An in-depth analysis of the English - Vietnamese translation version of Jack London's famous novel The Call of the Wild

Phân tích sâu về bản dịch Anh - Việt cuốn tiểu
thuyết nổi tiếng của Jack London "Tiếng gọi nơi
hoang dã

Nguyễn Thị Hoàn

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến
Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract: This minor thesis has conducted a comprehensive research and analysis into
the translation quality of Chapter 6 – The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The
researcher based the analysis on J. House’s model with 8 dimensions elaborated in two
categories: Language User and Language Use. The qualitative and quantitative methods
were incorporated to bring about the extensive analysis of data in both ST and TT. The
results presented in Chapter III of this thesis indicate that the TT features mismatches in
full comparison with the ST as five dimensions (Medium, Participation, Social Role
Relationship, Social Attitude, and Province) go along. The mismatches, of which, the
most prominent one concerns the formality level and literary style, are attributed to the
cultural differences between English and Vietnamese. Overt translation was proven to be
applied in the TT due to the translator’s intent to retain the value of this timeless famous
novel as much as possible. The thesis makes a modest contribution to the assessment of
literary work, especially timeless and valuable one like this novel.

Keywords: Ngôn ngữ học; Tiếng Anh; Dịch thuật


Content
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale for the study

Over the past years, translation has been playing a crucial part in bridging two cultures
and has enabled the advances of modern life and internationalism of around the world. In
literature, foreign poetry and prose into the curriculum also increasingly covers much ground,
which brings translation to more attention. However, the translation of literary works is not an
easy – to – deal matter and the question of how a good translation text is measured has never
ceased to challenge linguists.
In fact, Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) has been addressed by many linguists so
far and it remains a controversial topic with many a theory proposed. Among many linguists who
have put forward models to carry out a comprehensive assessment, J. House is chosen by most
researchers because of the best applicability of her model, based mainly on the theory of
functional grammar by K. Halliday.
The novel “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London is the author’s first literary work,
which helped him rise to the prominence as the top author of American literature in the early 20
th

century. The researcher has taken the translation version by Nguyễn Công Ái and Vũ Tuấn
Phương to measure how well the translation is.
The novel also characterizes Jack London’s writing style, straightforward but formal,
which is embraced in each chapter of the novel. In this minor study, Chapter 6 of the novel titled
“For the love of a man” is chosen as the data for the analysis. This chapter is the only one which
reveals Buck’s passionate love for his master and this love demonstrates the humanity in the
whole novel.
II. Objectives of the study
The study aims at investigating the translation quality of the target text of Chapter 6 in
full comparison with the source text, based on J. House’s model.
At the end of this study, the answers to the following research questions should be
provided:
- What are the features of the ST, according to J. House’s model?
- What are the mismatches of the TT in comparison with the ST?
- What kind of translation, covert or overt, is employed?

III. Scope of the study
As referred to earlier, J. House’s model is adopted to assess the quality of the translation
in this research.
Due to its modest scale, this study is merely confined to chapter 6 of the novel “The Call
of the Wild”, which partly features Jack London’s basic writing style in the novel. With such a
limit set out at the beginning of the study, all the analysis and comparison between the ST and
the TT is only restricted in this chapter.
IV. Method of the study
The principal method employed in the study is Documentary Research, using the outside
sources (the ST and TT of chapter 6 – “The Call of the Wild) to support the whole procedure of
translation quality assessment.
The researcher also combines both qualitative and quantitative research, analyzing data
and providing the readers with deeper insights into the distinctions and value in the ST and TT.
Some important conclusions can be drawn from these analyses.
V. Organization of the study
The first chapter of the study will be Literature Review in which some related concepts of
translation theory and typical models of translation quality assessment are discussed.
In the second chapter, the research will introduce an overview of the original text’s
content, and J. House’s model applied to analyze the ST.
In the third chapter, the researcher will apply J. House’s model to analyze and compare
English ST and its Vietnamese TT to find out mismatches and draw a conclusion of what type of
translation is employed in the study.
CHAPTER I:
LITERATURE REVIEW
I. What is translation?
There have been many different definitions of translation so far. From the researcher’s
point of view, however, 5 following definitions should be taken into consideration
II. Literary translation
II.1. General characteristics of literary language
Literature is the use of well-chosen words to tell a story through narrative, involving

characters in conflict, or to express an emotion or idea through artfully arranged images.
II.2. Problems of literary translation
One of the prominent problems in translating literary texts is the differences between
cultures. It is easily recognized by a translator who uses a cultural approach that each language
contains elements which are derived from its culture.
III. Translation Quality Assessment
III.1. Proposed models
Over long history of translation quality assessment, linguists have kept on putting
forward their approaches to reach the best assessment for the quality of translation.
III.1.1. Nida’s response – based approach
Nida and Taber (1969: 173) proposed three similar criteria: the correctness with which
the receptors understand the message of the original, the ease of comprehension and the
involvement a person experiences as a result of the adequacy in the form of translation.
III.1.2. Koller’s text – based approach
Koller (1974) acknowledges the importance of a linguistic model of translation quality
assessment, which is portrayed in three straightforward stages introduced by him.
III.1.3. Peter Newmark’s comprehensive criticism approach
Peter Newmark states that any comprehensive criticism should cover five topics to
criticize a text.
III.1.4. Julianne House’s functional – pragmatic approach
House’s model for translation assessment is based on pragmatic theories of language use.
It concerns semantic field, pragmatic aspect and textual aspect. In the definition of translation,
the term “equivalent” is the key term.
III.2. Representation of Julianne House’s TQA model
III.2.1. Covert and Overt Translation
In an overt translation, the TT audience is not directly addressed and there is, therefore,
no need at all to attempt to recreate a second original text since an overt translation must overtly
a translation. In overt translation, the work of the translator is important and visible.
Covert translation, on the other hand, means the production of a text which is functionally
equivalent to the ST. In this type of translation, the translator has to attempt to recreate an

equivalent speech event.
III.2.2. Representation of J. House’s model
House adopts Halliday’s term ideational and interpersonal as labels for the referential
and the non-referential functional components.
House’s model consists of two sections: dimensions of language user and dimensions of
language use, possibly broken down into the following subcategories:
A. Dimension of language user:
1. Geographical Origin
2. Social Class
3. Time
B. Dimension of language use
1. Medium (Simple/Complex)
2. Participation (Simple/Complex)
3. Social Role Relationship
4. Social Attitude
5. Province
CHAPTER II:
ANALYSIS OF THE SOURCE TEXT,
BASED ON J. HOUSE’S MODEL
I. Brief introduction of the chapter
I.1. The author Jack London
Jack London was the most successful authors in the early 20
th
century, gaining
widespread recognition subsequent to the publication of the novel “The call of the wild” in 1903.
I.2. The novel “The call of the wild”
“The call of the wild” is the story of Buck, a domesticated dog which is snatched cruelly
out of his beloved home and thrown into a hostile world of clubs and fang, where he has to learn
the hard way to survive.
I.3. Introduction of Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of the novel, titled “For the love of a man” is the only part which portraits the
intimate relationship between Buck and his master, John Thornton.
II. Discourse features of the source text
II.1. Syntactic features
II.1.1. Clause and Clause Complexes
The chapter is comprised of 227 clauses, breaking down into numerous smaller units, 52
of which are clause simplexes, whereas the remaining are complex clauses with a huge number
of clauses with rather intricate relationship between clauses.
a. Elaboration
Elaboration is conveyed in an effective way via the use of relative clauses, which are
often used to modify and elaborate the nouns before them.
b. Extension and enhancement
The use of non – finite verbs describes Buck’s loafing time with Thornton and his two
dogs, which is absolutely his dream after being exhausted for a long time.
II.1.2. Transitivity
By means of material verbs, the chapter is aimed at describing the heroic and touching
actions performed by Buck in many times to rescue Thornton from dangerous situation.
Not appearing as often as material process, relational process and behavioral process also
greatly contribute to the elaboration of love between Buck and Thornton.
Furthermore, by means of behavioral process, the passionate love for Thornton is also
conveyed clearly through Buck’s behaviors.
Despite its infrequent appearance in the chapter, verbal process mainly deals with the
intimacy Thornton gives Buck in another way.
Mental and existential processes only account for a minor part in the chapter. In
consideration of the main aim of the chapter, which deals with the love between Buck and his
master, the small percentage of these two processes is understandable.
II.1.3. Mood
Another feature of formality is inversion, which appears much in this chapter. The part of
clause which is inversed prior to Subject may be the Complement or Adjunct.
In the chapter, it is also obvious that ellipsis is also used. The Subject (Buck) is omitted

the beginning clauses because of its reference in the last clause.
Modality is also a part of mood structure, which is of significance to create the
illocutionary force in the chapter.
As regards voice, it is found without difficulty that the passive voice is favored in the
chapter, among the clauses with active voice to describe the plot of the story.
II.2. Textual features
II.2.1. Thematization
The chapter is made up of various kinds of themes. Regarding simple and multiple theme,
70 percent of clauses is unmarked simple theme, while nearly 30% is marked multiple theme,
which is often composed of textual and topical theme.
II.2.2. Cohesion
a. Reference
The chapter employs personals, demonstratives, and comparatives as the prominent
devices of reference when creating the connection between clauses.
b. Ellipsis and Substitution
The ellipsis employed in the chapter nearly limit itself in clauses, which eliminate the
subject of the subsequent or prior clauses and there exists only one subject in the last or first
clause.
Substitution, otherwise, should be considered as the common way of creating the
cohesion in the discourse.
c. Conjunction
Most of conjunctions in chapter 6 convey the meaning of extension among clauses, which
can be broken down into addition, adversative and variation.
Since the chapter aims at telling a story, spatio – temporal conjunctions appear much in
the chapter, especially time conjunctions.
d. Lexical cohesion
Connecting clauses by using lexical cohesion involves the employment of many means of
lexical wording such as repetition, synonyms, collocation.
III. Analysis of the original text based on J. House’s model
III.1. Dimension of language user

Geographical Origin: Non – marked, standard American English
Social class: non – marked, educated middle class.
Time: The novel was published in 1903.
III.2. Dimension of language use
III.2.1. Medium
 Syntactic means
i. Virtual absence of anacolutha, contact parentheses and comment parentheses typical of
spoken modes.
ii. Strict use of tense mixture, especially perfect tenses such as present perfect and past
perfect, which are supposed to signify the written language.
 Lexical means
i. Virtual absence of interjections as one of spoken language features.
ii. Presence of “must” instead of “have to”. Apparently, “must” is used preferably in
writing whereas “have to” is seen more commonly in speech.
 Textual means
i. Absence of redundancy in the chapter.
III.2.2. Participation
 Syntactic means
i. Predominant use of monologues and scare appearance of dialogues, which prove the
text’s simplicity in addresser and address’s participation.
ii. Overwhelming dominance of declarative clause over imperative and interrogative, owing
to the narrative feature of the text.
 Lexical means
There is an abundant use of third person pronouns.
III.2.3. Social Role Relationship
 Syntactic means
i. Little presence of conversations and hence, not much implication of relationship among
interlocutors in the chapter.
ii. Little presence of interrogative and imperative, indicating little transitional role of the
interlocutors in the chapter.

 Lexical means
i. Presence of reference.
ii. Little presence of first and second pronouns (I, you) in conversations, which has been
proved scare in the chapter.

III.2.4. Social attitude
 Syntactic means
i. Absence of elliptical clauses, anacolutha and contractions.
ii. Strict use of tenses, especially perfect tenses, namely present and past perfect tenses (cf.
Medium above)
iii. Frequent use of passive voice. (cf. Medium above)
 Lexical means
i. Absence of subjectivity qualifying modal adverbials, interjections, and other emotive
markers (cf. Medium above)
 Textual means
i. Comprehensive representation of a well-structured, elaborate, logically sequenced and strongly
cohesive text.

III.2.5. Province
 Syntactic means
i. Use of past tenses in most of the chapter.
ii. Frequent use of simile as a prominent figure of speech in the chapter.
 Lexical means
i. Frequency of action verbs and nouns, predominantly conveying the intimate interaction
between Buck and Thornton.
ii. Judicious use of adjectives and adverbs.
iii. Frequent use of active nouns, which perform actions.
 Textual means
i. Frequency of spatio – temporal cohesive devices.

III. Statement of function
The function of the source text, in Halliday (1973)’s terms, falls into two categories, namely
“ideational” and “interpersonal”.
In the dimension of Medium, a simple, written – to – be – read language supports the ideational
component by providing the readers a condensed information flow, typified by the overwhelming
employment of declaratives over interrogatives and imperatives.
In the dimension of Participation, predominantly monologous, non-participatory character of
the text, which allows for a fully-premeditated , non-alternating, and well-organized flow of
information, supports the ideational component as well.
On the dimension of Social Role Relationship, little interpersonal impact is created due to its
characteristic as a literary work whose aim is to entertain the readers.
On the Social Attitude dimension, the deliberate writing style ranging from consultative to
frozen supports the interpersonal functional component, since it widens the proximity between the
addresser and addressees (readers).
Regarding the dimension of Province, as a literary work, the source text impresses the readers
by the employment of various imagery lexical wordings, figurative language, and numerous cohesive
devices.
CHAPTER III:
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SOURCE TEXT AND ITS VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION
I. Comparison between the source text and the target text based on J. House’s model
In full comparison with the ST, mismatches are found in the TT in terms of all five
dimensions of language use.
I.1. Medium
The TT adds some comment and contact parentheses as a result of the author’s attempt to
explain or provide additional information for the readers’ better understanding.
This addition of information on the one hand, assists the readers’ comprehension as the
story progresses; on the other hand, it proves that the TT nears the spoken style rather than
written style in the ST.
In addition, in terms of textual structure, many changes, most notably adding some

clauses, also characterize TT whereas ST is much more precise.
I.2. Participation
In TT, these pronouns are retained well, though some connotations are added. For
example, Skeet is favorably referred to as “cô ả” or “cô nàng” due to this character’s
femaleness whilst Buck or Nig are mentioned with a more neutral pronoun “nó”.
Apparently, such words or phrases as “đấy thôi”, “nữa kia” and the comment
parenthesis “nó đấy” reduce the neutrality performed in the ST and adds some feelings or
attitudes of the storyteller to the TT.
I.3. Social Role Relationship
Due to the remarkably limited conversation in both ST and TT, few traces of relationship
among characters are shown.

One side is a group of rich and arrogant men, typified by Matthewson and another side is
John Thornton, an ordinary man, who is needy and therefore possesses no power. Consequently,
the illocutionary force created in the TT is proved to be much milder and inappropriate compared
to that in the ST.
I.4. Social attitude
The social attitude deals mainly with the text writer’s attitude towards the readers,
demonstrated by means of linguistic formality or informality.
While numerous clauses in the ST is in passive voice, in the TT, the active voice is used
otherwise.
Many clauses in the chapter either start or end with phrases characterizing spoken
language.
Another perceptible feature of formality concerns the textual structure of TT compared
with ST.
Besides the transference of relative clause, the formality is also lessened in the TT due to
the switch of noun phrases in the ST into clauses in the TT.
So often are noun phrases in the ST switched into verb phrases in the TT, which clearly
identifies the TT as much more informal because the employment of noun phrases in English
means high formality in every discourse.

I.5. Province
One of the significant mismatches between the ST and the TT is the deliberate addition of
words, or phrases in lieu of a word in ST.
The ST is especially filled with single action verbs, which often result in the combination
of many verbs together in the TT. The purpose of the translator is obviously to enable the TT
readers fully understand the exact meaning of the words used in the ST.
In some cases, the verbs are also inserted into the phrases in the TT whereas ST carries
no verbs at all:
The TT also gives preference to reduplicated adjectives or verbs to modify the verbs,
sometimes by adding the adjectives after or before verbs or nouns with the aim of creating
imagery effects in the readers:
The reduplicated adjectives are also used in the TT to describe the adjectives and adverbs
in the ST.
As regards Textual means, the addition of some cohesive conjunctions is also applied.
Another typical feature of the ST as a literary work is the abundance of action nouns.
II. Overtly Erroneous Errors
Despite great attempts in the TT, some of the errors still exist due to the complexity of
wordings in the ST which leads to the incorrect interpretation in the TT.

III. Statement of Quality and Translation Type
III.1. Statement of Quality
In general, the translator has demonstrated his great attempts in keeping the TT as close
to the ST as possible. However, the mismatches are unavoidably found along the 5 dimensions.
III.2. Statement of Translation Type
Simply put, overt and covert translation features each kind of text and the adoption of
either translation method also depends on the function of the ST and TT.
Since the ST is a part of the timeless and valuable literary work of American literature in
the early 20
th
century, the overt translation is adopted.

CONCLUSION
The study has demonstrated the researcher’s analysis attempt towards the quality of the
Vietnamese translation version of Chapter 6 – The Call of the Wild by Jack London in
comparison with the source text in English.
I. Restatement of aims
This study set out to assess the quality of the TT by first investigating the features of the
ST based on J. House’s model and then comparing the ST and TT on 5 dimensions of language
use: Medium, Participation, Social Role Relationship, Social Attitude and Province. The final
aim is to determine what kind of translation, overt or covert, is applied in the translation
procedure.
II. Summary of major findings and Conclusions
By means of J. House’s model, the deep analysis of the both ST and TT has led the
researcher to some important findings.
Firstly, as the ST belongs to a famous literary work, it should be concluded that the far
more attention is devoted to the literary features which are elaborated on dimensions of Medium,
Social Attitude and Province.
In regards Medium, the TT embraces signals of spoken mode such as comment and
contact parentheses and exclamation, which are absent in the ST.
In terms of Social Attitude, the TT lessens the formality which characterizes the ST.
These can be concluded by the preference to active voice rather than passive voice, signal of
spoken language, the treatment of relative clauses and the employment of clauses instead of noun
phrases.
In respect of Province, the TT lacks many features which should establish it as a literary
work. The most typical ones are the abundance of verbs in the TT instead of just one verb or no
verbs at all in the ST, the omission of action nouns as the subject, which plays an important role
in defining the text as the literary one. On the other hand, some changes made in the TT is well-
suited to a narrative such as the addition of conjunctions and useful employment of reduplicated
adjectives and verbs.
The dimensions which are paid less attention are Participation and Social Role
Relationship since the chapter is characterized by narratives through the author’s voice as a

storyteller.
Secondly, the findings also determine that the kind of translation used is overt translation
since many signals demonstrate the translator’s attempt to retain the value of the ST in the TT.
To sum up, the findings of this study offer some important conclusions.
On the one hand, some unavoidable mismatches feature the TT compared with the ST.
On the other hand, the TT has proved the flexibility in its language use, such as the
addition of conjunctions to create more narrative effects, the preference to the reduplicated words
(adjectives, verbs), etc.
III. Significance and Implications of findings
The findings in this study somewhat demonstrate the techniques employed in the
translation process of a literary work, which is considered as a tough job for translators due to the
cultural gap embraced in language.
Spoken language wordings (except in conversations) should be avoided.
In this translation text, the use of verbs and reduplicated adjectives is preferred to
illustrate the flow of story.
The cohesive devices can also work well in a narrative.
Another important implication to improve the translation quality of a literary work is the
necessary attempt to use action nouns instead of clauses like in this study.
IV. Limitations of the study & Suggestions for further studies
Since only Chapter 6 is excerpted as data for the analysis in this study, the conclusions
drawn by the researcher is only adaptable to this chapter, not the whole novel. Further, the
limitation on time and scale of the study does not allow full recording of data and accordingly,
the analysis can be somewhat restricted.
For further study, the conductor of this minor thesis expects to enjoy a broader and more
comprehensive analysis of the whole novel “The Call of the Wild” so as to create a well-rounded
insights into the translation of this famous novel.

References
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3. Hoang Van Van (2005). Translation: Theories and Practice, Ha Noi Open University.
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Tubingen.
5. Halliday K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2
nd
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 Websites:
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