An investigation into english – vietnamese translation of euphemisms in public speeches

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF EUPHEMISMS IN PUBLIC SPEECHES (Phân tích cách dịch uyển ngữ diễn văn tiếng Anh sang tiếng Việt ) M.A MINOR THESIS Hanoi, 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF EUPHEMISMS IN PUBLIC SPEECHES (Phân tích cách dịch uyển ngữ diễn văn tiếng Anh sang tiếng Việt ) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics CodeODE: 8220201.01 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thủy, Ph.D Hanoi, 2020 DECLARATION I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, has submitted for any degree to any other universities and institutions i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thesisstudy has been only completed successfully with the assistant and guidance of my teachers, my friends, and my relatives First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for my supervisor, Doctor of PhilosophyAssoc Prof Phạm Thị Thủy for her valuable suggestions, academic guidance, critical comments and practical advices, without which, the thesisstudy could not come into being I am also grateful to all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lectures, much help and encouragement In addition, my thanks also to my friends for their ideas, material and enthusiasm during my whole course of studying Last but not least, I wish to acknowledge the support and invaluable help of my parents while the work was in progress ii ABSTRACT Translation from one language to another, particularly translation of euphemisms, is no easy task Euphemisms are a figurative device which are used in life and at work by almost everyone, from ordinary people to politicians, including presidents, in order to avoid directness of speech and embarrassing or unpleasant expressions The present thesis focuses on the methods of English- Vietnamese translation of euphemisms, more specifically, in public speeches The aim of this thesis is to find out the main methods that the translators use to translate euphemisms for death in English public speeches into Vietnamese To achieve that aim, we have taken the data from 63 English public speeches and their translations in Vietnamese Altogether, 37 euphemisms for death (see appendix 4) have been collected The data then has been analyzed to discover the methods that the translators have employed The analytical framework for translating euphemisms for death from English into Vietnamese is taken from translation methods provided by Larson (1998) and Barnwell (1980) The finding shows that 82% the euphemisms for death in the English public speeches have been translated by equivalent euphemisms in Vietnamese, 12% euphemisms have been translated indirectly or by non-equivalent euphemisms, and 6% euphemisms – by direct forms in Vietnamese texts iii Euphemism is a figurative device which is almost used by everyone in many aspects of life, especially by president in public speeches so that they can avoid the directness of speech or the ugly expressions This thesis is a case study which investigates methods translators have used when they translate euphemism for death from English into Vietnamese in linguistic and culture difference between two languages The study examines some sentences which contain death euphemism in public speeches and analyzed For its framework for analysis, the present case study will assess the translation of English euphemisms into Vietnamese in public speeches by focusing on three ways of translating euphemisms The study concludes that the most of the euphemisms in the SL texts are transferred by equivalent euphemism in the TL texts, some in the SL texts are transferred indirectly or by non-equivalent euphemisms in the TL texts, a small number are transferred by a direct form in the TL texts The principal aim of this study is to explore how many euphemisms for death are used in public speeches Moreover, it also aims to come to main methods taken by translators in translating euphemisms for death from English public speeches into Vietnamese In doing so, this thesis attempts to study the figure of speech on the aspect of translation to give some considerations and propose methods in translating euphemisms for death in public speeches iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS viv ABBREVIATION xiivii LIST OF TABLES xiiiviii LIST OF FIGURES xviix CHAPTER I: INTRODUTION 1.1 Rationale of the thesis 1.2 Aims and objectives of the thesis 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research method of the thesis 1.3.1 Research method 1.3.2 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the thesis 1.5 Significance of the thesis 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 54 2.1 Translation 2.1.1 Definitions of translation 54 2.1.2 Translation equivalence 75 2.1.3 Translation process and translation methods in general 98 2.1.4 Methods for translating euphemisms 1312 v 2.2 Language and culture 1413 2.3 Euphemisms 1615 2.3.1 Definition of public speech 1615 2.3.2 Definitions of euphemism 1715 2.3.3 Classification of euphemism 1816 2.3.4 Euphemisms for death 2019 2.4 Chapter summary 2620 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD 2821 3.1 Research method 2821 3.1.1 Research method 2821 3.1.2 Research questions 2821 3.2 Research design 2821 3.3 Data collection and analysis 2922 3.3.1 Data collection 2922 3.3.2 Data analysis 3023 3.4 Chapter summary 3124 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 3225 4.1 Euphemisms in the SL translated by direct form in the TL texts .3325 4.2 Euphemisms in the SL translated by equivalent euphemisms in the TL texts 3729 4.3 Euphemisms in the SL translated indirectly or by non-equivalent euphemisms in the TL texts 4234 4.4 Frequency of methods for translating death euphemisms 4637 4.5 Chapter summary 4739 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 5040 5.1 Conclusion 5040 vi 5.2 Implications for translation studies and language teaching .5242 5.3 Some limitations of the thesis 5242 5.4 Some suggestions for further research 5343 REFERENCES 5444 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: A dictionary Euphemisms & Other doubletalk I APPENDIX 2: How Not To Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms IVIII APPENDIX 3: Data collected XIX APPENDIX 4: Euphemisms for death XLVXXXVII APPENDIX 5: Non- euphemisms for death XLVIIXXXIX DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUTION 1.1 Rationale of the thesis 1.2 Aims and objectives of the thesis 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research method of the thesis 1.4 Scope of the thesis 1.5 Significance of the thesis 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of translation 2.2 Translation equivalence vii Lincoln , in His First Inaugural, Asserts the Necessity of Majority Rule 284 lost 318 285 destroy 319 Representative J Proctor Knott Uses Satire to Sink a Land Grant Bill 286 320 287 321 288 322 289 323 290 324 291 sacrifice died death fades away perish bury 325 XL Kalakaua, Last King of Hawaii, Assumes the Throne 292 326 293 327 died dying President Franklin D Roosevelt‟s First Inaugural Instills Confidence in a Depression – Racked Nation 294 328 295 329 296 330 297 331 sacrifice perish sacrifice submit our lives President John F Kennedy, in His Inaugural, Takes Up the Torch for a XLI New Generation 298 sacrifice 332 299 sacrifice 333 300 334 301 335 302 336 303 337 deadly graves sacrifice death Egypt‟s President Anwar el- Sadat Travels to Jerusalem to Address Israel‟s Knesset 304 go to the ends of 338 earth 305 go to the ends of 339 earth 306 340 lost Senator Edward XLII M Kennedy Exhorts Fellow Democrats to Hold Fast to Liberalism 307 341 308 342 309 343 310 344 311 345 death death sacrifices sacrifices die Labour‟s Neil Kinnock Excoriates Mrs Thatcher‟s Toryism 312 346 313 347 314 348 immortal wasted death XLIII Henry Kissinger Warns against the Reemergence of Isolationism 315 349 sacrifice Total XLIV APPENDIX 4: Euphemisms for death No asleep away bestowing their lives bury/ buried buried commit my spirit deceased departed/ depart from departed destroy/ destroying devoted 10 ends 11 expiring 12 fades away 13 fall/fell/fallen 14 final resting place 15 give up life/ all their life 16 gave their lives 17 go to the ends of earth 18 gone 19 grave(s) 20 immortality/ immortal 21 killed 22 lay down/ laid down/ lay down my life lay /laid down my life XLV 23 lose/loss/lost lose/loss/lost loss 24 mortal mortality 25 offer up/of my life 26 offer their lives/ sons 27 passed passing 28 29 30 31 32 33 perish repose sleeps/slept sacrifice submit our lives suicidal 34 35 take my leave of you took their/ the lives 36 withdrawing himself from public life wasted 37 Non- euphemisms about death XLVI APPENDIX 5: Non- euphemisms for death Non- euphemisms about death There are some direct words used to refer death or the dying process as mentioned below in table 51 Source language No English died/die(s), dying (the) death(s) deadly deathbed the dead Total Table 51 Non- euphemisms about death From Table 51, there are 5184 direct words about death with 209 frequency of ocurrences in 63 public speeches This shows that people always remember the merits and sacrifices of the previous generation who are maybe their relatives, soldiers, and lovers Therefore, they show gratitude and admire those sacrifices when mentioning these deaths XLVII ... UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF EUPHEMISMS IN PUBLIC SPEECHES. .. are English euphemisms for death in public speeches The present case study will evaluate the translation of English euphemisms into Vietnamese in public speeches by focusing on three methods of. .. taken by translators in translating euphemisms for death from English public speeches into Vietnamese In doing so, this thesis attempts to study the figure of speech on the aspect of translation