Table of Contents 1. Introduction 7 1.1 Rationale 7 1.2 Literature review 8 1.3 Aims and scope of the thesis 10 2. Unnaturalness in English – Vietnamese translation 12 2.1 What is unnaturalness in translation? 12 2.2 Classification of mistakes that cause unnaturalness in English – Vietnamese translation 13 2.2.1 On linguistic aspects 13 2.2.1.1 At word level 14 2.2.1.2 At phrase level 21 2.2.1.3 At sentence level 23 2.2.1.4 Linguistic untranslatability 28 2.2.2 On cultural aspects 30 2.2.2.1 Translation of idioms and fixed express ions 30 2.2.2.2 Translation of implications and classic references 34 2.2.2.3 Cultural untranslatability 36 3. Causes of unnatural translation 38 3.1 Subjective causes 38 3.1.1 Insufficient language competence 38 3.1.1.1 Insufficient target language (Vietnamese ) competence 38 3.1.1.2 Insufficient source language (English) competence 40 5 3.1.2 Inadequate cultural background 41 3.2 Objective causes 42 3.2.1 Linguistic differences between English and Vietnamese 42 3.2.2 Cultural differences 43 4. Translation techniques to avoid unnaturalness 45 4.1 Accommodation 45 4.1.1 What is accommodation? 45 4.2.2 Types of accommodations 46 4.2 Some suggested techniques 46 4.2.1 Overcoming linguistic problems 48 4.2.1.1 Choose the right word 48 4.2.1.2 Choose the right structure 50 4.2.1.3 Dealing with linguistic untranslatability 52 4.2.2 Overcoming cultural problems 53 4.2.2.1 Cultural substitutions 53 4.2.2.2 Dealing with cultural untranslatability 55 5. Conclusions 59 5.1 Overview and summary of the thesis 59 5.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the thesis 61 5.3 Suggestions for further research and final comments 61 References 63 Literary sources 65 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis. I want to thank the English Department of Hanoi University of Foreign Studies for giving me permission to commence this thesis in the first instance and to do the necessary research work. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Mr. Đặng Xuân Thu whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this thesis. My classmates from class FA1 – 2002 supported me agreat deal and I want to thank them for all their support, cooperation and valuable suggestions. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to other fellow students of the English Department for providing me their translation exercises and assignments to use as references. Especially, I am obliged to my friends who looked closely at the final version of the thesis for English style and grammar, correcting both and offering suggestions for improvement. Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and indirect support helped me complete my thesis in time. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Rationale The practice of translation dates back some two thousand years and ever since has existed until present days. It is generally believed that translation plays a key role in the universalisation of human knowledge. It helps improve international understanding, socio-cultural awareness, professional communicative activities, implementation of technologies, and so much more. Many well-known translators have been praised for their great contribution to the mankind. Translation is of undeniable significance to the development of the world culture and society. However, the practice of translation has long beencriticized for being, more than often, unsatisfactory or even incorrect. The Italians have a saying that goes, "traduttore, tradittore" (translator, traitor). This seems to evoke an immoderate distaste for translators; yet it has its own reasoning. Certainly, almost no translation is perfect even when the general message is conveyed. This is due to the many linguistic and cultural differences between one language and another. Perfecting the practice of translation has been a great desire of generations of translators all over the world. There have been several senior translators devoting their life to finding ways to overcome difficulties in their work. In other words, they have tried to figure out and resolve common pitfalls that make a translation unnatural and sometimes even incomprehensible. That is also the attempt that this thesis tries to accomplish, though in much more limited scope. 8 1.2 Literature review In Vietnam, there has been a growing concern about the quality of English – Vietnamese translations. Some have been called by prestigious translators as “disasters of the translation art”. Indeed, the practice of translation is not only a craft, but also a science and an art (Newmark, 1988), which needs to be constantly improved with a view to bringing the Vietnamese mass culture to new heights. Particularly, English is the language of billions of documents available in all fields, academic or popular. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that many scholars and lecturers teaching translation at universities havespared no efforts to work on the frequently seen types of mistakes in English – Vietnamese translation as well as techniques translators may employ to avoid them. However, the field of study in Vietnam began comparatively recently and the numberof published works remains modest. While some research has focused on the basic theory of translation, other work has sought to show different examples of translation techniques or provide sample translations. Much of the work published for internal circulation in universities emphasizes the former aspect, which is the theoretical basis of translation. Prominent publications of this type (in Vietnam) include Interpreting and Translation Course Book (Bùi Tiến Bảo & Đặng Xuân Thu, 1999), Theory of Translation (Huỳnh Trung Tín & Nguyễn Ngọc Tuyền, n.d.) and some scattered academic essays found on the Internet. Different from international bookson the theory of translation, these publications are closely related to the English – Vietnamese translation. Written by experienced translators who have spent years practicing translation as a profession and working with students learning translation skills, the books concentrate on addressing the main theoretical issues encountered by translation learners in Vietnam. This can be a solid basis to start any further research on the practice of translation in Vietnam. For instance, in Interpreting and Translation Theory, the authors have mentioned the basic process of translation with the four-level approach. 9 It is a crucial argument to locate the level of naturalness in the whole translation process. However, about the unnaturalness in translation, none of the books mentioned have a clear definition of it. The description is rather brief and the issue is not placed enough importance on, whereas actually the books have certain examples of unnatural translations in several chapters. Another trend of coping with translation issues in Vietnam is to figure out what are the weaknesses lingering in translation work and suggest specific techniques to help translators avoid repeating frequently made mistakes. This kind of approach can be seen in Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật dịch Anh – Việt (English – Vietnamese Translation Techniques) (2005) by Nguyễn Quốc Hùng and Lê Văn Sự’s Translation and Grammar (2003). Both books are practical and useful for readers as translation learners if they are to develop their translation skills and ability to deal with thorny situations. The authorsbase their arguments on verified studies by well-known scholars over the world and their scope of study is broad. In Hướng dẫn kỹthuật dịch Anh - Việt, the author conducts in-depth analysis of each translation technique following every unit, which is in fact a sample translation task. The book focuses on the English – Vietnamese translation, the same as that of this thesis. The classification is rational and examples are practical. The only limitation of the book is that it gives too little room for discussion on problems a translator may face when translating thesample passages and the causes. It is much like instructions for specific translation tasks rather than suggestions on translation methodology. In summary, this is a goodbook for translators who have already recognized their weaknesses and are seeking ways to improve their skills and polish their translations. However, for inexperienced translators or translation learners, it is more important to know the potential pitfalls they usually face so as to avoid them. This is why there is a need for a studyon common mistakes that make an English – Vietnamese translation unnatural or smooth. 10 Author Lê Văn Sự in his book titled Translation and Grammar discusses as many as twenty five translation techniques, under each of them being typical and diverse examples. His way of classifying types of techniques is different from that of the author of Hướng dẫn kỹthuật dịch Anh - Việt, but it is rational on the ground of English grammar. Nevertheless, the book places too much emphasis on the grammatical aspects while it is crucial for translators to be aware of all linguistic aspects and even many cultural and social aspects. The sample translations are not accompanied by explanation of the translation methods. In conclusion, so far few publications on English – Vietnamese translation clearly separate the mistakes that damage the meaning of the whole translation work and ones that make it sound un-Vietnamese or unnatural. These mistakes are discussed all together in the books mentioned above. Consequently, readers may not gain the different notions of what a correct translation is and what can be called a good translation. In fact, apart from the efforts to make correct literal translations, translators also need to be trained to better theirwork to the highest level possible. It is for the sake of the whole translation cultureat present and in the future. 1.3 Aims and scope of the thesis The term translation can be understood in two ways. In broader term, translation is the process of converting words from one language to another (International Translation Bureau™, 2003). According to this definition, it includes interpreting as the conversion of spoken words from one language into another. However, what this thesis looks at is translation with its narrower definition, concerning only the written words. The rendering of written texts from one language into another requires high accuracy and smoothness. This is because translation tasks allow considerable time for translators to find the best substitutions while interpreters hardly have time to 11 consider the wording and structure carefully. Inaccuracy and unnaturalness in translation, therefore, need to be studied more cautiously than those in interpreting. Moreover, the thesis concentrates on analyzing in details the English - Vietnamese translation, which is much more popular in Vietnam today than Vietnamese - English translation. It touches upon translations of this kind by students of English as well as translators for Vietnamese magazines, newspapers and publishers. This is due to the fact that not only translations by students but, worryingly, those by some contemporary professionaltranslators in Vietnam can be dubbed unnatural. This is a flaw we need to eliminate or at least reduce to the minimum level with a view to purifying our mother tongue and providing readers with the best possible sources of knowledge and enjoyment. This is of importance to the development of Vietnamese culture and society in the future. The thesis may mention the theoretical base in each of its parts, but it concentrates largely on dealing with translation inpractice. In Vietnam, there have been quite little research work like this and most of the publications are for internal circulation in universities only. For that reason, this thesis is mostly based on the combination and analysis of minute details picked from these publications and materials acquired from personal sources. The primary aim of the thesis is to give students of English, the would-be translators, an overview of the frequently seen types of mistakes in English - Vietnamese translation that may make their translations unnatural and incomprehensible so that they are fully aware of and able to avoid them. The thesis also aims at finding causes of translation unnaturalness and then suggesting some possible strategies to overcome the problems. The targeted subjects of this thesis are mainly students; nevertheless, all people who are interested in translation work can consider it a useful reference helping improve their translating skills. In addition, the thesis touches upon a field of study that is still rather insufficient in Vietnam for further discussion by other researchers. References 1. Bùi Tiến Bảo, & Đặng Xuân Thu (1999). Interpreting and Translation Course Book. Hanoi: Education Publishing House. 2. Bùi Việt Bắc (2005, January 1). Dịch sai đang phá hỏng tiếng Việt. Văn nghệ, No.1. 3. Calque. Wikipedia.Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved May 12, 2006,from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque 4. Catchword (n.d.). Glossary of Naming Techniques and Linguistic Concepts. Retrieved May 10, 2006, from http://www.catch-word.com/glossary.html 5. Frank Trinh (2002). Vietnamese translation in Australia: A missing link. Retrieved April 19, 2006, from www.vny2k.net/Hocthuat/FrankTrinh_ VNTranslation_AMissingLink.htm 6. Hinkel, Eli (Ed.) . (1999). Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 7. Huỳnh Trung Tín, & Nguyễn Ngọc Tuyền (n.d.) Theory of Translation. Retrieved May 17, 2006, from http://www.ctu.edu.vn/coursewares/supham/ltdich/index.htm 8. International Translation Bureau™. (2003). Frequently asked questions: What is translation. Retrieved April 25, 2006, from http://www.itbtranslation.com/faqs.html 9. Karamanian, Alejandra P. (January, 2002). Translation and Culture [Electronic version]. Translation Journal, 6 (1). Retrieved May 13, 2006, from http://accurapid.com/journal/19culture2.htm 64 10. Lê Huy Trường, Đặng Đình Thiện, & Trần Huy Phương (1998). A Grammar of the English Language. Hanoi: Education Publishing House. 11. Lê Văn Sự(2003). Translation and Grammar. Hanoi: Culture and Information Publishing House. 12. McCarthy, Michael, & O’Dell, Felicity (2004) English Idioms in Use(Lê Thành Tâm, & Lê Ngọc Phương Anh, Trans.) Ho Chi Minh City: Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House. 13. Minh Hồ(2002). Comments on "Vietnamese translation in Australia: A missing link" by Frank Trinh. Retrieved April 19, 2006, from http://www.vny2k.net/Ykien/MinhhoCommentsOnVNTranslationInAustralia.htm 14. Newmark, Peter (October, 1988). A Textbook of Translation. New York: Prentice Hall. 15. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, & Lê Quốc Hạnh (2003). English Lexicology. Hanoi: Education Publishing House. 16. Nguyễn Quốc Hùng (2005). Hướng dẫn kỹthuật dịch Anh - Việt. Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House. 17. Phạm Văn Vĩnh et al. (2003). Tục ngữso sánh. Hanoi: Hanoi Publishing House. 18. Shei, Chi-Chiang (2002). Combining Translation into the Second Language and Second Language Learning: An Integrated Computational Approach. Doctoral dissertation, the University of Edinburgh,UK. Retrieved May 9, 2006, from http://www.swan.ac.uk/cals/staff/shei/phd2/thesis_revised2.htm