Asignment for translation studies and theory

Student: Kieu Thi Thuy Class: Bachelor of English Teacher: Tran Thi Nhi

Answer the following question. Your answer should be 1000 1200 words (3-4 pages). What is translation equivalence? Present the main types of equivalence in translation. Give examples in English and Vietnamese.

Answer: Equivalence is a relationship between two texts in two languages, rather than between the languages themselves. Translation equivalence is the relationship between a source text (ST) and a target text (TT) that allows the TT to be considered as a translation of the ST. For example: A hand has five fingers Tay We need at least 30 hands to finish this process Nhn cng

There are six main types of equivalence in translation 1. Equivalence at word level Word is the smallest unit we would expect to possess individual meaning. There is no one-to-one relationship between word and meaning, word in SL may be expresses by many elements in TL For example: unqualified (adj) in English is expressed by six words khng p ng yu cu in Vietnamese Cock (n) in English is expressed by two words: g trng Morpheme is suggested to describe the minimal formal element of meaning in language, as distinct from word. Morpheme is the minimal formal element of meaning; it can not contain more than one element of meaning and cannot be further analyzed. Morphemes do not always have such clearly defined boundaries. For example: unbelievable is written as one word but consists of three morphemes: un meaning not, believe meaning think that something is true or impossible and able meaning able to be Lexical meaning: According to Cruse, there are four main types of meaning in words and utterances

Propositional meaning: arises from the relation between it and what it refers to or describes in a real world For example: a trouser (qun) is a piece of clothing worn on the lower part of body

Expressive meaning: relate to the speakers feelings or attitudes rather than to what words and utterances refer to. For example: the difference between ugly (xu x) and not good-looking (khng xinh lm) does not lie in their propositional meanings but in the expressive meanings. Both two words are inherently expressive, showing the speakers disapproval of someones attitude. However, the element of disapproval in ugly is stronger than it is in not good-looking. Presupposed meaning: arises from co-occurrence restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before and after a particular lexical unit. For example: * wear shoes a hat earings *drink water: ung nc Take medicine: ung thuc Evoked meaning: arises from dialect and register variation
2. Equivalence above word level

i i eo

giy m vng tai

Collocation is semantically arbitrary restrictions which do not follow logically from the propositional meaning of words. For example: it must be wash your hands (ra tay), shampoo your hair (gi u), brush your teeth (nh rng), grill meat (nng tht) but toast bread (nng bnh m) * Some collocation related pitfalls and problems in translation The engrossing effect of source text patterning

For example: Dont pull my leg Literally meaning: ng ko chn ti Idiomatically: ng chc qu ti Misinterpreting the meaning of a source-language collocation Anh ta mang mt b mt lnh nh tin

For example: He wears a straight face

The tension between accuracy and naturalness

For example: Im going to have a hard drink. (nc hoa qu, siro, etc) Culture-specific collocation

Ti mun mt loi ung nh

For example: less spread language and big Marked collocations in the source text

For example: And then peace broke out. Idioms and fixed expression

For example: beat about the bush (vng vo tam quc) 3. Grammatical equivalence Grammar: is organized along two main dimensions: morphology and syntax. Grammatical structure also differs from lexical structure in that it is more resistant to change. It is difficult to find a notional category which is regularly and uniformly expressed in all languages. Differences in the grammatical structures of the SL and TL often result in some change in the information content of the message during the process of translation. For example: Nhn c hi mt y You look tired c nhn mt

Some major categories is extended to illustrate the kinds of difficulty that translators often encounter because of differences in the grammatical structures of SL and TL: number (student/ students, fox/ foxes, man/ men), gender (son/ daughter, cow/ bull, sow/ bow), person, tense and aspect and voice Word order: is extremely important in translation because it plays a major role in maintaining a coherent point of view and in orienting messages at text level. Text: is the verbal record of communicative event, it is an instance of language in use rather than language as an abstract system of meanings and relations. 4. Textual equivalence: thematic and information structures Thematic structure: The interactional organization of sentences is a clause is a clause consist 2 segments: theme (what the clause is about) and rheme (what speaker says about the theme) For example: A grammatical sequence such as:

Today, he has an important duty that is accompany the President visiting Museum(Hm nay, anh ta c nhim v thp tng ngi ch tch ti thm bo tng) it can be reordered in number of different ways without affecting its propositional content. It can be: Accompanying the Prsident visiting Museum is his important duty today (Thp tng ngi ch tch ti thm bo tng l nhim v quan trng ca anh ta ngy hm nay) A further area in which the notions of theme have proved very useful relates to marked and unmarked structures For example: I gave him a present Unmarked A present was given to him Like thematic structure, information structure is a feature of the context rather than of the language system as such. One can only decide what part of a message is new and what part is given within a linguistic or situational context. For example: What's happening tonight? We're dancing disco in a party new What's happening tonight? We're given What's happening tonight? Were dancing given dancing disco in a party new disco in a party new

Unlike thematic structure, information structure is not realized by the sequencing of element. In unmarked information structure, the information focus falls on something other than the theme. 5. Textual equivalence: cohesion Cohesion is the network of lexical, grammatical and other relations which provide links between various parts of a text Reference is a device which allows the reader/ hearer to trace participants, entities, events, ect in a text. For example: The girl wearing a red hat is my friend. She just came here yesterday Sussan has passed the exam. That brings to her a good job

Unlike reference, substitution and ellipsis are grammatical rather than semantic relationships. In substitution, an item is replaced by another item For example: I'd like a cup of tea. The same to me, please ---> "the same" is a substitute for a cup of tea. Ellipsis involves the omission of an item. In other words, in ellipsis, an item is replaced by nothing. This is a case a leaving something unsaid which is nevertheless understood. For example: These books are mine. Take any.(Tt c sch ny l ca ti, c ly bt k quyn no) (ellipsis item: book after any in second clause) 6. Pramatic equivalence. Cohesion is a network of relation which organize and create a text, cohesion is the network of surface relatons which link words and expressions to other words and expressions in a text, and coherence is the network of conceptual relations which underlie the surface text. No text is inherently coherent or incoherent (Charlolles, 1983: 95) One of the most important notions which have emerged in text studies in recent years is that of implicature - the question of how it is that we come to understand more than is actually said. For example: Do you often use the local swimming pool? Salt harms to my hair --> Implicature: Not often All relevant items falling under the previous headings are avaible to both participants know or assume this to be the case (Grice, 1975:50)