A study on how to translate the names of some selected beasts in “fantastic beasts and where to find them” by j k rowling into vietnamese

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

======

NGUYEN THI LINH CHI

A STUDY ON HOW TO TRANSLATE THE NAMES OF SOME
SELECTED BEASTS IN “FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO
FIND THEM” BY J.K ROWLING INTO VIETNAMESE
(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts in English)

GRADUATION PAPER

SUPERVISOR: PHAM THI TUAN, M.A

Hanoi, May 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical
University Number 2, especially the lecturers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages for
their dedicated instructions during years of my university work.
I place on record, my sincere and special thank to my supervisor, Ms. Pham Thi
Tuan, for the full guidance that she gave me while I was doing in research.
I would love to show profound gratitude to my lecturers and supervisor for their
scholarly instructions, critical comment, great encouragement and valuable materials.

Without these, the thesis could not have been completed.
Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family and friends
for their support, encouragement and love, which were extremely important for the
completion of this paper.

Student

Nguyen Thi Linh Chi

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ABSTRACT
The aims of this study has primarily been to find out meanings and origins of
the names of some creatures in the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by
J.K Rowling, to figure out and recommend methods for translating them into
Vietnamese in order to carry the author’s concepts, and to minimize the distinction
between the source text and the target one for readers.
The similarities of the names of beasts are found. A name of beasts might be
familiar with one of the others in the matter of culture, the word structure of names,
the way the author created names and so on. Therefore, they are classified into groups
which are based on the collected information involved in the beasts and their names.
The research findings reveal meanings and origins of the selected beasts in the
alphabet order in each group; also, the translation of the names is also suggested.
Moreover, discussions of methods to translate the names of beasts, which explain how
to convert them, are written in the paper.

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
Title: A Study On How to Translate the Names of Some Selected Beasts In

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” By J.K Rowling into
Vietnamese
I certify that no part of above the thesis has been copied from any other
person’s work without acknowledgements and that the thesis is initially written by me
under instructions of my supervisor.
Date submitted: 16/05/2018

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SL: Source Language
TL: Target Language

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................i
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP............................................................................ iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... iv
PART 1: INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................1
1. Rationale of the Study ...........................................................................................1
2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions.........................................................2
3. Scope of the Study ..................................................................................................2

4. Methods of the Study .............................................................................................3
5. Significance of the Study .......................................................................................3
6. Design of the Study ................................................................................................3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT..........................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................5
1. Overview of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Translating of the
Beasts...........................................................................................................................5
2. Overview of Translation........................................................................................7
2.1. Definition of Translation ................................................................................7
2.2. Criteria of Translation....................................................................................8
2.3. Methods of Translation ..................................................................................9
2.3.1. Word-for-word Translation ............................................................................9
2.3.2. Literal Translation ........................................................................................10
2.3.3. Faithful Translation ......................................................................................10
2.3.4. Semantic Translation....................................................................................10
2.3.5. Adaptation ....................................................................................................10
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2.3.6. Free Translation ...........................................................................................11
2.3.7. Idiomatic Translation ...................................................................................11
2.3.8. Communicative Translation .........................................................................11
2.3.9. Other Methods ..............................................................................................11
2.4. Translation Equivalence ...............................................................................12
3. Translation of Literary Works ...........................................................................13
CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY....................................................................16
1. Procedure of Data Collection ..............................................................................16
2. Methods of the Study ...........................................................................................16
2.1. Descriptive Method .......................................................................................16
2.2. Comparative Method ....................................................................................17

3. Data Analysis Process ..........................................................................................17
CHAPTER 3: MEANINGS AND ORIGINS OF NAMES OF SOME SELECTED
BEASTS

AND

THEIR

SUGGESTED

ENGLISH

–

VIETNAMESE

TRANSLATION ..........................................................................................................20
1. Discussions on Methods of Translating the Names of the Selected Beasts .....20
1.1. Methods of Translating Converted Name Group ......................................20
1.2. Methods of Translating Compound-Word Name Group..........................22
1.3. Methods of Translating Played-Word Name Group .................................23
1.4. Methods of Translating Derived-Word Name Group ...............................24
2. Meanings and Origins of Names of Some Selected Beasts and Their
Suggested English - Vietnamese Translation ........................................................25
2.1 Converted Names ...........................................................................................25
2.2. Compound-Word Names ..............................................................................38
2.3. Played-Word Names .....................................................................................41
2.4. Derived-Word Names ...................................................................................41
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PART 3: CONCLUSION ............................................................................................43
1. Major Findings of the Study ...............................................................................43
2. Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................44
3. Suggestions for Further Research ......................................................................45
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................
APPENDIX.......................................................................................................................

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION
This initial chapter presents the rationale of the study, along with the aims,
objectives and the scope of the whole dissertation. Above all, it is in this chapter that
the research questions are demonstrated to work as clear guidelines for the whole
paper.

1. Rationale of the Study
The practice of translation dates back some two thousand years and never since
has existed until present days. It is generally believed that translation plays a vital role
in the universalization of human knowledge. It helps improve international
understanding, socio-cultural awareness, professional communicative activities,
implementation of technologies, and so much more. Translation is of undeniable
significance to the development of the world culture and society.
Today, demands for foreign languages are higher and higher and many people
are better and better at English language skills, yet it does not mean that bilingual
translation plays a less important role than it did. Translation is necessary means not
only for anchorpeople, correspondents, and journalists to transfer news from a
language (i.e., English) to another one (i.e., Vietnamese) so that the public could
absorb accurate information, but also for executive staff and businesspeople to convert

administrative and commercial contracts, projects and data. Translation also supports
learners in their foreign professional documents; directly, it also meets needs of
reading literary works for readership and the researcher.
The realization that translation theory should be applied to translation practice
encouraged the researcher to study how to translate a source text into a target text.
Then, she was getting started with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the very
beloved book to the researcher.
All the people who love reading literary books know Harry Potter series. It is a
series of fantasy novels written by the British author J.K Rowling. The stories
chronicle the life of a young wizard Harry Potter and his friends, all of whom are
students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The books have won
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multiple awards and more than 400 million of their copies have been sold. They have
become the best-selling book series in history. In the Harry Potter universe, the 2001
book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a required textbook for first-year
Hogwarts students. It contains the history of magic zoology and describes 75 magical
species seen around the world. For faithful readers of Harry Potter, mythological
beasts are exciting and attractive due to both their fantasy and their unusual names.
Vietnamese copies of this book have always been sought, but there is no official press
in the language of Vietnam. Being the same as them, the researcher usually wonders
what the names of beasts mean and how they are translated into Vietnamese; therefore,
she has looked forward to the Vietnamese version of this literary work for several
years, but up to now it has not been published.
Therefore, the study “A study on how to translate the names of some selected
beasts in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” by J.K Rowling into
Vietnamese” was conducted not only to fulfil the expectation of Harry Potter, to apply
translation theory to practice, but also to use a method for translating the English
nouns of which features are similar to ones listed in chapter 3 of part 2 into

Vietnamese in general, and in the aspect of literature in particular. That is also the
attempt that this graduation paper tried to accomplish, though in much more limited
scope.

2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions
The study is aimed to find out meanings and origins of names of some selected
beasts in the book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them”, and to suggest their
English – Vietnamese translation and to figure out translation methods.
The research seeks to answer the two following questions:
a. What are suggested English – Vietnamese translations of names of some
selected beasts in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”?
b. Which are translation methods used to translate names of selected beasts in
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”?

3. Scope of the Study
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The thesis is focused on studying methods of translating the names of selected
beasts in the book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them” by J.K Rowling on the
aspects of their etymology and meaning, and in their culture.

4. Methods of the Study
With the aim of finding out the way to translate the names of the beasts in the
book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them”, the research methods applied in this
paper are descriptive method and comparative method.

5. Significance of the Study
The book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is mentioned as a copy
of the textbook in “Harry Potter” series. This the book series is beloved by millions of

readers at any age all over the world, especially teenagers. These books have
“travelled” childhood age with many generations in Vietnam and other countries as
well. However, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” has never been translated
officially in Vietnam.
This is the first time the research that studies how to translate the names of the
beasts in this book has been done officially. Therefore, this thesis gives the theoretical
background about general translation, the author J.K Rowling, the book “Fantastic
Beasts and Where to Find Them”, and give suggested English – Vietnamese
translation of these selected beasts and translation methods applied to translate
classified groups of the beasts. Readers, who admire “Harry Potter” series as well as
the book, can gain benefits from this thesis. They are given a comprehensive view on
what the names of the beasts mean, why the author named after the beasts like that,
and how they should be translated. To the people, who are interested in translation,
especially translation of literary books, this thesis provides a somewhat way of
transferring from English to Vietnamese, which can help “improve means of
expression” (Newmark, 1988).

6. Design of the Study
The thesis has three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion.
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The part 1 “Introduction” includes seven sections: Rationale of the Study, Aims
of the Study and Research Questions, Scope of the Study, Methods of the Study,
Significance of the Study, Design of the Study.
The part 2 “Development” consists of three chapter.
Chapter 1 “Literature Review” has two sections known as “Overview of
Translation” and “Translation of Literary Works”. It mentions theories of translation,
which have been studied by linguists in the world.
Chapter 2 “Methodology” includes Overview of Fantastic Beasts and Where to

Find Them, Procedure of Data Collection, Research Methods, and Data Analysis
Process.
Chapter 3 is “Meanings and Origins of Names of Some Selected Beasts and
Their English – Vietnamese Translation”. The names of the selected beast are given
and analysed, then the discussion and suggested translation methods are indicated.
In Part 3 “Conclusion”, major findings and limitations of the research are
recapitulated, plus suggestions of the following research are given as well.

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Overview of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Translating of the
Beasts
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2001 book written by British
author J. K. Rowling (under the pen name of the fictitious author Newt Scamander)
about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe. The original version purports
to be Harry Potter's copy of the textbook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone (or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US), the
first novel of the Harry Potter series. It includes 22 pages of Introduction, and 42
pages of the seventy-five-beast list in the range from A to Z with several notes inside it
supposedly handwritten by Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, detailing
their own experiences with some of the beasts described, and including in-jokes
relating to the original series.
In a 2001 interview with publisher Scholastic, Rowling stated that she chose the
subject of magical creatures because it was a fun topic for which she had already
developed a lot of information in earlier books. Rowling's name did not appear on the
cover of the first edition, the work being credited under the pen name "Newt
Scamander", who, in the books, wrote this textbook as seen on Harry's supply list for

his first year.
The book benefits the charity Comic Relief. Over 80% of the cover price of
each book sold goes directly to poor children in various places around the world.
According to Comic Relief, sales from this book and its companion Quidditch
Through the Ages have raised over £17 million.
On 12 September 2013, Warner Bros. and Rowling announced they would be
producing a film inspired by the book, being the first in a series of five such
films. Rowling herself is the screenwriter. She came up with a plan for a movie after
Warner Bros. suggested the idea. The story features Newt Scamander as the main
character and is set in New York City, 70 years before Harry's story started. The film
was released on 18 November 2016.
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On 14 March 2017, a new edition of the book was published with six new
creatures and the foreword by Albus Dumbledore. It is assumed to be a new copy as it
does not feature any handwritten notes. Proceeds from this edition are donated
to Lumos as well as Comic Relief.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has never been translated into
Vietnamese and released in Vietnam officially, however, a few people have translated
the book into some different Vietnamese versions and posted them on Internet
websites. Temporarily, these versions are not evaluated in the point of translated
literary works but the names of the beasts in these versions are true to the principle:
they all are in English, not Vietnamese. In fact, many of them either were structured by
etymology and the creativeness of J.K Rowling or have been existing in people’s
imagination through fairy tales and ancient legends. The readers of the original work
can imagine some beasts’ appearance on account of morphemes which compose a
name of a beast when they read the book, except for the ones who cannot understand
English.
Lý Lan, a famous Vietnamese translator, translated a few names of the creatures

mentioned in “Harry Potter” series by J.K Rowling. She was translated Ashwinder as
Cuốn tro in the story The Fountain of Fair Fortune in The Tales of Beedle the Bard,
Bowtruckle as Bịp-bướm in the story Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump in The
Tales of Beedle the Bard and in the sixth novel Harry Potter and the Half Prince,
Pixie as Yêu tinh nhí in the second novel Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber,
Merpeople as Người cá in the forth novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Besides, there are many creatures which have familiar equivalents in
Vietnamese, are close to cultural life of Vietnamese people and appear in the book
such as Dragon, Fairy, Phoenix and Unicorn. They have already translated into
Vietnamese as Rồng, Cô tiên, and Bạch Kỳ Mã.
In a fairy tale of Grimm, there is a tale called “The Griffin”, and in a
Vietnamese copy of Grimm’s tales, Truyện cổ Grimm published by Literature
Publishing House (Nhà Xuất Bản Văn Học) in 03/2015, the tale “The Griffin” is
translated into Vietnamese with the title “Chim ưng thần”. In the Vietnamese
language, there is another equivalent of the beast, Điểu sư. In the novel The House of
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Hades from the series The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan mention Griffin in
chapter 51 and in the copy of the Vietnamese language, published by Times Publishing
House (Nhà Xuất Bản Thời Đại), it is translated as Điểu sư.
There are many stories mentioning Leprechauns. One of them is the Irish fairy
tale The Leprechauns and the Shoemaker which is translated into Vietnamese with the
title Hai Người Tí hon và Người Thợ đóng giày.

2. Overview of Translation
2.1. Definition of Translation
Translation has been approached from a scientific point of view by linguists
through times and thus has been defined variously. Often, not though by any means
always, it is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the

author intended the text. Common sense tells us that this ought to be simple, as one
ought to be able to say something as well in one language as in another. On the other
hand, you may see it as complicated, artificial and fraudulent, since by using another
language you are pretending to be someone you are nor. Hence in many types of text
(legal, administrative, dialect, local, cultural) the temptation is to transfer as many SL
words to the TL as possible. The pity is that the translation cannot simply reproduce,
or be, the original. And since this is so, the first business of the translator is to translate
(Newmark, 1988). In order to find an adequate definition of translation, prominent
figures in linguistics such as Cat Ford, Bell, Hatim & Mason, Nida, and many others
have carried out careful analyses of the process of translating, especially in the case of
source and receptor languages having quite different linguistic structures and cultural
features.
We start with a definition quoted from the Encyclopedia of Language and
Linguistics (1994, pp.4739):
“Translation is the replacement of a text in one language (Source Language SL) by an equivalent text in another language (Target Language - TL).”
And it is then followed by the linguists’ definitions:

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“Translation is the expression in another language of what has been expressed
in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.” – Bell,
R.T. (1991, pp.5)
“Translation is basically a change of form. In translation the form of the source
language is replaced by the form of the receptor (target) language.” – Larson, M.L.
(1984, pp.3)
“Translation is a communicative process which takes place within a social
context.” – Hatim & Mason (1990, pp.3)
“Translation consists of producing in the receptor language the closest natural
equivalent to the message of the source language, first in meaning and secondly in

style.” – Nida, E.A. (1975, pp.33)
These five definitions, in spite of slight differences in the expressions, share
common features that they all emphasize the importance of finding the closest
equivalence in meaning by choice of appropriate target language’s lexical and
grammatical structures, communication situation, and cultural context.

2.2. Criteria of Translation
Through the linguists’ definitions, these scholars also confirm the possibilities
of effective interlingual communication by translation if a set of basic requirements
which are considered “Laws of Translation” could be achieved.
Nida (1964, pp.164) proposes four major principles:
1. Making sense
2. Conveying the spirit and manner of the original
3. Having a natural and easy form of expression
4. Producing a similar response
Whereas Savory (1968, pp.54) sets up twelve objectives for a translation, in
which there are such six important criteria of translation as:
1. A translation must give words of the original.
2. A translation must give the idea of the original.
3. A translation should read like an original work.
4. A translation should reflect the style of the original.
8


5. A translation should read as a contemporary of the original.
6. A translation may add to or omit from the original.
Nida and Savory’s principles are different in number. However, they all pay
their first attention to correspondence of meaning over correspondence of style. And it
is also recognizable that equivalence in both meaning and style cannot always be
retained altogether. In a concrete textual situation, it is the translator that decides

which principles must be achieved and it is the meaning that must have priority over
the stylistic forms.
Massoud (1988, pp.19-24) sets criteria for a good translation as follows:
1. A good translation is easily understood.
2. A good translation is fluent and smooth.
3. A good translation is idiomatic.
4. A good translation conveys, to some extent, the literary subtleties of the
original.
5. A good translation distinguishes between the metaphorical and the literal.
6. A good translation reconstructs the cultural/historical context of the original.
7. A good translation makes explicit what is implicit in abbreviations, and in
allusions to sayings, songs, and nursery rhymes.
8. A good translation will convey, as much as possible, the meaning of the
original text.
El Touny (2001) respected the form and structure of the original and which is
easily comprehensible to the readers of the TL.

2.3. Methods of Translation
According to Peter Newmark (1988, pp. 45-47), there are eight methods of
translation including word-for-word translation, literal translation, faithful translation,
semantic translation, adaptation, free translation, idiomatic translation, and
communicative translation as follows:
2.3.1. Word-for-word Translation
This is often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with the TL immediately
below the SL words. The SL word-order is preserved and the words are translated
9


singly by their most common meanings, out of context. Cultural words are translated
literally. The main use of word-for-word translation is either to understand the

mechanics of the SL or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process.
E.g., There is a book on the table. – Có một cuốn sách ở trên bàn.
2.3.2. Literal Translation
The SL grammatical construction is converted to their nearest TL equivalent
but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context. As a pre-translation
process, this indicates the problems to be solved.
E.g., The White House – Nhà Trắng
2.3.3. Faithful Translation
A faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of
the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures. It ‘transfers’
cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical “abnormality”
(deviation from SL norms) in the translation. It attempts to be completely faithful to
the attention and the text-realisation of the SL writer.
E.g., The new iPhone is selling like hot cakes. – Dòng iPhone mới đang bán
chạy như bánh nóng.
2.3.4. Semantic Translation
Semantic translation differs from faithful translation only in as far as it must
take more account of the aesthetic value (that is, the beautiful and natural sounds of the
SL text), compromising on “meaning” where appropriate so that no assonance, wordplay or repetition jars in the finished version. Further, it may translate less important
cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms but not by cultural
equivalents and it may make other small concession is that the first is uncompromising
and dogmatic, while the second is more flexible, admits the creative exception to
100% fidelity and allows for the translator’s intuitive empathy with the original.
E.g., She has a sunny smile on her face. – Cô bé có khuôn mặt với nụ cười tỏa
nắng.
2.3.5. Adaptation
This is the “freest” form of translation. It is used mainly for plays (comedies)
and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture
10

converted to the TL culture and the text rewritten. The deplorable practice of having a
play or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established dramatist or poet
has produced many poor adaptations, but other adaptations have “rescued” period
plays.
E.g., In the Belgian comic book “The Adventure of Tintin”, Tintin’s trusty
canine side kick Milou is translated as Snowy in English, Bobie in Dutch, Kuttus in
Bengali, and Struppi in German.
2.3.6. Free Translation
Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content
without the form of the original. Usually, it is a paraphrase much longer than the
original, a so-called intralingual translation, often prolix and pretentious, and not
translation at all.
E.g., One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. – Số phận đã
an bài, có tránh cũng chẳng được.
2.3.7. Idiomatic Translation
Idiomatic translation reproduces the “message” of the original but tends to
distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialism and idioms where these do not
exist in the original.
E.g., Ngưu tầm ngưu, mã tầm mã. – Birds of a feather flock together.
2.3.8. Communicative Translation
Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of
the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and
comprehensible to the readership.
E.g., She said she loved another. – Cô ta nói cô ta không yêu anh nữa.
2.3.9. Other Methods
In addition to the eight methods mentioned above, Newmark adds further
definitions of translation methods.
2.3.9.1. Service Translation
Service translation, i.e., translation from one language of habitual use into

another language. The term is not widely used, but as the practice is necessary in most
countries, a term is required.
11


2.3.9.2. Plain prose Translation
The prose translation of poems and poetic drama initiated by E.V. Rieu for Penguin
Books. Usually, stanzas become paragraphs, prose punctuation is introduced, original
metaphors and SL culture retained, whilst no sound-effects are reproduced. The reader
can appreciate the sense of the work without experiencing equivalent effect. Plain
prose translations are often published in parallel with their originals, to which, alter
‘careful word-for-word comparison’, they provide ready and full access.
2.3.9.3. Information Translation
This converts all the information in a non-hierarchy text, sometimes rearranged in a
more logical form, sometimes partially summarized and not in the form of a
paraphrase.
2.3.9.4. Cognitive Translation
This reproduces the information in a SL text converting the SL grammar to its
normal TL transpositions, normally reducing any figurative to literal language.
2.3.9.5. Academic Translation
This type of translation practiced in some British universities reduces an original
SL text to an “elegant” idiomatic educated TL version which follows a non-existent,
literary register. It irons out the expressiveness of a writer with modish colloquialisms.

2.4. Translation Equivalence
From the definitions of translations by different scholars, it is clear that
equivalence is the central issue in translation studies.
From the view point of Juliane House (1977, pp.25), meaning equivalence is
the most essential in translation: "The essence of translation lies in the preservation of
'meaning' across two different languages".

Newmark (1995, pp.48) emphasizes the importance of functional equivalence
as "the overriding purpose of any translation".
Koller (1979) stated the following five types of equivalence referring to the
lexical meaning equivalence:
1. Denotative equivalence: the SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the
real world.
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2. Connotative equivalence: this type of equivalence provides additional values
besides denotative value and is achieved by the translator's choice of synonymous
words or expressions.
3. Text-normative equivalence: the SL and the TL words are used in the same
or similar context in their respective languages.
4. Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words
have the same effect on their respective readers.
5. Formal equivalence: This aims to produce an "analogy of form" in the
translation by exploiting the formal possibilities of the TL or even by creating new
forms if necessary.
Baker, M. (1992) views the concept of equivalence differently by discussing the
notion of non-equivalence at word level. Non-equivalence at word level means that the
target language has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the source text.
Common problems of non-equivalence then involve such cases as culture-specific
concepts, the SL concept is not lexicalized in the target language, the SL word is
semantically complex, the SL and TL make different distinctions in meaning, the TL
lacks a super-ordinate, the TL lacks a specific term, differences in physical or
interpersonal perspective, differences in expressive meaning, difference in form,
difference in frequency and purpose of using specific forms, the use of loan words in
the source text.
Larson, M.L (1984) points out that new terms must be invented for the

translation if there is no equivalent between the SL and the TL.

3. Translation of Literary Works
During the recent years, in Vietnam, translated literature has developed
actively, gained considerable achievements, contributed positively to the development
of the foundation of literature in Vietnam, helped to promote cultural exchanges and
integrated into the world.
Translated literature, a long-standing field, has attracted a staff of writers and
translators and become a crucial part of Vietnamese literature. It has also helped
readers approach brilliant literary works coming from other countries around the
13


world. It can be said that the market of translated literature books used to be not as
various, diverse and updated as it does now, which is easy to realize that translated
literature books hold a large market share of literary book market in Hanoi, Ho Chi
Minh City as well as other cities. Especially, the works of current foreign literature are
updated more and more timely. Many of winning award writings, even Nobel Award,
were translated into Vietnamese quickly. Therefore, the number of readers who love
foreign literature have risen because of the huge custom and reprint of foreign
literature translated into Vietnamese.
Translated literature, a long-standing field, has attracted a staff of writers and
translators and become a crucial part of Vietnamese literature. It has also helped
readers approach brilliant literary works coming from other countries around the
world. It can be said that the market of translated literature books used to be not as
various, diverse and updated as it does now, which is easy to realize that translated
literature books hold a large market share of the literary book market in Hanoi, Ho Chi
Minh City as well as other cities. Especially, the works of current foreign literature are
updated more and more timely. Many of winning award writings, even Nobel Award,
were translated into Vietnamese quickly. Therefore, the number of readers who love

foreign literature has risen because of the vast custom and reprint of international
literature translated into Vietnamese.
Much of the work published is the theoretical basis of literary translation.
Prominent publications of this include Literary Translation, A Practical Guide,
(Clifford E. Landers, 2001). Landers attempts to address the problems of literary
translation by providing a guide to those who wish to practice this craft. The highlight
is on the word practical; this is not a book espousing any specific theory of translation,
but rather an overview of all the issues involved in translating literature (though he
does touch on some theoretical issues). But Landers starts out on the wrong foot. He
seems not to understand that all types of translation are craft; whether technical,
commercial or other. He says such things as, “only literary translation lets one
consistently share in the creative process,” and “In technical translation, for example,
style is not a consideration so long as the informational content makes its way
unaltered from SL to TL.” This is a shame because he is basically deriding all
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“technical” or “commercial” translators by saying that they are just doing grunt work;
style is as important in all kinds of translations, as any professional translator knows.
The author does manage to make some stylistic gaffes in his own writing, which,
perhaps, is not literary, and style is not therefore important as much. “In many
countries,” he says, “writers are a small coterie, all of whom know each other.”
Trần Đình Hiếu’s Bàn về dịch văn học report in the workshop of Translated
Literature Committee directly under Writers of Vietnam which took place on August
10th 2012, states that translating is cultural exchanges; the key factor of a successful
translated version is not only language but culture, because just in specific cultural
circumstances, language makes sense. It means that translating must combine native
culture with foreign culture, especially the Western culture. The difference between
two cultures in translating always causes mistakes or distorts cultural idea. He believes
that the subject of translated literature is readers. They justice quality of translation as

well as cultural effects, so translators never ignore the role of them.
Literary translation, as well as general translation, allows translators to share
their creativeness to a huge number of readers. In the creative process, translators need
not only gain much knowledge of languages or translating skills but also work with a
respectful attitude towards others like colleagues, especially readers. Readers are
always the subject of translated literary works because they are judges of translation
quality and cultural effects. At last, culture is also such a remarkable factor in the
translation process.

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CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY
1. Procedure of Data Collection
Date of doing preliminary research is planned from 10 Nov 2017 to 30 Nov
2017.
Firstly, in order to obtain a sustainable theoretical basis of translation skills,
translation data which includes theories of dominant linguists such as P. Newmark, J.C
Catford, M. Massoud and E.A Nida is collected.
In the book, there are several creatures appearing in legendary and mythological
stories of different cultures such as Greece, Egypt, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Norway
and Japan. Meanwhile, many beasts are imagined and named by the author Rowling,
which is based on particular criteria. In this case, the data involved in the origins,
features about these creatures and even etymology of the names needs collecting.
Then, based on all material, a suitable translation method will be selected. Most data
sources which are relevant to these creatures are searched on online encyclopedias, the
website created by the worldwide loyal readership of Harry Potter, and the website
J.K Rowling created on her own, which are mentioned in Reference.

2. Methods of the Study

A research method is a particular way of studying something in order to
discover new information about it or understand it better. So as to translate the names
of beasts, information about them has to be known and understood precisely; therefore,
appropriate research methods are efficient means to approach the destination. In this
paper, several research methods were used to support the research and proved to be
useful for researching.

2.1. Descriptive Method
According to Nguyen Thien Giap (2009), descriptive method is a system of
research procedures applied to express linguistic phenomena in the certain time. It is a
synchronic analysis method.

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The procedures of descriptive method are very various, three of which are taken
advantage of in researching how to translate the beasts are word and object, creating
groups with headings, and context analysis.
With word and object procedure, the meaning of words is studied in the relation
with objects or definition of words; the meaning of words is discovered through the
description in realistic situations. Therefore, in order to get the meaning of names of
beasts, all descriptions related to the beasts have to be sought. Then, context should be
analysed. Context is divided into two types: context of situation and context of culture.
The latter is the necessary one in this research which includes a mass of cultural
factors such as customs, moral standards, values, historical events, and the knowledge
of nature, society, politics, and economy. All of these have created cultural symbols,
fairy tales or legends in which magic and legendary creatures are imagined or added
through cross-culture. That is a reason why we need study history, culture and customs
to have ideas of the origins of beasts.
Another procedure is creating groups with headings. It is to gather the words

which are common in certain features as long as they have the mark as their headings.
Therefore, the beasts are classified.

2.2. Comparative Method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the
development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or
more languages with common descent. According to Nguyen Thien Giap (2009), this
method consists of three procedures: historico-comparative method, diachronicocomparative method, and contrastive method. In this paper, only contrastive method is
used. Contrastive analysis (Whorf, 1941) means the comparison of two languages by
paying attention to differences and similarities between languages being compared.
People believe that translation is a lingual activity to transform the text from
source language to target language and preserve equivalences of meaning. Based on
results of contrastive analysis, rules and methods of translation are discovered.

3. Data Analysis Process
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