The use of sino vietnamese in the translation of noun phrases in harry potter book series

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE USE OF SINO-VIETNAMESE IN THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN PHRASES IN HARRY POTTER BOOK SERIES SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI CAM LINH, M.A STUDENT: HOANG THI MY LINH YEAR OF ENROLMENT: 2009 Hanoi, May 2013 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 VIỆC DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ TRONG BỘ SÁCH HARRY POTTER Giáo Viên Hướng Dẫn: ThS Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh Sinh Viên: Hồng Thị Mỹ Linh Khóa: 2009 HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2013 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Hoàng Thị Mỹ Linh, class QH2009.F.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University 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 Date i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all people who supported and inspired me to complete this paper The success of this paper is also attributable to them First and foremost, I would like to express my deep indebtedness towards my venerable supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Cam Linh, M.A for her enthusiasm and dedication, her critical comments and feedbacks, her useful materials, as well as her continuous encouragement Had it not been for her tremendous support, I would never have been able to complete this graduation paper I would also like to express my sincerest thanks to my family, my classmates of QH09.F1.E25, and all my other friends, especially my close friend, Nguyen Phuong Thu, who are always by my side and unceasingly support me Thanks to their extensive experience and opinions, I did not have to encounter difficulties alone during the completion of this research Furthermore, I would love to extend my profound gratitude to all the teachers who have not only taught but also inspired me during the whole four years If it had not been for their diligence and dedication, I would not be what I am today Last but not least, I would like to thank all the readers for their interest in the paper I hope that the readers of this would find this helpful, to even the smallest extent ii ABSTRACT Translation and its relating issues have become non-stop topics for researchers Language difference is one of the most basic issues of translation Aiming at handling the gaps between languages, translation procedures is one of the elements determining the accuracy of language equivalence Therefore, this research is firstly an attempt to figure out in detail types of translation procedures applied in the Vietnamese version of one of the most famous books for children- Harry Potter book series By counting the frequency of translation procedures used in the translation of the Vietnamese translator Ly Lan, the characteristics of each procedures affecting the equivalence of the translation are drawn, in which through translation, functional equivalence, and couplet are most frequently used Together with that, the Sino-Vietnamese structures used in the books are also concentrated in the hope to have a deeper look into the use of Sino-Vietnamese in the translation of literary documents By modeling common Sino-Vietnamese structures of noun phrases in Ly Lan’s versions, some structures are built, including some stylistic structures of the translator such as “Bất khả+V”, or “V+N-career indicator” In comparison with original noun phrases, some features of Sino-Vietnamese are also described One of those is the ability to remain the structure of English noun phrase by using the structure “N Adj+N” or “N  Q+ N” Basing on the closeness in structures of phrases, Sino-Vietnamese must be exploited in other literary documents and fictions as well Last but not least, since the suggestions were given basing on a small-scale study, the answer to it needs more examination, thus requires larger-scale studies Further studies should be of larger scope to increase the validity as well as reliability of the results More discussions are needed within the topic of translation procedures and the use of Sino-Vietnamese, as there remain a lot of issues to discover iii TABLE OF CONTENT CONTENT PAGE Acceptance page i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii List of figures, tables, and abbreviations vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Significance of the study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Noun phrases 2.1.1 Definition 2.1.2 Original noun phrases created by J.K.Rowling 2.2 SV words 2.2.1 Origins 2.2.2 Classification 2.2.3 Sino-Vietnamese compounding patterns 2.3 Translation 2.3.1 Definition of translation 2.3.2 Translation procedures 2.3.2.1 Transference iv 2.3.2.2 Naturalization 10 2.3.2.3.Through translation 10 2.3.2.4.Shift or transposition 11 2.3.2.5.Modulation 11 2.3.2.6.Cultural equivalence 12 2.3.2.7.Functional equivalence 2.3.2.8.Descriptive equivalence 12 12 2.3.2.9.Adaptation 13 2.3.2.10.Couplet 2.4 An overview of Harry Potter book series by J.K.Rowling and Vietnamese translator Ly Lan 2.4.1 J.K.Rowling 2.4.2 Harry Potter book series 2.4.3 Vietnamese translator Ly Lan 13 14 15 CHAPTER : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Selection of subjects 16 3.2 Data collection instruments 17 3.3 Procedures of data collection 17 3.4 Procedure of data analysis 18 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Procedures of translation used by Ly Lan to translate English nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into Sino-Vietnamese 4.1.1 Functional equivalence 4.1.2 Through translation+ Transposition 4.1.3 Through translation 4.1.4 Functional equivalence+ Transposition 4.1.5 Other procedures 4.2 SV structures used by Ly Lan to translate English nouns phrases created by J.K.Rowling into SV v 20 22 23 24 25 4.2.1 Most frequent SV structures used by Ly Lan 26 4.2.2 Modeling main structures of SV noun phrases in Ly Lan’s translation 28 4.2.2.1 N+ post-modifier 28 31 4.2.2.2 N/Np  V+ N 32 4.2.2.3 N/Np  Adj+ V/N 4.2.2.4 N/Np  Q (Quantitative indicator)+ N 33 4.2.3 Suggestions for utilizing SV vocabulary when translating noun phrases, especially in literary documents 34 4.2.3.1 The exploitation of translation procedures translating English original noun phrases into SV in fiction works 4.2.3.2 The exploitation of SV in translating English original noun phrases into Vietnamese in fiction works 34 35 36 4.3 Summary and conclusion CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Major findings of the study 37 5.2 Limitations of the study 38 5.3 Recommendations for further study 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 44 APPENDIX 48 vi LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND ABBREVIATIONS List of figures Figure Translation procedures applied in the English-SV translation of original noun phrases in Harry Potter series Figure Sino-Vietnamese structures used in the English-SV translation of original noun phrases in Harry Potter series List of tables Table Division of noun phrases into groups and subgroups Table Classification of procedures and structures of noun phrases List of abbreviations SV Sino-Vietnamese SL Source language TL Target language N Noun V Verb Adj Adjective Np Noun phrase vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION This chapter is to clarify the rationale, the aims and the objectives of the study, the significance, scope and the organization of the thesis 1.1 Rationale Since the release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on 30 June 1997, Harry Potter has become a symbol in readers’ mind all over the world, especially children The name of the young boy wizard is so familiar to everyone in every corner of the world Harry Potter, without a doubt, is no longer a name but a global book phenomenon that maintains its heat and attraction for generations As of June 2011, the book series has sold about 450 million copies, making it the best-selling books series in history and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history Definitely, Vietnamese translators quickly coped with this global trend to bring this famous book to Vietnamese readers This book series have been translated into Vietnamese, mostly known through the version translated by Ly Lan and published by Youth Publishing House Although there are many other translated versions of this book into Vietnamese, Ly Lan’s version is the most famous among readers of Harry Potter series One of the reasons leading to the fame of Ly Lan’s version is that she knows how to translate strange and hard-to-understand noun phrases originated from Rowling’s great imaginative version into typical, easy-to-remember, and arousing nouns in Vietnamese “Veritaserum”, “Felix Felicis”,…, what are they? “Chân Dược” and “Phúc Lạc Dược” These original nouns cannot be found in any EnglishVietnamese dictionaries Therefore, Ly Lan’s talent is shown through the way she counts on the content of the original version to find out the best equivalents for those words Using SV is one of the special ways of Ly Lan that achieves values of both Since the researcher is fully aware of these limitations, most of the findings are considered initial findings, offering the opportunities for further research in the future to validate them 5.6 Recommendations for further study On the first stage, because there are still limitations in the analysis of the study, so further studies can exploit Harry Potter book series better for more evidences about the translation procedures in translating verb phrases or adjective phrases One of Rowling’s strong points shown in her books is that she can create a whole new world of words, structures and wordplay Also, she had the ability to liven the stories’ atmosphere by flexibly exploiting phrases or clauses that she creates by herself Verb phrases used in Harry Potter by Rowling, for example, will be a very fertile land for future theses about Rowling’s art of playing with words On the second stage, the researcher only focuses on Harry Potter at word level, while there remain other fertile lands of the books for others to dig deeper into such as idiomatic, colloquial, or metaphoric level Rowling is a great writer in the fiction world, so her invaluable writings Harry Potter series are worth examining carefully and thoroughly These are diverse topics about the books that need deeper examinations On the one hand, Ly Lan’s translation of Harry Potter books is highly appreciated thanks to its closeness to the original books, as well as its characters shown clearly in many aspects In other words, Ly Lan’s translation achieves both naturalness and accuracy compared to Rowling’s original works Some future researches should pay more attention to examining these two elements in her translation, and discovering her own style in translating other literary works On the other hand, from the analysis of the thesis, it can be seen that Ly Lan successfully applies many effective models of structures and phrases in her translation, in which the use of SV is just a small part These SV models prove its effectiveness not 39 only in the case of the translation of Harry Potter books, but they can also be compatible with other cases of literary translation, especially fictions It is necessary to find out the most effective and flexible SV structures which can be applied in diverse types of documents The use of SV in Ly Lan’s works has become a good example for many other translators, and her ways of building up the SV structures must also be focused more thoroughly SV models in Ly Lan’s works may be food for thought for many other researchers in the future 40 REFERENCES Biography for J.K.Rowling (n.d.) imdb Retrieved April 22, 2013, from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746830/bio Lý Lan (n.d.) site.google Retrieved April 22, 2013, from https://sites.google.com/site/lylanmutman/ Baker, L C (1995) English syntax Cambridge: The MIT Press Bell, R T (1991), Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice New York: Longman Inc Jackson, H (1989) Analysing English: An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics Oxford: Pergamon Press Le, H T (2010) Ảnh hưởng tiếng Hán phát triển từ vựng tiếng Việt Retrieved December 8, 2012, from http://ngnnghc.wordpress.com Newmark, P (1988b) Approaches to translation New York: Prentice Hall International Newmark, P (1995) A Textbook of Translation New York: Prentice Hall International Ngo, T N (1984) The syllabeme and patterns of word formation in Vietnamese New York: New York University Nguyen, N B (2005) A study on English-Vietnamese translation of sport terminology Hanoi: Vietnam National University Rowling, J K (1997) Harry Potter Hòn Đá Phù Thủy Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher 41 Rowling, J K (1997) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (1998) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (1999) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (2000) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (2001) Harry Potter Phòng Chứa Bí Mật Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2002) Harry Potter Tên tù nhân ngục Azkaban Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2003) Harry Potter Chiếc cốc lửa Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2003) Harry Potter Hội Phượng Hoàng Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2003) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (2005) Harry Potter Hoàng tử Lai Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2005) Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Rowling, J K (2007) Harry Potter Bảo bối Tử thần Ho Chi Minh City: Youth Publisher Rowling, J K (2007) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows First Edition London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 42 Tran, H T (2012) The use of SV vocabulary in translation of business English by fourth-year students of Translation and Interpreting Division, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education Hanoi: University of Languages and International Studies Tran, P N (1999) A study on translation of English Sales Contract into Vietnamese Hanoi: University of Languages and International Studies Václavíková, E (2006) Translation of Proper Nouns and Neologisms in Harry Potter Brno: Masaryk University Yule, G (2006) Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced With Answers Oxford: Oxford University Press 43 APPENDIX Table 1: Division of noun phrases into groups and subgroups Group Sub-group Names of people Student Prefect Head Boy/Girl Chaser Beater Seeker Fictional figure Animagus Dementor Seer Chief Warlock Curse- Breaker Death Eater Squib Names of Places Facility Great Hall Unknowable room Titles of Books: The monster book of monsters Magical item 44 House-elf Creature Parselmouth Basilisk Blast-ended skrewt Hippocriff Thestral Grim Patronus Flobberworm Dementor Chimaera Corpses Spell Summoning Charm Banishing Charm Extinguishing Spells Fidelius Charm Imperius Curse Unbreakable Charm Unplottable Charm Unspeakable Charm Disarming Charm Partial Vanishment 45 Formula Felix Felicis Amortentia Poly-juice Potion Veritaserum Aging Potion Remedial Potions Tool Deathly Hallows Horcruxes Marauder’s Map Extended Ears Pensieve Invisibility Cloak Miscellaneous Occlumency Legilimency Tri-wizard Inner Eye 46 APPENDIX Group classification of translation procedures and SV structures Group 1: Names of people/ Occupations English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Prefect SV structure procedure Huynh trưởng Functional N  N+ Adj equivalence Head Boy/Girl Chaser Thủ lĩnh Nam Functional Np (Adj+ N) sinh/Nữ sinh equivalence N+ N Truy thủ Functional N  V+ thủ equivalence Beater Tấn thủ Functional N  V+ thủ equivalence Seeker Tầm thủ Functional N  V+ thủ equivalence Group 2: Fictional figures English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Animagus SV structure procedure Hóa thú sư Functional N  V+ sư equivalence Dementor Giám ngục Functional N  V+ N equivalence Seer Chân Kiến Descriptive equivalence 47 N  Adj+ V Chief Warlock Curse- Breaker Tổng Chiến Tướng Phá Nguyền Sư Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation Adj+ N Functional Np (N+ N)  V+ equivalence+ Sư Transposition Death Eater Tử Thần Thực Tử Functional Np (N+ N)  N+ equivalence+ V+ tử Transposition Squib Á phù thủy Functional N  Q+ N equivalence Group 3: Names of Places: Facility English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Great Hall Unknowable room SV structure procedure Đại sảnh đường Phòng Bất khả tri Through Np (adj+ N)  translation Adj+ N Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation Transposition 48 + N+ Bất khả+ V Group 4: Names of Books English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase The Monster SV structure procedure Quái thư Quái vật Through Book of Monsters translation Np (N+ N)  N+ về+ N Group 5: Magical items: Creatures English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase House-elf SV structure procedure Gia tinh Through N  N+ N translation Parselmouth Xà Functional N  N+ N equivalence Basilisk Tử Xà Through N  N+ N translation Blast-ended Quái Tôm đuôi nổ skrewt Functional equivalence Np (Adj+ N)  + N+ V Transposition Hippocriff Bằng mã Functional N  N+ N equivalence Thestral Vong mã Functional N  N+ N equivalence Grim Hung tinh Functional N  Adj+ N equivalence Patronus Thần Hộ mệnh Functional equivalence 49 N  N+ V Flobberworm Nhu- trùng Through N  Adj+ N translation Chimaera  Sư Dương Xà (Đầu Descriptive N sư tử, dê, equivalence (N+N+N) Np rắn) Corpse Âm binh Through N  Adj+ N translation Group 6: Magical items: Spells English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Summoning SV structure procedure Bùa Triệu tập Charm Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ V Transposition Banishing Charm Bùa Tống xuất Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ V Transposition Fidelius Charm Bùa Trung tín Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ Adj Transposition Extinguishing Bùa Diệt tuyệt Spells Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ V Transposition Imperius Curse Bùa Độc đoán Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ Adj Transposition Unbreakable Bùa Bất khả bể Through 50 Np (Adj+ N)  Charm translation+ N+ Bất khả+ V Transposition Unplottable Bùa Bất khả định vị Charm Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ Bất khả+ V Transposition Unspeakable Bùa Bất khả ngôn Charm Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ Bất khả+ V Transposition Disarming Charm Bùa Giải giới Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ V Transposition Partial Bùa Biến bất toàn Vanishment Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ Bất+ Adj Modulation+ Transposition Group 7: Magical items: Formula English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Remedial Potions SV structure procedure Độc dược Chỉnh tu Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ V Transposition Aging Potion Độc dược Lão hóa Through N  N+ V translation+ Transposition Veritaserum Chân Dược Functional equivalence 51 N  Adj+ N Poly-juice Potion Thuốc Đa-dịch Through Np (N+ N)  N+ translation+ Đa+ N Transposition Amortentia Tình Dược Functional N  N+ N equivalence Felix Felicis Phúc Lạc Dược Functional N  N+ N equivalence Group 8: Magical items: Tools English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Invisibility Cloak SV structure procedure Áo khốc tàng hình Through translation Np (N+ N)  N+ + V Transposition Pensieve Tưởng kí Functional N  N+ V equivalence Extended Ears Bành Trướng Nhĩ Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ V+ N Transposition Marauder’s Map Bản đồ Đạo tặc Through Np  N+ N translation+ Transposition Horcruxes Trường sinh linh giá Functional N  Adj+ N equivalence Deathly Hallows Bảo bối Tử thần Through Np (Adj+ N)  translation+ N+ N Transposition 52 Group 9: Miscellaneous English noun SV equivalent Translation phrase Occlumency Legilimency SV structure procedure Bế quan Bí thuật Chiết tâm trí thuật Functional Np (N+ N)  V+ equivalence N Functional N  V+ N equivalence Tri-wizard Inner Eye Tam pháp thuật Nội nhãn Through Np (Q+ N)  Q+ translation N Through Np  N+ N translation 53 ... applied in the English-SV translation of original noun phrases in Harry Potter series Figure Sino- Vietnamese structures used in the English-SV translation of original noun phrases in Harry Potter series. .. frequently used Together with that, the Sino- Vietnamese structures used in the books are also concentrated in the hope to have a deeper look into the use of Sino- Vietnamese in the translation of literary... focuses on the translation of original noun phrases created by Rowling into SV by Ly Lan in Harry Potter Book Series Therefore, the analysis is conducted in seven volumes of Harry Potter book series