A study on structural features of noun phrases in “pride and prejudice” by jane austen in reference to equivalents in the vietnamese translation version

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF
NOUN PHRASES IN “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE”
BY JANE AUSTEN IN REFERENCES TO
EQUVALENTS IN THE VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION VERSION
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỂ CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC CỦA CỤM
DANH TỪ TRONG “KIÊU HÃNH VÀ ĐỊNH KIẾN” CỦA JANE
AUSTEN VÀ SO SÁNH VỚI BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN MINH HIỀN
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Hanoi, 2017


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF
NOUN PHRASES IN “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE”
BY JANE AUSTEN IN REFERENCE TO
EQUIVALENTS IN THE VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION VERSION

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỂ CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC CỦA CỤM
DANH TỪ TRONG “KIÊU HÃNH VÀ ĐỊNH KIẾN” CỦA JANE
AUSTEN VÀ SO SÁNH VỚI BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN MINH HIỀN
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2017


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A
STUDY ON STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF NOUN PHRASES IN “PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE” BY JANE AUSTEN IN REFERENCE TO EQUIVALENTS IN THE
VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSION submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except where the
reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2018

Nguyễn Minh Hiền

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:……………………


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me
the possibility to complete this thesis. A special gratitude I give to my supervisor,
Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương for valuable and constructive guidelines during the
planning as well as the development of this research work.
Furthermore, I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the
crucial role of my teachers at Hanoi Open University, whose contribution in
stimulating suggestions and encouragement. A special thank goes to my family and
friends, whose encouragement and support have made the completion of my thesis.
Last but not least, many thanks go to teachers and students of Trade Union
University, who helped me in the survey questionaires. I appreciate the guidance
given by other supervisors.


ABSTRACT
This study aims at pointing out the differences and the similarities between
noun phrases in Vietnamese and English and then analyzing noun phrases from some
selected chapters of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen and their equivalents in the
translated version.
The results of the study suggest some common rules in translating noun
phrases from English to Vietnamese and some implications on the work of
translating. They also recommend numbers of things for readers to consider in their
choice of a good translation.
Keywords: noun phrases, structure, feature, translation, Jane Austen, Pride
and Prejudice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY .............................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. iii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
1.1.

Rationale ........................................................................................................... 1

1.2.

Aims and objectives of the study...................................................................... 2

1.3.

Research questions............................................................................................ 2

1.4.

Methods of study .............................................................................................. 2

1.5.

Scope of study................................................................................................... 2

1.6.

Significance of the study .................................................................................. 3

1.7.

Design of the study ........................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................... 5
2.1.

Previous studies ................................................................................................ 5

2.2.

Overview of phrases ......................................................................................... 6

2.2.1.

Definition of phrases .................................................................................. 6

2.2.2.

Classification of phrases ............................................................................ 6

2.3.

Overview of noun phrases in English and Vietnamese .................................... 6

2.3.1.

Noun phrases in English ............................................................................ 6

2.3.2.

Noun phrases in Vietnamese.................................................................... 10

2.5. Translation theory .............................................................................................. 12
2.5.1.

Definition of translation ........................................................................... 12

2.5.2.

Translation of fiction ............................................................................... 12

2.5.3.

Equivalence and types of equivalence ..................................................... 13

2.6.

Overview of the novel and author .................................................................. 15

2.6.1.

About the author ...................................................................................... 15

2.6.2.

About the work ........................................................................................ 15

CHAPTER 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSION ............................................................ 17
3.1. The structural features of noun phrases in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
................................................................................................................................... 17

3.1.1. The pre-modifications ................................................................................. 17
3.1.2. The head ...................................................................................................... 20
3.1.3. The post-modifications ................................................................................ 20
Multiple embeddings ............................................................................................. 23
3.2. Vietnamese equivalents of noun phrases in “Pride and prejudice” in the
translation version ..................................................................................................... 24
3.2.1. In terms of pre-modifications ...................................................................... 24
3.2.2. In terms of the heads ................................................................................... 28
3.2.3. In terms of post-modifications .................................................................... 31
3.4. Summary ............................................................................................................ 38
CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES
IN “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE” BY JANE AUSTEN INTO VIETNAMESE .......... 39
4.1. Survey questionaires .......................................................................................... 39
4.1.1. Subjects........................................................................................................ 39
4.1.2. Questionnaires ............................................................................................. 39
4.1.3. Procedure ..................................................................................................... 41
4.2. Common errors made by learners of English when translating noun phrases in
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen into Vietnamese ........................................... 42
4.3.

Causes of errors ........................................................................................... 47

4.4. Suggestions for teaching and learning translating noun phrases into Vietnamese
................................................................................................................................... 49
4.5. Summary ............................................................................................................ 50
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 51
5.1. Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 51
5.2. Limitation of the study....................................................................................... 51

5.3. Suggestions for further study ............................................................................. 52
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 53
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................. 55
Appendix 1. Student worksheet ................................................................................ 55
Appendix 2. Answer key for student worksheet:...................................................... 57


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Rationale
During the past two or three decades, developments in the fields of
transformational grammar, general and contrastive linguistics, semantics, information
theory, anthropology, semiotics, psychology, and discourse analysis etc. have exerted
great influence on general translation theory, enabling the discipline to broaden the
areas of investigation and to offer fresh insights into the concept of correspondence on
transference between linguistic and cultural systems. The traditionally much debated
separation between literal and free translation has been replaced by various
linguistically informed modern distinctions, like “formal” versus “dynamic”
correspondence, or “semantic” versus “communicative” translation. In general, more
attention has been paid to the translation process and greater emphasis placed on
“equal response” of the target language reader. Such new perspectives on theoretical
front as well as the fairly extensive developments in specific inter-lingual contrastive
studies have promoted considerably the understanding and mastery of the nature and
skill of translation. However, these are seen to be insufficient when it comes to
translation of fiction. The literary translation process is quite complex as it requires
translators to put a lot of thoughts on a variety of aspects beyond the materials to be
translated. The materials are not only written in different languages, but they also
represent different cultures, differ greatly in terms of linguistic, literary and culturalsocial conventions. For this reason, the author concerns a good deal with the
translation of literary works.

A fundamental shift in linguistic research from focusing on forms to exploring
both forms and functions has been seen in recent years by linguistics. When it comes
to syntactic analysis, noun phrases are considered to be common cross-linguistically,
which may result in the fact that they seem to earn the place of the most frequently
occurring phrase type. One of the most worldwide famous literature masterpieces,
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, long lives with readers not only because of the
excellent plot. The considerable attention to the linguistics of the timeless novel has
always been paid by scholars across the nations. One of the most loved linguistic
aspects debated is the abundance of noun phrases exploited in this work of art. As a
consequence, loads of researches have been conducted to make an analysis of the
aforementioned topic.
Boasting the vivid and superb language, “Pride and Prejudice” earns a huge
popularity in Vietnam and the work. Since its introduction, the translation version by
Diep Minh Tam has gained noticeable success in winning the hearts of the keen
readers.
The author would like to conduct a study to explore the use of noun phrases in
the novel and also an analysis of their Vietnamese equivalents in the Vietnamese
translation version to examine the way to express the equivalents of noun phrases in
this art in Vietnamese and suggest some solutions to deal with the difficulties in
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translating noun phrases into Vietnamese.
1.2.

Aims and objectives of the study
The study aims at describing structural features of noun phrases in “Pride and
Prejudice” by Jane Austen in reference to the Vietnamese translation version by Diep
Minh Tam in order to suggest some solutions in translating English noun phrases into
Vietnamese.

From this above aim, the study is planned to:
- Describe the structural features of noun phrases in “Pride and Prejudice”
by Jane Austen.
- Find out the way to express the Vietnamese equivalents of noun phrases
in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen in the translation version by Diep
Minh Tam in terms of structure.
- Suggest some recommendations for students in translating noun phrases
into Vietnamese.
1.3.

Research questions
The research questions, therefore, are posed as follows:
(1). What are the structural features of noun phrases in “Pride and Prejudice”
by Jane Austen?
(2). What are the ways to express the Vietnamese equivalents of noun phrases
in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen in the translation version by Diep
Minh Tam in terms of structure?
(3). What are the recommendations for learners in translating noun phrases
into Vietnamese?

1.4.

Methods of study
As the research is undertaken with the aim of investigating the noun phrases in
the novel, the descriptive and contrastive analysis with the qualitative data will be
employed. Particularly, English noun phrases in the novel and the Vietnamese
equivalents in the translation version by Diep Minh Tam are put into comparison in
terms of structure. In this way, the use of noun phrases in this work will be extensively
investigated while the Vietnamese equivalents are correspondingly reviewed.
Moreover, the survey questionnaires will be conducted within students to find

out the difficulties of students when translating noun phrases in the novel into
Vietnamese.
1.5.

Scope of study
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published in 1813, and was
latter translated into many languages.

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“Pride and Prejudice” was translation into the target language by Diep Minh
Tam, a member of Vietnamese writer associations and introduced to Vietnamese
readers by Vuong Tri Nhan. The translation version, which is about 600 pages thick,
was published in 2010 by the publishing house of Vietnamese writer associations.
The task of examining every nominal group in the original version would be
considered infeasible due to the big number of the chapters in the literary work
compared to the small scale of the research. Therefore, the study is restricted to
describe, analyse and contrast the structural features of noun phrases in some selected
chapters of the novel. The chosen ones would be Chapter 1, Chapter 3, Chapter 4,
Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 33, and Chapter 34.
It would appear to be a question of curiosity to readers why the data selection
would come from these chapters. While keen readers of this incomparable novel
would observe the very popularity of noun phrases throughout the whole novel, the
most primary and influential ones which make a generous contribution to the success
of the work by depicting the settings as well as visualizing the characters are seen here
in the chapters. Also, the focus of the study would be to the noun phrases which are
believed to be complicated in structures and worth analyzing as well as debating. It
would, therefore, account for the fact that the data would be 100 noun phrases
scattered in the novel.

1.6.

Significance of the study
The study hopes to provide an insight of the so-call popular English
phenomenon – Noun phrases in the novel that have over-one-hundred-year existence
and numerous keen readers, therefore, contributing to the theories of semantic features
of noun phrases in general.
The findings of this study will redound to the benefit of society considering that
translation plays an important role in language teaching and learning today. The
greater demand of graduates with good quality of translation justifies the need for
more effective teaching translation tips approach. The study contributes as a material
for teachers and students in teaching and practicing translation.

1.7.

Design of the study
The study is designed into 5 chapters
Chapter 1is Introduction of the study. The author would like to give an
overview of the study, including Rationale, Aims and Objectives of the study,
Research questions, Methods of the study, Scope of the study and significance of the
study.
Chapter 2 is literature review. In this chapter, the previous studies related to the
thesis, the theoretical background and the theoretical framework will be provided.
Chapter 3 is the findings. The chapter investigates noun phrases in the novel
and makes a contrastive analysis to the translation version.
3


Chapter 4 is the applications of the findings. This will analyze the difficulties of
learners when translating noun phrases in the novel and suggest some solutions to

translate noun phrases effectively.
Chapter 5 is the conclusion with summary of the thesis and recommendations
for further studies.

4


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Previous studies
Noun phrases as well as other phrases play an important role in mastering any
language. Without noun phrase, there would have no agents, no patients, and no
recipients. Additionally, no matter how wide our vocabulary may be, a single word is
often insufficient in expressing our thought. For this reason, there have been a variety
of studies that investigated noun phrases and the equivalents in target languages. They
include both foreign and Vietnamese studies.
In terms of foreign studies, George Augustus Gerard Cumming (1971)
describes and compares the requirement order of pre-modification of noun phrases in
English and French. In his thesis, the author discovers the method of express the
French equivalents of English noun phrases in general.
Bc. Andrea RYŠAVÁ (2012) investigates noun phrase in terms of its forms,
function and distribution in text. In the thesis, he has focused on noun phrase and its
modifiers, with a closer analysis devoted to two specific phenomena – to the noun +
noun structures, where the first noun modifies the second noun.
In terms of Vietnamese studies, Nguyen Thuy Uyen on her M.A thesis “A
study on abstract nouns in English and Vietnamese” showed the similarities and
differences between the metaphor of abstract nouns in English and Vietnamese, at the
same time, offered some implications for teaching and learning.
Also, “A study on compound nouns in the novel “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte
Bronte” by Duong Thi Ngan reported some problems in translating compound nouns
in the particular fiction and suggest some solutions.

Le Thi Tuyet Ngoc (2009) conducted “English and Vietnamese Noun phrases:
A contrastive analysis”. She states the similarities and differences in noun phrases of
the two languages in term of their internal and external structures. The study draws
attention to the analysis of the heads of noun phrases in the two languages, the premodification and post modifications, their positions and functions of English and
Vietnamese noun phrase. Finally, some teaching implications are made for those who
teach English as a Foreign Language to their students. At the same time, some kinds
of error made by Vietnamese learners due to differences in word order and functions
of noun phrases between the two languages will be discussed.
There have been a variety of studies on translation such as translation on
adverbs (Tran Thuy Hang, 2013), conditional sentences (Le Thi Yen, 2010), economic
terminology (Hoang Thi Bay, 2005).
However, noun phrase in a particular fiction is still an issue that hasn’t been
into investigation. As a result, an M.A thesis titled “A study on structural features of
noun phrases in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen in references to equivalents in
the Vietnamese translation version” has been done.
5


2.2. Overview of phrases
2.2.1. Definition of phrases
“A phrase is a syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks
the subject-predicate organization of a clause” - Crystal (1980)
A phrase is a group of words acting as a single part of speech and not containing
both a subject and a verb. It is a part of a sentence and does not express a complete
thought.
“A phrase is defined as a group of related words that lacks both subject and
verb.”
A phrase is a part of a sentence. It is a group of words (within a sentence) that
does not contain both subject and verb and does not express a complete idea.
Example: He is standing near a wall.

The part of above sentence “near a wall” is a phrase because it does not contain
subject and verb and does not express a complete idea.
A phrase does not include both subject and verb at a same time and does not make
a complete sense, hence a phrase cannot stand as a sentence on its own.
2.2.2. Classification of phrases
In a phrase, the main word, or the word that is what the phrase is about, is
called the head. The other words in the phrase do the work of changing
or modifying the head. According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1987), the common
structure of phrase:
Pre-modification + Head + Post-modification
In English there are five different kinds of phrases, one for each of the
main parts of speech.
-

Noun phrases

-

Adjective phrases

-

Adverb phrases

-

Prepositional phrases

-

Verb phrases

2.3.
Overview of noun phrases in English and Vietnamese
2.3.1. Noun phrases in English
2.3.1.1. Definition of noun phrases in English
The noun phrase can be defined in many ways in terms of different
grammatical theories. However, most scholars of traditional grammar agree on the
following definition which is quoted from A Comprehensive grammar of the English
6


language (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1987):
A noun phrase is a phrase that has a noun as its head.
The noun phrase typically functions as subject, object, complement of the
sentence and complement of the prepositional phrase
It can be inferred from the definition that the functions of noun phrases bring
about the recognition of noun phrases.
For example, in the following sentence
Sarah has written fifty books for children.
Subject (S)

Object (0)

Complement of prepositional phrase (PC)

2.3.1.2. Structural features of noun phrases in English
Crystal (2008) defines the structure of noun phrase
“The structure of a noun phrase is featured minimally by the noun while the
constructions preceding and following the noun are put under the name of premodification and post-modification.”

“The noun phrase typically functions as subject, object, complement of the
sentence and complement of the prepositional phrase”
Traditional Grammar made a big advance in grammatical study during the
twentieth century. The contemporary work now seems noticeable with distinguished
names, among which are Randolph Quirk and his colleagues, whose English
grammar series are very much known. As a result, this study would like to revisit the
background of noun phrases from the point of view of Quirk and Greenbaum (1987).
Noun phrases are believed to typically function as subject, object, complement
of sentences and as complement in prepositional phrases, as exemplified in these
following sentences:
(a) The girl

Is Mary Smith

(b) The pretty girl
(c) The pretty girl in the corner
(d) The pretty girl who became
angry
In this approach, noun phrases are subclassified into basic noun phrases and
complex noun phrases.
Basic noun phrase
7


The basic noun phrases are characterized as nouns with articles or other
closed- system items that can occur before the noun head; those are the Determiners
as bellows:
All these 10

Students

Determiners

Head noun

As its name suggests, a determiner “determines” the precise meaning of the
noun and may come into three types: pre-determiners (e.g. all, both, half), central
determiners which may be the possessive, or articles, etc.) and post- determiners
(e.g. cardinal numbers, ordinal numerals, and quantifiers).
Complex Noun phrase
Take an example of a long sentence with the aforementioned information
about the girl in the previous part:
The pretty girl standing in the corner who became angry is Mary Smith.
It is easily seen that the complicated structure of the sentence is reshaped
because of the complex noun phrase. Then it comes to how a complex noun phrase
could be realized:
Complex Noun Phrase
Pre-Modification

Head Noun

Post-modification

Comprising all the items
placed before the head –
remarkably nouns and
adjectives

Around which the other
components cluster and

which dictates concord and
other kinds of congruence
with the rest of the
sentence outside the noun
phrase

In which reside all the
items after the head –
notably
prepositional
phrases, non-finite clauses
and relative clauses

The word noun phrase is self-explanatory. It is obvious that the most common
kind of head word in a noun phrase is a noun. In some cases, a pronoun may also act
as the central part of a noun phrase. There are four kinds of pronouns functioning as
heads: personal pronoun(a), indefinite pronoun (b), possessive pronoun (c), and
demonstrative pronoun (d). For example:
a. He in He is a doctor
b. Someone in someone in the house
8


c. His in his is large.
d. This in this happens every two years.
Usually, when a pronoun takes the role of head in a noun phrase, it is not
preceded by pre-modification; however, it can be followed by post-modification, e.g.
he who hesitates.
Pre-modification can be most typically expressed by an adjective (some
expensive furniture), a participle (a very interesting mind, a retired teacher, a noun

(his life story), genitive (his fisherman’s cottage), an adverb or adverb phrase (roundthe-clock service, this is the in thing at present), a sentence (his what-do-you-call-it
cottage)
Post-modification may consist of a prepositional phrase (the car outside the
station), a non-finite clause (the dog barking next door, a report written by my
colleague, the ability to use his hands, the ability of using his hand) ,finite clause – a
relative clause (the news that appeared in the papers this morning), an adverb
phrase-minor possibility (the road back), an adjective - minor possibility (something
different)
And it should be noted that modification can be restrictive and non-restrictive.
This means that the head can be viewed as a member of a class which can be
linguistically identified only through the modification that has been supplied
(restrictive). Or the head can be viewed as unique or as a member of a class that has
been independently identified (that is, in a preceding sentence) any modification
given to such a head is additional information which has no role in pointing out the
head, and we call it non-restrictive.
In the example,
Mr.Brown’s daughter who is married is a teacher.
Pre-modification

Head

Post-modification (restrictive)

it can be concluded that Mr. Brown has more than one daughter and the
daughter in this sentence is only identifiable as a teacher by means of the postmodification in the form of a relative clause “who is married” – this modification is
restrictive.
In contrast, in the following sentence
Mr.Brown’s daughter, who is married, is a teacher.
Pre-modification

Head

Post-modification

Mr Brown has only one daughter. Therefore, the post-modification “who is
married” does not function as a signal to identify this daughter. It just gives
additional information on the subject mentioned and this post-modification is non9


restrictive.
Modification at “its most restrictive” tends to come after the head and it tends
to be given more prosodic emphasis than the head, while non-restrictive modification
tends to be unstressed in prehead position, while in post head position, its parenthetic
relation is endorsed by being given a separate tone unit, or in writing, by being
enclosed by commas.
Nowadays linguists have more sufficient definitions of the noun phrase which
reveal its basic syntactic, structural and transformational features: “A noun phrase is
any word group that has the following features:
1. Typically having a noun as head
2.
Able to be moved in sentence transformation (in making questions,
passives, relative clauses, ….)
3. Able to be replaced by a pronoun
4. Typically functioning as subject, object and complement in the sentences.
2.3.2. Noun phrases in Vietnamese
2.3.2.1. Definition of noun phrases in Vietnamese
Diệp Quang Ban (2005) defined noun phrase (danh ngữ) is a phrase in which
the noun function as the main part.
Also, noun phrase in the theory of Doan, Nguyen Pham (2001) is a "free
combination of a noun nucleus and one or more than one subordinate elements "

which can be front elements standing before the nucleus noun or can be end elements
standing after the nucleus noun.
2.3.2.2. Structural features of noun phrases in Vietnamese
The fact is Vietnamese linguists cannot reach a consensus on some
grammatical issues. With no exception, noun phrase has been at the center of debate
for long. Now I’d like to present the viewpoint of some established figures in this
field.
Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1996) points out that Vietnamese noun phrases have two
parts: the head and the modification composed of the pre-modification and postmodification. What special about his finding is the head noun. He claims that if the
noun is preceded by a classifier, both the noun and the classifier form the head. So the
head is the combination of T1 and T2. For example:
Pre-modification
một

Head

Post-modification

T1 (classifier)

T2 (noun)

đoàn

sinh viên
10

khoa văn

một

cuốn

sách

này

According to Diệp Quang Ban, a noun phrase consists of three constituents:
pre-modification, the head, post-modification. In the pre-modification, all the
modifiers add more information in terms of quantity. In contrast, all the elements of
post-modification give more information about quality. The head of a noun phrase can
be a word or a group of words in which a classifier is followed by a noun, a verb, or an
adjective. For instance:
Pre-modification
Tất cả

những

cái

Head

Post-modification

con mèo

đen

ấy

A noun phrase is treated as a grammatical unit composed of three parts: premodification, head, post-modification. In this part, I will take “tất cả những cái con
mèo đen ấy” as an example to analyse the structure of Vietnamese noun phrase. The
structure of Vietnamese noun phrase can be summarized in the following table:
Pre-modification

Head

Post-modification

Totality

Numerals/
quantifiers

Focus
marker

Classifier

Noun

Attributive
modifier

Demonstrative

Tất cả

Những

Cái

Con

Mèo

Đen

ấy

Table 1: The Structure of Noun Phrase in Vietnamese
The head of a noun phrase can be a single noun (e.g.: mèo) or a classifier + a
noun (e.g.: con mèo). Classifiers are words such as cái, con, người., e.g.: cái chén, con
rùa., người lính.
Pre-modification consists of the focus marker “cái” (cái con người bạc ác ấy),
numerals quantifier is distributed in position (-2). Numerals are một (one), hai (two),
ba (three), etc. Indefinite quantifiers are vài, dăm ba, mọi, những, tất cả, các, mấy,
etc... The word totality is ambiguous in the sense that it can refer to the collection of
many things (plural) (a) or the collection of many parts of a single object (singular)
(b). For example: (a) Anh ta làm tất cả mọi việc. (b) Anh ta ăn cả một con gà.
Unlike pre-modification in which all the positions are relatively stable,
postmodification is more complicated. Before investigating post-modification, we
should bear in mind that there is no rigid formula for the post-modification.
The attributive modifiers can be a noun phrase (a), a verb phrase (b), an
adjective phrase (c), a prepositional phrase (d), or a pronoun (e). Its function is to
describe the head noun. For example: (a) phòng tạp chí , vườn cau (b) cái nhà xây năm
ngoái (c) chiếc áo đẹp, khu vườn xanh tốt. It is noticeable that an adjective phrase may
be preceded by the intensifier “rất”, e.g. chiếc áo rất đẹp, khu vườn rất xanh tốt. (d) cái
võng ở sau vườn (e) phòng (của) chúng tôi.

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Demonstratives are considered to be the rightmost post-modifiers. They are ấy,
nọ, kia, này, ấy, etc. Usually, demonstratives can follow any of the attributive
modifiers, e.g.: hoàn cảnh (của) chị ấy, những cái con mèo đen ấy.
2.5. Translation theory
2.5.1. Definition of translation
The study of translation has been dominated, and to a degree still is, by the
debate about its status as an art or a science. As a matter of fact, translation has been
variously defined and, not infrequently, in dictionaries of linguistics, omitted entirely
and the following definitions have been selected partly because they are, in some
sense, typical and partly because they raise issues which the author will be discussing
in detail later.
“Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of
what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and
stylistic equivalences”
(Dubois:1973, in Bell’s translation: 1991 )
“Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language
by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language”
(Hartmann and Stork: 1972, 713)
It can be said that there are common features shared by the two definitions the
author has given so far; the notion of movement of some sort between languages,
content of some kind and the obligation to find equivalents which preserve features of
the original.
According to Magdy M.Zaky,
“Translation is an activity that aims at conveying meaning or meanings of a
given- linguistic discourse from one language to another, rather than the words or
grammatical structures of the original”

In Magdy M.Zaky’s definition, the emphasis is laid on the notion of
“meaning”, but translation still requires movement of some sort between languages.
Above are some typical definitions of translation and translation of fiction, by
all means, bears those features. However, there must be differences of some kind. It is
this notion of translation of fiction that the author is about to take up.
2.5.2. Translation of fiction
Translation from one tongue to another is altogether too complicated and
mysterious a process to provide a clear-cut conclusion about the novelists’ art, but it
is possible to distinguish the nature of fiction translation from the translation of other
genres.
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Translation of fiction is much more complicated than that of other genres, as it
deals not only with bilingual, but also bi-cultural and bi-social transference, including
the entire complex of emotions, associations, and ideas, which intricately relate
different nations’ languages to their lifestyles and traditions.
Translation of fiction involves the exchange of the social experience of
individuals in the fictional world with readers in another culture or society. Both the
social factor and the authorial factor (authorial individualism) are emphasized in the
process of fiction translation. The two kinds of style mentioned above, i.e. authorial
style and text style concern both social and authorial factors of fiction and distinguish
one novel/short story from another. Therefore, the reproduction of style (both
authorial style and text style) is considered the core in translation of fiction. It is also
a difficult task for the translator of fiction to explore the style of a novel/short story
and the message the author conveys about social life, human relationships, etc.
To sum up, translation of fiction depends largely on various factors, including
aesthetic conventions, historical and cultural-social circumstances, authorial
individualism and the author's worldview, among which reproduction of the fictional
style is regarded as its core. It's impossible for either the linguistic, communicative, or

philological approach to cover all the features of fiction translation. The best
approach to studying translation of fiction and solving the potential problems in
translation of fiction is the sociosemiotic approach. This approach helps one
understand better not only the meanings of words, sentences and discourse structures,
but also the symbolic nature of distinguishing between designative and associative
meanings. It also emphasizes the fact that everything about a message carries
meaning. And when the meaning is decided, it means that an equivalent is picked up.
And in any kind of translation, finding equivalents is an obligation. The next part will
be looking at equivalence.
2.5.3. Equivalence and types of equivalence
Equivalence can be said to be the central issue in translation although its
definitions, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have
caused heated controversy.
Jakobson regards translation equivalence as being essentially a transfer of the
message from the source language to the target language and a pragmatic/semantic
approach to translation.
In Jakobson’s point of view, “there is ordinarily no full equivalence between
code- units” (1959/2000:114). In his description, inter-lingual translation involves
‘substituting messages in one language not for separate code-units but for entire
messages in some other language’:
The translator recodes and transmits a message received from another
source. Thus translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes.
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(Jakobson 1959/2000:114)
For the message to be equivalent in source language and target language,
the code- units will be different since they belong to two different sign systems
(languages). In Jakobson’s discussion, equivalence focuses on differences in the
structure and terminology of languages rather than on any inability of one

language to render a message that has been written in another verbal language.
The concept of equivalence has been one of the key words in translation
studies. In earlier work on translation equivalence, Catford (1965: 20) defines
translation as "the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent
textual material in another language (TL)". He distinguishes textual equivalence from
formal correspondence. The former is "any TL text or portion of text which is
observed on a particular occasion to be the equivalent of a given SL text or
portion of text" and the latter is "any TL category (unit, class, structure, element of
structure, etc.) which can be said to occupy, as nearly as possible, the same place in
the economy of the TL as the given SL category occupies in the SL" (ibid.: 27).
Wilss (1982a: 134) states that "the concept of TE (translation equivalence) has
been an essential issue not only in translation theory over the last 2000 years, but also
in modern translation studies" and that "there is hardly any other concept in
translation theory which has produced as many contradictory statements and has set
off as many attempts at an adequate, comprehensive definition as the concept of TE
between SLT (source language text) and TLT (target language text)". In his
definition, "translation is a transfer process which aims at the transformation of a
written SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic,
the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the SL
text" (1982b: 3). I think his phrase 'optimally equivalent' is reasonably appropriate,
but in my view the problem is that he fails to present what makes the optimality.
Using a linguistic approach to translation, Nida argued that there are two
different types of equivalence, namely formal and dynamic equivalence. Formal
equivalence ‘focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content’, unlike
dynamic equivalence which is based upon ‘the principle of equivalent effect (that is, a
translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the target
language wording will trigger the same impact on the target language audience as the
original wording did upon the source language audience)’ (1964:159).
Baker, on the other hand, distinguishes three main types of equivalence, using
both linguistic and communicative approach. They are grammatical, textual and

pragmatic equivalence. Grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of
grammatical categories across languages, whereas textual equivalence deals with the
equivalence between a source languagetext and a target language text in terms of
information and cohesion. Pramatic equivalence refers to implicatures and strategies
of avoidance during the translation process.
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Besides, equivalence can be classified into equivalence at word level and
above word level. For example, at word level, the word “sing” in English means “hát”
in Vietnamese and “deliver a speech” in English has “đọc diễn văn”. The latter
English expression literally means something like “đưa ra một bài diễn văn” but in
Vietnamese it would be unacceptable. So we cannot base ourselves on the meaning of
the words individually.
In conclusion, the notion of equivalence is undoubtedly one of the most
problematic and controversial areas in the field of translation. The term has caused,
and it seems quite probable that it will continue to cause heated debates within the
field of translation studies.
2.6. Overview of the novel and author
2.6.1. About the author
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at Steventon, England. She was
the seventh child of the rector of the parish at Steventon, and lived with her family
until they moved to Bath when her father retired in 1801.
Her father, Reverend George Austen, was from Kent and attended the
Tunbridge school before studying at Oxford and receiving a living as a rector at
Steventon. Her mother, Cassandra Leigh Austen, was the daughter of a patrician
family. Among her siblings she had but one sister, Cassandra, with whom she kept in
close contact her entire life. Her brothers entered a variety of professions: several
joined the clergy, one was a banker, while several more spent time in the military.
Although her family was neither noble nor wealthy, Rev. Austen had a particular

interest in education, even for his daughters. Although her novels focus on courtship
and marriage, Jane Austen remained single her entire life. She died in Winchester on
July 8, 1817.
Jane Austen published four novels anonymously during her lifetime: Sense and
Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815).
Two novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously in
1817. These novels are prominent for her satiric depiction of English society and
manners.
2.6.2. About the work
Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is Jane's Austen's earliest work, and in
some senses also one of her most mature works. Austen began writing the novel in
1796 at the age of twenty-one, under the title First Impressions. The original version
of the novel was probably in the form of an exchange of letters. Austen's father had
offered the manuscript for publication in 1797, but the publishing company refused to
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even consider it. Shortly after completing First Impressions, Austen began writing
Sense and Sensibility, which was not published until 1811. She also wrote some
minor works during that time, which were later expanded into full novels. Between
1810 and 1812 Pride and Prejudice was rewritten for publication. While the original
ideas of the novel come from a girl of 21, the final version has the literary and
thematic maturity of a thirty-five-year-old woman who has spent years painstakingly
drafting and revising, as is the pattern with all of Austen's works. Pride and Prejudice
is usually considered to be the most popular of Austen's novels and Elizabeth one of
the most attractive characters in the British literature.
“Pride and Prejudice” was translated into the target language by Duong Minh
Tam, a member of Vietnamese writer associations and introduced to Vietnamese
readers by Vuong Tri Nhan. The translated version, which is about 600 pages thick
was published in 2010 by the publishing house of Vietnamese writer associations.

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CHAPTER 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSION
3.1. The structural features of noun phrases in “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane
Austen
In general, the noun phrases in this literary work would be recognized with ease
because of their full structure with the modification preceding and following the head
noun. Examples are provided below:
(1). … a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing.
(2). …(take) an eager interest in that gentleman‟s concerns?
(3)… the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.
(4). … a single man in possession of a good fortune
(5). … the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour Lady Lucas.
However, when it comes to details, most noun phrases are more heavily
modified by the Post-modification than by the Pre-modification, which would be
exemplified as follows:
(1). … a judgment too unassailed by any attention to herself.
(2). … (married) a man more of fashion than fortune.
(3). … the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination.
(4). … the man who has been the means of ruining, perhaps for ever, the
happiness of a most beloved sister.
(5). … your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance,
your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others.
The next part would deal with each type of modification alone to provide a
better understanding about the way the noun phrases are structured.
3.1.1. The pre-modifications
In terms of pre-modification, the popularity of articles “a” and “the” might
catch the eyes of keen readers.

The indefinite article “a”, for instance, is used to refer to something indefinite
or generic. For example,
(1). …a truth….
(2). …a single man….
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(3). …a Mr. Phillips….
( 4) . ….a distant relation…
It may be a liitle confused to readers by “a Mr. Phillips”. Although Mr. Phillips
is proper noun, the author has never mentioned him before in the novel and hasn’t got
any explanation followed. Thus, “a” must be preceded the head noun “Mr. Phillips”.
Premodification by the definite article “the” is also predominant. This article,
with the head noun followed by “of – phrase”, is employed to limit generic
reference. Or sometimes this article implies that the head becomes definite as a result
of being mentioned earlier. For example,
(5).
(6).
(7).
(8).
(9).

…..the two youngest of the family…..
…..the officers’ names and connections….
…..the north of England….
......the servant . . . .(at Mrs. Bennet’s house)
…..the place…… (Netherfield)

The difference in the usage of the two articles result in the fact that in a number
of cases, “the” would mostly be exploited to modify the head noun followed by a

prepositional phrase with “of” whereas the other would also be seen with the ones
post-modified by other prepositional phrases or relative clauses, which would be
illustrated with the below cases:
(10a)… the power of their conversation
(11a)… the injustice of her implied doubt

(10b)…a something about her more
woring and reprensible

(12a)… their chance of marrying men of
any consideration in the world

(11b)…. A very great favourite with
some ladies of my acquaintance

(13a)… the notion of doing a very gallant
thing

(12b)… a circumstance which Darcy of
course would not wish to be generally
known

(14a) …. The enjoyment of all her
original dislike

(13b)… an attention which it had
hardly received on the first perusal.
(14b) … a warmth which seemed due to
the consequence he was wounding

Yet, there are some cases that “a” followed by of-phrase such as:
(15)…a single man of large fortune ….
(16)….a mixture of quick parts, sarcarstic humour, reserve, and caprice…..
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