A study on the influence of linguistic and socio cultural factors on martha collins’ translation of black stars by ngô tự lập

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH MINH XUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF LINGUISTIC AND
SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS ON MARTHA COLLINS’
TRANSLATION OF “BLACK STARS” BY NGÔ TỰ LẬP
Nghiên cứu tác động của các nhân tố ngôn ngữ và văn hóa – xã hội đối với
bản dịch tiếng Anh tập thơ “Những vì sao đen” của Ngô Tự Lập do
Martha Collins thực hiện

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201

Hanoi – 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH MINH XUÂN

A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF LINGUISTIC AND
SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS ON MARTHA COLLINS’
TRANSLATION OF “BLACK STARS” BY NGÔ TỰ LẬP
Nghiên cứu tác động của các nhân tố ngôn ngữ và văn hóa – xã hội đối với
bản dịch tiếng Anh tập thơ “Những vì sao đen” của Ngô Tự Lập do
Martha Collins thực hiện

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

Hanoi – 2016


DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled "A study on the influence of linguistic and
socio-cultural factors on Martha Collins’ translation of “Black stars" by Ngô Tự Lập” is
my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at
Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies,
Vietnam National University - Hanoi.
Hanoi, 2016

Trịnh Minh Xuân

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The fulfillment of this thesis would not have been possible without the support,
assistance and encouragement of a number of people.
First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Huỳnh Anh
Tuấn, for his valuable guidance and advice throughout this study. His wholehearted support
has enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and tremendously contributes to
the accomplishment of this thesis.

My sincere thanks also go to Dr. Ngô Tự Lập, the author of the book under
investigation of this research, who helps me build up a solid theoretical background on
contemporary literary and poetry translation through many interviews. I am especially
grateful to his support throughout the research for the intense explanation on matters I met
on studying the book.
Furthermore, I am indebted to many of the teachers in Faculty of Post-Graduate
Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi for their useful lessons from which I developed a good research method and
generated meaningful ideas for my study.
Finally, I would like to show my profound gratitude to all members of my family
and all my colleagues with their endless support in various ways. Without their
encouragement, I would not have been able to accomplish the study.

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ABSTRACT
Literary translation, particularly poetic translation, plays an undeniably important
role in globalization process; however, how to produce good poetic translation involves
many factors in consideration. This thesis aims at discovering some factors affecting Ngô
Tự Lâp‘s ―Black Stars” translation by Martha Collins and the author. Due to the limit of
the study, this paper only focuses on linguistic and socio-cultural aspects that might have
led to the modifications in “Black Stars” translation. About 120 verses from 30 poems
collected from the book are categorized and analyzed in qualitative approach. The
researcher pointed out the modifications in the translated poems in English (in comparison
with the Vietnamese original version) on the linguistic facet then studied the underlying
factors influencing those modifications. The findings indicate that in order to have good
poetic translation, the translators have put many factors into consideration, among which
linguistic and socio-cultural factors were the most typical. In terms of linguistic group,
these factors include syntactic, lexical and stylistic factors; whereas, in terms of sociocultural group, they are factors relating to regional history, geography, living customs and
readers‘ perception.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration......................................................................................................................................... i
Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... ii
Abstract............................................................................................................................................. iii
Table of contents............................................................................................................................. iv
List of abbreviations..................................................................................................................... vii
PART A - INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale……………………………………………………………………….

1

2. Aims of the study………………………………………………………………

2

3. Research questions……………………………………………………………..

2

4.
Scope of the
study……………………………………………………………...3
5.

Methodology of the study………………………………………………………

6.

Organization of the study………………………………………………………

PART B - DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER1:LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………….
I. Definitions of translation………………………………………………………
II. Poetic translation………………………………………………………………
III. Translation modifications……………………………………………………..
III.1. Research of Vinay and Darbelnet………………………………………..
III.2. Research of Nida…………………………………………………………...
III.3. Research of Newmark…………………………………………………...…
IV. Linguistic and Socio-cultural factors affecting modifications in translation.…
IV.1. Linguistic elements…………………………………………………………
IV.1.1. Syntactic factors………………………………………………….
IV.1.2. Lexical factors.……………………………………………..
IV.1.3. Context factors……………………………………………………
IV.1.4. Stylistic factors…………………………………........................
IV.2. Socio-cultural elements……………………………………………………
V. Related researches……………………………………………………………..
V.1. Study of Pham Thu Giang (2010)…………………………………………
V.2. Study of Lubis (2009)……………………………………………………….

iv


V.3. Study of Johnson (2006)……………………………………………………
V.4. Study of Burgos (2007)…………………………………………………….
V.5. Study of Gou (2007)………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 2:METHODOLOGY…………………………………………….

I. Data corpus…………………………………………………………………….
II.

Research methods…………………………………………………………….19
II. 1. Data collection procedure………………………………………………..19
II. 2. Data analysis procedure………………………………………………….

20

II.
3. Analytical
framework……………………………………………………...21
CHAPTER 3:DATA ANALYSIS…………………………………………....23
I. Modifications in ―Black stars‖ translation……………………………………...23
I.1. Syntactic modifications………………………………………………………
I.1.1. Changes in grammatical word classes………………………….
I.1.2. Changes in sentence structures…………………………………..
I.2. Lexical modifications………………………………………………………..
I.2.1. Word addition……………………………………………………...
I.2.2. Word subtraction………………………………………………….
I.2.3. Different meaning word generating……………………………..
I.2.4. Untranslated words………………………………………………..
I.3. Stylistic modifications……………………………………………………….
I.3.1. Reduplicative words……………………………………………….
I.3.2. Metaphor……………………………………………………………
II. Factors influencing translation…………………………………………………
II.
31

1. Linguistic factors…………………………………………………………...

II.1.1. Syntactic factors……………………………………………….….
II.1.2. Lexical factors…………………………………………………….
II.1.3. Linguistic context…………………………………………………
II.1.4. Stylistic factors……………………………………………………

II. 2. Socio-cultural factors………………………………………………………
II.2.1. Geographic differences…………………………………………..
II.2.2. Historical differences…………………………………………….

v


II.2.3. Custom differences………………………………………………..
II.2.4. Perception differences……………………………………………
PART C - CONCLUSION
1. Summaries of main findings……………………………………………………
2.
58

Implications…………………………………………………………………….

3.
Limitations of the
study………………………………………………………..59
4.
Suggestions for further
study…………………………………………………..59
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………...

60

APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………….

I


vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SL

Source language

SLT

Source language text

TL

Target language

TLT

Target language text

vii


PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Translation used to be considered an inter-language transfer of meaning. Many
earlier definitions demonstrate this, using source language and target language as their
technical terms. Moreover, translation theories strictly confined themselves within the
sphere of linguistics. For many years the popular trend in the translation circles had been
perfect faithfulness to the original both in content and form and it had been regarded as the
iron criterion as if from the holy Bible for translators to observe. The godly status and the
impossible idealistic belief were not altered until new thoughts arose with the respect of
consideration of target readers, the unavoidable translator‘s subjectivity and the purpose
and function of translations. This thesis, starting to look from new angles such as the
accommodation to target cultural conventions, the translator's consciousness of linguistic
and cultural adaptations to make it easy for readers to understand translated works without
too much pain and effort.
Translation of poetry was, and still is by some, believed as impossibility for any
unfaithful elements would have been taken as failure, be it content or form. The arguments
include linguistic elements and cultural elements. Most importantly the myth of
untranslatability looks upon poetry as beauty itself which is untouchable for once it is
touched it is destroyed. But as translation of poetry has never been stagnant though
sometimes vigorous and sometimes not, there is strong evidence in both translation history
and present day practice that poetry translation, a literary form as distinguished from
fiction, drama, and prose, is translatable. Poetry itself serves a purpose, be it an illusive
matter or not, and aesthetics can be reproduced in another language and culture if
accommodation is made.
“Black Stars” is a collection of poems originally in Vietnamese by Ngô Tự Lập,
who can be seen as a master of both the Source Language (his mother tongue- Vietnamese)
and the Target Language (English). The book was published in 2013, also the first time
introduced to the public, both in Vietnamese and English, after a long period of cooperating between the author and an American native poet Martha Collins. It consists of 42
poems divided into 3 sections mostly talking about the author‘s inner world, his memories
and dreams.

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There were several reasons why the researcher decided to study this bilingual poem
collection for her research. Firstly, it was proved to be good poetry in translation (the book
was nominated for PEN International Prize in the United States 2014 in Poetry in
translation category). Secondly, the close co-operation during the translating process
between the author and the translator, who is also a poet and writer in the target language,
guarantees the faithfulness of the translation as well as the soundness of the modifications
made. For all of these advantages, it serves well the purposes of studying on the linguistic
and socio-cultural factors affecting literary translation, especially poetry translation. It also
proves that poetry translation can be both faithful and aesthetic with regards to the target
readers‘ features, among which the most important are linguistic and socio-cultural factors.
2. Aims of the study
This research was carried out to serve the following aims:
To find out the linguistic modifications made in the English translation “Black
stars”
conducted by Martha Collins and the author Ngô Tự Lập from the Vietnamese original
“Những vì sao đen” poetry collection.
-

To identify the factors influencing the process of translating which brings about those

modifications.
3. Research questions
This research is carried out to find out the answer to the following research
questions:
1. What are the linguistic modifications made in the translation “Black stars” in
comparison with the Vietnamese original “Những vì sao đen”?
2.

What are the factors influencing those modifications?
The answers will help readers realize some modifications made in the Vietnamese -

English translation process of the bilingual poetry collection book “Black stars” and their
underlying reasons. The study may also help sharpen the translators‘ awareness to put in
consideration some outstanding differences between the nature of English and Vietnamese
languages in use as well as the socio-cultural distinctive features of the two countries so
that they can learn to produce readers-friendly poetry translation in TL with the highest
respect to the original meanings and beauty of the work in the SL.

2


4. Scope of the study
- Pointing out linguistic and socio-cultural stamps on the language uses in the poetry
translation.
- The bilingual book of Ngô Tự Lâp‘s “Những vì sao đen” -“Black Stars” poetry
collection co-translated by Martha Collins and the author is under investigation.
5. Methods of the study
- This study used the qualitative method.
Qualitative method investigates the why and how of the changes and adaptation, not
just what, where, when. Firstly, it was employed in comparing the translated poems with
their Vietnamese original version to find out the modifications made on the linguistic facet,
evaluating and categorizing them into smaller categories. Secondly, the researcher
employed qualitative approach to categorize the factors influencing the above-mentioned
modifications with intense reasoning and many interviews and mailing with both the author
of the original poems and the translators of ―Black stars‖.
- Data was collected by means of descriptive analysis and statistic.
6. Organization of the study

This research consists of 3 parts: INTRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT, AND
CONCLUSION.
Part A: INTRODUCTION.
This part allows the readers to get the general idea of what the thesis is about. It
provides the rationale for the study, aims of the study, the research questions, the scope, the
method and the organization of the study.
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
This is the focus of the study which is divided into 3 chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review.
Chapter I briefly introduces some necessary theoretical points from different
backgrounds. The author begins by reviewing different views of translation theories with
the focus on poetry translation. Following that a review of the elements to consider in
translation in general and more specifically in poetry translation, among which the focuses
are on the linguistic elements, elements of American culture, language use,
interrelationship between language and culture and how they interact and affect each other.

3


Chapter 2: Methodology
This part focuses on a detailed depiction of the methodology applied in the research
paper, the size and characteristics of the research subject altogether with research
instruments, data collection procedure as well as data analysis procedure are put into
description and justification.
Chapter 3: Data analysis
Chapter III is the main part of the study. This chapter provides discussion on the
modifications made in the selected book in terms of changes in grammar, choice of
vocabulary. The author is particularly interested in analyzing linguistic and socio-cultural
factors which influence the translation process.
Part C: CONCLUSION

Part C: Conclusion recapitulates the main ideas and findings of the study; draws
out some important implications for Vietnamese-English translators, presents limitations of
the study and lastly, suggests some ideas for further research.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
I. Definitions of translation
Translation has been defined in many ways by different writers in the field,
depending on how they view language and translation. According to Wills in Choliludin
(2007: 3), translation is a procedure which leads from a written source language text (SLT)
to an optimally equivalent target language text (TLT) and requires the syntactic, semantic,
stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original text. Besides,
Nida and Taber (1982: 12) say that translating consists in the reproducing in the receptor
language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, firstly in terms of
meaning and secondly in terms of style. Both definitions above imply that translation
involves two languages- the source language and the target- or receptor language, and that
an act of translating is an act of reproducing the meaning of the SLT into that of the TLT.
Catford (1965: 20) states that translation may be defined as the replacement of
textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another
language (target language). Similar definition is also mentioned by Larson (1984: 3). He
says that translation consists of translating the meaning of the SL into the receptor
language. This is done by going from the form of the first language to the form of a second
language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being transferred and must
be held constant, only the form changes.
Translation work, in its present form, dates back more than a thousand years in
Vietnam and in Western countries. The ever-lasting practice of translation itself manifests
the translatability of languages. Vietnamese tradition and culture is founded on

untranslatability. This may sound like a paradox, if one thinks of the long tradition in the
culture, or if you just ponder the very word tradition. Tradition, from Latin tradere (‗hand
over'), implies a process of communication, transmission, and transference that necessarily
allows for the transformation, whether in terms of ―losses‖ or ―gains,‖ usually associated
with what we consensually mean by translation. To translate is not to say the same thing in
another tongue, but to make manifest a different thing.

5


II. Poetic translation
th

The 20 century can be considered the very developed period of literary translation
and the poetry translation took a lot of attention with many different ideas. Translator
Hoàng Hưng claims ―Poetry can be no way translated because poetry itself is the art of
language, it sticks to the linguistic features of the source language, if we transfer it into
another language, the poem is half destroyed‖
"Traduttore - traditore" (Translator – traitor), says the well-known Italian phrase.
―Poetry is what gets lost in translation‖, Robert Frost says. Translation of poetry was, and
still is by some, believed as impossibility for any unfaithful elements would have been
taken as failure, be it content or form. Poetry itself serves a purpose, be it an illusive matter
or not, and aesthetics can be reproduced in another language and culture if accommodation
is made. It would be highly likely that the target readers would obtain rather similar if not
the same aesthetic pleasure reading the translation as would the source readers reading the
original poem.
In Vietnam, the poetry translation is not a new profession. The ancient Viet scholars
considered the Chinese poems translating a noble recreation in their free time. Why was it a
recreation but not a work? Recall Chinese was one of the major languages in those days,
especially among highly educated people, the translation was not the need of bringing the

works to the readers (or listeners) but more like a recreating a new poem in Viet language.
Many translators in contemporary and modern Vietnam literature have made and are
making outstanding contributions to the literary and poetry exchanges between Vietnam
and the West through their diligent and painstaking work. Phan Ngọc for instance, has
translated several works from Latin, Russian, French and English into Vietnamese, the most
important being the Shakespeare, War and peace, Oliver Twist. Ngô Tự Lập, the author
and co-translator of “Black Stars”, is another example to have introduced Vietnamese
readers many masterpieces in Rusian, English and French such as - "Chiếc bát mang hình
thế giới" by Werner Lambersy from French, "Xứ sở của nước và thạch sùng" by JeanMichel Maulpoix. Foreigners include Arthur Waley, Herbert Giles, Witter Bynner, W.J.B.
Fletcher, James Legg, Amy Lowell, etc.

6


III. Translation modifications
Translation modification refers to the linguistic changes that are carried in terms of
translator‘s objective affecting the whole text. These changes include both the semantic and
morphological alterations.
III.1. Research of Vinay and Darbelnet
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) propose seven modifications operating on three level of
style: Lexis, distribution and message. These modifications are: Borrowing, transposition,
calque, modulation, literal translation and equivalence.
-

Borrowing refers to words taken directly from another language. Generally,

borrowings enter a language through translation work, and just as with false friends (false
cognates), the translator should strive to look for the equivalent in the TL that convey the
meaning of the SL more advantageous.
-

Calque is used when a foreign word or phrase is translated and incorporated into

another language. It is a special type of borrowing, consisting of borrowing an expression
from the SL and the translating literally each element( for example, nowadays people use
words and phrases like “phần cứng”, “phần mềm”, “hotline”, “live show” etc everyday
while they never existed in Vietnamese dictionary years ago).
-

Literal translation means the direct transfer of the SL into the TL in a

grammatically and idiomatically proper way. This modification is used when it is possible
to transpose the source language message (SLM) element by element into the TL and
obtain a text that is idiomatic.
-

Transposition replaces words from one grammatical word class with another

without changing the meaning of the message. For example, a verb is translated with a
noun, a noun with an adjective, etc.
-

Modulation is a shift in point of view, changing the point of view without

changing the meaning of the message. Vinay and Darbelnet identify different types of
modulation, some of which are abstract for concrete, cause for effect, means for result, a
part for the whole and geographical change.
-

Equivalence accounts for the same situation using a completely different phrase. It

generally refers to the same common accepted and used equivalents of idioms, proverbs,
idiomatic expression and lexicalized terms.

7


-

Adaptation refers to a shift in cultural environment, for instance, to express the

message using a different situation, translators have to adapt a SL situation when it does not
exist in the TL or would be considered inappropriate in the target culture.
III.2. Research of Nida
Nida (1964) proposes three types of modifications: additions, subtractions and
alterations. They are used (1) to adjust the form of the message to the characteristics of the
structure of the target language, (2) to produce semantically equivalent structure, (3) to
generate appropriate stylistic equivalences and (4) to produce an equivalent communication
effect.
-

Additions: A translator makes an addition when he needs to clarify an elliptic

expression, to avoid ambiguity in the target language, to change a grammatical category, to
amplify implicit elements or to add connectors.
-

Subtraction refers to the omission of words or phrases if they are not essential to

the meaning or impact of the text.

-

Alterations are changes made because of incompatibilities between thw two

languages due to structural differences between the two languages such as changes in word
order, grammatical categories and semantic misfits, especially with idiomatic expressions.
III.3. Research of Newmark
Newmark (1988) contributes a large number of strategies affecting the micro- units
of the text.
-

Transference: It is the process of transferring a source language word to a target

language text. It includes transliteration and it is somewhere called transcription.
-

Naturalization: It adapts the source language word first to the normal

pronunciation then the morphology of the target language.
-

Cultural equivalent: It means replacing a cultural word in the source language with

a target language one. However, ―they are not accurate‖.
-

Functional equivalent: It requires the use of a cultural-neutral word.

Descriptive equivalent: in this modification, the meaning of the source language

text is explained in several words.
Componential analysis: It means ―comparing an source language word
with a
target language word which has a similar meaning but is not an obvious one-to-one

8


equivalent, by demonstrating first their common and then their different sense
components.‖
-

Synonymy: It is a near target language equivalent.

Through-translation: It is the literal translation of common collocations, names of

organizations and components of compounds.
-

Shifts or transposition: It involves a change in the grammar from source language

to target language, for instance, change from singular to plural, the change required when a
specific source language structure does not exist in the target language, change of an source
language verb to a target language word, change of a source language noun group to a
target noun and so forth.
-

Modulation: It occurs when the translator reproduces the message of the original

text in the target language text in conformity with the current norms of the target language,

since the source language and the target language may appear dissimilar in terms of
perspective.
-

Recognized translation: It occurs when the translators normally uses the official or

the generally accepted translation of any institution term.
-

Compensation: It occurs when loss of meaning in one part of a sentence is

compensated in another part.
-

Paraphrase: in this modification, the meaning of the word is explained. Here the

explanation is much more detailed than that of descriptive equivalent.
IV. Linguistic and Socio-cultural factors affecting modifications in translation
IV.1. Linguistic elements
Linguistic factors exert a direct and crucial influence upon the process of
translating. Levy (1967: 58) (as quoted in Wilss, 2001: 124) argues that the translator
frequently finds himself in a conflict-and-decision-marked situation during the translation
process, a situation which becomes all the more difficult to master, the more complex the
textual segment to be translated is in terms of syntax, lexicals and stylistics. Each of the
linguistic factors syntactic, lexical, textual and sytistics can interfere with translation. It can
safely be assumed that interlingual differences constitute a main source of translation
difficulties.

9

IV.1.1. Syntactic factors
Levy argues that the difference is directly reflected in the way people think, in their
syntactic organization, and unavoidably comes up in the process of inter-lingual
transference.
Originating from Old English, which, as a typical synthetic language, was highly
inflected, Modern English syntax is still characterized by a degree of inflection. English
inflections are concerned with gender, number, case, tense, aspect, voice, mood, person,
part of speech and degree of comparison. In contrast, Vietnamese is a typical analytic
language, characterized by non-inflection, frequent use of function words and functional
manipulation of word order, through which various syntactic and semantic relations are
expressed. Thus, whereas an English word can, through inflection, express several
grammatical meanings, Vietnamese, as a non-inflected language, has to form such
grammatical meanings essentially by lexical means. When translating another language
into English, inflections often lead to misinterpretation and mistranslation since syntactic
norms tend to influence the translator‘s judgment about how to deal with changes in
inflection.
Interestingly, when translating, the translator has to go through a converse process:
first recognizing the grammatical meanings expressed or implied in the lexical expressions,
and then reorganizing these relations according to English syntactic norms. With the use of
inflections, English sentence tend to have strict and compact syntactic structures. In
addition, there are a wealth of conjunctions, prepositions and a developed system of proforms, which can incorporate and interconnect a number of clauses through subordination
into a complex long sentence. The structure of such a sentence, often likened to a tree, is
termed hypotaxis and is characterized by formalized relations in which words, phrases, and
clauses are closely connected.
Pham Thu Giang (2010) has asserted in her M.A thesis A study on the VietnameseEnglish translation strategies in the series of bilingual handbooks “Vietnamese culture
frequently asked questions” published by the Thế Giới Publisher that in translating between
English and Vietnamese, the translator has to take the trouble to interpret and then
reconstruct the SL structure on the basis of TL syntactic norms. When translating
Vietnamese into English, many English connective devices will be added and their

functions will often replace lexical means.

10


Differences in word order between English and Vietnamese can also be seen in
interrogative structures, but these normally present few difficulties because the transfer
becomes more or less automatic, as is the case with other structures involving conventional
grammatical inversion. However, it must be noted that although reordering in translation is
often necessary, it is also dangerous in terms of thematic prominence (see 1.5. for more
discussion). When part of the sentence meaning, or thematic meaning in Leech‘s term
(1983: 19), is dependent on the order, a random change to the order will lead to the loss of
that meaning or thematic prominence
IV.1.2. Lexical factors
Pham Thu Giang (2010) stated that the marked lexical differences between English
and Vietnamese present significant difficulties for translators.
The snowballing mode naturally makes many English words polysemous and hence
more context-dependent, while the practice of double-syllabling makes Vietnamese words
monosemantic and hence much less context-dependent. Seen in this light, it is not
surprising that a ―familiar‖ English word can express a totally unexpected meaning when
used in a particular context. An English word can vary in meaning drastically according to
context, verbal relation, time, place, participants, topic, mode, media, etc.
The differences in lexical context-dependence between English and Vietnamese
doubtlessly present difficulties for translators. Common sense dictates that the more
polysemous a word is, the more ambiguous, indeterminate, and hence context-dependent its
meaning. Therefore, when translating from English into Vietnamese, the translator must
attach great importance to context and try to make the polysemous words unambiguous
with the help of the contextual clues. Many mistranslations are the result of neglecting,
ignoring or misjudging the context in which a word is used.
Another closely related problem is the difference in semantic range between

English and Vietnamese. Predictably, the semantic range of a ―snowballed‖ English word
is much wider than that of a ―double-syllabled‖ Vietnamese word composed of two or
more semantically independent morphemes, the interaction of which largely stabilizes the
meaning and makes it less context-dependent (cf. Liu 1991: 418-420; Tan 1990: 128-139;
Nida 1979:15-20)

11


IV.1.3. Context factors
Meetham & Hudson (1969) indicate that text cannot exist out of context. By
context what is meant is the entire environment in which the word or sentence is expressed
or stated. So a translator has to go into the background of the text to understand the text.
Thus translator first de-contextualizes the original text and re-contextualizes it for the
target text. This forms a good contextualized translation. While seeking the context of a
text there may be two categories of factors that may influence the meaning of the textlinguistic context or the situational context.
Linguistic context cites the linguistic factors influencing the meaning of the text.
Any word in the text is not present in isolation but interacts with other words in the text
and with the whole text at large. This interaction among words determines their meaning
rather than its isolated meaning. For example the use of word ‗press‘ in these sentences is
affected by the context. A). press my shirt. B). I work in a press. C). press the button.
Context can either be immediate or remote. Immediate context refers to the words
or sentences that make the context evident then and there through the whole text. Remote
context pertains to existence of word or sentence somewhere else. It may refer to author
using the word somewhere else or there may be special reasons to use that word or phrase.
Context also refers to the factors of situation and circumstances influencing the
meaning of a text. These factors are little harder to be recognized than linguistic ones. The
situational factors may pertain to the facial expressions, gestures and stances at micro level
and the social, political and economical milieu and the culture at large. Conventions and
the whole value system differ from one culture and society to another. What is ‗right‘ and

what is ‘wrong‘ differs. Ideologies may also be a factor to refer to the context.
Language therefore should be considered a part of culture and understood in its
context. Translator must be giving over the top stress to understand the context so as to
produce a good contextualized translation.
IV.1.4. Stylistic factors
Stylistics applies linguistics to literature in the hope of arriving at analyses which
are more broadly based, rigorous and objective, (Hatim & Mason,1990: 133).
Stylistics can be evaluative (i.e. judge the literary worth on stylistic criteria), but
more commonly attempts to simply analyze and describe the workings of texts which have
already been selected as noteworthy on other grounds. Stylistic excellence — intelligence,

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originality, density and variety of verbal devices — play their part in literature, but
aesthetics has long recognized that other aspects are equally important: fidelity to
experience, emotional shaping, significant content. Stylistics may well be popular because
it regards literature as simply part of language and therefore (neglecting the aesthetic
dimension) without a privileged status, which allows the literary canon to be replaced by
one more politically or sociologically acceptable. Because form is important in poetry, and
stylistics has the largest armoury of analytical weapons. Moreover, stylistics need not be
reductive and simplistic. There is no need to embrace Jacobson's theory that poetry is
characterized by the projection of the paradigmatic axis onto the syntagmatic one. Nor
accepting Bradford's theory of a double spiral: literature has too richly varied a history to
be fitted into such a straitjacket. Stylistics suggests why certain devices are effective, but
does not offer recipes, any more than theories of musical harmony explains away the gifts
of individual composers. To the Stylistic critic, however, style means simply how
something is expressed, which can be studied in all language, aesthetic and non-aesthetic.
IV.2. Socio-cultural elements
Cultures that are relatively homogeneous tend to see their own way of doing things

as ‗naturally', the only way, which just as naturally becomes the ‗best' way when
confronted with other ways. When such cultures themselves take over elements from
outside, they will, once again, naturalize them without too many qualms and too many
restrictions. In translation, once documents (including literary works) are translated into
another language, the translations then take the place of the originals. They function as the
originals in the culture to the extent that the originals disappear behind the translations. The
less evaluative the text is, the less need there will be for its structure to be modified in
translation. Conversely, the more evaluative the text is, the more scope there may be for
modification. (ibid: 187)
The less culture-bound (treaties, declarations, resolutions, and other similar
documents) a text is, the less need there will be for its structure to be modified in
translation. Conversely, the more culture-bound a text is, the more scope there may be for
modification.
According to Roman & Morris (2002), four main socio-cultural factors influencing
translation are: geographical differences, historical differences, custom differences and
perception differences.

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-

Historical elements: Roman & Morris indicates there are numerous examples in

translation that exhibit historical elements deeply rooted in the languages. Idioms and
legends always provide ready support in this respect. Once an idiom or fixed expressions
has been recognized, we need to decide how to translate it into the target language.
Translation from Vietnamese into English exhibits the same problem
-

Geographic elements: People of one geographical location is different from that

of another, translation of geographical terms is where another problem is encountered.
Recognition and familiarity of the geography is of immense help to bring about the readers'
association, thus making comprehension easier. On the contrary, without a sense of
geography, the readers have only their imagination in their power to employ.
-

Custom elements (tradition elements): Translation cannot be separated from

tradition. Similar to geographic elements, people born in different places will belong to
different traditional areas, therefore, without knowledge of tradition from other country,
readers can have difficulty in understanding its language.
-

Perception elements: translators who were born in different country and culture

will perceive a situation or texts differently, thus, this may affect their language and their
style of translation.
V. Related researches
V.1. Study of Pham Thu Giang (2010)
In A study on the Vietnamese-English translation strategies in the series of
bilingual handbooks “Vietnamese culture frequently asked questions” published by the Thế
Giới Publisher, Pham Thu Giang indicates that there are two main changes in most
bilingual handbooks: modified literal translation and change in grammar. There are four
alterations in grammatical changes, including changes in order of word group, changes in
grammatical word class, modulation and changes in sentence structure.
The contribution of this theory in this research is also for the enrichment of the
understanding of linguistic modification in literature translation and its underlying factors
resulting in such alterations elaborated by Pham Thu Giang (2010) as a theoretical

framework of translation strategy in the process of transferring the meaning from
Vietnamese into English.
In this study, Pham also suggests that there are at least three strategies employed by
the translators, they are: (i) translating without interruption for as long as possible, (ii)

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correcting surface errors immediately, (iii) leaving the monitoring for qualitative or stylistic
errors in the text to the revision stage. This global strategy refers to the general plan that
must be conducted by the translators. The first plan is to complete the translation without
any interruption. This plan is to provide the initial draft of the translation. The second plan
refers to the identification and classification of the translation problem for correction. This
is conducted to do the transition quality to assess the translation equivalence. Any factor
which spoils the equivalence must be corrected. The third plan refers to the editing,
revising, and proof-reading for the last draft of the translation in reference with the
translation accuracy, acceptability, and readability for the reason of a wider readership .
V.2. Study of Lubis (2009)
This research was conducted for two main purposes. The first purpose was to
explore the translation problem in translating the Text of Mangupa, a Universitas Sumatera
Utara Mandailingness cultural text into English. The second purpose is to maintain and
introduce the highly valuable traditional ceremony which is only known by the
Mandailingness to other societies. The research design is categorized to a descriptive
qualitative type. The object of the study is a written text of Mangupa consisting of 22
paragraphs and 37 verses. The research method used in this research is meaning-based
translation method. The findings of the research indicate that there are more differences
than similarities in linguistic structures such as affixation, compounding, reduplication,
clipping, system of pronoun, structure of phrase etc. They also indicate that
Mandailingnese society and English society differ greatly in some cultural aspects such as
religion, belief, family, marriage, types of society, etc.

V.3. Study of Johnson (2006)
The research is to examine some particular problems in Indonesian language for
translators, whether translating from Indonesian to English or English to Indonesian. The
method used in this research is a type of multifaceted approach. It is used to enable the
translation to be viewed in much the same way as the kinds of demands it places on the
translator who needs constantly to be aware of the author-reader, source-target culture,
syntax, semantics, semiotics, even geography and politics. The method uses metaphor and
illustration to describe theoretical process of translation which is justified in the same way
that imagery is justified in the same way that imagery is justified in literature. The method

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