song “MỘT CÕI ĐI VỀ - MY OWN LONELY WORLD”, the phrase

“vô tình” is omitted in this sentence:

[line 16, Appendix 8]

In the song “NGHE TIẾNG MUÔN TRÙNG - HEAR ALL SOUNDS AROUND”, the word “đêm” is omitted 10 times Here is an example of this case, in which the word “gió” is also omitted:

Ø (I) hear Ø whisp’ring

In the song “NHƯ CÁNH VẠC BAY - LIKE A FLYING HERON”, the noun “đời” is omitted in this phrase:

[line 4, Appendix 9]

In the song “QUỲNH HƯƠNG - A LITTLE ROSE, A LITTLE LOVE”, the phrase “miệng cười” is omitted in this sentence:

[line 4, Appendix 10]

In the song “TUỔI ĐỜI MÊNH MÔNG - IN TOO LARGE LIFE”, the verb

“ôm” is omitted in this case:

[line 6, Appendix 11]

In the song “XIN TRẢ NỢ NGƯỜI - I PAID MY DEBT”, the phrase “thơ dại” is omitted 2 times:

Besides, there appears 3 other cases in which the words and phrases are translated with only a haft the meaning Some omissions applied to the nouns, some

to verbs and some others to adjectives and adverbs

While translating the phrase “mật ngọt”, the translator uses only one word

“honey” = “mật (ong)” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the adjective “ngọt”

[line 13, Appendix 12]

While translating the phrase “tình sâu”, the translator uses only one word

“love” = “tình” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the adjective “sâu”

b Omission of noun

This is also considered a typical feature after examing the 14 songs Considering 8 times of appearance, the Omission of Noun exists in 5 songs These are some examples to illustrate

(18) cát bụi (tôi về làm cát bụi)

[line 6, Appendix 2]

While translating the phrase “cát bụi”, the translator uses only one word

“sand” = “cát” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the word “bụi” Moreover, I would like to draw the attention here that “come back”

is not completely equivalent to “về làm” in Vietnamese

[line 18, Appendix 4]

While translating the phrase “nhành hoa”, the translator uses only one word

“a rose” = “một hoa (hồng)” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the word “nhành”

[line 6, Appendix 7]

While translating the phrase “rộng hai vai”, the translator uses only one word

“immense” = “rộng (mênh mông)” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the word “hai vai”

[line 17, Appendix 9]

Source text Target text Back translation Omission

While translating the phrase “ngày vui”, the translator uses only one word

“all joys” = “tất cả niềm vui” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the word “ngày”

[line 1, Appendix 12]

While translating the phrase “nợ người”, the translator uses only one word

“my debt” = “nợ của tôi” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the word “người”

c Omission of verb

This case appears 3 times in 2 songs and stands on the fourth rank in the strategy Translation by using omission

[line 4, Appendix 1]

While translating the phrase “nằm kể”, the translator uses only one word

“tell” = “kể” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out the verb “nằm”

[line 14, Appendix 1]

While translating the phrase “xin làm quán đợi”, the translator uses only one word “serve as an inn” = “phục vụ như quán trọ” to set the English equivalent, which makes the target text drop out 2 verbs “xin” and “đợi”

Possessing 48.5% of all the strategies used in translating these 14 Trinh Cong Son’s songs, Translation by using Omission is such a popular one, but it is also real that conveying full meaning of source text to target text is a big challenge and seems to be never achieved

4.1.2 Translation by using a more neutral/less expressive word

The second runner-up in all is the strategy Translation by using a more neutral/less expressive word, which has 21.6% for 37 density In this case, the translator cannot express the true meaning of the source text by using an exact equivalent in the target text Using this strategy is to help readers or singers understand some parts of meaning of words or phrases in the source text

[line 2, Appendix 2]

“Hình hài” - This word means the shape, the body of someone Maybe, the translator understands deeply the lyric of this song Besides, he also has a clear view

in Buddhism “Hình hài” is pointed out directly by the phrase “a man” which helps listeners, singers when observing the English version understand the true meaning

[line 10, Appendix 2]

“Trắng như vôi” - This is an idiomatic phrase in Vietnamese when people compare something with white color to the lime In the English version, the translator uses the phrase “turn white” – which hasn’t expressed fully the meaning, but, the general meaning is partly transferred and conveyed

[line 13, Appendix 2]

“Trăm năm” in this situation does not mean “a hundred year” as its denotative meaning, but it refers to another aspect, the life time of a person Understanding the implied thinking of Son, the translator, by using the communicative approach in translating, sets the English equivalent for this phrase

“life time” We can see this phrase in [line 12, Appendix 6] and [line 6, Appendix 9]

[line 2, Appendix 3]

With the denotative meaning, we can understand the phrases “lên cao – xuống thấp” like describing the different position of someone when they change their seat or living By starting the point view of connotative meaning, the phrases

“lên cao – xuống thấp” may consists of other deeper meanings It could be the job, the success, the love, living condition, etc, which sometimes get to the highest, the happiest, but sometimes drop to the level off, to the end of sadness In this situation, the translator adds “there – here” which clarify one aspect in the deep meaning of Vietnamese lyric Therefore, connotative description is used in this case

[line 9, Appendix 6]

The phrase “rã rời” is an adjective phrase which is the combination of two words “rã” and “rời” with the meaning of feeling wearied or exhausted In this case, the translator doesn’t use direct English equivalent of “rã rời”, by describing the deep feeling inside with the meaning of a sad heart, he chooses the combination of two adjectives to make an adjective phrase which runs as the English equivalent for Vietnamese lyric

[line 11, Appendix 6]