an investigation into loss and gain in english vietnamese translational version of the book

THE UNIVERSITY
DANANG
Da Nang,OF
2019
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRAN THI THU HUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN
IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL
VERSION OF THE BOOK “HAPPY TEACHERS
CHANGE THE WORLD” BY THICH NHAT HANH
AND KATHERINE WEARE

MASTER THESIS IN
LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES
OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Da Nang, 2020


THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES

TRAN THI THU HUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO LOSS AND GAIN
IN ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL
VERSION OF THE BOOK “HAPPY TEACHERS
CHANGE THE WORLD” BY THICH NHAT HANH
AND KATHERINE WEARE

Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
Code: 822.02.01

MASTER THESIS IN
LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES
OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI THU HUONG PhD.

Da Nang, 2020



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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I am deeply grateful for being guided by my supervisor Doctor
Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, who has motivated me throughout the entire process of the
thesis and given all of the constructive and valuable comments, “My beloved
teacher, you always arouse my spirit to do the thesis. Thanks a lot for encouraging
me by your patience and kindness. Words fail to express my thankfulness to you”.
I take this opportunity to extend my special thanks to all of the lecturers of the
English Department, Danang University of Foreign Languages Studies, from whom
I have learnt a lot.
I also want to express my deepest thanks to my sweet family for their endless
great love, motivation, and support. Especially, I would like to send love to my
husband, who is always by my side, listen to me, understand me and help me to
overcome tough times.
This thesis could not have been completed without the assistance and kindness

of many people. I thus would like to give my sincere thanks to all friends who have
directly or indirectly shared with me in this journey, which I cannot mention one by
one. Millions thanks!
Last but not least, I truly realize that this thesis is still far from perfection.
Thus, I will always appreciate for the coming constructive comments from the
readers. Hopefully, this research will give many advantages to all of people who are
fond of discovering the beauty of language, especially translation.


iii

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this study are to identify loss and gain in the Vietnamese
Translation of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World” and examine factors
causing loss and gain in the process of translating from English to Vietnamese. The
study adopts a descriptive approach, using a combination of qualitative and
quantitative data. Firstly, one hundred samples taken from the two books were
examined to see how translation was manifested according to Catford‟s translation
shifts model. The researcher found most of the types suggested by Catford. Then
types of loss and gain were analyzed and described. According to the analysis, loss
was more popular than gain. The most significant process was loss and gain in
meaning, which account for 23 % and 12 % respectively. Totally, the percentage of
this process is 35 %. Additionally, factors causing loss and gain in the process of
translating are presented. Finally, implications and suggestions for further study are
put forward. This master thesis is expected to be helpful for translators, English
teachers and students.
Keywords: Happy teachers change the world, Catford's model, translation
shifts, loss and gain, factors causing loss and gain.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .......................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................. vi
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................vii
Chapter One. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1. RATIONALE ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES............................................................ 2
1.2.1. Aims............................................................................................................ 2
1.2.2. Objectives ................................................................................................... 3
1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 3
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................................. 3
1.5. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS ................................................................................ 3
1.6. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY ................................................................. 4
1.7. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ......................................................... 4
Chapter Two. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE
REVIEW .................................................................................................................... 6
2.1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ..................................................................... 6
2.1.1. What is Translation? ................................................................................... 6
2.1.2. Types of Translation ................................................................................... 8
2.1.3. Principles of Translation ........................................................................... 10
2.1.4. What is Equivalence? ............................................................................... 12
2.1.5. Loss and Gain in Translation .................................................................... 15
2.2. LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................... 17
2.3. SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 20

Chapter three. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ...................... 21


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3.1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................................................... 21
3.2. SAMPLING ....................................................................................................... 22
3.3. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ..................................................................... 22
3.4. DATA COLLECTION....................................................................................... 23
3.5. DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................ 23
Chapter Four. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................. 25
4.1. TYPES OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS ................................................................. 25
4.1.1. Level Shifts ............................................................................................... 25
4.1.2. Category Shifts ......................................................................................... 28
4.2. FREQUENCY OF TRANSLATION SHIFTS .................................................. 36
4.3. TYPES OF LOSS AND GAIN .......................................................................... 36
4.3.1. Loss and Gain in Lexis ............................................................................. 36
4.3.2. Loss and Gain in Structure ....................................................................... 41
4.3.3. Loss and Gain in Meaning ........................................................................ 44
4.3.3.2. Gain in Meaning ........................................................................................... 45
4.5. FREQUENCY OF LOSS AND GAIN .............................................................. 49
4.6. FACTORS AFFECT LOSS AND GAIN IN THE PROCESS OF
TRANSLATING FROM ENGLISH TO VIETNAMESE ....................................... 50
4.5.1. Linguistic Differences .............................................................................. 51
4.5.2. Cultural Features....................................................................................... 52
4.5.3. Religious Dominance ............................................................................... 53
4.6. SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 54
Chapter Five. CONCLUSION – IMPLICATIONS –SUGGESTIONS ............. 56
5.1. CONCLUSIONS OF THE FINDINGS ............................................................. 56
5.2. IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING TRANSLATION ..... 58

5.3. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY ....................................................................... 60
5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .............................................. 60
REFERENCES
QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI LUẬN VĂN (Bản sao)


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Adj

Adjective

Adv

Adverb

N

Noun

NP

Noun phrase

Prep

Preposition

Prep.P

Prepositional phrase

QW

Question word

SL

Source language

ST

Source text

TL

Target language

TT

Target text

V

Verb

VP

Verb phrase

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LIST OF TABLES
Number of
Table

Name of Table

Page

4.1.

Occurrence and Percentage of Shifts in Level Shifts

28

4.2.

Occurrence and Percentage of Shifts

36

4.3.

Occurrence and Percentage of Loss and Gain

50

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Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher presents the reasons for conducting this study.
Besides, fundamental objectives of the study are identified. The research questions,
significance, scope and structure of this paper are also clearly presented in this part.
1.1. RATIONALE
Translation is not just a transference of words or expressions from one
language to another but rather a communication of the meaning and culture of a
source language (SL) text by means of the closest equivalence of a target language
(TL) text (Pym, 2010; Munday 2008; Hatim & Mason, 2005; Bell, 1991; Newmark,
1988; Nida, 1982). Therefore, translators must clearly understand the linguistic
aspects of SL and TL in terms of lexical, semantic, and pragmatic meanings, known
as explicit and implicit meanings. In fact, the translation of the implicit meanings is
one of the most common problems and most difficult tasks that translators usually
face since they lie under the cultural signs. The implicit meaning refers to the
speaker‟s intention rather than literal words. Such meaning can be understood
through the extra-linguistic aspects of language. Moreover, this meaning cannot be
understood literally without taking the socio-cultural and situational contexts into
account (Baker, 2011; Malmkjaer, 2011, Nida, 2001). It represents all aspects of
life, the totality of meanings, ideas, and beliefs shared by individuals among the
same community. Consequently, the ways of translating English into Vietnamese
becomes greatly concerned among readers and translators. This is the primary
reason why the researcher chooses to deeply investigate this field. One of the
central problems in the field of translation is translation shifts. Basing on the theory
of translation shifts, the study analyses loss and gain in the translation process. In
order to remain the original meaning in the source language, the translator might
adopt a variety of approaches to make some changes in the target language. During

this process, loss and gain might occur. According to Peter Newmark (1988), Gain


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refers to the addition of words in the translated texts, while Loss tends to shorten
and simplify the translated texts. It can be seen, loss and gain are popular
phenomena in translation; however, a deep investigation into this field is still
necessary.
Moreover, English has been considered as a key tool to help students go
further in their academic study, develop their profession and integrate into global
world; therefore, teaching and learning English is of considerable importance.
Despite positive changes, teaching and learning English in Vietnam in these days
are still facing a lot of challenges. The English capacity of Vietnamese students still
needs a lot of improvement. According to the executive manager of Project 2020,
98% of Vietnamese students study English for seven years (from grade 6 to grade
12, age 11–18), but cannot use it for basic communication (Nhan, 2013). The
researcher of this study has witnessed that many teachers have tried really hard, even
some teachers suffer from burnouts in classroom but students have shown little
improvement in learning English. This made the researcher have a great desire to do
something to help other teachers through implementing a research related to English
translation of a teaching guide. Among various kinds of books, the researcher uses the
book written by two outstanding educators Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare.
For these above reasons, the researcher decided to conduct this paper entitled
An Investigation into Loss and Gain in English -Vietnamese Translational
Version of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World” by Thich Nhat Hanh
and Katherine Weare, which is translated into Vietnamese by a group of translators
including Chan Hoi Nghiem, Chan Thuan Khanh, Chan Ky Nghiem and Chan Tai
Nghiem.
1.2. RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1. Aims
This research is aimed at finding out loss and gain in the Vietnamese
Translation of the Book “Happy Teachers Change the World”. Additionally, in this


3

study, implications and suggestions are put forward in order that English teachers,
students, translators and scholars can benefit from this research.
1.2.2. Objectives
The objectives of the present research paper are as follows:
- To identify the loss and gain occurring in the Vietnamese translation of the
book “Happy Teachers Change the World”.
- To examine factors causing loss and gain in the process of translating from
English to Vietnamese
1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study focuses on the translation of the book: “Happy Teachers Change
the World” by Thich Nhat Hanh and Katherine Weare. In this study, loss and gain
are identified, analyzed and discussed. Additionally, translation shifts are figured
out to see how the ST and TT are different.
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In an attempt to achieve the above mentioned objectives, the current research
seeks to answer the following questions:
- What kind of loss and gain can be found in the Vietnamese translation of
English in the book “Happy Teachers Change the World”?
- What affects loss and gain in the process of translating from English to
Vietnamese?
1.5. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Translation shifts
In his book, “A Linguistic Theory to Translation”, Catford (1965, p.73)

defines shifts as departures from formal correspondence when translating from the
SL to the TL. Moreover, he divides shifts into two main types including level shifts
and category shifts. The first one is level shifts in which a grammatical item in the
SL is expressed using a word in the TL or vice versa, for instance: grammar to lexis
or lexis to grammar. The second one is category shifts, which include structureshifts, class-shifts, unit-shifts, intra-system shifts.


4

Loss and Gain in Translation
Baker (1992: 40) refers to loss as "omission of a lexical item due to
grammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language". If the meaning
conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development
of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can
and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question.
Gain, on the other hand, is very rare, if ever, because, as Bassnett (2002)
points out, translation theoreticians as well as practitioners are mainly concerned
with matters of equivalence and the like, “Ignoring what can also be gained, for the
translator can at times enrich or clarify the SL text. Moreover, what is often seen as
„lost‟ from the SL context may be replaced in the TL context”.
1.6. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY
The investigation of this nature is unlikely to have been done in Vietnam
before; therefore, a research in this area is not a pure repetition of previous research
but is expected to shed some light on the theoretical as well as practical issues in
translation studies.
1.7. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The paper consists of five chapters as follows:
 Chapter One - “Introduction” - includes the rationale, justification for the
study, scope of the study, aims and objectives, research questions, definition of
terms and the organization of the study.

 Chapter Two - “Literature Review and Theoretical Background” presents a review on previous studies in the area of translation shifts, loss and gain.
The theoretical background related to the thesis is also provided.
 Chapter Three - “Research Design and Methodology” - shows the research
methods, data collection, data analysis and research procedures of the study.
 Chapter Four - “Findings and Discussions” - the main section of the study,
reports on the analysis of the data collected to answer research questions.


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 Chapter Five - “Conclusion – Implications – Recommendations” –
summarizes the major findings of the study. In addition, some implications for
better understanding of translational book are drawn, as well as some
recommendations for further studies suggested.


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Chapter Two
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
AND LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter describes the theoretical background for this study. This chapter
represents conceptual framework of previous studies related to the concepts of
translation, equivalence, translation shift, loss and gain. The final part summarizes
the chapter and highlights the research gaps in which this study locates itself.
2.1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1.1. What is Translation?
The concept of translation has been of particular concern to researchers since it
plays an important part in all aspects of life such as art, literature especially in
language teaching and learning. Translation has been defined in a variety of ways.

Translation according to the 8th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary
is: “The process of changing something that is written or spoken into another
language. It is an expression in another language; it is a creative and meaningful
rewriting and subsuming activities such as paraphrasing, reviewing, commenting
etc” (p. 1573). The English word "translation" derives from the Latin word
translatio, (Vélez, Fabio. Antes de Babel, pp.3–21) which comes from trans,
"across" + ferre, "to carry" or "to bring" (-latio in turn coming from latus, the past
participle of ferre). Thus translatio is "a carrying across" or "a bringing across": in
this case, of a text from one language to another (Christopher Kasparek, "The
Translator's Endless Toil", p. 83.). According to Mayoral (2001, p. 45), there are as
many definitions as there are authors who have written on the subject. Such
diversity is due to the fact that translation is a multifaceted term. It can refer to: a)
the general subject field, b) the product (the text that has been translated) or, c) the
process (the act of actually carrying out a translation, otherwise known as
translating) (Munday, 2001, pp. 4-5)


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A number of scholars have presented their own views of translation definition.
Translation is an act of communication which attempts to relay, across cultural and
linguistic boundaries, another act of communication. (Hatim and Mason, 1997: p1).
Translation is to be understood as the process whereby a message expressed in a
specific source language is linguistically transformed in order to be understood by
readers of the target language"(Houbert1998, p1). Translation involves the transfer
of meaning from a text in one language into a text in another language. (Bell, 1991,
p.8). Translation is a process of communication whose objective is to import the
knowledge of the original to the foreign reader (Levy, 1967, p.148). Translation is
the act of transferring through which the content of a text is transferred from the SL
into the TL. (Foster, 1958, p. 1). Translation is a transfer process, which aims at the

transformation of a written SL text into an optimally equivalent TL text, and which
requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical
processing of the SL. (Wilss, 1982, p. 3). Translation is the replacement of text
material of this language (source language) with text material of another (target
language) (Cartford, 1965, p. 20).
Translation is considered as a science, an art, and also a skill (Chukovskii,
1984; Newmark, 1988; Miremadi, 1991; Zaixi, 1997). In a scientific sense, it
requires full background understanding of the structures of the languages (Toury,
1982). In terms of art, it necessitates the artistic talent to transfer the ST to be an
accessible product to the readers of another language (Miremadi, 1991; Chukovskii,
1984). On the aspect of skill, it associates with the acts of smoothing to overcome
any difficulties in the translation process, and also introduces the translation of what
does not exist in the TL (Zaixi, 1997; Newmark, 1988).
As a discipline, the name “translation studies” was proposed by the scholar
James Holmes (1972). This term was widely accepted because it considered
translation as a broad discipline moving emphasis to other areas of translation such
as interpreting and translator training. Translation is not simply the process of filling
the linguistic gaps between the ST and the TT, but also the „spaces psycho


8

physiological encounter with the text‟ (Scott, 2006, p. 4). In other words, the
process of comprehension should go ahead before embarking upon translation
(Seleskovitch, 1976).
Leppihalme (1997) states that translation is a skill to fill the intercultural gaps
and intertextual communication of the cultural bumps. Evans (2008, p. 155) says
that „a translation is the performance of the source text in a different language‟.
Another classic way to define translation is to find the equivalents in the TL for the
words in the original one (Sa'edi, 2004). Sharing the same point of view, Nord

(2007, p. 182) states that „translation is the production of a functional TT
maintaining relationship with a given ST that is specified according to the intended
or demanded function of the TT‟. She highlights the role of culture in translation
arguing that culture is more important than language because it affects the way
people understand each other. In her opinion, if the translator does not know a
country‟s cultural codes, the best way is not to translate a text.
In my view, translation is the process of creating an equivalent version in the
TL to not only transfer the meaning of the work in the SL, but also deliver its
cultural values.
2.1.2. Types of Translation
Translation has been defined in a variety of ways by different scholars in the
field, depending on their perceptions and how they look at translation in a specific
context. According to Larson (1984, p. 15) translation is classified into two main
types, namely form-based translation and meaning-based translation. Forms-based
translation attempts to follow the form of the source language (SL) and it is known
as literal translation, while meaning-based translation makes every effort to
communicate the meaning of the SL text in the natural forms of the receptor
language. Such translation is called idiomatic translation. A literal translation
sounds like nonsense and has little communication value (Larson, 1984, p.15).
Literal translation can be understood if the general grammatical form of the two
languages is similar. Larson (1984, p. 16) says that idiomatic translations use the


9

natural forms of the receptor language both in the grammatical constructions and in
the choices of lexical items. A truly idiomatic translation does not sound like
translation. It sounds like it was written originally in the receptor language.
Therefore, a good translator will try to translate idiomatically. This is his/her goal.
Catford (1965, p. 21) divides translation into 3 elements including extent,

level, and ranks.
Based on the extent, the types of translation are:
1) Full translation, it is a type of translation in which the entire SL text is
reproduced by the TL text materials.
2) Partial translation, there are only some parts of the SL text to be translated
into the TL text.
In terms of level, the types of translation include:
1) Total translation, the TL material replaces all levels of the SL text.
2) Restricted translation, it is the replacement of SL textual material with
equivalent TL material at only one level; whether at the phonological level, graph
logical level, or at the level of grammar and lexis.
In terms of rank, translation is divided into:
1) Rank-bound translation: The selection of TL text equivalent is limited at
only one rank, such as word-for-word equivalence, morpheme-for-morpheme
equivalence, etc.
2) Unbounded translation: Translation can move freely up and down the rankscale.
Based on the purposes of translation, Brislin in Choliludin (2007, pp 26-30)
categorizes translation into four types, namely:
1) Pragmatic translation refers to the translation of a message with an interest
in accuracy of the information that was meant to be conveyed in the SL form and it
is not conveyed with other aspects of the original language version, for example, the
translation of the information about repairing a machine.


10

2) Aesthetic-poetic translation refers to translation in which the translator
takes into account the affect, emotion, and feeling of an original version, the
aesthetic form used by the original author, as well as any information in the
message, for example, the translation of sonnet, rhyme, heroic couplet, dramatic

dialogue, and novel.
3) Ethnographic translation: its purpose is to explicate the cultural context of
the SL and TL versions. Translators have to be sensitive to the way words are used
and must know how the word fits into cultures.
4) Linguistic translation is concerned with equivalent meanings of the
constituent morphemes of the SL and grammatical form, for example, language in a
computer program and translation machine.
Classification of translation in Brislin‟s viewpoint is varied, depending on the
purposes of the translators and how they are going to render the meaning of the
original text into target language to fit their objectives. Remarkably, this author
mentions factors in aesthetic-poetic translation, in which the translator expresses his
or her emotion or feeling.
2.1.3. Principles of Translation
Duff (1989, p10-11) proposes some general principles which are supposed to
be relevant to all translations.
1. 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. The following questions will be very helpful.
a. Is the meaning of the original text clear?
b. If not, where does the uncertainty lie?
c. Are any words loaded, that is, are there any underlying implications?
d. Is the dictionary meaning of a particular word the most suitable one?
e. Does anything in the translation sound unnatural or forced?
2. The ordering of words and ideas in the translation should match the original
as closely as possible. (This is probably essential in translating legal documents,


11

guarantees, contracts, etc). But differences in language structure often require

changes in the form and order of words.
3. Languages often differ greatly in their level of formality in a specific context.
To resolve these differences, the translator must distinguish between formal or fixed
expressions and personal expressions in which the writer or speaker sets the tone.
4. Many translations do not sound natural. This is because the translator‟s
thoughts and choices of words are too strongly influenced by the original text. A
good way to avoid this is to set the text aside and translate a few sentences from
memory in order to get the natural patterns of thought in the target language.
5. The translator should not change the style of the original as much as
possible. Changes are likely to happen if it necessary such as, many repetitions or
mistakes in writing.
6. Idiomatic expressions including similes, metaphors, proverbs, sayings,
jargon, slang, colloquialisms, and phrasal verbs are commonly hard to translate. To
solve this problem, try any of the following.
a. Keep the original word between inverted commas.
b. Keep the original expression, with a literal explanation in brackets.
c. Use a close equivalent.
d. Use a non-idiomatic or plain prose translation.
But what is the most essential is that if the idiom does not work in the target
language; translators should not put it into the translation.
Duff mentions that his book is not a theoretical work; instead, it's a teachingresource handbook. The principles he proposes from my point of view are open to
some degree of question or debate. Especially principle number 5, in which he
claims that the translator should not change the style of the original. As there are
many differences between ST and TT, translators need to make some adjustments to
make the translated texts more appropriate.


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2.1.4. What is Equivalence?

As a necessary component of translation theories in the 1960s and 1970s,
equivalence was meant to indicate that source text and target text, share some kind
of sameness. Equivalence can be seen at various levels, from word to textual level.
Equivalence may occur due to semantic, socio-cultural, and grammatical sameness
between the source language and the target language. Therefore, equivalence can be
divided into different types as presented in the next part.
2.1.4.1. Types of Equivalence
Equivalence is classified in different ways. According to Nida (2001, p 41)
divides equivalence is divided into two types. The first is formal equivalence, which
focuses on the message of a text, both in its form and content. The main
consideration is the message in the target language should closely match as good as
possible to the different elements in the source language.
- Formal equivalence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and
content. It requires that the message in the target language should match as closely
as possible the different elements in the source language.
- Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where
the relationship between the receptor and message should be substantially the same
as that which existed between the original receptors and the message.
Baker (1992, p.5) categorizes equivalence into following classes at the level of
word, phrase, grammar, text and pragmatics:
- Equivalence at word level: explores the meaning of single word.
- Above word level: explores a group of words, combinations of words and
phrases (stretches of language)
- Grammatical equivalence: explores grammatical relationship. Baker explains
that the difference of grammar could cause the missing or adding of information in
the translated message, depending on grammatical features, such as number, tense,
voice, person, or gender.


13

-Textual equivalence: explores the aspects of information and cohesion of text
in translation. Baker argues that there are three main factors influencing the ways
how the translators render the meaning of the text including target audience, the
purpose of translation, and text types.
- Pragmatic equivalence: explores lexical relationship linked to various parts
of text, and on how texts are positioned in communicative situations. Pragmatic
equivalence is affected by many aspects such as writers‟ style and cultural context.
For example: how texts are used in communicative situations that involve variables
such as writers, readers, and cultural settings.
Different from the point of view of Baker, who mainly focuses on the
pragmatics and grammatical features of text in setting equivalence, Munday (2001,
p. 47), whose approach is based on the concepts of context and discourse describes
these five different types of equivalence as follows:
 Denotative equivalence is related to equivalence of the extra
linguistic content of a text. Denotative equivalence is one in which
the SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the real world. This
is the referential identity between SL and TL units. This is
equivalence of the extra linguistic content of a text, otherwise called
„content invariance.” For instance, a tiger, Eiffel Tower
 Connotative equivalence is related to the lexical choices, especially
between near-synonyms. The connotation transmitted by means of
the word choices (especially where there is a specific choice
between synonymous expressions), with respect to level of style, the
social and geographical dimension, frequency, etc. It is also called
“Stylistic equivalence”.
 Text-normative equivalence is related to text types, with texts
behaving in different ways. Text – normative equivalence relates to
text-type specific features or text and language norms for given text
types.

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 Pragmatic equivalence, or 'communicative equivalence', is oriented
towards the receiver of the text or message.
 Formal equivalence is related to the form and aesthetics of the text,
includes word plays and the individual stylistic features of the
source text. It focuses on the form of the text: rhythm, verse form,
special stylistic forms of expression in syntax and lexis, word play,
metaphor…It is particularly common in translation of poems, songs,
etc and this type of equivalence is also called „expressive
equivalence”.
While efforts have been made to identify and establish equivalence among
languages, some scholars observe linguistic and cultural transfer in terms of shifts
and loss and gain, which are the key concepts employed in this study. The next
section presents Catford‟s shifts and types of losses and gains.
2.1.4.2. Catford ‘s Shifts
In the book “A Linguistic Theory to Translation”, Catford introduced
translation shifts, which was his considerable contribution to the translation theory.
Catford (1965, p.73) defines them as departures from formal correspondence when
translating from the SL to the TL. Moreover, he maintains that there are two main
types of translation shifts, level shifts and category shifts.
The first one is level shifts in which an SL item at one linguistic level, for
example grammar, has a TL equivalent at a different level, for instance lexis. The
second one is category shifts with four sub-types (Catford, 1965, pp. 75-78):
- Structure-shifts, which involve a grammatical change between the structure
of the ST and that of the TT; for instance: a passive voice structure in ST is changed
into an active voice in TT.
- Class-shifts, when a SL item is translated with a TL item which belongs to a

different grammatical class, a noun phrase may be translated with an adjective
phrase. For example: the noun phrase “Greater fierceness” in English was translated
into “hung tợn hơn”, an adjective in Vietnamese.


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- Unit-shifts, which involve changes in rank; in which the translation of a unit
at one rank in the SL is a unit at different rank in the TL.
- Intra-system shifts, refers to the shifts that occurs internally, within the
system; that is for those cases where the source and the target language possess
systems which approximately correspond formally as to their constitution, but
when translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the target
language system.
Obviously, shifts bring about certain changes in the translation including
loss and gain.
2.1.5. Loss and Gain in Translation
Due to differences between the source language and the target language, there
are loss and gain in translation. Basnett-McGuire (1991) states that once the
principle is accepted that sameness cannot exist between the two languages, it is
possible to approach the question of loss and gain in the translation process (p.30).
Bell (1991, p.6) suggests a similar point that 'something' is always lost or, one might
suggest, gained in the process. Sharing the same view with Bell, Nida (1975, p.27)
stresses that all types of translation involve loss of information, addition of
information. Additionally, Nida adds one more element, which is skewing of
information. Skewing of information can be explained that when rendering the
meaning of the message from the source language into the target language, an exact
equivalence is not achieved.
Therefore, perfect equivalence between two languages is hardly achieved and
there are necessarily some losses and gains during the act of transferring.

2.1.5.1. The Concept of Loss
According to Dickins (2002, p. 21) translation loss refers to “the incomplete
replication of the ST in TT when translator fails to render the entire culturally
relevant and linguistic features of the (TT).
Baker (1992, p. 40) refers to loss as "omission of a lexical item due to
grammatical or semantic patterns of the receptor language". If the meaning


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conveyed by a particular item or expression is not vital enough to the development
of the text to justify distracting the reader with lengthy explanations, translators can
and often do simply omit translating the word or expression in question.
The notion of loss in translation was defined by Nozizwe and Ncube (2014, p.
676) as “the disappearance of certain features in the (TL) text which are present in
the (SL) text”, which means the discrepancies between the two linguistic systems
cause some elements of the ST such as its characteristics and information contained
within to vanish during the process of transferring to the TT. As a result, the effects
of the ST will not be the same.
2.1.5.2. The Concept of Gain
Gain is a notion that relates to the situation “where the (TT) gains features not
present in the (ST)” (Louise, Michael &Sandor, 2005,p. 16). Sallis (2002, p. 89)
notes that gain “could only be a matter of expressing the meaning to a greater
degree in the translation as compared with the original”. Bassnett- McGuire (2002,
p. 30) says that language can gain through explanations when saying “The translator
can at times enrich or clarify the source language text as a direct result of the
translation process. Moreover, what is often seen as lost from the source language
context maybe replaced in the target language context”. Similarly, Nozizwe and
Ncube (2014, 672) affirm that “gain revolves around the enrichment of the target
language”.

2.1.6. Types of Loss and Gain
Loss and gain has been one of the main issues in the translation studies for
many years. However, there are not many scholars focusing on classifying types of
loss and gain. The definition and application of loss and gain have been presented in
general. According to Tiwiyanti and Retnomurti, (2016, p. 2) in the study “Loss and
Gain in Translation of Culture-Specific Items in Ahmad Tohari‟s Lintang
Kemukus”, there are two kinds of losses. The first one is inevitable loss. It occurs
because of the divergent systems of the two languages regardless of the skill and
competence of the translator. In this case, the translator usually cannot establish