He use of sino vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business english by fourth year students of translation and interpreting division faculty of english language teacher education

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE USE OF SINO-VIETNAMESE VOCABULARY IN TRANSLATION OF BUSINESS ENGLISH BY FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING DIVISION, FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh, M.A Student: Trần Hà Thu Year: QH2008 HANOI – 2012 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TỪ HÁN VIỆT TRONG DỊCH THUẬT CÁC VĂN BẢN CHUYÊN NGÀNH KINH TẾ CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM CUỐI NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH PHIÊN DỊCH, KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Th.S Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh Sinh viên: Trần Hà Thu Khóa: QH 2008 HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2012 I hereby state that I: Trần Hà Thu, class 08E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Hanoi, April 30th, 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first and foremost like to express the deep gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh, MA for her support, guidance and considerable encouragement which are decisive factors to the completion of the study Secondly, I would like to show my gratefulness to my family who offered me continuous support through the past few years so that I could have the motivation to overcome the difficulty In addition, words of thank are addressed to my friends in 08E18, 08E19, especially 08E20 for their contribution in my research i ABSTRACT This study reflected the reality of taking advantage of the Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business-related documents by the fourth-year students in Translator and Interpreting Division, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies In addition, the study was conducted to identify translation strategies and procedures applied to translate economic terminology from English into Vietnamese using SinoVietnamese vocabulary To achieve these aims, the data were collected by questionnaire Overall, the exploitation of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business-related documents has not been paid proper attention by the students This could be explained by the limited vocabulary of Sino-Vietnamese related to economics of the students Therefore, the paper concentrated on the appropriate strategies and procedures in order to translate economic terminology with Vietnamese Chinese-derived words in Vietnamese and proposed suggestions for the students to widen their knowledge of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary However, the study remained some limitations, which shed light on the further studies ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF APPENDIX vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and research questions 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance 1.4 Methodology CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Sino-Vietnamese words 2.1.1 Origin 2.1.2 Classification 2.2 Translation 2.2.1 Definition 2.2.2 Technical translation 2.2.2.1 Definition 2.2.2.2 Translation methods of technical translation 10 2.2.3 Translation procedures 2.3 Terminology 12 2.3.1 Definition 12 2.3.2 General features 12 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Samplings 15 3.2 Participants 15 iii 3.3 Data collection instruments 16 3.4 Data collection procedures 18 3.5 Data analysis method 19 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research question 20 4.2 Research question 22 4.3 Research question 24 4.4 Research question 33 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Major findings of the study 38 5.2 Limitations of the study 39 5.3 Contribution of the study 40 5.4 Suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIXES 45 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page The summary of frequency of using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary for 21 translating economic texts by the surveyed students The summary of difficulties which the students meet when using 22 Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary for translating specialized terms in economic texts The summary of the effects of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in the translation of economic terms as perceived by the students v 34 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education SL Source language ST Source text TL Target language TT Target text TID Translation and Interpreting Division ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University vi LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page Questionnaire 44 Affixes in economic terminology 47 Structure of economic compound terms: Classifier/Epithet (Noun) 48 + Thing Structure of economic compound (Adjective) + Thing vii terms: Classifier/Epithet 49 Vietnamese words are either brief or proper The illustration of liên doanh or thuế gián thu is typical to demonstrate the effectiveness of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in create the conciseness for the equivalent terms in the TL In most cases presented in this research as examples, Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary is positively efficient in forming succinct terms with high accuracy In addition, the utilization of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in the translation of economic terminology gives the business-related documents the formal nuance Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary contains words which are uncommonly used in daily conversation or in general documents They frequently appear in literature or in highly technical documents in order to avoid informality In documents related to economics, Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary proves their effectiveness in creating the formality By way of illustration, token money is literally understood as tiền làm tin in Vietnamese Yet, that translation is inappropriate in an academic document For that reason, the Sino-Vietnamese word tín tệ which is equivalent to token money is a better version because of its formality and technicality 4.4.2 Suggestions for the students to exploit Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translating technical terms in business-related documents Based on the finding concluded from the first research question, a considerable number of surveyed students own limited Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary This hinders them from utilizing Sino-Vietnamese words to convert economic terms from the SL into the TL Particularly, nearly 20.3% of the students completing the questionnaire responded that Sino-Vietnamese words made economic terms complicated and incomprehensible The underlying reason is the shallow knowledge of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary of the students It partly results from their superficial concern about Vietnamese vocabulary of Chinese origin With a view to taking full advantage of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of economic terminology, the researcher recommends the students of TID, FELTE, ULIS to memorize the fixed translation of certain words For example, ‘money’ is equal to ‘tệ’, ‘dual’ is relevant to ‘lưỡng’, ‘marginal’ is translated as ‘biên’, etc Although this strategy requires the translators to make great 35 effort to remember, it helps them quickly apply the translation in similar cases Furthermore, the translation of affixes attached to economic terms should be paid considerable attention The affixes such as –ee, de-, re-, non-, etc which are mentioned in 4.3.1 are mostly translated by using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary Therefore, the students should keep in their minds the Sino-Vietnamese words which are equivalent to the affixes in English Importantly, it is essential for the students to widen their Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary Firstly, they should thoroughly understand the meaning of SinoVietnamese words and practice using them properly A recommended Vietnamese dictionary for the students to look up the meanings and usage of words originated from Chinese is the publication of Hoang Phe (1988) Secondly, the students are advised to refer to the qualified translation in the field of economics in particular and others in general to see the way Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary exploited Summary This chapter portrayed the actual situation of the exploitation of SinoVietnamese vocabulary in translation of economic terms by students in TID, FELTE, ULIS The difficulty of students in utilizing Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in their translation of business-related documents revealed in this research was the limitation of their knowledge about Vietnamese vocabulary of Chinese origin In addition, the strategies and translation procedures applied with Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translating economic terms were analyzed so as to give the students precise instructions Finally, the conclusion related to the effects of SinoVietnamese vocabulary on the translation of business-related documents was drawn out, and some suggestions for effectively using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary to translate economic terminology were proposed by the researchers 36 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION The previous chapter fully analyzed the data collection to yield the results of the research This chapter will summarize and assess the outcomes of the paper by reviewing the findings, limitation and, contributions of the whole study In addition, some recommendation will be proposed for further studies 5.1 Major findings of the research In general, this is a comprehensive paper on the use of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business-related documents by fourth year students in TID, FELTE, ULIS Through a critical analysis and discussion of the data accumulated from the questionnaire, significant findings to answer research questions were revealed as follows: To begin with, a limited number of students participating in the survey paid attention to the presence of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in the translation of documents related to business matters Moreover, a minority of the surveyed students took into the notion of exploiting Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in converting economic terms from the SL into the TL Secondly, the research contributed substantially to identify the challenge faced by the students in utilizing Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary to translate economic terms Specifically, a large number of students reported that they had poor SinoVietnamese vocabulary; thus, they found difficult to understand the meanings of Sino-Vietnamese words and use them accurately to translate terms related to economics Thirdly, the translation of students in the questionnaire was analyzed in details in order to evaluate their ability of utilizing Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary to translate economic terms Simultaneously, samples collected from the research materials were examined to specify the appropriate translation strategies and procedures which were employed to translate economic terms using SinoVietnamese words In terms of economic terms in the form of single words, 37 translation by paraphrase using a related word and recognized translation are the optimal strategies to convey the meanings of the terms with high accuracy With reference to compound-word terms, they are classified into nominal groups with different structures The translation procedure named transposition proves its efficiency in translating economic terms of this type Additionally, translation by omission functional word in a noun phrase is an interesting strategy to make the equivalent terms more natural to the vocabulary of the TL Finally, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the utilization of SinoVietnamese vocabulary in translating business-related documents was clarified Undeniably, Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary plays a crucial role in creating the succinctness for the equivalents terms and supplement the formal nuance to the whole documents related to business matters Furthermore, the researcher proposed some suggestions for the students in TID, FELTE, ULIS to make the most use of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translating economic terminology 5.2 Limitations of the study Although the researcher took a great effort to complete the study, some certain limitations exist due to the knowledge of Chinese vocabulary of the researcher and the sample size of respondents Firstly, the samples of economic terms in the form of Sino-Vietnamese words collected in this research are not original Chinese words but Sino-Vietnamese transcription Since the researcher is not expert in Chinese vocabulary and grammar, it is impossible to make a detailed analysis the Sino-Vietnamese words by interpreting the meaning of the original Chinese words Therefore, the research probably will not satisfy the readers who have a good command of Chinese Secondly, this research involves only the future translators not the experienced ones Thus, the main objective of the research focuses on the real situation of exploiting Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in the translation of economic documents by the students in TID, FELTE, ULIS Moreover, the number of students participating in the research remained comparatively low in comparison with the large number of students in TID and in other institutes for training interpreter/ 38 translator Frankly, the researcher was fully aware of this limitation; thus, most of the outcomes related to the utilization of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business documents of the students were considered to be the initial findings which offer chances for other researchers to carry out further studies Lastly, the questionnaire was distributed to a group of students in class, and they completed it without any reference such as dictionary or internet Hence, the quality of their translation did not come up with the expectation of the researcher However, another group performed better with the support of technical dictionary and related materials Despite the shortcomings mentioned above, the researcher tried to maintain the validity and reliability of the study through justified data collection and serious work However, other researchers should take these limitations into consideration when conducting further studies in the future 5.3 Contributions of the study Overall, the study could be considered to be useful for the students in TID, FELTE, ULIS, the lecturers as well as other researchers who take an interest in this issue As for students in TID, FELTE, ULIS, the research helped them to recognize their obstacles in exploiting an abundant source of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of business-related documents In addition, effective translation strategies and procedures were clearly defined with various examples Especially, the effectiveness of Sino-Vietnamese words in the translation of economic terms was demonstrated in order to encourage the students to fully utilized Vietnamese words of Chinese origin As for lecturers, the paper identified the difficulties of the students in using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary to translate economic terms; thus, the lecturers should give the students recommendations on utilizing Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in their translation of economic documents Finally, other researchers who desire to learn more about the use of SinoVietnamese vocabulary in the translation of documents related to other scientific 39 fields could rely on this study to find reliable and useful information for their future studies 5.4 Suggestions for further studies As the use of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation remains a relatively unexplored area among studies on translation and interpretation in TID, FELTE, ULIS, other researchers are encouraged to conduct further studies in order to create a full overview of the effectiveness of Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in other fields such as in terminology of culture, health, etc Furthermore, this study was carried out with the low number of students, thus other papers can be undertaken in larger scope with the participation of students and trainers from other language universities Therefore, more challenges which the students face when using Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary as a tactics in translation might be explored As a result, more suggestions would be proposed to facilitate the students in utilizing Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in translation 40 REFERENCES Asian Development Bank 2009, Rebalancing Asia’s Growth, Asia Development Outlook 2009, Asian Development Bank, Philippines Asian Development Bank 2010, Macroeconomic Management Beyond the Crisis, Asia Development Outlook 2010, Asian Development Bank, Philippines Bay, HT 2005, ‘A study on the translation of economic terminology – A case study on the economic textbooks’, MA thesis, University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi Bell, RT 1991, Translation and Translating: Theory and practice, Long man Inc, New York Catford, JC 1965, A Linguistic Theory of Translation, Oxford Đặng Thanh Sơn 2007, ‘A contrastive analysis of metaphorical lexis and collocation in English and Vietnamese economics discourse’, BA thesis, University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi Đỗ Hữu châu 1998, Cơ sở ngữ nghĩa học từ vựng, NXB Giáo Dục, Hà Nội Hatim, B & I, Mason 1990, Discourse and the Translator, Longman, New York Hoàng Phê 1988, Từ điển Tiếng Việt, NXB Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội 10 Hoàng Văn Vân 1998, ‘Một Số Vấn Đề Có Liên Quan Đến Việc Dịch Cụm Danh Từ Tiếng Anh Sang Tiếng Việt’, Nội san Ngoại ngữ, số.5-1998, Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ 11 Lê Hồng Tư 2010, Ảnh hưởng tiếng Hán phát triển từ vựng tiếng Việt, truy cập ngày 20/01/2012, 12 Lăng Lưu Vân 1998, Ngôn ngữ tiếng Việt, NXB Khoa Học Xã Hội, Hà Nội 13 Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu & Hoàng Trọng Phiến 1997, Cơ sở ngôn ngữ học Tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo Dục, Hà Nội 41 14 Mankiw, NG 2003, Principles of Economics, 3rd edn, Thomson 15 Newmark, P 1988a, A textbook of Translation, Prentice Hall 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JP & Darbelnet, J 1973, Stylistique comparée du francais et de l’anglais, Didier, Paris 33 Weeks, J, Thắng, N, Roy, R, Lim, J 2004, The Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction: The Case Study of Vietnam – Seeking Equity within Growth, United Nation Development Program, Hanoi 34 Weeks, J, Nguyễn Thắng, Roy, R, Lim, J 2004, Kinh tế vĩ mô giảm nghèo: Nghiên cứu trường hợp Việt Nam: Tìm kiếm bình đẳng tăng trưởng , United Nation Development Program, Hanoi 35 World Bank 2011, Taking Stock: An Update on Vietnam's Recent Economic Developments (June 2011), World Bank 36 World Bank 2011, Báo cáo Cập nhật Tình hình Kinh tế Việt Nam (tháng 6/2011), World Bank 37 Britannica Online Encyclopedia, http://www.britannica.com 43 APPENDIXES Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE I am Tran Ha Thu, a senior student of Translators and Interpreters Training DivisionFELTE-ULIS-VNU This survey questionnaire is designed to collect data for my graduation paper whose title is “The Use of Sino-Vietnamese Words in Translation of Business English” Therefore, your assistance in responding to the following questions is highly appreciated I would like you to answer all the questions based on the instructions provided Thank you very much for your contribution Question 1: How often you find Sino-Vietnamese words in the translation of English business-related documents? A Never B Rarely C Usually D Don’t remember exactly Question 2: How often you use Sino-Vietnamese words in translating English business-related terms? A Never B Rarely C Usually D Don’t remember exactly Question 3: What you find difficult in using Sino-Vietnamese words to translate business-related terms? A Have limited vocabulary of Sino-Vietnamese words B Be unable to identify words as Sino-Vietnamese ones C Meet no difficulty 44 D Others Please, specify: Question 4: Please translate these following sentences into Vietnamese, try your best to use Sino-Vietnamese words to translate the bold terms: Clues: Re - : tái Net: ròng Inter- : liên Marginal: biên De- : phi Dual: lưỡng … Peso rediscount rate was increased by 50 basis points to 4.0% The slope of the indifference curve (the marginal rate of substitution) reflects the marginal utility generated by one good compared to the marginal utility generated by the other good In principle, smaller banks can borrow capital from big banks in the interbank market Saving rates from urban and rural household surveys are expressed as a share of disposable income and net income, respectively Listed securities will likely not see the same performance in 2010 as they did in 2009 45 Securities companies will be banned from trading shares on the over-the-counter (OTC) market effective January 28, under a new order from the State Securities Commission Upon delivery or shipment of items the exporter prepares shipping documents like bill of exchange The report also included a set of practical case studies on reverse dual currency bonds On the contrary, foreign banks are used to using commercial paper discounting as credit instruments 10 According to official doctrine gold was demonetized in 1971 by the "Group of Seven" Question 5: In your opinion, what are the effects of Sino-Vietnamese words in translation of economic terms? A Create the succinctness for the terms and the formality for the documents B Make the terms too complicated to understand C Have no special effect D Others Please, specify: THE END 46 Appendix 2: Affixes in economic terminology SL Meaning TL Examples -ize (V) to become, make hóa industrialize: cơng nghiệp -ization (N) or make like hóa trade liberalization: tự hóa mậu dịch capitalization: vốn hóa denationalization: phi quốc gia hóa de-, non- to remove phi something, illustrate to demonetization: phi tiền tệ hóa the non-tariff barrier: hàng opposite rào phi thuế quan meaning non-price competition: cạnh tranh phi giá inter- relation of one liên interbank market: and another trường liên ngân hàng thị intercompany account: tài khoản liên công ty intercontinental exchange: sàn giao dịch liên lục địa super- greatest in order siêu super-profit: siêu lợi nhuận/ lợi nhuận siêu ngạch super-business: công ty siêu cấp 47 multi- great quantity đa multinational company: công ty đa quốc gia multicurrency loan: vay đa tệ multilevel marketing: tiếp thị đa cấp re- again tái remortage: tái chấp recapitalize: tái vốn hóa rediscount: tái chiết khấu reinvest: tái đầu tư semi- half, partly bán semi-finished goods: bán thành phẩm semi-variable cost: chi phí bán khả biến micro- small in scale vi microeconomics: kinh tế học vi mô micromarketing: tiếp thị vi mô macro- large in scale vĩ macroeconomics: kinh tế học vĩ mô macro-forecast: dự báo vĩ mô Appendix 3: Structure of economic compound terms: Classifier/Epithet (Noun) + Thing SL TL budget deficit thâm hụt ngân sách margin account tài khoản ký quỹ registration tax thuế trước bạ 48 market share thị phần license tax thuế môn maturity date ngày đáo hạn dividend check chi phiếu cổ tức Appendix 4: Structure of economic compound terms: Classifier/Epithet (Adjective) + Thing SL TL public debt nợ cơng net income thu nhập rịng progressive tax thuế lũy tiến regressive tax thuế lũy thoái joint venture liên doanh overseas remittance kiều hối net importer nước nhập siêu marginal cost chi phí biên marginal revenue doanh thu biên variable cost chi phí khả biến financial credit tín dụng tài financial data liệu tài fringe market thị trường ngoại biên 49 ... However, the outcome of the investigation on the use of Sino- Vietnamese vocabulary by the students does not coincide with the reality of Sino- Vietnamese vocabulary utilized in the sample TT The accumulated... the most use of Sino- Vietnamese vocabulary in the translation of business- related documents 4.4.1 The effects of Sino- Vietnamese vocabulary on the translation of economic terminology According... out to examine the use of Sino- Vietnamese vocabulary in translation of economic terminology Especially, the application of SinoVietnamese vocabulary in translating economic terms in business- related