A STUDY ON COMMON ERRORS COMMITTED BY THE FOURTH YEAR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY IN TRANSLATING BUSINESS LETTERS = Nghiên cứu một số lỗi thường gặp khi dịch thư thương mại của sinh viên năm tư Trường Đại Học Hùng Vương

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This graduation paper is my final important task on the way of obtaining
my bachelor degree. It would not have been completed without the guidance and
the support of many people. At this moment of accomplishment, it is my pleasant
task to express my sincere thanks to all of them.
First and foremost, I would like to express my endless thanks and
gratefulness to my supervisor Ngo Thi Thanh Huyen M.A for her precious
advice, detailed comments, valuable suggestions and enthusiastic guidance
corrections from the planning stage to the completion of my thesis. Without her
continual encouragement and useful documents, her careful reading and critical
comments, my paper would be far from finished.
I am obliging to all my teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages,
Hung Vuong University, who inspired me and gave me good knowledge of
English for writing this graduation paper.
It would be a shortcoming if I do not mention here all my friends,
especially all members of K12 English Pedagogy for their unceasing
encouragement, care and help during this hard time.
Last but not least, I would like to dedicate my concluding words to my
dear family for supporting me devotedly both material and spiritual throughout
my thesis-writing period.


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ABSTRACT
The study aims to find out some common errors in terms of linguistics
committed by the fourth-year English students at Hung Vuong University when
translating business letters from Vietnamese into English. It is also used to
discover the possible causes of these errors as well as some suggested solutions

to this situation.
With the study, the author hopes to make a small contribution to
teaching/learning business letters effectively, which may help students improve
their translation skill, avoid the linguistic errors, and help the teachers find the
most appropriate way in teaching business letters translation.
The study consists of three parts. Part I, the introduction, states the
rationale, aims, setting, scope, significance, design, questions and methods of
the research. Part II, the development, is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1
reviews theoretical background relating to translation, translation studies,
translation methods, translation errors, business letters, significance and types of
business letters. Chapter 2 presents the instrumentation, data collection and data
analysis. Chapter 3 summarizes major findings and discussions. Part III, the
conclusion, summarize major findings points out some limitations and gives
some suggestions for further study.


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LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS
NO

Table

Page

1

Table 2.1. Classification of errors in terms of linguistics in
translation test

37

2

Table 3.1. The errors in terms of linguistics in student’s
translation test

40

3

Table 3.2. Some cases of terminology error committed by the
students in translation test

47

4

Table 3.3. The students’ opinion towards learning style as a
cause of the errors in business letters translation
Table 3.4. The students’ opinion towards teaching and learning
conditions as the causes of the errors in business letters
translation

56

5

NO
1

2
3
4
5
6
7

8

57

Chart
Chart 3.1. The students’ linguistic errors in translation test (%)

Page
48

Chart 3.2. The students’ attitude towards the importance of
business letters translation (%)

49

Chart 3.3. The students’ attitude towards learning business letters
translation (%)
Chart 3.4. The students’ attitude towards learning business letters
translation as a part of translation course (%)
Chart 3.5. The students’ attitude towards being a business letters
translator in future (%)
Chart 3.6. The students’ attitude towards kinds of translation in
business letters translation (%)

Chart 3.7. The students’ attitude towards some common errors in
terms of linguistics in Vietnamese – English business letters
translation (%)
Chart 3.8. The students’ attitude towards the possible causes for
the errors in terms of linguistics in Vietnamese – English
business letters translation (%)

50

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

51
52
53
54

55


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e1: error of the use of articles
e2: error of capitalization
e3: error of preposition
e4: error of punctuation
e5: error of spelling
e6: error of using correct grammar
e7: error of tense
e8: error of terminology
SC: source culture

SL: source language
SLC: source language culture
ST: source text
TC: target culture
TL: target language
TLC: target language culture
TT: target text
T1: the lecturer 1
T2: the lecturer 2


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................1
1.1. Rationale.........................................................................................................1
1.2. Previous studies..............................................................................................2
1.2.1. In the world.................................................................................................2
1.2.2. In Vietnam...................................................................................................4
1.3. Research gap..................................................................................................6
1.4. Purpose of the study.......................................................................................6
1.5. Research questions.........................................................................................6
1.6. Setting..........................................................................................................6
1.7. The significance of the research..................................................................6
1.8. The scope of the research.............................................................................6
1.9. Design of the research:...................................................................................7
PART II: DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................8
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................8
1.1

An overview on translation..........................................................................8

1.1.1. The concept of translation........................................................................9
1.1.2. Translation methods..................................................................................12
1.1.3. Translation errors......................................................................................18
1.2. An overview on business letters...................................................................22
1.2.1. The definition of business letters...............................................................22
1.2.2. Kinds of business letters............................................................................23
1.2.3. Features of a good business letters...........................................................28
1.3. Summary......................................................................................................35
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY......................................................................36
2.1. Participants...................................................................................................36
2.2. Methodology................................................................................................36


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2.3. Data collection instruments..........................................................................36
2.3.1. Test.............................................................................................................37
2.3.2. Questionnaires...........................................................................................37
2.3. The research procedure................................................................................38
CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..................................39
3.1. The result from translation test.....................................................................39
3.2. The result from questionnaires.....................................................................49
3.2.1. The students’ attitude and interest toward Vietnamese – English business
letters translation.................................................................................................49
3.2.2. Some common errors in terms of linguistics that the students committed
when translating business letters from Vietnamese into English........................53
3.2.3. The causes of student’s errors in terms of linguistics in Vietnamese –

English business letters translation.....................................................................55
3.4. Conclusion....................................................................................................58
PART III: CONCLUSION..................................................................................59
1. Summary.........................................................................................................59
2. Limitations......................................................................................................59
3. Implications.....................................................................................................60
4. Suggestions for the further study....................................................................60
REFERENCES....................................................................................................61


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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
1.1. Rationale
Nowadays, English is used in a majority of countries in the world, as it is
one of the most important languages for international communication. It has
become a compulsory subject in many schools, colleges and universities. In the
context of globalization, demands on learning about and accessing to business
letters by organizations in different countries have been rapidly increasing. In
addition, the modern evolution of business becomes more and more necessary
and in order to satisfy this trend, the business letter has become increasingly
important.
Whether a mail order business is carried on or not, the letter is no less
important. Goods are bought, collections made, complaints adjusted,
instructions given, business policies and selling campaigns outlined in the
business letters. Realizing the important role of business letters, Vietnamese
students have been studying hard to deal with English business letter
effectively.
Moreover, due to the internationalization trend of the world economy,

companies not only trade in their countries but also expand their commerce to
other countries. In order to keep in touch with their partners, the best way is to
write business letters. English is their first choice because it has become more
and more popular in global business.
In the process of studying translation at Faculty of Foreign Languages,
Hung Vuong University, the author found that business translation based the
existing rules among languages is very essential. Here, the role of linguistics is
very important in explaining cases without any equivalents. And also, it is
impossible to explain all issues of translation in linguistic aspects but to base
on professional foundations in the field of business. Thus, it is necessary to
take into account linguistic viewpoints as well as those of business categories
in the translations of business letters and business related materials.


2

Translation in general and translation business letters in particular are
common job of student’s majority in English linguistics after their graduation.
They work in companies which professionally run by the operations related to
translating business letters. However, they encounter many difficulties when
translating them. In class, they usually get stuck in troubles with translating
letter, expressing as well as finding materials, so they cannot get good mark.
Translating business letters requires not only thorough understanding of
linguistic aspects and corresponding subjects but also logic thinking to ensure
deep understanding of characteristics and nature of business language. They
have not got them yet .Thus, it is necessary to make the difficulties clear and
suggest some strategies for translating such kind of letters.
During the previous four years, my friends and I have had chances to
study English thoroughly in terms of language practice (i.e. listening, speaking,
etc.) as well as language theory (i.e. grammar, lexicology, discourse analysis and

so on). I would say that English for Business is the subject we are interested in
most since it teaches us some essential jobs such as writing memos, lists,
reports, especially letters that are very helpful if we work for an import - export
company in the future. From those reasons above mentioned, I decided to
conduct the study called: “A study on common errors committed by the fourth
year English students at Hung Vuong University in translating business
letters” as my graduation paper. It is hoped that this paper will be a good
reference for those studying and working in business translation and those with
certain knowledge of English language, who are interested in business
translation to serve their own business, especially the fourth-year English
linguistic students.
1.2. Previous studies
1.2.1. In the world
ShuLan (2012) conducted the research: “On the Text Conjunction and Its
Translation in English Business Letters”. This paper studied on the definition,
position and classification of conjunction. According to the functional


3

equivalence principle, readers’ reaction should be put in the first place and the
source language should be expressed in appropriate receptors’ language. This
paper talked about the conjunctions in business letters. It was suggested that
translator should pay great attention to the expectation of the reader, the
intentionality of the source text and overall effect of the text. Functional
equivalence theory emphasizes that translation was a kind of culture transfer, a
communicative interaction, a cross culture event. Therefore, translation of
conjunctions in business letters requires the translator combine the
communicative function of the text with the response of the target text readers to
determine the translation strategies.

XieYongqiu (2013) carried out the study: “A Brief Analysis on the
Translation Skills of Business Correspondence “.This paper made a brief
analysis of translation skills of business correspondence. At first, the
characteristics of business correspondence translation discussed above require
translators to translate practically, correctly and concisely. And then skills in
translating the words, sentences and text of business letters were briefly
introduced. What we can learn from this paper was that translators should not
only pay attention to the translation skills and strategies but also become
sensitive to the cultural differences between China and English-speaking
countries. The curacy of translation cannot be emphasized more. Therefore, to
understand and study the original letters correctly was the first and most
important strategies, at the same time; it was indispensable to think of its
cultural backgrounds and connotations in the intercultural view.
Another research was conducted by FU Qing-lian (2009): “Application of
Nida’s Theory of Equivalence to Business Translation” through the introduction
of Nida' s Theory of Equivalence and the characteristics of Business English,
this essay mainly discusses that Nida's theory of functional equivalence can be
best applied in business English translation and functional equivalence can be
achieved in both meaning and style at the word level, the sentence level and the
discourse level. It also provided some useful methods and techniques which can


4

be applied to maximizing equivalence in Business English translation.
Huan Wang, Yuhang Bai and Jianhua Jiang (2013) carried out a study called:
“On Business English E-C Translation Model Based on Equivalence Theory
Based on Equivalence Theory”. This paper aimed to propose a model which
can put Equivalence Theory into BE (Business English) translation practice. It
applied the model to BE E-C (Business English English- Chinese) translation

at the lexical, the syntactical, the pragmatic and the stylistic level to achieve
equivalence.
1.2.2. In Vietnam
Nguyen Trong Dan (1997) conducted the research called: “A study on
some difficulties of translating business correspondence”. In this paper, she tried
to find out some difficulties and solutions to translate business letters by giving
basic theory about English business letters: their features including the layout,
contents, language and grammar; some common mistakes in translating them
and some suggestions to overcome mistakes. This paper mentioned the
difficulties in translation of business correspondence. Firstly, it was possible to
analyze the difficulties in translation of business correspondence from
Vietnamese into English rather than English-Vietnamese in this paper. Secondly,
research should attempt to further investigate professional translators. The
questions concerning proficiency in Vietnamese should be paid attention to.
Because it was a very decisive factor that directly affects the translation. Thirdly,
the data generated in this study was not enough, it was necessary to conduct
further research to have better understanding of finding out more difficulties in
translating of business correspondence and solutions to these problems.
Do Minh Hoang (2012) carried out the study: “The study of the
characteristics of business English and functional theories on its translation”.
This paper was mainly about the study of the characteristics of business English
and its translation skills, especially the functional theories and it first
summarizes the status and importance of Business English, then concisely
explains the methods of translation, with the emphasis on the matters which


5

should be noticed during the translation process. Meanwhile, this paper
introduced a number of scenarios in a cross-cultural translation, offering a

reference value. The paper will offer some functional theories applied in
translating business English. It was quite reasonable to employ functional theory
for business translation and the application of the main functional theories in
business English translation was bound to be useful and valuable. The paper
opened a new view for the principles of business English translation. It explored
a systematic analysis from the functional view and proposes two specific
principles and several strategies in the business translation practice, which can
set up a set of practical and comprehensive principles for business English
translation as well as to provide some help to those whose profession was
business English teaching or who were intending to work in this field.
Duong Thuy Trang and Tran Van Tuan (2011) conducted the research: “A
Review of Business English Translation”. This paper summarized a part of
studies on the Business English translation, arranging the contents,
characteristics and translation strategies of Business English. The only purpose
was to provide some help for the people who were working for Business English
translation or interested in Business English translation. This paper can really
contribute to improve their translation abilities and make them do a good job in
Business English translation.
Ha Anh Tu (2017) studied: “Common errors committed by the fourth-year
English linguistics students in translating legal documents into English”. The
study aimed to find out the common errors in terms of linguistics committed by
the fourth-year English linguistic students at Hung Vuong University when
translating legal documents from Vietnamese into English. It was also used to
discover the possible causes of these errors as well as suggest some solutions to
this situation


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1.3. Research gap

All those studies have not mentioned and researched on errors in translating
business letters yet. Thus, my study conducts that to find out what the errors are
as well as help students to know their mistakes and the causes better.
1.4. Purpose of the study
The purpose of this research is to:
1) Find out common errors committed by the fourth-year English
students in translating business letters into English.
2) Suggest some ways to reduce the errors
1.5. Research questions
What are the common errors in terms of linguistics committed by the
fourth-year English students in translating business letters?
1.6.

Setting
The study conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Vuong

University, Phu Tho province.
1.7.

The significance of the research
The study may help the researcher; teachers and students who teach and

study business letters translation improve the knowledge about business letters
translation. With the study, I hope to make a small contribution to
teaching/learning business letters translation effectively, which may help
students improve their translation skill, avoid the linguistic errors, and help the
teachers find the most appropriate way in teaching business letters translation. In
addition, common errors committed by students when translating business letters
will be discovered. Also, the study will introduce the methods to enhance
student’s business letters translation skill.

1.8.

The scope of the research
This study focuses on common errors in terms of linguistics committed

by 30 students in K12 English Pedagogy at Hung Vuong University in
translating business letters from Vietnamese into English.


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1.9.

Design of the research
The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and

Conclusion.
PART I: INTRODUCTON
In this part, the researcher gives an overall introduction about research
rationale, research purpose, previous research, research question, the scope of
research, research method and the significance of the study.
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
This part consists of three main chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature review
This part presents theoretical background of translation, translation
studies, translation methods, translation errors, business letters translation and its
significance, types and characteristics.
Chapter 2: Methodology
Research questions, participants, methods of the study, instruments,
data collection and data analysis are discussed in this chapter.

Chapter 3: Research findings and discussion
This chapter presents major research findings and discussion in
details.
PART III: CONCLUSION
This part summarizes the major findings of the study, lists limitations,
its implications as well as mentions some suggestions for future study and
presents conclusion


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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter sets out to examine what is understood by translation,
translation studies and theories, and briefly describes the history of the
development and aims of translation studies as a discipline.
1.1 An overview on translation
Kelly (2005: 26-27) defines translation as the skill of understanding the
source text and rendering it in the target language by using the register, the
background knowledge, and other language resources according to the intended
purpose. Therefore, a translator was a mediator of the two languages and
cultures who can transfer the SL to the TL. Moreover, translation was one of the
oldest concerns in the history and theories of learning a language. From the
beginning, the activity of translation had an oral aspect, the so- called
“interpretation”. Then translation extended to written texts.
As a matter of fact, in the past the problem of translation was not a topic of
discussions, as it was considered that language, especially its lexicon, is a simple
inventory of words that has proper correspondents in other languages (David
Marsh, 2013).
The translation itself began with the determination of the work's genre, as

the translator has to choose the vocabulary, has to reproduce different meanings
of the words and for example when dealing with a literary translation, the rules
were to know the language, the culture and the history of people, as well as their
habits, described in the original work. So, one of the greatest accomplishments
of a good translation was an excellent knowledge of the two languages and
cultures.
Regarding the possibility of translation, there were two opinions that have
always contrasted and that were still present nowadays:
On the other hand, the development of the activity of translation in
Renaissance period, together with its interest in antiquity, renders evident the
practical difficulties of translation. The tendency of preserving the local color


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and the necessity of transposing the reader in another country and in another era,
bring the translator face to face with new problems that were difficult to solve
out. From a theoretical point of view, these hardships generated the idea that a
complete translation shall never be possible.
1.1.1. The concept of translation
Catford (1965) considered translation the replacement of textual material
in one language by an equivalent textual material in the other language. This
point of view was shared by Hartman and Stork (1972) “translation is the
replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of
an equivalent text in a second language”. These definitions emphasize on
importance of equivalence when textual material was replaced from source
language (SL) to target language (TL).
Bell, RT. (1991) says “Translation is the expression in another language
(or TL) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving
semantic and stylistic equivalences”. Hatim and Mason (1990) see translation as

a communicative process which takes place within a social context. These
definitions attach importance to equivalence between SL and TL. Indeed,
translator should be the one of superior language ability in at least two
languages.
According to Andreea-Rosalia Olteanu (2012), translation was often
associated with the transliteration of literary works from one language to
another. The question that has become sacramental was: what was translation, a
science or an art. Regarding the artistic texts it can be said that translation was
an art based on science, and the interpretations made by linguists have often
been the basis of the translators' actual experiences.
It was not easy to give a complete definition of translation. It can refer to
the general subject field, the products (the text that has been translated) or the
process (the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating).
The process of translation between two different languages involves the
translator changing an original text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal


10

language (the source language or SL) in a different verbal language (the target
language or TL). In a more general way, translation was considered the process
of transformation of a message expressed in one language, in the same message,
but formulated in another language, provided that there were preserved all (or
approximately all) qualities of the original message.
According to nowadays researches each language has its own individual
way of reflecting the surrounding reality, in a way it organizes the data of
experience. Languages split differently the exterior reality and characterize it
and as a result two pictures of the objective world, presented by any two
languages, were not identical.
It is considered that lexemes are a kind of “labels” of objects, phenomena,

qualities, actions; it can easily lead to the idea that translation is a simple change
of “labels”. Ferdinand de Saussure sees that “for some people language, reduced
to its essential principle, it's a nomenclature, meaning a list of terms that
correspond with many things.” (Martinet, 1969)
Martinet says that: “learning a language doesn't mean to assign new
“labels” on some known objects, but to analyze the object of linguistic
communication” (Saussure, 1998)
The idea that every language has it was own way of analyzing the facts
from the surrounding world presents a serious theoretical objection against the
possibility of performing a translation.
If it is admitted the fact that languages differ not only in their exterior
aspect- through an individual vocabulary and through a specific grammatical
structure- but also through the way of organizing the semantic content of the
lexicon, people who spoke different languages do not present things in the same
way.
Comparing the lexical elements of two languages, one can observe only a
partial coincidence between them: the semantic entities of words coincide only
partially. These factors make translation even difficult.
Saussure said “In our country, translation has had a rapid growth, but the


11

translation theory is at its beginnings. We have to differentiate translation from
translation theory that is a special scientific discipline. The aim of the translation
theory is to follow rules that are the basis of the translation from one language
into another, to establish the correlation between the original and the translation,
to generalize reliance on particular cases that afterwards could be used in
performing a translation. Translation theory helps practice in that it emphasizes
different possibilities of language, it helps choosing from the wide variety of

means the most suitable one for the given context”.
If language were just a classification for a set of general or universal
concepts, it would be easy to translate from an SL to a TL; furthermore, under
the circumstances the process of L2 learning would be much easier than it
actually was. In this regard, Culler (1976) believes that languages were not
nomenclatures and the concepts of one language may differ radically from those
of another, since each language articulates or organizes the world differently,
and languages did not simply name categories; they articulate their own. The
conclusion likely to be drawn from what Culler (1976) writes was that one of the
troublesome problems of translation was the disparity among languages. The
bigger the gap between the SL and the TL, the more difficult the transfer of
message from the former to the latter will be.
Regarding the relation between translation and cultural communication it
can be said that translation was a form of cross-cultural communication.
Communication takes place through a medium and in situations that were
limited in time and place. Each specific situation determines what and how
people communicate, and it was changed by people in communication.
Situations were not universal but were embedded in a cultural habitat, which in
turn conditions the situation. Language was thus to be regarded as part of
culture.
The complexity of translation lies in the multitude of and the delicate
relationship among its relevant factors. Translation was never innocent. There
was always a context in which translation takes place, always a history from


12

which a text emerges and into which a text was transposed.
Culture in this discussion should be seen in a broad sense, as in
anthropological studies. “Culture is not only understood as the advanced

intellectual development of mankind as reflected in the arts, but it refers to all
socially conditioned aspects of human life” (Snell Hornby, 1988)
In conclusion, the purpose of translation is to pass on an understanding to
people in their own language and create the same impact as the original text.
"Translation, seen as a mode of being in the world, should be contextualized as a
social system. Infidelity was built in translation because it inevitably describes
domestic scenes that were loaded not only linguistically and culturally, but also
socially and politically. Translation was simultaneous decontextualization and
recontextualization, hence was productive rather than reproductive. Translation
should be seen as an attempt to guess the mind of an author correctly (Nord,
1997)”.
1.1.2. Translation methods
1.1.2.1. The methods of Newmark
Newmark (1988) categorizes translation methods according to their
emphasis on SL or TL.
In terms of SL emphasis, translation methods include word-for-word
translation; literal translation; faithful translation and semantic translation.
Word-for-word translation
Newmark (1988) demonstrates this method as interlinear translation with
the TL immediately below the SL words. Interlinear translation means the
primary senses of all words in the original are translated as though out of context
and the word order of the original was retained. Take as an example the sentence
“The most common network arrangement is known as a client/serve system.” in
a T.T material of Information Technology for third year students, ED, HaUI.
Students would prefer to translate “Cách bố trí mạng phổ biến nhất được biết
đến là hệ thống máy khách/chủ”. Passive voice in the English original sentence
is remained unchanged in Vietnamese translation version. Word for word


13

translation seems to be easy and familiar with students.
Literal Translation
Newmark (1988) states “the SL grammatical constructions are converted
to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly,
out of context.” An example on Automobile Technology “About 15,000 separate
parts are put together to make an automobile.” can be literally translated as “Một
chiếc ô tô gồm khoảng 15,000 bộ phận riêng biệt đặt cạnh nhau”. The primary
senses of the lexical words of the original were translated as though out of
context, but the syntactic structures of the TL were respected.
Faithful Translation
The method attempted to produce the precise contextual meaning of the
original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures (Newmark,
1988). For example, “A power-steering system contains a hydraulic booster,
which operates when the engine was running and supplies most the necessary
force when the driver turns the wheel” can faithfully translated as “Một hệ thống
trợ lực lái gồm một bộ tăng thủy lực, mà hoạt động khi động cơ đang chạy và
cung cấp hầu hết lực cần thiết khi lái xe quay bánh xe.” This method preserves
degree of grammatical and lexical “abnormality” in translation.
Semantic Translation
Semantic translation refered to that type of translation that takes into
account the aesthetic value of the SL text. Peter Newmark (1988) says, “The
basic difference between semantic and literal translation was that the former
respects context, the latter does not. In semantic translation, the translator’s first
loyalty was to his author; in literal translation, his loyalty was, on the whole, to
the norms of the SL”. An example in Electricity “A generator was simply a
device that moves a magnet near a wire to create a steady flow of electrons” can
be semantically translated as “Máy phát điện đơn giản chỉ là một thiết bị di
chuyển một nam châm tới gần một dây dẫn để tạo ra dòng electron ổn định.”
When it came to TL emphasis, translation methods consist of adaptation;

free translation; idiomatic translation and communicative translation.


14

Adaptation
Newmark (1988) mentioned “Adaptation is the freest form of translation;
it was used mainly for plays and poems”. The text was rewritten considering the
SL cultures which were converted to the TL culture where the characters,
themes, plot were usually preserved. Adaptation was rarely used in T.T.
Free Translation
Newmark (1988) defined free translation as the way to reproduce the
matter without the manner, the content without the form of the original. It was
usually a paraphrase, a so-called “intra-lingual translation”. Free translation was
again rarely used in T.T.
Idiomatic Translation
The method reproduces the “message” of the original but tends to distort
nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these did not
exist in the original (Newmark, 1988). For example, “There was no accounting
for taste” was idiomatically translated into Vietnamese “Được voi đòi tiên”.
Idiomatic translation was not used in T.T.
Communicative Translation
This method attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the
original in such a way that both content and language were readily acceptable
and comprehensible to the readership (Newmark, 1988). The example in free
translation “To allow smooth shifting from one gear to another, a clutch was
provided to disengage the engine from the transmission” can be shortly
translated in communicative way as “Để xe ko bị giật khi sang số, người lái xe
phải cắt côn”. This translation version was for a group of people that share
common background and knowledge of Automobile Technology.

1.1.2.2. The methods of Larson
According to Larson (1984), translation method was divided into two
categories. First category was from-based or literal translation. Secondly, it was
meaning based or idiomatic translation. By literal translations, he meant, the
translation faithfully follows the form of the SL. On the other hand, the


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idiomatic translation tries to convey the meaning intended by the SL writer in a
natural form of the receptor language.
Larson (1984) then adds that in applying the literal translation, there was
rarely a true literal translation. The methods spread in the continuum from very
literal, to literal, to modified literal, to near idiomatic, idiomatic, and unduly
free. The continuum was drawn as follow:
Larson (1984) further explains:
- Very literal was an interlinear translation. For some purposes, it was
desirable to reproduce the linguistic features of the source text, as for example,
in a linguistic study of that language;
- Literal translation was a translation which its sounds like nonsense and
has little communicative value. It may be very useful for the purposes related to
the study of the source language, they were of little help to speakers of the
receptor language who were interested in the meaning of the source language text;
- Modified literal methods were a way to modify order and grammar of
the source language in an acceptable sentence structure in the receptor language.
However, the lexical items were translated literally.
- Inconsistent mixture mixes literal and idiomatic translation in the final
draft of translation.
- Near idiomatic reproduces the meaning of the source language (that
was the meaning intended by the original communicator) in receptor language

without losing the natural form of the source language.
- Idiomatic translation reproduces the meaning of the source language
(that was the meaning intended by the original communicator) in the natural
form of receptor language.
- The unduly free translation adds extraneous information, which was not
stated in the source text. It changed the meaning of SL; it distorted the fact of
the historical and cultural setting of the source text.
1.1.2.3. The methods of Robet Holmes
Prior to Newmark and Larson, Robet Holmes (1970) cited in Gentzler
(1993) mentions that there were four methods of translation:


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- First method retains the form of the original.
- The second attempts to discern the function of the text in the receiving
culture and seeks parallel function within the target language tradition.
- The third is content-derivative, taking the original meaning of the
primary text and allowing it to develop into its own unique shape in the target
language.
- The fourth deliberately retains minimal similarity for other purposes,
for which Holmes gives no example.
1.1.2.4. The methods of André Lefevere
André Lefevere (1975) quoted in Gentzler (1993) further enrich Holmes’
description. He stated that there were seven methodologies which tend to govern
the translation process –especially in the translation of poetry. They were:
- Phonemic translation, which attempts to reproduce the SL precisely in TL.
- Literal translation, which distorts the sense and the syntax of the
original through word-for-word emphasis.
- Metrical translation, which reproduce the SL metre.

- Poetry into prose, which changes both of sense and syntax of the SL.
- Rhymed translation, where the translator enters into a double bondage
of metre and rhyme.Blank verse translation. Again the restrictions imposed on
the translator by the choice of structure are emphasized, although the greater
accuracy and higher degree of literalness obtained are also noted.
- Interpretation. Interpret the theme and re-writes it to make the text
easier for reception.
1.1.2.5. The theory of Nida
Nida’s translation theory of dynamic equivalence was formed and
developed based on his practical work as a linguist with the American Bible
Society from 1943 onwards when he co-ordinated the translation of the Bible
from English to a variety of other languages
Nida’s theory of dynamic translation was fully presented in his two
major works: Toward a Science of Translating and The Theory and Practice of
Translation which treat the problems of translating with a scientific approach by
incorporating recent work in linguistics. According to Nida, ‘translating consists
in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the


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source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of
style’ (Nida and Taber:1969:12).
Clearly this definition itself focuses on the translation both as a process
of translating and a product of it. In the first place, Nida asserts that the process
of translating was to reproduce the message rather than to conserve the form of
the utterance, because the content of message was considered to be of prime
importance, especially for Bible translating. To preserve the content of the
message, grammatical and lexical adjustments were inevitable and the form of
the utterance must be altered (Nida and Taber, 1969:5). Secondly ‘the closest

natural equivalent’ was the ideal product of translating, which required the
translator to avoid awkwardness or translation see in order to produce a
translation which did not sound like a translation in the target language culture.
Based on the discussion of definition of translating, Nida established four sets of
priorities to guide real translating practice: (1969:14-32)
- The priority of contextual consistency over verbal consistency: Nida believed
that ‘strict verbal consistency may result in serious distortion of the meaning
(1969:21)’ and a translator should depend on context rather than word-for-word
concordance to (1) determine the word meaning and (2) find the right word in
the receptor language to produce the same response. (1969:16-17).
- The priority of dynamic equivalence over formal correspondence: Nida defined
two types of equivalence: ‘formal equivalence’ and ‘dynamic equivalence’
(Nida, 1964:159). Formal equivalence focuses on transferring the message.
Dynamic equivalence focuses on producing the equivalent effect of the message.
In dynamic translation, ‘one is not so concerned with matching the receptorlanguage message with the source-language message, but with the dynamic
relationship, that the relationship between the receptor and the message should
be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors
and the message (Nida, 1964: 159).’ ‘Dynamic equivalence was therefore to be
defined in terms of the degree to which the receptors of the message in the
receptor language respond to it in substantially the same manner as the receptors
in the source language. (Nida and Taber, 1969:24).‘ Nida was aware that this


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response can never be the same due to different culture, but a high degree of
equivalence of response should be achieved to reproduce the closest natural
equivalent in the receptor language. The response of the receptors in receptor
language was not only informative, but also expressive and imperative for
communication. (Nida and Taber, 1969:24). That was to say, dynamic

equivalence in translation should not only be intelligible or understandable to
communicate information, but also enable receptors to feel what was
communicated and to response in action.
- The priority of the heard language over the written language: This priority was
particularly important for and applicable to the Bible translation, because more
people did not read the Scriptures themselves but hear the Scriptures read.
- The priority of the needs of the audience over the forms of language: This
priority means that the forms understood and accepted by the audience to whom
a translation was directed are more significant than the forms which may
represent a long literary tradition.
1.1.3. Translation errors
1.1.3.1. Theory of translation errors
Prior to conducting empirical evaluation on the quality of translation, it
was indispensable to identify the translation errors and their classifications as
Schiaffino (2005) assumes that it was easier to agree on what constitutes an error
rather than on what constitutes quality in the abstract, and that an important
factor in quality was the absence of errors. Mossop (1989) described translation
errors as “a given rendering will be deemed to be nontranslation if it failed to
conform to the concept of translation predominant in the target culture”. He
identified translation errors in terms of cultural norm and formal equivalence. It
meant that the definition of translation error by Mossop includes the
achievement of formal equivalence but excludes other critical factors such as
smoothness, readability and consistency in translational product. Besides, formal
equivalence, as defined by Nida and Taber (1982), was a method of translating
literally and protecting rhythm, special stylistic forms, expression in syntax and
lexis, metaphor, wordplay and so on; therefore, formal equivalence is mainly


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used in translating poems and songs, not all kinds of texts. A more thorough
notion of error is proposed by Pym (1992). This scholar supposes that translation
errors may be attributed to lack of comprehension, misuse of time,
inappropriateness to readership, language, pragmatics, culture, over-translation,
under-translation, discursive or semantic inadequacy. Compared to the definition
by Mossop, Pym (1992) suggests a large number of translation errors. However,
these errors were not systematically classified.
Ten years later, Aveling (2002) illustrates a more comprehensive and
systematic notion of translation errors. According to Aveling, translation errors
occur when translator fails to gain equivalence, adequacy and accuracy. This
definition was more comprehensive as it stressed that equivalence covers many
different types. Besides, it was more systematic because Aveling emphasized
that translation errors can be divided into two categorization including “dumb
mistakes” and “deliberate mistakes”. The former was due to the lack of
translator’s competence, and the latter occurs when translator poses a purpose to
recreate the text.
1.1.3.2. Classification of translation errors
Not only the definition but also the classification of translation errors has
attracted a myriad of efforts from scholars and researchers. Nevertheless, due to
the complexity of this practice, it remained intricate to establish a single
comprehensive list of all the translation errors observed. Krzysztof (1992)
divides translation errors into four main types: errors of syntagmatic surface
translation, errors of mistaken interpretation, realization errors and metatranslation errors.
- The first type includes equivalents, false friends, calques and
unjustified borrowings.
- The second type covers misreading syntagms and wrong interpretation
of verb frame, misinterpret scenes and scripts and misreading the text modality.
- The third type covers TL errors, wrong evaluation of recipients’
knowledge and insufficient of knowledge of subject-matter.