a study of equivalents in translation and strategies to deal with non – equivalents at word level based on the bilingual selected short stories “ the last leaf” by o’ henry

2018 – 2020 (I)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE

A STUDY OF EQUIVALENTS IN TRANSLATION
AND STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH NON –
EQUIVALENTS AT WORD LEVEL BASED ON THE
BILINGUAL SELECTED SHORT STORIES
“THE LAST LEAF” BY O’ HENRY
(Nghiên cứu tương đương trong dịch thuật và các

chiến lược giải quyết các hiện tượng không tương
đương ở cấp độ từ dựa trên tập truyện ngắn chọn lọc
song ngữ “Chiếc lá cuối cùng” của O’ Henry)

LÊ MINH TRANG

LÊ MINH TRANG

Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01

Hanoi – 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
A STUDY OF EQUIVALENTS IN TRANSLATION
AND STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH NON –
EQUIVALENTS AT WORD LEVEL BASED ON THE
BILINGUAL SELECTED SHORT STORIES
“THE LAST LEAF” BY O’ HENRY
(Nghiên cứu tương đương trong dịch thuật và các

chiến lược giải quyết các hiện tượng không tương
đương ở cấp độ từ dựa trên tập truyện ngắn chọn lọc
song ngữ “Chiếc lá cuối cùng” của O’ Henry)
LÊ MINH TRANG

Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr NGUYỄN ĐĂNG SỬU
Hanoi - 2020


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled A STUDY OF EQUIVALENTS IN TRANSLATION AND STRATEGIES
TO DEAL WITH NON – EQUIVALENTS AT WORD LEVEL BASED ON THE
BILINGUAL SELECTED SHORT STORIES “THE LAST LEAF” BY O’ HENRY
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English
Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been
used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2020

Le Minh Trang

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr Nguyễn Đăng Sửu
Date:……………………

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor,
Mr. Nguyen Dang Suu, Assoc. Prof of HaNoi University of business and technology.
This thesis could have probably not completed without his patient, enthusiastic and
instructive supervision and encouragement.
I also would like to show my profound gratitude to all of the lecturers in Ha
Noi Open University for tirelessly devoting time and efforts to enrich, broaden and
deepen my knowledge over the past four years. My special thanks go as well to Ha
Noi Open University for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement
this thesis.
Besides, I am deeply indebted to my beloved family for their wholehearted
support and encouragement.
Finally, I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the people whose direct and
indirect support assisted me to accomplish my thesis in time.

ii

ABSTRACT

This study primarily investigates the problem of non-equivalence at word level
in translation between English and Vietnamese based on the bilingual selected short
stories “ The last leaf” by O’ Henry
The paper aims at, first and foremost, presenting rationale, background
knowledge and different approaches relate to non-equivalence before contrasting
some typical conceptual and lexical semantic fields to prove that there is a
considerable linguistic gap between English and Vietnamese. Then the study will
propose a classification of non-equivalence based on Mona Baker’s theory.
Eventually, the study also suggests several effective strategies to deal with nonequivalence at word level in translation.

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SL.:

Source language

TL.:

Target language

ST.:

Source text

TT.:

Target text

TC :

Target code

BCE.:

Before the Common Era

CE.:

Common Era

CA.:

Contrastive linguistics analysis

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 4.1: Baker’s taxonomy of non-equivalence at word level (1992)...................26
Table 4. 2: Selected categories and examples about Cultural Concepts ...................28
Table 4.3: Individualism Index Values among nations (as adapted from Hofstede ,
2000 ).........................................................................................................................29
Table 4.4: Non-equivalents at word level in the selected short stories “ The last leaf”
by O’ Henry and their translated versions ................................................................40

Figure 4.1: Factors involving translation process .....................................................51

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY .......................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ...........................................................................v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................1
1.1 Rationale ...............................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study ..........................................................................1
1.2.1. The aim of the study..........................................................................................1
1.2.2. The objectives of the study ...............................................................................1
1.3 Research questions ................................................................................................2
1.4. Methods of the study ............................................................................................2
1.5. Scope of the study ................................................................................................2
1.6. Significance of the study ......................................................................................3
1.7. Structure of the study ...........................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................4
2.1. Overview of Previous studies ..............................................................................4
2.1.1.Overview of Domestic studies ...........................................................................4
2.1.2.Overview of Foreign studies .............................................................................4
2.2. Overview of Translation ......................................................................................7
2.2.1 Definitions of translation....................................................................................7
2.2.2. Principles of translation.....................................................................................8

2.2.3. Equivalence in translation ..............................................................................14
2.3. Summary ............................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................18
3.1 Research orientations. .........................................................................................18
3.1.1. Research approaches .......................................................................................18

vi


3.1.2 Research questions ...........................................................................................18
3.1.3. Research setting ..............................................................................................19
3.1.4. Principles/ criteria for intended data collection and data analysis ..................19
3.2. Research methods...............................................................................................19
3.2.1. Major methods and supporting methods .........................................................19
3.2.2. Data collection techniques ..............................................................................20
3.2.3. Data analysis techniques .................................................................................20
3.3. Summary ............................................................................................................20
CHAPTER 4: EQUIVALENTS IN TRANSLATION AND STRATEGIES TO DEAL
WITH NON – EQUIVALENTS AT WORD LEVEL BASED ON THE BILINGUAL
SELECTED SHORT STORIES “THE LAST LEAF” BY O’ HENRY .....................22
4.1. Equivalents and non- equivalents at word level.................................................22
4.1.4. Equivalents at word level ................................................................................22
4.1.2. Non-equivalence at word level .......................................................................24
4.2 Classification of non – equivalence at word level ..............................................27
4.2.1 No equivalent words between 2 languages, especially culture- specific concepts.
The source language word expresses a concept totally unknown in target language.
...................................................................................................................................27
4.2.2 Concepts are known but no equivalent words in TL. The source language
concept is not lexicalized in the target language.......................................................31
4.2.3 The target language lacks a superordinate. It may have a specific word but no

general word. .............................................................................................................32
4.2.4 The target language lacks a hyponym ..............................................................33
4.2.5 Differences in expressive meaning ..................................................................35
4.2.6 Differences in physical and interpersonal perspective.....................................36
4.3 Equivalents and non-equivalents at words level in the selected short story “The
last leaf” by O’Henry and the Vietnamese translated version ..................................36
4.3.1. At-word-level equivalence in the selected short story “The last leaf” by
O’Henry and the Vietnamese translated version.......................................................36
4.3.2. At-word-level non-equivalence.......................................................................39

vii


4.4. Strategies to tackle non-equivalence at word level in the selected short stories
“The last leaf” by O’Henry. ......................................................................................45
4.4.1 Translation by a more specific word (hyponym) .............................................45
4.4.2 Translation by a more general word (superordinate) .......................................46
4.4.3 Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word ........................................47
4.4.4 Translation by cultural substitution ..................................................................48
4.4.5 Translation by paraphrasing .............................................................................49
4.4.6 Translation by omission ...................................................................................50
4.5 Implications for teaching translationto Vietnamese learners of English ............50
4.6 Summary .............................................................................................................53
CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION .................................................................................53
5.1 Recapitulation .....................................................................................................53
5.2. Concluding remarks ...........................................................................................54
5.3. Limitations of the research .................................................................................54
5.4. Suggestions for further studies ...........................................................................54
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................1
APPENDICES.............................................................................................................5

viii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale
Along with the increasing development of technology and science, books and
articles have been written by specialists in all fields. People need those books but not
all of them are able to understand the books, which are written in language that they
do not know. That is the reason why we need translation. However, translation has
never been an easy task, but truly an art which requires great efforts and proficiency
of translators. In some specific context, English learners, even professional
interpreters find it tough to translate some words from English into Vietnamese
because of non-equivalence at word level between English and Vietnamese. There
may be text in target language that seems unnatural because the translator wanted to
keep the meaning but as a result, the translation seems unnatural and confuses the
readers. Therefore, strategies to translate non-equivalence at word level from English
into Vietnamese which help translators translate more effectively from English into
Vietnamese are very important. The material translated is being extended, from
science books to other subjects, including literature. People are also interested in
literary works, which are translated into Vietnamese. They have enjoyed them a lot.
From the awareness of this significance, researcher decides to choose this topic for
the thesis as the research matter. In the study the writer will deal with equivalence
and present the strategies to solve the non‐equivalence at word level found in the
selected short stories “ The last leaf” by O’ Henry and their Vietnamese- translated
versions.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1. The aim of the study
The aim of this study is helping the Vietnamese better understand

the

equivalence and non-equivalence at word level and the strategies to deal with non –
equivalence at word level in translation.
1.2.2. The objectives of the study
To achieve the above aim, the following objectives of the study must be
realized:

1


- Identifying the equivalents and non-equivalents at word level in translation
in general and based on the bilingual selected short stories ‘The last leaf’ by O’
Henry, in particular;
- Finding out the strategies to deal with non-equivalents at word level based
on the bilingual selected short stories “ The last leaf” by O’ Henry;
- Giving some suggested implications for teaching equivalence and nonequivalence at word level in translation to Vietnamese students of English effectively.
1.3 Research questions
The study must answer the following research questions:
1. What are the equivalents and non-equivalents at word level in translation
based on the billingual selected short stories “ The last leaf” by O’ Henry?
2. What are the strategies to deal with non – equivalence at word level used in
the translation from English into Vietnamese in the bilingual selected short stories
“The last leaf” by O’ Henry?
3. What are some suggested implications for teaching translation to
Vietnamese students of English effectively?
1.4. Methods of the study
The main methods of the study are the descriptive , qualitative, quantitative
and comparative in combination with data collection and data analysis techniques.

Descriptive research method is used to describe equivalence and non - equivalence
in translation based on the fact or reality. It also describes the population and the
evidence of the data systemically, factually, and accurately. All the data are collected
from the bilingual selected short stories“ The last leaf” by O’ Henry. They will, then,
be analyzed and categorized for the research.
1.5. Scope of the study
Both equivalence and non – equivalence at word level are taken into
consideration, which is the focus of the study since word is the basic unit of meaning in
linguistics. In view of the complexity of non-equivalence and the limited space of this
paper, the author will have to confine the discussion only to non-equivalence at word
level instead of the full treatment of non-equivalence at various levels, such as at

2


syntactic or even textual one. The data of this research are collected from the bilingual
selected stories “ The last leaf” by O’ Henry.
1.6. Significance of the study
The strategies used by the translators to solve the problems of non‐
equivalence at word level found in “ The last leaf” will be carefully examined in the
hope that it would be useful for students of English . Moreover, this study is hoped
to provide a better knowledge of strategies to deal with non-equivalence to those
who are learning English and who are doing translation.
1.7. Structure of the study
The thesis is divided into 5 chapters:
Chapter One, Introduction provides the rationale, aims and objectives as
well as research questions, methods, scope, significance and the structure of the
study.
Chapter Two, Literature review, gives the reviews of the previous domestic
and foreign studies relating to the research matter, provides some different points of

view concerning the concept of translation, equivalents and non-equivalents at word
level and choosing the suitable viewpoint of the theory for the thesis.
Chapter Three, Methodology, will give major methods and supporting
methods, research setting, instruments, data collection and data analysis techniques.
Chapter Four, Findings and discussions, three research questions will be
answered in this chapter
Chapter Five : Conclusion

3


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Overview of Previous studies
2.1.1.Overview of Domestic studies
Usually a study is based on the other study, which can be used for a measuring
rod in the next study. Studies about non - equivalence in translation had been done
by Vietnamese students. Some studies about equivalence in translation were done by
Pham Thanh Binh ( 2010 ), Pham Thi Luong Giang ( 2010 ), Kustanti (2006), Ghadi
(2009), Irmawati (2003), Nugroho (2008), Giménez (2005)
Phạm Thị Lương Giang ( 2010 ) did a study about idioms. This study purposes
to identify the non – equivalence when translating idioms. The research proposal
focuses on general view of translation, non- equivalence in translation of idioms.
Besides, researcher gives techniques to deal with non-equivalence in translating
English idioms into Vietnamese.
Pham Thanh Binh ( 2010 ) did a study about strategies to deal with non –
equivalence at word level. The objective of the study is to find out the strategies to
deal with non – equivalence at word level. The study aims at not only stressing the
significance of equivalence in translation process, as well as, raising reader’s
awareness on the matter of non-equivalence but also providing a set of strategies

which can solve almost all problems founded in English –Vietnamese situation.
Moreover, the study also introduces some useful exercises for reader’s further
practicing and researching.
2.1.2.Overview of Foreign studies
Kustanti (2006) did a study that is entitled Equivalence at Word Level in the
J.K Rowling’s Novel Entitled “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”. The
purpose of this study is to analyze what strategies are used by a professional translator
in creating grammatical equivalence and to classify the sentences in the novel into
their strategies.The suggestion which is presented by Kustanti (2006) is that the
translator not only has to find the acceptable word and sentences but also find the
equivalence word or sentences which convey the same message that is intended by

4


the author by understanding various problems in translation in each level, so that she
can choose the nearest equivalent word and sentence in target language.
Ghadi (2009) has written a particular interesting study analyzing equivalence
at word level in the English technical text and the translations in Persian. After
reviewing some of the important theories on equivalence, he has chosen Baker’s
theory as the foundation to study the use of strategies by expert and non-expert.
From the original dental text book (in English), 120 significant words were drawn by
systematic random sampling procedure. The original English dental book consists of
24 chapters and from each chapter 5 words were randomly drawn to come up with
120 words.The result of Ghadi study is very useful since it strongly show the
frequency of use for each strategies introduced by Baker. Accordingly, translating by
a general term, the use of loan word and loan word plus explanation are the leading
strategies applied by both the expert and non- expert. Unfortunately, the author did
not provide the reason or explanation for this preference and why the other strategies
are less used.

Irmawati (2003) did a study about grammatical equivalence in The Indonesian
Translation of J. K. Rowlings novel, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.
This study purposes to identify the grammatical equivalence, which includes number,
person and gender, tense and aspects, and voice as well as to see whether the
translated sentences can be justified with the Indonesian structure.
There are some conclusions given by Irmawati (2003). The first conclusion is
that with regard to number, grammatical equivalence can be achieved through
translating from the source language (SL) singular into the target language (TL)
singular or plural, and SL plural into TL singular or plural. The second conclusion is
that with regard to person and gender, grammatical equivalence can be achieved by
translation from SL first person singular into TL first person singular familiar or non
familiar, SL first person plural into TL first person plural inclusive or exclusive, SL
second person singular into TL second person singular familiar or non familiar, SL
second person plural into TL second person plural familiar or non familiar, SL third
person singular male into TL third person singular neuter, SL third person singular

5


female into TL third person singular neuter, SL third person singular neuter into TL
third person singular person neuter by restating the name or the thing, SL third person
plural into TL third person plural , SL reflexive pronouns into TL reflexive pronouns,
SL indefinite pronouns into TL indefinite pronouns, SL possessive adjectives into TL
pronouns or possessive clitics. The third conclusion is that with regard to tense and
aspects, grammatical equivalence can be achieved through translating from SL past
into TL present or TL past by giving temporal determiners and adverbs of time, and
from SL non past into TL non past. The last but not least, with regard to voice,
grammatical equivalence can be achieved through translation from SL active into TL
active or passive and SL passive into TL passive.
There is a suggestion suggested by Irmawati (2003), that is that translators

should pay attention to such grammatical categories as number, person and gender,
tense and aspect, and voice in English and Indonesian so that he/she can find the
closest equivalence.
Nugroho (2008) did a study entitled An Analysis of Translation Strategies In
Indonesia-English of Thesis Abstracts (The Case Study of Arts-Education of Post
Graduate Program of Semarang State University in The Academic Year of 20032008). The objectives of the study are to find out the strategies used in the translation
from Indonesian into English of 2003 – 2008 postgraduate thesis abstract of Art
education Department students of Semarang State University and to classify
determine and count the dominant strategies used by translators in the translation.
Nugroho’s conclusion after doing his study is that the translators used
appropriate strategies in translating thesis abstract so the words, which have different
meanings, do not have a significant impact to the readers. The study also finds that
the strategy of translation by a loan word has a dominant occurrence and the less
occurrence is translation by a more neutral or less expressive word and translation by
paraphrase using related words.
In the article “Translation-Strategies Use: A Classroom-Based Examination of
Baker’s Taxonomy”, Giménez (2005) explores the use of strategies by
undergraduate. The study evaluates student’s translation from English to Spanish.

6


An experiment was conducted among 160 third-year students of English Studies who
supposed to be at upper-intermediate or advanced level of English. Those students
were provided a prior instruction about basic concepts on equivalence and Mona
Baker’s categories as well as a variety of strategies to solve non-equivalence.
2.2. Overview of Translation
Though translation is no longer a strange terminology in daily life, there is
hardly any agreement on its definition. A great number of books and articles have
been written about this debatable subject. Each author or expert tried to prove his

statement to be true. That is why “What is translation?” is still a big question in
linguistic area. In the study, the researcher has no ambition to my own definition of
translation ; the researcher just pick up and support one of revealed concepts of
translation which is considered the most suitable to the study.
2.2.1 Definitions of translation
Though translation is no longer a strange terminology in daily life, there is
hardly any agreement on its definition. A great number of books and articles have
been written about this debatable subject. Each author or expert tried to prove his
statement to be true. That is why “What is translation?” is still a big question in
linguistic area. In the study, the researcher has no ambition to my own definition of
translation ; the researcher just pick up and support one of revealed concepts of
translation which is considered the most suitable to the study.
According to Catford (1965) “Translation is the replacement of textual
material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another
language(TL).”
Hartmann & Stock (1972) states, “ Translation is the replacement of a
representation of a text in one language by a representation of another equivalent text
in a second language.”
Dubois (1973) contends, “ Translation is the expression in another language
(or TL) of what has been expressed in another (SL), preserving semantic and stylistic
equivalencies.”

7


Nida & Taber (1974) states that translation consists in reproducing in the
receptor language the closest natural aquivalent of the source language massage, first
in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.
Wilss (1982) says that translation is a procedure which leads from a written
SL text to an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic

semantic,stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original
text.
Hatim & Mason (1990) presents, “ Translating is a communicative process
which takes place within a social context.”
Bell (1991) contends, “ Translating is the transformation of a text originally in
one language into an equivalent text in a different language retaining as far as
possible, the content of the message, and the formal features and the roles of the
original text.”
According to Jeremy Munday’s opinion (2001), the term translation has
several meanings: it can refer to general subject field, the product (the text that has
been translated) or the process (the act of producing the translation- translating). The
process of translation between two different written languages involves the translator
changing an original written text (source text-ST) in the original verbal language
(source language- SL) into a written text (target text –TT) in a different verbal
language (target language-TL).
2.2.2. Principles of translation
There are some general principles which are relevant to all translations and
interpretation
2.2.2.1. Meaning.
The translation should reflect accurately the meaning of the original text.
Nothing should be arbitrarily added or removed, though occasionally part of the
meaning can be “transposed-changed the position”. For example:
“The real Vietnam war ended in 1975, everything about it since then has
become a war story…”

8


“ He made the bed” : the meaning of the sentence must be made clear whether
he put the sheets, blanket and pillow in neat order on the bed or he as a carpenter

made the new bed.
The translator should ask himself:
if the meaning of the original text is clear, if not where the uncertainty lies.
if any words are loaded, that is, if there are any underlying implications.
(“Correct me if
I am wrong…” suggests “I know I am right”!)
if the dictionary meaning of a particular word is the most suitable one.
if anything in the translation sounds unnatural or forced.
As we have seen that one form may express a variety of meanings and on the
other hand, one meaning can be expressed in a great number of forms. For example,
“Is this seat taken?”; “Is there anyone sitting here?”; “May I sit here?” all have the
same meaning: the speaker is indicating a desire to sit in a certain seat.
Each language has its own distinctive forms for representing the meaning.
Therefore, in translation the same meaning may have to be expressed in another
language by a very different form. To translate the form of one language literally
according to the corresponding form in another language would often change the
meaning or at least result in a form which is unnatural in the second language.
Meaning must, therefore, have priority over the form in translation. It is meaning
which is to be carried over from the source language to the target language, not the
linguistic forms. In addition, a literal translation (word-for-word translation) does not
communicate the meaning of the source text. It is generally no more than a string of
words intended to help someone read a text in its original language. It is unnatural
and hard to understand, and may even quite meaningless, or give a wrong meaning
in the target language. It can hardly be called a translation. The goal of a translator
should be to produce a target language text (a translation ) which is idiomatic; that is
one translation which has the same meaning as the source language but is expressed
in the natural form of the target language. The meaning, not the form is retained.
2.2.2.2. Form
Dealing with the form means referring to the lexicon and grammar of one
language The ordering of words and ideas in the translation should match the original

9


as closely as possible. This is particularly important in translating legal documents,
guarantees, contracts, etc…
Translation is basically a change of form (lexicon and grammar) . When we
speak of the form of a language, we are refering to the actual words, phrases, clauses,
sentences, paragraphs etc., which are spoken or written. These forms are referred to
as the surface structure of a language. It is the structural part of language which is
actually seen in print or heard in speech. In translation, the form of the source
language is replaced by the form of the target language.
It’s obvious that translation consists of transferring the meaning of the source
language into the target language. This is realized by going from the form of the first
language to the form of a second by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which
is being transferred and must be held constant. Only the form changes. The form from
which the translation is made will be called the source language and the form into
which it is to be changed will be called the target language. Translation, then, consists
of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation and cultural
context of the source language text, analyzing it in order to determine its meaning,
after that reconstruct this same meaning using lexicon and grammatical structure
which are proper in the target language and its cultural context.
Let us look at one example that we are translating a Vietnamese sentence into
English:
Mấy năm qua công cuộc đổi mới trên mặt trận kinh tế của đất nước ta đã mở
ra mạnh mẽ.
Over the past few years, the economic

innovation

of

our

mấy năm,

đổi mới

của

chúng ta

Qua
country
đất nước

has ushered
đã

mở ra

kinh tế

drastically.
mạnh mẽ

It is undoubted that the given example consists of some changes in form: order
of Vietnamese words(SL) in a sentence is different from that of English (TL). The
Vietnamese form consists of the verb form ‘mở ra: has ushered’, noun forms,

10


(đổimới:innovation,đấtnước:country, năm:years); adjective form (kinhtế:economic);
adverb form(mạnhmẽ:drastically).
The fact shows that persons who know both the SL and the TL well can often
make the transfer from one form to the other very quickly, without thinking about the
semantic structure overtly.
+ In most languages there is a meaning component of plurality as suffix ‘S’ in
English. This suffix often occurs in the grammar on the nouns or verbs or
both.Whereas it does not occur in Vietnamese. It is expressed in terms of lexicon.
Books in the library have been kept carefully.
Những quyển sách trong thư viện được giữ gìn cẩn thận.
+ The same meaning component can be expressed in several surface structure
lexical items. There is the word ‘Sheep’ in English. However, the words Lamb, ram
and ewe also occur and include the meaning Sheep. But these words get the additional
meaning components which are young (in lamb), adult and male (in ram), and adult
and female (in ewe).
+ It should be noted that one form can be used to convey alternative
meanings.Since most words have more than one meaning: the primary meaning
which ussually comes to mind when the word is said in isolation, and the secondary
meanings- the additional meanings which a word has in context with other words.
We take the verb ‘run’ in Englishas an example. We can say the boy runs. Runs here
is in its primary meaning. We can also say the car runs, the river runs and her nose
runs. Runs in the given sentences are in its secondary meanings. It should be borne
in mind that the same grammatical pattern may express several different meanings.
We just take the English phrase ‘my house’ for example, it may mean “the house I
live in”, “the house I built”, “the house I own”, “the house I rent,”or“the house for
which I drew up the plans”. Only the larger context can determine the particular
meaning.

+ The whole sentence may also have several functions. A question form may
be used for a nonquestion. For example, the question “John, why don’t you go to the
concert?” takes the form of a question, and may be asking for information in some

11


context, but it is often used with the meaning of a command (or suggestion) rather
than a real question.
Just for words have primary and secondary meanings, grammatical markers
have their primary function and often have other secondary functions. Let us take
preposition ON for illustration.
Jane found a book on the table.--quyển sách ở trên bàn
Jane found a book on English. -quyển sách về tiếng Anh
Jane found a book on Thursday. quyển sách vào ngày thứ năm
Jane found a book on sale. đem ra bán
Or
Michael was sitting by the riverside : by in this sentence signals that the
riverside is the location.
The thief was arrested by a police:

by in this case signals the meaning that

police is the agent of the action..
2.2.2.3. Register.
The term register is used in the same way as ‘style’ in the field of language
learning and teaching. It is used to refer to all types of situational variation and
sometimes also to refer to socially-conditioned variation.
Languages often differ greatly in the levels of formality in a given context. To
resolve these differences, the translator must distinguish between formal/informal or

fixed expressions and personal expressions, in which the writer or speaker sets the
tone. The translator should also consider:
if any expression in the SL would sound too formal/ informal, cold/ warm,
personal/ impersonal…if translated literally.For example,
Expressing anger:
The slight figure of maria appeared in the doorway, her eyes flashing,
‘You are late, you are late, you are 23 minutes late.’ Or
‘Don’t you tell me to calm down. You’d like me to be a drudge, wouldn’t you,
to be a slave, to keep silent while you go out drinking and chasing girls all the
nights?’…

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Expressing formal style,
Would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes?
Would you open the door for me, please?
For example: That girl teacher is looking very charming ********
Cô giáo ấy thì trơng rất dun/ đang trơng rất dun
Quả táo này ăn rất ngon
This apple eats very well literal / word-for-word translation
Hôm qua đã khai mạc hội chợ thương mại quốc tế tại Hà Nội
Yesterday opened the world trade Fair in Hanoi. literal translation
Would you mind my smoking in here? formal asking for permission
The translator must find out what the intention of the speaker or writer is. (to
persuade/dissuade, apologize / criticizeif this comes true in translation.)
For example:
Why don’t we go to the movie tonight? suggestion
Would you, please, have another cup of coffee? invitation
2.2.2.4. Source language influence.

One of the most frequent criticism of translation is that ‘it doesn’t sound
natural’. This is because the translator’s thoughts and choice of words are too strongly
moulded by the original text. A good way of shaking off the source language
influence is to set the text aside and translate a few sentences aloud, from memory.
This will suggest natural pattern of thought in the first language, which may not come
to mind when the eye is fixed on the SL text.
- …”Chẳng nói chẳng rằng, ba dang tay bợp tai cho nó một cái đánh ‘bốp’.
Con bé loạng choạng ngã xuống vũng nước bẩn, nước mắt nó ứa ra, chắc là đau lắm.
Con rang chạy lại níu tay ba, nhưng không kịp…”
… “Without a word you (held out your hand and) boxed her ear with a ‘pop’.
The little girl staggered before falling down into the pool of filthy water. Tears started
to her eyes, possibly because of acute pain. I tried to get to the place to prevent you,
but( it was too late) I failed

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“The mosquitoes’ eggs go through four changes, until finally the small
mosquitoes appear…”
…Trứng muỗi phát triển qua bốn thời kỳ/ giai đoạn rồi mới nở thành muỗi con.
2.2.2.5. Style and clarity
The translator should not change the style of the original. But if the text is
sloppily written, or full of tedious repetitions, the translator may, for the reader’s
sake, correct the defects. For example :
… “Phía Nhật Bản hoan nghênh cải cách kinh tế của Việt Nam đạt kết quả tốt.”
… “The Japanese delegation acclaimed the success of Vietnamese economic
reform .
2.2.2.6. Idioms
Idiomatic expressions are notoriously untranslatable. These include similes,
metaphors, proverbs and sayings, jargons, slang, and colloquialisms, and phrasal

verbs. If the expressions cannot be directly translated, try any of the following:
- retain the original word, in inverted comas: ‘….’
- retain the original expression, with a literal explanation in brackets: Indian
summer(dry, hazy weather in late autumn).
- use a close equivalent : talk of the devil = ‘the wolf at the door’ (literally).
- use a non-idiomatic or plain prose translation.The golden rule is: if the idiom
does not work in the L1, do not force it into the translation.
2.2.3. Equivalence in translation
In this point of equivalence in translation, we will discuss about the definition
of equivalence by some professionals and experts. They are Jakobson, Nida (1982)
and Mona Baker (2000).
The comparison of texts in different languages inevitably involves a theory
of equivalence. Equivalence can be said to be the central issue in translation although
its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have
caused heated controversy, and many different theories of the concept of equivalence
have been elaborated within this field in the past fifty years.

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According to Jakobson’s theory, 'translation involves two equivalent messages
in two different codes' (ibid.:233). This theory is essentially based on his semiotic
approach to translation according to which the translator has to recode the ST message
first and then s/he has to transmit it into an equivalent message for the TC.
Nida argued that there are two different types of equivalence, namely
formal equivalence—which in the second edition by Nida and Taber (1982) is
—

referred to as formal correspondence

and dynamic equivalence. Formal

correspondence is quality of translation in which the features of the form of the source
text have been mechanically reproduced in the receptor language. Typically, formal
correspondence distorts the grammatical and stylistic patterns of the receptor
language, and hence distorts the message, so as to cause the receptor to misunderstand
or to labor unduly hard. Dynamic equivalence is defined as quality of a translation in
which the message of the original text has been so transported into the receptor
language that the response of the receptor is essentially like that of the general
receptors. Frequently the form of the original text is changed but as long as the change
follows the rules of back transformation in the source language, of contextual
consistency in the transfer, and of transformation in the receptor language, the
message is preserved and the translation is faithful.
Baker (2010) defined four kinds of equivalents. The first types of equivalences
stated by Baker (2000) are equivalence that can appear at word level and above word
level, when translating from one language into another. Baker acknowledges that, in
a bottom-up approach to translation, equivalence at word level is the first element to
be taken into consideration by the translator. In fact, when the translator starts
analyzing the ST s/he looks at the words as single units in order to find a direct
'equivalent' term in the TL. Baker gives a definition of the term word since it should
be remembered that a single word can sometimes be assigned different meanings
in different languages and might be regarded as being a more complex unit or
morpheme. This means that the translator should pay attention to a number of factors
when considering a single word, such as number, gender and tense (ibid.:11-12). The
second type of equivalence defined by Baker (1992) is grammatical equivalence.

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