Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the secondyear English major at Dong Thap University translation subject by the secondyear English major at Dong Thap University

THUONGMAI UNIVE
ENGLISH DEPARTM
------

GRADUATION P

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS OF TRANSLATING COMPLEX SENTENCES IN ENGLISH ECONOMIC NEW

Hanoi, 2020

HÀ NỘI - 2015

1

ABSTRACT

Translation is a new subject for the students of English majors at Thuongmai
University. There are two forms of translation: written translation and spoken
translation. Written translation is taught for the students of English faculty from the
beginning of the third year. Because translation is still new and strange for their first
time learning, most of the English major students still have difficulties in learning
this kind of subject. This study was conducted to find out the students’ difficulties in
translating complex sentences in English Economic newspapers as well as their
expectations when they begin to learn written translation to make suggestions that

can partly help them overcome these obstacles in studying this course. Besides that,
the study also aims at making some suggestions as a useful reference helping adjust
the learning method to get a better result in the learning process. The research
methods used in this study are the questionnaire- a list of questions to find out the
difficulties that students usually face.
We hope that this research can help the translators to have many experiences
and knowledge.
Thank you for reading this research.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To complete this study, besides our effort, we have also received a lot of
support from many people. We would like to express my sincere thanks to all those
people who are always willing to help us during the time of conducting this study.
First of all, we would like to express my greatest appreciation to our first
supervisor Nguyen Thuy Linh MA, for her patience in providing continuous
guidance, suggestions, and supports during our consultations for this study. She
always encouraged us and gave us a lot of advice and experiences to make our study
more perfect. But for her help, we certainly have difficulties in completing this
study.
Secondly, I would like to thank all the teachers of the English Faculty who

helped us to improve our skills in translation. Thanks to their teaching, we gain a lot
of knowledge of translation and other fields.
Last but not least, I express highly appreciation of our friends in English
faculty for helping us complete our research. We hope that our study will be useful
for anyone reading this study.
Hanoi, April 2020
Student
Pham Thi Thuy Hang

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

4


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

5


LIST OF ABBREVIATION

TL
SL

6

Target language
Source language


CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1.

Rationale
No one can deny the importance of language in the process of conveying
information. And language plays an indispensable role in people’s life and social
development, especially English. English can be seen as the second language that all
people around the world can use to exchange ideas with each other in order to meet the
demand of the global standards in today’s world. The role of English is more and more
asserted in the booming age of information and technology. Today, when every country
from the world overcomes the consequences of the economic crisis and has a problem
with a large amount of unemployment, every person needs to push his career award.
Its knowledge can get one’s dream job in any international company, earn more
money, and so on.

However, just knowing English is not enough. Sometimes, a person who can
speak, listen and read English does not mean he or she understands it carefully. One
more problem that we have to face here is the necessity of translating skills. When
Vietnam has entered the integration period, it has more and more requirements for
Vietnamese people especially students to have expert translation skills. Nowadays,
more and more contracts, emails, or newspapers are in English, so it is necessary to
master translation to translate documents exactly in order to avoid regrettable
misunderstanding.
As learners, the researchers assume that all learners who begin to study written
translation will meet many difficulties, there is no exception for students majoring in
Thuongmai University, especially, when students have faced English Economic
newspapers which have many complex sentences. This is the reason we carry out this

research with the hope that the study will be a useful reference helping improve
translation skills as well as handle the students’ difficulties when translating complex

1.2.

sentences in English Economic newspapers to get the best result.
Previous studies
About “difficulties of translation of learners”, I found many research. Firstly, it is
“Common mistakes in learning translation subject by the second-year English
major at Dong Thap University” of Duong Thi Thuy Hang and Nguyen Thi Cam
Xuyen. The thesis was divided into four main chapters. The literature review was on
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basis concepts such as translation, the importance of translation, the factors
influencing translation process and common errors in Vietnamese – English
translation. The research methods included research questions, research participants,
research procedures and data collection instruments. Chapter three had identified and
analyzed the collected results and found the causes of those errors. Chapter four gave
some suggestions to help learners avoid those errors. The translation was a
complicated process, it was suggested that the students had to focus on their ways of
self-study and applying the strategies for translation as much as possible so that they
would find their suitable ways for learning translation effectively.
The study showed that “It will be easier and smoother in their VietnameseEnglish translating if the students take the time to study carefully the source language

text, to write an analysis of it and then to look for the equivalent way in which the
same message is expressed naturally in the receptor language.” This study indicated
that the major of students have common mistakes in learning translation subject.
The next study is “English majored students’ difficulties and expectations in
learning written translation at Dong Thap University”, written by Nguyen Thi Hong
Tham, Bui Thi Huyen Tran. This research showed the importance of translation. For
those reasons, the translator plays an important role as a bilingual or multi-lingual
cross-cultural transmitter of culture and idea by attempting to transfer the text as
faithfully and accurately as possible.
This research had types of translation, strategies, some useful techniques, the
factors influencing the translation process and common errors in written translation.
Its methodology included research questions, research participants, data

collection instruments and research procedures. Then, the researchers were able to
obtain a general view of the virtual situation and give possible suggestions to help the
students of English major when learning translation. In conclusion, this study showed
the major students have difficulties and expectations in learning written translation at
Dong Thap University.
Lastly, it is “Unnaturalness in English- Vietnamese translation: causes and cures”
of Le Phuong Lan. This study defined unnaturalness in translation, classification of
mistakes that caused unnaturalness. Two aspects caused unnaturalness, including
linguistic and cultural. The linguistic aspect had word level, phrase level, sentence
level and linguistic untranslatability. The cultural aspect had the translation of idioms
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and fixed expressions, translation of implications and classic references, cultural
untranslatability. The research showed the causes of unnaturalness translation and gave
translation techniques to avoid unnaturalness. From this research, the readers in
general and the translators, in particular, had an overview of the contemporary
situation of Vietnamese translated works, its strengths and limitations, and how to
improve it. More importantly, this study focuses unnaturalness of causes and how to
improve it.
Research topic on issues “complex sentences” have been studied by many
different researchers around the world. Firstly, it is “To Translate and Adapt a text with
Long Sentences With Focus on Readability”, written by Anna Nyqvist. This study was
to analyze how an academic text with long sentences can be adapted for a larger target

reader group, when translating from English to Swedish through aspects: sentence
structure, noun phrases, connectors. This study used 5 complex sentences in the source
text, one sentence has become two in the target text. The corresponding sentences from
the target text were analyzed and discussed based on these aspects. To sum up, the aim
of this paper was first, to translate and adapt a text with long sentences for new readers
and make it more readable, and second, to analyse the strategies used to do this.
Secondly, Juan Zou was at Hubei University, Wuhan, China with the study “On
the Translation of Long and Complex English Sentences”. This study was on the
translation of Long and complex sentences from English into Chinese.
There were several points. The definition of long and complex sentences mainly
refers to three kinds of compounds; paralleling long sentence, which consists of two or
more clauses with complete sentence structure and without affiliation; compound long

sentence, which comprises a principal clause and some other sub-clauses like noun
clauses, attributive clauses, adverbial clause, etc; and paralleling and compound long
sentence, which as the name implies, the most complicated with the features of the
previous two types of long sentences.
The feature of long complex English sentences which includes many clauses,
intricate grammar structure, and numerous prepositional phrases. Reason analysis on
the difficulties of long complex English sentences which proceeding from cultural
factors, different language family, and different language style. Specifically, they had
taken a concrete look at the contents of language disparity, covering from words
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translation, translation unit, sentence order, and translation of linking words. Also, we
took a touch on the two different language structures, like the seven sentence structure
pattern, Chinese grammar theory. Besides, some knowledge about translation theory is
dispensable. By and large, this research showed that some difficulties in translating
long and complex senctences and some methods to translate it.
Another study is “Logical and linguistic strategies for translating complex
sentences in literary texts of natural languages”, done by Tatiana V. Emets, Iuliia V.
Baryshnikova,

Alexey Yu.

Trutnev,

Elena

V.

Suvorova,

and

Tatiana

L.

Akhmetzyanova. This research was a more holistic view of inferences in German and
Russian both as a logical category and in a logical-linguistic aspect of complex
sentences. The researchers analyzed the material of German language at the logical
level and the linguistic level and provided three models for constructing complex
sentences. This study was logical and linguistic strategies for translating from German
to Russian.
Complex sentences, representing inferences, were left translated by the
translators or were translated arbitrarily. This happens if: the original sentence
expressing an inference was not translated completely, that was, either a minor premise
(a conditional clause) or a conclusion (a principal clause) was eliminated during
translation, therefore one judgment corresponds to the German inference in Russian; or

while retaining the general meaning of the statement in the translated equivalent, the
semantic causative-consecutive dependence that characterized the original text was
lost.
Complex sentences, serving to express inferences in the German language, were
most susceptible to change in the translation process at the syntactic level: a wide
variety of complex syntactic constructions of the Russian language correspond to the
German complex sentence. The possibility to transform complex sentences during
translation was primarily explained by the synonymy of these constructions, which
were considered as linguistic variants that serve to express one logical-semantic
invariant, that was, the causative-consecutive relations that underlie inferences. The
use of various syntactic constructions in translation was permissible if a change in the
syntactic structure did not lead to a change in semantics. But in most instances, the

syntactic form of the original text was retained.
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Thus, in this article, a logical and linguistic analysis of complex sentences with
subordinate conditional clauses in the natural language was carried out: one of the
many problems of the relationship between language and thinking was investigated,
namely, the expression of logical inferences by means of the German and Russian
languages.
Moreover, “A Study of the Mastery of Complex Sentences of Pre-Service
English Teachers” was written by Adaninggar Septi Subekti at Duta Wacana Christian
University. This study reported research conducted to find out the mastery of complex

sentences of students of Writing 5 of an English Education Program in Indonesia.
Complex sentences can contain a finite and non-finite dependent clause
(Radfod,1990). Radfod (1990), furthermore, stated that the distinction between finite
and non-finite clauses is partly on morphological criteria, the forms of verbs. A clause
is finite if it contains a finite verb, showing tense distinction between “past” and
“present”, and being associated with a particular subject. In comparison, a clause is
said to be non-finite if it lacks a finite verb. Non-finite clauses remain constant in form
whatever the context and they cannot carry finite Tense /Agreement inflections such as
present or past tense (Eastwood,2002). And there were three types of non-finite verb
forms in English: Infinitive forms, Gerund forms, Participle forms.
More specifically about dependent clauses of complex sentences, Quirk

&

Greenbaum (1985) divided them into three broad categories, namely noun clause,
adjective clause, and an adverb clause.
Complex sentences becoming the focus of this study were those having one
independent clause, and at least one dependent clause, which can be in the form of
finite or non-finite noun clause, adjective clause, adverb clause, and multiples clause
structures.
From the results of this study, some important points can be summarised. First, it
was found that among four types of sentences, complex sentences were the most
written sentences in students‟ research reports. Complex sentences type four,
containing multiple clause structures, became the most frequently written complex

sentences compared to the three basic types of complex sentences. Students’ mastery
on complex sentences type one, type two, and type three could be considered
sufficient.
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The next study is The Complex Sentence in Legal English: A Study of Law
Reports of John Franklin Wiredu at the University of Ghana, Legon. According to this
study, the complex sentence was an overwhelming choice in the law reports. First, this
type of sentence allowed for the pile-up information. Secondly, it allowed for
information ranking.
This law reports used many complex sentences that have one or more dependent

clauses. In support of this observation, the dependent clause was distributed in varying
numbers in the sentences such as sentence with 1 dependent clause, sentence with 2
dependent clause, …
Different types of dependent clauses were relative clause, “that” nominal clause,
participial clause, infinitival clause, adverbial clause, interrogative clause and the most
frequently occurring clause types were the relative and nominal. Legal language was
characterised by the pursuit of precision, clarity and all-inclusiveness. This had
necessitated the types of dependent clause, it was believed they could carry the heavy
information load in the law reports. The complex sentences had the high volumes of
information in a sentence and present the ideas in as precise and concise a manner as
possible.
In conclusion, this study focuses translating complex sentences in Law reports

and reiterating the point that legal language.
Finally, it is the research “Indonesian Students’ Writing Proficiency and Their
Ability in Using Complex Sentences” of Bambang Yudi Cahyono, Nur Mukminatien
at Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia and Rosyi Amrina at Universitas Lambung
Mangkurat, Indonesia. This study investigated EFL students’ proficiency in writing,
their ability in using complex sentences, and how these two variables are related. This
study involved 54 students who took the Argumentative Writing course in the English
Department curriculum of Universitas Negeri Malang, one of the well-known
universities in Indonesia, having a reputable ELT Study Program.
This study had revealed that complex sentences had an important role in
contributing to the quality of EFL students’ essays. Although the EFL students had
used various types of sentences in their essays, the use of complex sentences was more

dominant than the other types of sentences. This indicated that the students had

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developed their writing ability in their stage of taking Argumentative Writing as the
most advanced in the series of three writing courses.
Therefore, teachers of EFL writing were recommended to remind the students of
the function of the structure of coordinating and embedded statements in constructing
complex sentences. The attempt to raise the students’ awareness of the importance of
complex sentences could be done through explicit teaching (for the whole students in
the class) or through teacher feedback individually (for those who have problems in

constructing the grammatical patterns). Along with the proper use of other components
(content, organization, vocabulary, and mechanism), the accurate use of complex
sentences will contribute to their remarkable development in writing proficiency,
which is the ultimate goal of the teaching of EFL writing. Thus, this research indicated
that Writing Proficiency and The Ability of Indonesia students in Using Complex

-

Sentences
Aim of study
This aim of the study includes:
Researching the difficulties of translating complex sentences in English Economic

-

newspapers of the 3rd-year-student of Faculty of English at Thuong Mai University
Finding out the causes of those difficulties of translating complex sentences in English

1.3.

Economic newspapers of the 3rd-year-student of the Faculty of English at Thuong Mai
-

University

Giving suggestions to improve the quality of translating complex sentences in English
Economic newspapers of the 3rd-year-student of the Faculty of English at Thuong Mai

1.4.

University.
Subject and scope of study
There are two forms of translation: written translation and spoken translation. At
Thuongmai University, written translation is taught for the students of English faculty
from the beginning of the third year. This study was conducted to find out the students’
difficulties as well as their expectations when translating complex sentences in English
Economic newspapers in order to make suggestions that can help them overcome these

obstacles in this course.
Due to the large number of English major students as well as the limitation of
time and my knowledge, this study limited only fifty participants of the 3rd-yearstudent in the 53rd course, Faculty of English to survey from March to April, 2020.
These participants were learning written translation and disclosing the attitude as well
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as the expectation of participants toward this topic, to find out difficulties and
1.5.

suggestions to reduce those difficulties.
Research methodology

In this research, there are some methods used for this research: qualitative
method, comparative method and analytical method.
The qualitative method is suitable for this research because this is new research
and undefined. This research needs to study the meaning, the causes rather than the
frequency.
After that, there are two smaller methods: primary data collection method and
secondary comparative method.
• Primary data collection method:
• Observation method: All complex sentences in English Economic newspapers.
• Questionnaires: collecting information through questionnaires. There are some
questions to understand clearly about participants such as their level, skill, and
knowledge, …

Survey questionnaire is a method of data collection which has done to surveyed
students. Questionnaires consist of multiple choice questions and closed-ended and
opened-ended questions for answering. They are more convenient, take less time,
cheap and easy for students to answer. Moreover, questionnaires are considered as a
more reliable way as they are anonymous and this encourages greater honesty. They
concurrently help to look for necessary information for the study as well as gives
useful solutions. In this research, survey questionnaire has 10 questions answered by
50 third-year students at Thuongmai University. The question 1 aims at finding out the
students’ attitude toward translation subject in general. Question 2,3 are frequency of
reading English Economic newspapers. From question 4 to question 6, there are 3
English complex sentences which you must translate them into Vietnamese. Question
7 and 8 find out the real difficulties in translating complex sentences from English to

Vietnamese. And the last sentences are the ways to improve their translation skill in
the future.
After collecting the data and conducting a comparison, there is an analytical
method used to find out difficulties that students often have when translating complex
sentences in English Economic newspapers. Then this research gives solutions to help
them translate many documents well.
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The combination of the above methods aims to find difficulties and suggestions
when translating complex sentences in English Economic newspapers. The study
becomes clearer and more cohesive.

Organization of study
The study falls into four parts in which the second and three are more important,

1.6.

-

that is:
Chapter 1: Introduction, writes about the rationale, previous study, aims, subject,

-

scope, methods and organization of the study.
Chapter 2: Readers are going to approach the issue from the theoretical background.
They are translation, translation methods, affecting factors to translation, complex

-

sentences, types of complex sentences.
Chapter 3: research findings: The researcher studied the difficulties in translating

-

complex sentences.

Chapter 4: recommendations and suggestions.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Overview of translation
2.1.1. Definition of translation
Translation has been variously defined. The following definitions have been
selected.
Firstly, numerous linguistic scholars concentrate on finding the equivalence
between the source language and target language. According to Wilss (1982),
“Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the transformation of written source
language text into an optimally equivalent target-language text, and which requires the
syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of

the source language”. Bell.R. (1991) gives the same point when saying “Translation is
the expression in another language (target language) of what has been expressed in one
language (source language), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences.” He also
added that “Translation is the replacement of a presentation of a text in one language
by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language.”
Besides, based on Culture and Context theories (by Peter Newmark 1982 [49,
p.25],) concentrate on culture and context during the translation process. He defines
“Translation is a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or
15


statement in one language by the same message of textual material in one language

into another language in the way that the author intended the text.”
On the other hand, it can be said simply that “Translation is the process of
changing something that is written or spoken in another language”. (Advanced Oxford
dictionary)
Researching the concept of translation, the different schools of translation, the
difference in definitions helps learners to better understand translation, approach
translation from different perspectives, both in-depth and width and achieve a good
result when beginning to learn the translation.
All definitions make it clearer about the actual translation. However, in order to
translate closer to the reader, easy to understand, easy to absorb, I use the definition of
author Bui Tien Bao and Dang Xuan Thu (1997).
“Translation is rendering a written text into another language in a way that the

author intended the text.
Translators are concerned with the written word. They render written texts from
one language into another. Translators are required to undertake assignments which
range from simple items, such as birth certificates and driving license, to more
complex written material, such as articles in specialized professional journals, business
contracts and legal documents.”
2.1.2. Process of translating
There are two approaches to translating:
(1) You start translating sentence by sentence, for say the paragraph or chapter, to get the

feel and the feeling tone of the text, and then you deliberately sit back, review the
position, and read the rest of the source language text;

(2) You read the whole text two or three times, and find the intention register, tone, mark
the difficult words and passages and start translating only when you have taken your
bearings.
The key factor in selecting the approaches is the translator’s ability of
application. Whether you trust your intuition, you can choose the first method or you
trust your powers of analysis, you can choose the second one.

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The translating process begins with choosing a method of approach. Secondly,
when we are translating, we translate with four levels in mind: the source language

text level, the referential level, the cohesive level, and the level of naturalness.
2.1.2.1. The Textual Level

You transpose the source language grammar (clauses and groups) into their
“ready” target language equivalents and you translate the lexical units into a sense that
appears immediately appropriate in the context of the sentence. Your base level when
you translate is the text. This is the level of the literal translation of the source
language into the target language, the level of the translationese you have to eliminate,
but it also acts as the corrective of the paraphrase and the parer-down of synonyms. So
a part of your mind may be on the text level whilst another is elsewhere. Translation is
preeminently the occupation in which you have to be thinking of several things at the
same time.

2.1.2.2. The Referential Level

Whether a text is technical or literary or institutional, you have to make up your
mind summarily and continuously, what it is about, what it is in aid of, what the
writer’s peculiar slant on it is. For each sentence, when it is not clear, when there is an
ambiguity, when the writing is abstract or figurative, you have to ask yourself: What is
actually happening here? And Why? For what reason, on what purpose? Can you see it
in your mind? Can you visualize it? If you cannot, you have to “supplement” the
linguistic level, the text level with the referential level, the factual level with the
necessary additional information from this level of reality, the facts of the matter.
2.1.2.3. The Cohesive Level
This level follows both the structure and the moods of the text, the structure

through the connective words (conjunctions, enumeration, reiterations, definite article,
general words, referential synonyms, punctuation marks) linking the sentences, usually
proceeding from known information (theme) to new information (rheme).
The second factor in the cohesive level is mood moving between positive and
negative, emotive and neutral. For example, you have to spot the difference between
positive and neutral in, say, “passed away” and “died”, “appreciate” and “evaluate”,
between “I would welcome the opportunity of meeting you in person at a time which
is convenient for you” and “I would like to meet you in person at a time which is
convenient for you”.
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2.1.2.4. The Level of Naturalness

For the vast majority of texts, you have to ensure: (a) that your translation makes
sense, (b) that it reads naturally, that it is written in ordinary language, the common
grammar, idioms and words that meet that kind of the situation. Normally, you can
only do this by temporarily disengaging yourself from the source language text, by
reading your translation as though no original existed. You have to ask yourself:
Would you ever see this in The Times, The Economist, in a textbook…? Is it
common usage in that kind of writing? How frequent is it? Check and crosscheck
words and expressions in an up-to-date dictionary. Note any word you are
suspicious of.
2.1.3. Translation methods

According to Peter Newmark (1988), he said: “The central problem of translating
has always been whether to translate literally or freely”. However, whether translated
literally or freely, we also need specific translation methods for each text. Translation
methods play a key role in the whole translating process.
In “A textbook of Translation”, Peter Newmark gave 8 translation methods.
2.1.3.1. Word-for-word translation

This is often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with the target language
(TL) immediately below the SL words. The source language (SL) word order is
preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of
-

-

context.
The following are the characteristics of this approach:
+ The SL word order is preserved
+ The words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context.
This kind of translation used for:
+ Information about SL
+ Language learning (mechanics of the SL)
+ Pre-translation process of difficult text in order to gain a sense of meaning.
Ex:






You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. – Mae West

Bạn chỉ sống một lần duy nhất, nhưng nếu bạn làm đúng thì một lần là đủ.
Everything you can imagine is real. - Pablo Picasso
Mọi điều bạn có thể tưởng tượng được đều là thật.
Một nền kinh tế ổn định và phát triển trong những năm qua đã giúp chúng ta không
còn lỗi hẹn với các kiểu thời trang hiện đại và thành phố Hồ Chí Minh được đánh giá

là trung tâm sáng tạo thời trang của cả nước.
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 A stable and developed economy in recent years has helped us to keep pace with

modern modes. Ho Chi Minh city is estimated as the centre of creating fashion for a
whole country.
( Luyen dich Viet- Anh, Minh Thu- Nguyen Hoa)
2.1.3.2. Literal translation
The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents
but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.

- The following are the characteristics of this approach:
+ Lexical words are translated singly, and out of context.
Ex: He is a big liar.
 Anh ta là một kẻ nói dối lớn.
 When we look up at the night sky, the Milky Way appears beautifully.
 Khi chúng ta nhìn lên bầu trời đêm, con đường màu sữa xuất hiện thật đẹp.
- This kind of translation used for:
+ Pre-translation process to identify problems
+ Basic of poetry translation for a poet who does not understand SL
2.1.3.3. Faithful translation
It attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the
constraints of the TL grammatical structures.

The following are the characteristics of this approach:
+ Words are translated in context but uncompromising to SL
+ Transfer cultural words
+ Does not naturalize
+ Often read like a translation
Ex: He is as fast as a kangaroo.
 Anh ấy nhanh như một con kangaroo.
 My dad is as strong as Superman.
 Cha tôi khỏe như một siêu anh hùng vậy.
- This kind of translation used for:
+ Literary translation
+ Authoritative texts

+ Drafts
2.1.3.4. Semantic translation
Semantic translation takes more account of the aesthetic value (that is, the
-

-

beautiful and natural sound) of the SL text.
The following are the characteristics of this approach:
+ More flexible than faithful translation
+ Naturalize a bit while faithful is uncompromising (but in order to achieve the
aesthetic effect), for instance, it may translate cultural words with neutral or functional

items.
+ Great focus on aesthetic features of the source text (at expense of meaning if
necessary)
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+ Close rendering of metaphors, collocations, technical terms, slang,
colloquialisms, unusual syntactic structures and collocations, peculiarly used words,
-

neologism, badly written or inaccurate passages.
This kind of translation used for:

+ Texts that have high status, e.g., religious texts, legal texts, politicians’
speeches
+ Expressive texts, e.g., literature
Ex:

She has a sunny smile on her face.

 Cô ấy có gương mặt với nụ cười tỏa nắng.
 In a speech of President Obama during the visit to Vietnam, he said: “It’s clear from

this visit that both our peoples are eager for an even closer relationship, a deeper
relationship. And I was moved to see so many people lining the streets as we were

driving into town today. I bring greetings and friendship of the American people,
including some outstanding members of Congress who are joining me on this visit, and
so many Vietnamese Americans whose families bind us together and remind us of the
values that we share.”
[…] So, again, President Quang, thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for
our work together. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to visit with the Vietnamese
people. Maybe I will enjoy some cà phê sữa đá.[…]
 “Tôi thật xúc động thấy thật đông người dân đứng dọc hai bên đường vẫy chào chúng
tôi trên đường chúng tôi vào thành phố. Tôi mang tới đây lời chào thân ái và tình hữu
nghị của nhân dân Hoa Kỳ, và cả những lời chúc mừng Việt Nam của các vị nghị sĩ
Hoa Kỳ, một số nghị sĩ danh tiếng cũng đồng hành với tôi trong phái đoàn ngày hôm
nay. Có rất nhiều người Mỹ gốc Việt mà nguồn gốc gia đình họ chính là sợi dậy kết

nối chúng ta, đồng thời họ cũng là nhắc nhở chúng ta về một loạt các vấn đề.”
[…] Một lần nữa, tôi xin trân trọng cảm ơn chủ tịch Quang về sự hiếu khách, xin
cảm ơn những công việc phối hợp với chúng tôi, tôi mong chờ dịp được gặp gỡ người
dân Việt Nam, biết đâu tôi lại được cùng họ nhâm nhi ly Cà phê sữa đá.[…]
The brief presentation was only 10 minutes but full of information about what the
United States and Vietnam have done and will do in the future. Thereby, we see the
love of President Obama for our country and our people's affection for him.
2.1.3.5. Adaptable translation

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This is the “freest” form of translation.
This kind of translation used mainly for plays and poems.
Ex:
What feeling do I borrow?
Sometimes I am happy
Sometimes I am sad
I can feel my heart
Telling me I feel bad
First I’m up there
First I’m down here

I’m holding my fear
But it’s hard to hear
What I sing today
Is what I feel tomorrow?
I can hear my thoughts
“What I am to borrow
My feelings change
Nearly every minute
I can feel my heart
Still holding fear in it

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Cảm xúc nào tôi đang mượn
Có những lúc trong tôi là hạnh phúc
Có những lúc sầu muộn lại đong đầy
Trái tim tôi tâm sự với tôi đây:
Tôi thấy xấu, buồn đau và khổ ải!
Đang trên cao cảm thấy lòng thoải mái
Bỗng ngờ đâu phút chốc lại vơi đầy
Sợ hãi nào tôi đang giữ trong tay
Nó giẫy giụa quấy rầy cho tôi khổ
Tôi đang hát một bài ca nào đó
Lời nhạc này- cảm giác của ngày mai

Tôi đang nghe trí óc tôi tâm sự
Cảm giác nào cần phải mượn nữa đây
Dẫu biết rõ cảm xúc tựa gió mây
Luôn luân chuyển vô thường trong mỗi
phút
Tôi thương cảm trái tim tôi nhỏ dại
Nhịp đập nào thiếu vắng nỗi lo đây?
(dohop- dịch phỏng từ Tiếng Anh)


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Melody Angel 27 September 2004 (from “The Grant Piano”)
In addition to the poem of M.Angel, there is also a poem that had a great
translation. Here are a few verses from this poem, called “My love is like to ice”,
written by Edmund Spenser. It is translated in Vietnamese: “Mãnh lực tình yêu”,
written by Hoang Nguyen Chuong.
“My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more I her entreat?”
 “Tôi hóa lửa trước người yêu băng giá

Nàng lạnh lùng tôi chẳng hiểu vì sao
Băng không tan trước cuồng nhiệt khao khát
Tình khó chớm lẽ đâu tôi cầu khẩn?”
2.1.3.6. Free translation
Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the context
without the form of the original.
Free translation usually is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a socalled “intra-lingual translation”, no translation at all.
Ex: Business is business.
 Công việc là công việc, tình cảm là tình cảm, không thể lẫn lộn được.
 Wait and see.
 Thời gian sẽ trả lời tất cả.
2.1.3.7. Idiomatic translation

It reproduces the “message” of the original but tends to distort nuances of
meaning by referring colloquialism and idioms where there do not exist in the
original.
Ex: “He is just like his father.”
This sentence can be translated:
“Hai cha con giống nhau như đúc.” Or “Cha nào con nấy.” (Neutral emotion)
“Con nhà tông không giống lông cũng giống cánh.” (Positive- Compliment)
“Rau nào sâu đấy.” (Negative- damn)
2.1.3.8. Communicative
Communicative attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the
original in such a way that both content and languages are readily acceptable and
-

comprehensible to the readership.
The following are the characteristics of this approach:
+ Be freer than semantic translation.
+ Give priority to the effectiveness of the message to be communicated
+ Focus on factors such as readability and naturalness
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+ Both the content and the language are easily acceptable and comprehensible
-

to the readers.
This kind of translation used for informative texts.
Ex: Surely the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken”, KFC will immediately
appear in your head. It is “It’s finger lickin’ good”, this phrase has become the
company’s slogan, the trademark of the founder Harland Sanders, and is used by
the company in its campaigns. And it translated in Vietnamese: “Vị ngon trên từng
ngón tay”.
Or with Apple, a big well-known brand of America, Apple has many different
slogans associated with certain products. The most famous and impressive during
the development of this company is the slogan “Think different”. It was created by
Steve Jobs, and became the foundation for Apple’s later development strategies. It
isn’t translated in Vietnamese: “Nghĩ khác đi” but translated as “Hãy khác biệt”. It

promotes the value of endless creativity, the importance of difference. Apple

products are unique, different from other brands.
 Note:
In “A textbook of translation”, Peter Newmark added further definitions of
translation methods. In which, these last two concepts are P. Newmark’s.
• Service translation: i.e. translation from one’s language of habitual use into another
language. The term is not widely used, but as the practice is necessary in most
countries, a term is required.
• Plain prose translation: The prose translation of poems and poetic drama initiated
by E.V. Rieu for Penguin Books.
• Information translation: This conveys all the information in a non-hierarchy text,

sometimes rearranged in a more logical form, sometimes partially summarized and
not in the form of a paraphrase.
• Cognitive translation: This reproduces the information in an SL re a converting the
SL grammar to its normal TL transpositions,
normally reducing any figurative to literal language.
• Academic translation: This type of translation, practiced in some British
universities, reduces an original SL text to an “elegant” idiomatic educated TL
version which follows a non-existent; literary register. It irons out the
expressiveness of a writer with modish colloquialisms.

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2.1.4. The factors influencing translation process
Based on research “English major students’ difficulties and expectations in
learning written translation at Dong Thap University” of Nguyen Thi Hong Tham,
Bui Thi Huyen Tran (2013), there are five factors which influenced translation
process.
2.1.4.1. Influence of the mother tongue
During the process of learning a foreign language, our mother tongue has a big
influence on our way of thinking and our use of the target language (word order,
word choice). Thanks to translation, we understand better the interference of the
mother tongue when learning a foreign language.
Ex: The following example is used to illustrate more about the differences

between word orders in Vietnamese and English:
Cô ấy là một giáo viên nổi tiếng. Tên của cô ấy là Hoa.
As we have seen in Vietnamese, an adjective or possessive adjective follows a
noun.
However, in English, an adjective precedes a noun and the same position for
the possessive adjective.
Vietnamese: N + adj/N + possessive Adj
English: Adj + N/ possessive Adj + N
 The above sentence is rewritten in English:

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