Translation quality evaluation of ankit panda’s article “why did china set up an oil rig within vietnamese waters why now and why vietnam ” by four various translators

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

************

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S
ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG
WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?”
BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS
(Đánh giá chấ t lươ ̣ng các bản dich
̣ bài báo “Why Did China Set Up
an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?”
của Ankit Panda bởi bốn dịch giả khác nhau)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201

HANOI - 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

************

NGUYỄN THU HẰNG

TRANSLATION QUALITY EVALUATION OF ANKIT PANDA’S
ARTICLE “WHY DID CHINA SET UP AN OIL RIG
WITHIN VIETNAMESE WATERS? WHY NOW AND WHY VIETNAM?”
BY FOUR VARIOUS TRANSLATORS
(Đánh giá chấ t lươ ̣ng các bản dich
̣ bài báo “Why Did China Set Up
an Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?”
của Ankit Panda bởi bốn dịch giả khác nhau)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến

HANOI - 2016


DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “Translation quality evaluation of Ankit Panda‟s article “Why did China set
up an oil rig within Vietnamese waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by four
various translations” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the
Degree of Master in English Linguistics. Except where the reference is indicated, no
other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the text of the
thesis.
Hanoi, February 2016

Nguyễn Thu Hằng

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from
a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến, who has patiently and constantly
supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas,
expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an
academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm
during my course. Without their support and encouragement, it would never have
been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my parents,
my husband and my younger brother for the sacrifice they have devoted to the
fulfillment of this academic work.

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ABSTRACT

There is a fact that in the current era of information explosion, daily contents
published on the Internet have neglected strict censorship in advance in terms of

quantity and quality. It can be seen that many English - Vietnamese translations
cannot ensure enough precise information or convey emotion and intentions of the
author in the source language text appropriately. Even some of them have modified
on purpose by adding individual opinions or comments of the translators. Therefore,
it is necessary to control the quality of the translations before publication so that the
readers can enjoy the best edition. This thesis is an attempt to assess the quality of
four different versions of for an online English article on The Diplomat basing on
the schema of Translation Quality Assessment proposed by Newmark. By this way,
the writer has found that the translations have obtained a certain success. However,
it still reveals some mismatches between the source text and the target text,
especially in terms of reflecting the intention of the author accurately. In addition,
some other mistakes in terms of word choice and structure arrangement which may
affect the conciseness of the translations are also pointed out. From the basis of the
findings, some implications are made along with suggestions for further studies.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ............................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS ........................................................... vi
A: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study ................................................................................ 1
2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................... 4
3. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 4
4. Significance of the study ............................................................................ 5

5. Research methodology ............................................................................... 5
5.1. Research questions .............................................................................. 5
5.2. Research approach .............................................................................. 5
5.3. Research method .................................................................................. 5
5.4. Data analysis ....................................................................................... 6
6. Design of the thesis .................................................................................... 6
PART B: DEVELOPMENT........................................................................... 8
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 8
1.1. Translation theory ................................................................................... 8
1.1.1. Translation definition ........................................................................ 8
1.1.2. Translation methods & procedures ................................................... 9
1.1.3. Translation equivalence .................................................................. 13
1.1.4. Translation assessment ................................................................... 16
1.1.5. Contrastive Analysis ....................................................................... 21
1.2. Previous studies..................................................................................... 21
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1.3. Summary ............................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER 2: APPLICATION OF NEWMARK’S MODEL FOR
TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT ............................................ 24
2.1. Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its
functional aspects ......................................................................................... 24
2.2. Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his
translation method and the translation‟s likely readership .......................... 25
2.3. Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the
translation with the original ......................................................................... 27
2.3.1. Word choice & expression .............................................................. 27
2.3.2. Structures ........................................................................................ 30
2.4. Step 4: An evaluation of the translation................................................ 38

2.4.1. An evaluation of the translation in the translator‟s terms ............... 38
2.4.2. An evaluation of the translation in the critic‟s term ....................... 45
2.4.3. Assess the translation as a piece of writing, independently of its
original ...................................................................................................... 46
2.5. Step 5: An assessment of the likely place of the translation in the
target language culture or discipline ......................................................... 47
PART C: CONCLUSION............................................................................. 48
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 51
APPENDIX A ................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX B................................................................................................. IV
APPENDIX C ........................................................................................... XVII

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ST: Source Text
TT: Target Text
SL: Source Language
TL: Target Language
V1: Version 1 (the first version)
V2: Version 2 (the second version)
V3: Version 3 (the third version)
V4: Version 4 (the fourth version)
TQA: Translation Quality Assessment
P: Paragraph
S: Sentence

vi

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS

Table 1

Comparing versions in terms of words and expression

28

Table 2

Comparing versions in terms of denotative meanings

29

Table 3

Comparing versions in terms of separation and combination

30

Table 4

Comparing versions in terms of word order

31

Table 5

Comparing versions in terms of complex sentences and

33

relative clauses
Table 6

Comparing versions in terms of passive and active forms

38

Table 7

Mistakes in the translation in terms of grammar

44

Diagram 1

Translation methods

10

Diagram 2

A scheme for analyzing and comparing original and translation

19

texts

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A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study
In human history, cultural exchange commenced along with the emergence
of culture. Translation, a cultural phenomenon and a means of cultural exchange,
has brought a community beyond its spatial and temporal dimensions as contended
by Kelly (2004): “Without translation, there is no history of the world.” Without
translation, our world would encompass secluded oases, which would develop
separately and their own histories without contributing to the world history. In fact,
translation not only brings new knowledge horizons for humanity, but translation
activities can also promote exchange of civilization and culture among the people
and the nations worldwide. Therefore, it can be said that since its beginning days,
translation has played a very important role for years.
In Vietnam, after 1945, translation industry has developed and had great
contribution to economic, cultural, and social development of our country. As a
result, the demand for translation is increasingly diversified. An enormous number
of books and documents need to be translated. The mass media such as radios,
televisions, newspapers are also required to transfer information from foreign
languages into Vietnamese to convey to the public. The contracts, project
documents, data in need of translation in the administrative transactions, trade, and
international cooperation also surged. The foreign movies should have captions or
subtitles in Vietnamese. In addition, training sessions of professional interpreters
are also being conducted at many universities in Vietnam to train a large team of
people working in the translation field.
Generally, neither translation nor interpretation in our country has not
become a professional job. Sharing the same point, Ms. Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, former
Deputy Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of Vietnam‟s National Assembly

said in the event "International Conference on Translation and Language"
(Translator Day) held on December 13, 2013, “Translation in Vietnam has not

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really been developed into a profession with high professionalism because of the
lack of formal standards; then, the discipline in this work is not high and it is
difficult to distinguish the level of translation.”
It is a fact that this has led to bad even serious consequences. Sadly,
Vietnam has been listed one of countries with the worst quality of translated
versions. Tùy Phong, the author of the article “Bao giờ mới hết những chữ vô hồn”
on the vietnamnet expressed his own opinions about “translation disasters”.
According to him, besides rather successfully-translated masterpieces such as
“Wuthering Heights” (Đồi gió hú), “Harry Porter”, “The Centaur in the Garden”
(Con nhân mã ở trong vườn), some classic works such as “Lolita” translated by
Dương Tường, “The Da Vinci Code” (Mật mã Da Vinci) by Đỗ Thu Hà and some
other textbooks have been called “translation disasters” with dozens of mistakes.
These works have received a lot of negative criticism and opinions from the public
and on mass media. This has become great concern for critics, translators, and
linguistics.
However, unfortunately, until now, we have had no works specialized in
theory and method of translation between English and Vietnamese in our country,
but only focusing on the study of translation practice while foreign countries have
many relevant works between English and other languages by such famous authors
as Nida, Newmark, Campbell, Baker, Bell, Hatim and Mason. These projects have
contributed greatly in the development of theory as well practice of the translation
and promoted the quality of translated versions more efficiently and professionally.
Translation is indeed a challenging job. In order to produce a high-quality
translation, translators are required to have both talent and flexibility in every

circumstance. In addition, they also have to hone their skills regularly, their love for
translation, as well as abundant knowledge of culture, society, human beings and
even equivalent languages. Sometimes, because of lacking certain understanding or
translators‟ carelessness, translated versions may not be concise and clear enough.
Even more seriously, they can transfer messages which writers or authors want to

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try to convey to readers in a wrong way. Such errors will have bad effect on the
public for long time, especially the information on the mass media such televisions
and newspapers. Therefore, the usage of vocabulary on the mass media in general
and translation in particular requires both high quality and professionalism.
An M.A. theses review at universities in Vietnam shows that many
assessment works related to literature, and some specialized terms, including law,
economy, health care, and culture have been conducted. These are preliminary
studies on applying a new theory of translation evaluation and criticism into the
assessment of translated versions from English into Vietnamese with remarkable
results in terms of theory and practice. However, the number of political versions is
still limited, especially sensitive political issues.
Since information technology developed fast, the right of free press has
been promoted. Correspondents, journalists, writers have had a big playground on
the Internet, especially online newspaper pages or websites. Every day, they can
easily provide the latest information for readers without considering contents or
vocabularies strictly before publishing them. In addition, some bad elements also
took advantage of the Internet to distort and communicate false information to the
readers. This can be reflected clearly through contents in tabloid newpapers.
Remarkably, so far, many stories, talks, interviews and articles have kept discussing
a hot topic - oil rig HYSY-981 on the mass media, especially on some famous
newspapers and magazines. Among them, “The Diplomat”, a premier international

current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region is known by many scholars and
readers. Since 2002, “The Diplomat” has been dedicated to quality analysis and
commentary on events occurring in Asia and around the world. So, news on this
press is very abundant and comprehensive. Many Vietnamese translators have used
this useful source to explore information and try to transfer equivalent meanings of
articles. However, it is regretful that many of them are incorrect and incomplete
versions with grammar and vocabulary mistakes, even with wrong messages to the

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readers. This made meaningful articles become difficult for everyone to understand
and in one way have negative impacts on the readers as well.
From the above-mentioned reasons, the author decided to find out a typical
article with various translated versions, and then finally chose the topic
“Translation quality evaluation of Ankit Panda‟s article “Why Did China Set Up an
Oil Rig Within Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by four various
translators” for her thesis.
2. Aims of the study
In this research, an attempt will be made to review the quality of EnglishVietnamese versions in terms of conveying the intention of the author, and then
recommend some criteria for better translation of political articles.
3. Scope of the study
The chosen English article “Why Did China Set Up an Oil Rig Within
Vietnamese Waters? Why now and why Vietnam?” by Ankit Panda on “The
Diplomat” consists of nine paragraphs in total.
In the limitation of a thesis, the author only selects some representative
examples to analyze the intention of the author expressed in the original in
translations with a clear study framework - Newmark‟s TQA model.
Four respective translated versions are also selected including:
 1st version: “Vì sao Trung Quốc thiết lập giàn khoan trong vùng biển Việt

Nam? Vì sao là lúc này và vì sao Việt Nam?” by Đàm Hà Khánh on
;
 2nd version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc đưa giàn khoan vào vùng biển Việt Nam?
Tại sao lại vào lúc này, và tại sao lại là Việt Nam?” by Vũ Thị Phương Anh on
;
 3rd version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc đặt giàn khoan vào vùng biển Việt Nam?
Tại sao lại vào thời điểm này và tại sao lại là Việt Nam?” by C.K on
;

4


 4th version: “Tại sao Trung Quốc lại triển khai giàn khoan trong vùng biển
Việt Nam? Tại sao diễn ra vào thời điểm này và tại sao mục tiêu lại là Việt
Nam?” by Văn Cường on .
These sources are available on the Internet and main websites to share
information as well as propaganda on islands and waters of Vietnam.
4. Significance of the study
- Theoretical aspect: This research helps readers have a general overview of
translation theory meanwhile they can know how to apply TQA model by Newmark
in evaluating translated versions.
- Practical aspect: Factually, this study is somehow useful for translators and
translation critics in translating materials from English into Vietnamese in general;
whereas it also gives some tips for them to handle problems arising during
translation process, especially issues related to sensitive political contents.
Moreover, it is also hoped that the results of this study will contribute to assessing
the translation of press works based on a specific model.
5. Research methodology
5.1. Research questions
In the research, the author focuses on 2 following research questions:

 Question 1: To what extent do the translations convey the intention of the author?
 Question 2: What are the recommendations for the translation of political
articles?
5.2. Research approach
During evaluation process, Contrastive Analysis approach will be applied to
compare and assess translated versions against the original one.
5.3. Research method
Firstly, the original text will be read thoroughly and comprehensively based
on Newmark‟s reading procedures. After that, the source text will be compared to
its respective translations.

5


5.4. Data analysis
The author evaluates the Vietnamese translated versions based on the 5-step
model of Peter Newmark:
 Step 1: A brief analysis of the SL text stressing its intention and its
functional aspects
 Step 2: The translator‟s interpretation of the SL text‟s purpose, his
translation method and the translation‟s likely readership
 Step 3: A selective but representative detailed comparison of the
translation with the original
 Step 4: An evaluation of the translation: (a) in the translator‟s terms,
(b) in the critic‟s terms, (c) assess the translation as a piece of writing,
independently of its original.
 Step 5: Where appropriate, an assessment of the likely place of the
translation in the target language culture or discipline.
6. Design of the thesis
The thesis is divided into 3 main parts.

 Part A: Introduction (This part provides readers an overview of the
thesis including the rationale for the study, the aims, the scope, the
methodology, and the organization of the study)
 Part B: Development (This part consists of 2 chapters).
Chapter 1: Literature review
This part discusses the theoretical background knowledge related to
translation including definition, translation methods, translation procedures,
translation equivalence, translation assessment, and contrastive analysis. Then the
author reviews previous related studies, explains clearly the reason why she has
decided to choose TQA of Peter Newmark and contrastive analysis approach to
assess versions.
Chapter 2: Application of Newmark’s model for TQA

6


This is the main part of the study. In this chapter, the author applies
comparison and analysis between original texts and translation versions, and
discusses about five-step TQA model by Newmark mentioned above to assess
Vietnamese versions.
 Part III: Conclusion
This part will summarize the main ideas and findings of the study. Then,
some conclusion will be drawn.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Translation theory

1.1.1. Translation definition
“Since human beings speak different tongues, translation exists.” (Steiner,
1975: 51). The activity of translation has a long-standing tradition and has been
widely developed throughout the history. In our rapidly changing world with
widening cultural exchanges, its role has become of paramount importance.
Undoubtedly, the twentieth century has been called “the age of translation”
(Jumpelt, 1961).
However, it is not easy to find out a general definition of the translation.
Until now, about 200 various concepts can be mentioned. They are different angles,
from the general to the more specialized. In the limit of this thesis, the author only
mentions some key opinions to help readers have some general overview about the
real nature of translation and related knowledge.
Originally, translation comes from “translation” or “traduce” in Latin,
meaning “to carry across” or “to lead across”. Translation is like the bridge to
give instructions and connect. In fact, it is a process of transformation of terms and
meanings from one language into another language, from the original language, the
source language to the target language. So, it can be understood that translation is
encryption of meaning and form of the target language through deciphering the
meaning and form of the source language.
As Hatim and Munday (2004) pointed out in a similar definition, translation
can be analyzed from two different perspectives: that of a „process‟, which refers to
the activity of turning a ST into a TT in another language, and that of a „product‟,
i.e. a translated text.
Catford described it in these terms: “Translation is the replacement of
textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in other

8


language (TL).” (Catford, 1965:20) Apparently, he was much concerned about

maintaining a kind of “equivalence” between the ST and the TT.
Sharing the same point, Hartman & Stock (1972) considered translation to be
the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of
another equivalent in a second language.
One of the rather detailed definitions with the most remarkableness was
proposed by Peter Newmark (1988: 7). In his opinion, translation is “a craft” that
attempts to replace a message in a written form by the “same” message in another
message.
Shuttleworth and Cowie (1997) see that translation is a very broad notion
which opens the way to be understood in various ways. This broad notion enables
one to talk about translation as process and a product. In addition, one can recognize
sub-types of translations such as literary translation, technical translation, subtitling
and machine translation.
Clearly, no matter how diverse these definitions can be, they all share the
same feature which emphasizes the importance of finding the closet equivalence in
meaning by the choice of appropriate target language‟s lexical and grammatical
structures, communication situation, and cultural context.
1.1.2. Translation methods & procedures
According to Lê Hùng Tiến (2006), to be successful in evaluating the
translation quality, the critic must have the knowledge of basic matters of
translation theory such as the nature, procedures, methods and equivalence of
translation. In order to translate a text from a SL into a TL, the translator must use
some certain methods and procedures, sometimes a combination of them. While
translation methods relate to the whole text, translation procedures are used for
sentences and the smaller units of language.
1.1.2.1. Translation methods
The eight different translation methods suggested by Newmark can be shown
through the following diagram:

9

SL emphasis

TL emphasis

Word-for-word translation

Adaptation

Literal translation

Free translation

Faithful translation

Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Diagram 1: Translation methods
(Newmark, 1988: 45)
From the diagram, it is clear that the relationship of each method with the SL
and the TL is different. The position of each method (higher to lower in comparison
with the SL or the TL) reflects not only the distance with the SL and the TL but also
the features of the translation product created by a respective method: whether it is
more alike to the SL or the TL (Lê Hùng Tiến, 2006). For example, word-for-word
translation method creates the product characterizing the most features of the SL
and adaptation give birth to a translation version which is the most alike to the TL.
Each method can be explained briefly, as follows:

 Word-for-word translation: The SL word-order is preserved and words
translated singly by their most common meaning, out of context.
 Literal translation: The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their
nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are translated singly, out of context.
 Faithful translation: It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual
meaning of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures.
 Semantic translation: It takes more account of the aesthetic value of the SL
text than faithful translation, compromising on „meaning‟ where appropriate so

10


that assonance, word-lay or repetition jars in the finished version. Therefore, it is
more flexible, allows for the translator‟s intuitive empathy with the original.
 Adaptation: The themes, characters, plots are preserved, and the SL culture
is converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
 Free translation: It is usually a paraphrase much longer than the original, a
so-called „Intralingual translation‟, often prolix and pretentious, and not
translation at all.
 Idiomatic translation: It reproduces the „message‟ of the original but tends
to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where
these do not exist in the original.
 Communicative translation: It attempts to render the exact contextual
meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily
acceptable and comprehensible to the readership.
(Newmark, 1988: 45)
Among these methods, Newmark put emphasis on only two methods,
semantic and communicative translation. In his opinion, they are appropriate to any
text. Semantic translation focuses on primarily upon the semantic content of the
source text, whereas communicative translation focuses essentially upon the

comprehension and response of the receptors.
Some translation researchers and theorists say that how Newmark classifies
translation methods is too complicated and theoretical and not practical. However,
others support Newmark‟s own translation methods. In fact, application of
translation methods is required to be flexible. Translators can apply Newmark‟s
translation methods and others creatively during translation process of texts in
general and terms in particular effectively.
1.1.2.2. Translation procedures
In terms of translation procedures, there still exist some controversial about
what name to call this category. Some authors use the term “procedure” while some
others prefer the term “techniques” or “strategies”. Whatever it is called, we can

11


understand them as methods applied by translators when they formulate equivalence
for the purpose of transferring elements of meaning from ST to the TT.
In this thesis, the author would like to use the term “procedure” suggested by
Newmark in 1988. In fact, different authors have different classifications of
translation procedures. However, in fact, the terms used in their classifications
sometimes overlap. Therefore, here the writer just wants to mention 14 translation
procedures proposed by Newmark in his book “A textbook of translation” (1995).
They include:
 Transference: It is the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text. It
includes transliteration and it is somewhere called "transcription."
 Naturalization: It adapts the SL word first to the normal pronunciation, then
to the normal morphology of the TL.
 Cultural equivalent: It means replacing a cultural word in the SL with a TL
one. however, "they are not accurate"
 Functional equivalent: It requires the use of a culture-neutral word.

 Descriptive equivalent: In this procedure the meaning of the SLT is
explained in several words.
 Componential analysis: It means "comparing an SL word with a TL word
which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one equivalent, by
demonstrating first their common and then their differing sense components."
 Synonymy: It is a "near TL equivalent." Here economy trumps accuracy.
 Through-translation: It is the literal translation of common collocations,
names of organizations and components of compounds. It can also be called:
calque or loan translation.
 Shifts or transpositions: It involves a change in the grammar from SL to
TL, for instance, (i) change from singular to plural, (ii) the change required
when a specific SL structure does not exist in the TL, (iii) change of an SL verb
to a TL word, change of an SL noun group to a TL noun and so forth.

12


 Modulation: It occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the
original text in the TL text in conformity with the current norms of the TL, since
the SL and the TL may appear dissimilar in terms of perspective.
 Recognized translation: It occurs when the translator "normally uses the
official or the generally accepted translation of any institutional term."
 Compensation: It occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is
compensated in another part.
 Paraphrase: In this procedure the meaning of the CBT is explained. Here
the explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent.
 Couplets: It occurs when the translator combines two different procedures.
(Newmark, 1995)
In general, the translation procedures are useful to the translator. As can be
seen, in this classification, each procedure is distinguished quite clearly from each

other. However, in the real situation of translating a text, the translator may apply
them flexibly by combining two, three or four procedures (couplets, triplets,
quadruplets) to deal with a single problem.
1.1.3. Translation equivalence
1.1.3.1. Definition
Translation equivalence is the fundamental concept of translation theory and
also the main criterion in assessing the quality of a translation. A translation is
generally said to be „good‟ if it can maintain a certain degree of equivalence to the
ST. Nevertheless, the concept remains controversial and opinions vary radically as
to its exact meaning.
Basically, „equivalence‟ is a term used by many writers to describe the nature
and the extent of the relationships which exist between SL and TL texts.
(Shuttleworth & Cowie, 1997: 49).
Newmark (1995: 48) states: “The overriding purpose of any translation
should be to achieve „equivalent effect‟, i.e. to produce the same effect (or one as
close as possible) on the readership of translation as was obtained on the

13


readership of the original”. ”. He also sees the equivalence effect as the desirable
result rather than the aim of any translation except for two cases: (a) If the purpose
of the SL text is to affect and the TL translation is to inform or vice versa; (b) If
there is a pronounced cultural gap between the SL and the TL text.
Baker has another way to define this term by pointing out three levels of
translation equivalence basing on the linguistic forms, that is, equivalence at word
level, sentence level and text level. To be more concrete, she explores the notion of
non-equivalence at different levels and in relation to the translation process,
including non-equivalence at word level, non-equivalence above word level,
grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence and pragmatic equivalence.

As can be seen, translation equivalence is still a complex and controversial
concept. In order to have better understanding of this term, it is necessary to have a
look at how translation equivalence is classified into different types.
1.1.3.2 Types of translation equivalence
Similar to the case of the notion of “translation equivalence”, until now,
there are various ways to classify translation equivalence based on different factors.
In “Lý thuyết và thực tiễn dịch thuật Anh-Việt: Một số vấn đề về lý luận và phương
pháp cơ bản”, four common ways of classifying translation equivalence can be
identified, as follows:
 Form-based equivalence: equivalence at word, sentence, or text level.
 Meaning-based equivalence: denotative, connotative, pragmatic, formal
equivalence.
 Function-based equivalence: dynamic equivalence, formal equivalence.
 Quantitative equivalence: one-to-one equivalence, one-to-many equivalence,
one-to-part-of-one equivalence, nil equivalence.
Basing on a quantitative approach (quantity-based), Munday (2001) suggests
five types of translation equivalence: One-to-one equivalence, one-to-many
equivalence,

many-to-one

equivalence,

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one-to-part-of-one

equivalence,

nil

equivalence. From this categorization, it is noticeable that Munday mainly focused
on the quantity of equivalence rather than meaning equivalence.
Baker (1992) who is in favor of form-based equivalence classifies translation
equivalence into equivalence at the word level (number, gender, tense) and above
word level and textual equivalence (equivalence between a SL text and a TL text in
terms of information and cohesion).
On the contrary, Nida (1964), who supports function-based equivalence,
distinguishes formal equivalence and dynamic translation as basic orientations.
According to him, formal equivalence is achieved when the SL and TL words have
the closest possible match of form and content and dynamic equivalence is achieved
when the SL and TL words have the same effect on their effective readers. In his
opinion, a translation is successful if it can achieve an equivalent response in the
two languages, which means dynamic equivalence is the goal of translation. To be
„good‟, a translation must meet these four basic requirements:


making sense



conveying the spirit and manner of the original



having a natural and easy form of expression



producing a similar response

o Each author has his own reasons for classifying different types of
translation equivalence. However, with respect to three basic factors in
translating: the nature of the message, the purpose of the author and the
translator and the type of audience, the kind of equivalence by Koller (1979) can
be considered a satisfactory approach. He classified equivalence in translation
into five categories as follows:
 Denotative equivalence: the SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in
the real world.
 Connotative equivalence: In addition to denotative value, source and target
language words should also produce the same communicative values in the
mind of native speakers of the two languages.

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 Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the
same or similar context in their respective languages.
 Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words
have the same effect on their respective readers.
 Formal equivalence: In this type of equivalence, source and target language
have the same formal aesthetic features, orthographic or phonological features.
For Newmark, despite sharing similar ideas of translation equivalence with
Nida, he uses „semantic translation‟ and „communicative translation‟ for „formal
equivalence‟ and „dynamic equivalence‟ respectively. Communicative translation
aims at producing “the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of
the translation as was obtained on the readership of the original”. Semantic
translation, on the other hand, attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of
the original.

In brief, this classification can be used as basic criteria to assess the
equivalence of the translated version in comparison with the original. As mentioned
above, translation equivalence is a very important and difficult aspect. Translation
means to find equivalence between two languages. The translator has to find and
choose appropriate TL equivalents to SL words.
1.1.4. Translation assessment
1.1.4.1. Definition
In fact, this term has many other alternative names such as “Translation
quality assessment” as in the study of Malcolm Williams (2009), or “Translation
criticism” in the book “A textbook of translation” by Newmark (1995) or
“Translation evaluation” by Julianne House.
According to Hatim and Mason, “The assessment of translator performance
is an activity which, despite being widespread, is under-researched and underdiscussed” (Hatim and Mason 1997:199, cited in Williams, 2001). From this
definition, it can be seen that Hatim and Mason have not given a concrete definition
of “translation assessment” but mainly emphasize the fact of assessing translation

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