ASSESSING CULTURE-SPECIFIC REFERENCES IN A LITERARY

TEXT: A CASE OF HARRY POTTER’S JOURNEY FROM ENGLISH

TO VIETNAMESE
M.A. Trieu Thu Hang
University of Languages and International Studies, VNU, Hanoi
Email: trieuthuhang91@gmail.com
Cellphone: 84-944 811 991
Abstract: The study aims to assess the Vietnamese translation of English culture-specific
references (CSRs) in a literary text. To fulfill the purpose, House’s functional-pragmatic
model (2015), incorporated with Attitudinal resources of Appraisal Theory by Martin and
White (2005), is adopted as the analytical framework for assessment. The data were taken
from “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2014) and its Vietnamese translation “Harry
Potter và Hòn đá phù thuỷ” (2016). For in-depth analysis, the present study focuses on three
categories of CSRs, namely proper names, forms of address and geographical dialects. The
research findings reveal that functions are partly lost during the process of rendering English
literary proper names and dialects into Vietnamese. It is unavoidable due to linguistic and
cultural differences between English and Vietnamese. By contrast, the Vietnamese translation
of forms of address shows the translator’s attempt in selecting the appropriate personal
pronouns among the diverse system of personal pronouns in Vietnamese to produce a natural
translation in accordance with situational and cultural contexts. Grounded on research
findings, strategies for English-Vietnamese translation of proper names, forms of address and
geographical dialects are proposed. After operating House’s model in the context of English-
Vietnamese translation, the study proves effectiveness of incorporating Attitudinal resources
of Appraisal Theory into House’s model (2015) in order to explore the implied attitude of the
source text writer embedded in the original, serving the benefits of translation assessment in
practice.
Key words: literary proper names, forms of address, dialects, translation quality assessment,
literary translation

I. Rationale and research aim

Literary texts display numerous linguistic peculiarities, as well as social and cultural
aspects of our lives. Among countless challenges in the process of translating literary
texts, translating culture-specific references (hereafter CSRs) is unarguably as an
arduous task. The main pathway of this paper is assessing the Vietnamese translation
of English CSRs in a literary text in order to enhance the cultural translation quality. In
this study, the literary text entitled “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
(hereafter HPPS) and its Vietnamese translation are selected. To fulfill the purpose, the
Vietnamese translation of English CSRs in “HPPS” (2014) is assessed from the
vantage point of House’s functional-pragmatic model (2015). After operating House’s
model in the context of English-Vietnamese translation, theoretical modifications for
English-Vietnamese translation context are drawn out because this model is originally
developed for English-German language pair.

III. Literature review

3.1 Culture-specific references
Cultural-specific references (Gambier, 2007, p. 159) refer to different aspects of every
day life such as education, politics, history, art, institutions, legal systems, units of
measurement, place names, foods and drinks, sports and national pastimes, as
experienced in different countries and nations of the world. For in-depth analysis, the
present study focuses on three categories of CSRs, namely proper names, forms of
address and geographical dialect. Proper names, forms of address and dialects are
significant linguistic aspects of culture.

- Proper names
Generally, a proper name is “a name for an individual person, place, or organization
having an initial capital letter” (Oxford Concise English Dictionary, 2001, p. 1146).
Proper names cover many categories of names of persons, animals, companies,
geographical places, etc. In literary works, proper names are significant because of
their special meanings, contribution to characterization, functions and effects in the
whole text.

- Forms of address
The use of addressing forms expresses the culture of the community using that
language. While the number of English personal pronouns is seven (Quirk &
Greenbaum, 1973), the number of Vietnamese ones is twenty (Nguyễn Thiện Giáp,
2004). The use of addressing forms depends on a number of contextual factors,
including social status, social role relationship, and social attitude in specific
communicative situations. There are various forms of address, and the present study
focuses on assessing the Vietnamese translation of the universal “I-You” in English.
- Geographical dialects
Dialects are among the most intriguing issues for translation, proving the bond between
the linguistic usage and the cultural context. Dialects cover temporal dialects,
sociolects, idiolects and geographical dialects. In literary works, dialects can be
employed for various purposes, including showing differences in social status and
education, revealing ethnic and cultural identity, characterizing protagonists, and
manifesting a protagonist a member of a certain subculture.

In this study, the novel “HPPS” is set in both an imaginary world and a real world of
the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the
official name of the United Kingdom or the Britain, which refers to four nations,
namely England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The U.K is off the northwest
coast of Europe. It consists of Northern dialects, Midland dialects, East Anglia dialects,
Southern dialects and West Country dialects. Received Pronunciation is regarded as the
Standard English in the U.K, which is spoken in the South of England.

Concerning the context of Vietnamese translation “Harry Potter và Hòn đá phù thuỷ”,
Vietnam is an S-shaped strip of land stretching from the eastern coast of the Indochina
peninsula. Vietnamese is a tonal monosyllabic language of the South-Asian (Austro-
Asiatic) family (Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh, 1994; Hoàng Văn Vân, 2012). It consists of three
main dialects, namely northern of Hanoi dialect, central and southern. Generally, Hanoi
dialect has been the most widely accepted as a sort of standard (Nguyễn Kim Thản,
1977; Hoàng Văn Vân, 2012).

3.2 House’s functional-pragmatic model for translation assessment

- Operation of House’s model (2015)
House (2015) highlights that translation is the preservation of meaning across two
different languages and cultures. The two terms “context of situation” and “context of
culture” are made clear in relation to House’s model (2015). Context of situation refers
to the environment, time and place in which the word, phrase, sentence or discourse
occurs and the relationship between the participants. Context of culture refers to
culture, customs, and background in language communities in which the speakers
participate. House’s updated model (2015) operates on three levels, Language/ text;
Register (Field, Tenor, Mode), Genre and Function of the individual text. The updated
model (2015) is operationalized as follows:
 Individual textual function

Register Genre
(Generic purpose)

Field Tenor Mode

+ medium
Subject matter Participant (simple/complex)
social action relationship + connectivity
CORPUS
+author’s provenance
+ social relationship STUDIES
+ social attitude
+ participation

Language/Text

Diagram 1. House’s model (2015, p.127)

It can be seen from Diagram 1 that the operation of House’s model (2015) starts from
the notion of “text”. The analysis of text in context of situation is realized through
register analysis of Field, Tenor and Mode. Within Register, Field refers to the
ongoing activity. Tenor refers to the relationship between participants in terms of
social power, social distance, social attitude, including the text producer’s temporal,
geographical, social provenance and his/ her viewpoint. Language is a social
phenomenon; thus, language is inevitably influenced by social factors like social
power, social distance, and social attitude. Mode captures Medium, the channel of
communication being used. Medium means both channel of being either writtenness or
spokenness and Connectivity (coherence and cohesion). Moreover, the term “genre” is
used in relation with text to refer to particular text types (Derewianka, 1990, p. 18).
The genre of a text is partly determined by the culture in which the text is used since
different cultures achieve their purposes through language in different ways.

3.2.2 Reasons for choosing House’s model as the analytical framework

House’s model is adopted as the analytical frame in this study for the following
reasons. Firstly, this model can be applied to assess the translation quality of numerous
text types including scientific texts, commercial texts, journalistic articles, tourist
information booklets, fictional and non-fictional texts. In House (1977, 1997), this
model was put to an empirical test with a corpus of eight authentic English and German
textual pairs to pilot and prove its applicability towards the aforementioned text types.
Secondly, House’s model is “a particularly good example of how the consideration of
macro- and micro-level phenomena can be integrated, rather than separated and
opposed to each other, in analysis” (Steiner, 1998, p. 17). In House’s model, the source
text (hereafter ST) and target text (hereafter TT) are judged on both “micro-level”
(lexico-grammatical features) and macro-level (register and genre). Macro-level
categories such as genre and register are not neglected but serve as an important
function in the generation and the interpretation of results. Thirdly, House
demonstrates that her linguistic approach to translation assessment includes not only
textual, situational but also cultural aspects. Language is governed by numerous
situational and cultural factors including society, identity, attitude, the values and
beliefs of participants, and the relationship of participants. As stated, the research
purpose is to assess English-Vietnamese translation of CSRs in a literary text;
therefore, the situational and cultural contexts of using CSRs play a crucial role in this
study.

- Reasons for incorporating Appraisal theory (2005) into House’s model

As a reminder, the notion of Tenor in House’s model refers to the way in which
linguistic choices are affected by not only the subject of communication but also the
social relationship and social attitude of participants in which the communication is
taking place.

Linking with Appraisal Theory by Martin and White (2005), it should be noted that
appraisal [… construes] interpersonal meaning (Martin and White, 2005, p. 34).
Appraisal Theory is a sub-system of systemic functional linguistic for exploring,
describing, and explaining the way language is used to evaluate, adopt stance, and
construct interpersonal positioning and relationships (White and Eldon, 2012).
Therefore, attitudinal resources of Appraisal Theory are relevant for exploring
viewpoint, attitude, feelings and emotions of the ST author within Tenor variable of
House’s model. Within Appraisal Theory, Attitude construes feelings, emotions and
values, which can be classified into three types:
Affect refers to resources for construing emotional reactions positive or negative
feelings. Affect can be investigated via three main variables, namely un/happiness,
in/security, dis/satisfaction.
Judgement refers to resources for construing assessing behavior according to
normative principles. While Affect has positive and negative dimension, Judgement is
divided into social esteem and social sanction. According to Martin (2000, p. 156),
Judgements of esteem have to do with normality (how unusual someone is), capacity
(how capable someone is) and tenacity (how resolute someone is). Judgements of
sanction have to do with veracity (how truthful someone is) and propriety (how ethical
someone is).
Appreciation refers to resources for construing the values of things (evaluation of
natural phenomenon). Like Affect and Judgment, Appreciation has a positive and
negative dimension. There are three variables in Appreciation, including reaction,
composition and valuation (Martin, 2000, p. 160). Reaction has to do with the
emotional impact that the text/ process has on us. Composition has to do with our
perceptions of proportionality and detail in a text/ process. Valuation has to do with our
assessment of the social significance of the text/ process. Overall, Appreciation is
concerned with people making assessment on the form, appearance, construction,
presentation or impact of objects and entities (White, 2001, p.1).
To put it in a nutshell, Affect, Judgment and Appreciation are three indispensable parts
to constitute Attitude subsystem as an effective means to investigate people feelings
and positioning.

IV. Methodology
This study serves a descriptive and evaluative study in dealing with three categories of
CSRs, namely literary proper names, forms of address and geographical dialects. The
data were taken from “HPPS” (2014) by J. K. Rowling, and its comparative
Vietnamese translation is “Harry Potter và Hòn đá phù thuỷ” (2016) published by Trẻ
Publishing House translated by Lý Lan. Both Harry Potter saga and HPPS have been
translated into nearly 80 languages and gained notable literary prizes across the globe
since 1997, which merits the research attention. For the Genre of “HPPS”, the primary
ingredient is Children’s Literature. The magical content and context also shows a
strong sense of fantasy and adventure genre.
V. Findings and discussion
5.1 Proper names
- ST analysis
- Field: The author tells the story of the protagonist Harry Potter, a young wizard
studying first year at the Hogwarts School of Wizards. The narrative covers the subject
matters of boarding school life, mysteries, adventures, battle between the good and the
evil that are set in both the real-life British context and the fantasy wizarding world.
Proper names in HPPS perform the multiple functions of displaying the traits of the
characters and carrying connotations. Draco Malfoy is one of Harry’s enemies at
Hogwarts wizard school who desires to boast about his power. Consider the following
example related to the case of “Draco Malfoy”.

- Tenor
- Author’s provenance
Regarding the name Draco Malfoy, “Draco” is deeply rooted in Latin for dragon.
Within “malfoy”, “mal” is an English prefix to provoke something bad. There is a
plenty of examples containing the prefix “mal” to convey the meaning of “bad” such as
“malnutrition-a poor condition of health”, “maltreat-to be very cruel to a person or an
animal”, “malpractice-careless behavior while in a professional job”. Regarding “foy”
in “malfoy”, “foy” means “faith” in French.
- Social role relationship: symmetrical between the author and readership.
-Author’s attitude:
In line with Literature Review, Appraisal Theory is adopted in order to explore the ST
writer’s attitude towards “dragon” embedded in the name Draco Malfoy.
Appraising Context Attitude
items in Affect Judgment Appreciation
English
2 outlawed dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks’ -
Convention of 1709 propriety
 3 dangerous It’s hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're -
keeping dragons in the back garden-anyway, you reaction
4 worry can’t tame dragons, it’s dangerous -
So now they had something else to worry about: insecurity
5 illegal what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out -
he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut valuation
7 not exactly It wasn’t exactly pretty; Harry thought it looked -
pretty like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings reaction
8 skinny were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a -
long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and reaction
9 bulging bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple of -
sparks flew out of its snout. reaction
1 horrible “I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. -
0 I tell you, that dragon’s the most horrible animal reaction
I’ve ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it,
you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When
it bit me he told me off for frightening it.
1 illegal I think the best thing will be to send him over with -
1 some friends of mine who are coming to visit me valuation
next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying
an illegal dragon.
1 bad Norbert had been bad enough... -
2 dissatisfaction
Table 1. Author’s attitude for “dragon” via Appraisal Theory
The above finding is in line with previous studies about cultural meaning of “dragon”
in Western culture. In Western culture, dragon stems from the image of Satan in the
Bible, and it is associated with the evil (Compagnone and Danesi, 2013; Nguyễn Văn
Trào, 2014); thus, “dragon” provoke negative connotation. Furthermore, “dragon” has
the disapproving connotation, especially in British English, referring to a woman who
behaves in an aggressive and frightening manner (ODE). In short, the above analysis
reveals that the name “Draco Malfoy” itself carries semantic meaning and provokes
negative connotation in Western culture.

Moreover, there is a tied bond between the proper name and the traits of the character
in this literary text. To illustrate for this point, an analysis of ST writer’s attitude
towards the personality of Draco Malfoy via Appraisal Theory is shown as follows:
Appraising Context Attitude
items in Affect Judgment Appreciation
English
 1 Pale “Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle,” said -
the pale boy carelessly, noticing where reaction
2 carelessly Harry was looking. “And my name’s -
Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.” tenacity
3 boastful ST: Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a -
lot. He complained loudly about first years reaction
never getting on the house Quidditch teams
and told long, boastful stories that always
seemed to end with him narrowly escaping
Muggles in helicopters.
4 Jealous Then he’d realized that nobody found this -
funny, because they were all so impressed dissatisfaction
5 angry at the way Harry had managed to stay on his -
unhappiness
bucking broomstick. So Malfoy, jealous
and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry
about having no proper family.

Table 2. ST writer’s implied attitude towards the character Draco Malfoy via Appraisal Theory
The analysis of the case “Draco Malfoy” shows that this literary proper name in HPPS
perform the various functions of displaying the traits of the character and carrying
connotation. Apart from this name, there is a number of literary proper names in HPPS
carrying connotation and providing the information associated with the literary
characters (Eg: Voldemort, Quirrel, Snape, Albus Dumbledore, etc).

- Comparison between ST-TT and statement of quality

Although the proper name “Draco Malfoy” carries meaning, this proper name remains
non-translated, which reveals functional loss in the TT. There are different schools of
thoughts in dealing with literary proper names. Firstly, some scholars (Brondsted and
Dollerup, 2010; Catford 1965, Fasheng, 2002 and Cui, 2013) assert that proper names
are almost untranslatable. The research findings of previous studies (Brondsted and
Dollerup, 2010; Catford 1965; Fasheng, 2002; Compagnone and Danesi, 2012; and
Cui, 2013) underpin that the names in Harry Potter novel are almost untranslatable
because they are constructed with the “Britishness” that is specific to historical naming
practices in English literature. As investigated by Brondsted and Dollerup (2010), these
literary names in HPPS are also directly transferred from English into the translation of
Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German and Italian. However, it should be noted that
these languages belong to the same group of Indo-European language. Therefore, the
meaning as well as connotation can still partly be conveyed from English to Danish,
Swedish, Norwegian, German and Italian translated version, which is different from
the case of translating from English to Vietnamese. For the second school of thought,
Juzeleniene, Petroniene and Kopylova (2016, p.1) argue that: “all languages have
particular personal names, some of which are deeply rooted in the culture of the
speakers of the specific language; consequently, they can pose unique difficulties in the
comprehension of culture-specific texts. It is interesting to note that some personal
names have various allusions indicating sex, age, geographical belonging, history,
specific meaning, playfulness of language and cultural connotations when omitting this
implied information results in unacceptable translation”.

On the one hand, I agree that literary proper names should be preserved within the
main text for the following reasons. First and foremost, the findings of the proper name
in this study show that it is “tied in a specific manner to the SL community and its
culture, and is often specifically directed at source culture addressees” (House, 2015, p.
68); therefore, translating overtly is inevitable. Secondly, it is understandable that
translating proper names poses aching challenges for the translator due to the linguistic
and cultural differences between the ST and the TT. While English language belongs to
the Indo-European language family, and the Vietnamese language belongs to Austro-
Asiatic family. Thirdly, the non-translation of proper names serves to perpetuate the
far-flung European fragrance as well as brings the exoticism to the target Vietnamese
readers. Accordingly, translating overtly the literary proper names escorts the
Vietnamese readers to the European culture. On this account, translation contributes to
the cultural interaction in a globalizing world and motivates the readers to pronounce
foreign names, broaden their horizons and further explore exotic English-speaking
naming practices and their cultures. Last but not least, it should be noted the literary
text prioritizes both aesthetic effects and meaning so as to entertain and provoke
emotions from the readers. Therefore, the non-translation of proper names can maintain
the aesthetic form of a literary text.

On the other hand, the findings of this study disclose that there would be functional
loss if no effort were made to appropriately transfer purposeful proper names into TT.
To compensate for the possible loss, the following translation strategies have been
proposed. Early in the vast body of literature, Vinay and Darbelnet (1958) offer the
translation technique of explicitation, which means that the translator adds implicit
information in the ST to the translation. The addition can be in the flexible forms of the
text gloss, footnotes, chapter-end notes, end-of-volume glossary, or separate volume
glossary. Newmark (1988) also recommends footnotes as a translation procedure to
deal with CSRs such as proper names. Though different in wording, Fasheng (2002),
Jinfang (2004), Coille and Verschueren (2006), Cui (2013) arrive at the mutual
solutions, including translator’s note, non-translation plus additional explanation. More
recently, Manini (2014, p. 173) suggests that “the use of explanatory notes-or other
forms of meta-textual comment such as the translator’s preface, etc.-can perfectly well
be envisaged to compensate for the semantic loss that occurs when loaded names are
not translated”.

Among these options, non-translation of proper names within the main text plus end-
of-book glossary is recommended for these reasons. The use of footnotes possibly
disturbs the reading process of the readers. The use of glossary at the end of the book is
more convenient and optional for various types of readers, including experts, educated
layman or the uninformed. For those who are keen to learn more about the meaning
underlying each proper name, they can refer to the glossary at the end of the book. For
those who desire to receive the information only within the main text, the end-of-book
glossary will not affect their reading process. In short, it is suggested that adopting
non-translation plus additional explanation in the form of end-of-book glossary could
be considered for dealing with literary proper names in HPPS, so that the target readers
can fully grasp the intentional ideas conveyed through meaningful literary names.

5.2 Forms of address

Another challenge posed the translator is translating an English literary text into a
language that has more than one form for “I-You” dyad. It is important to properly
translate the universal “you” of English to specific forms, which in the TL not only
convey the relationships between the characters but also contribute to the portrayal of
the characters’ traits. Consider the following excerpt:
ST TT
…. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them … Harry nói và nhìn hai đứa đi cùng. Cả hia trông
were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing chắc nịch và hung tợn. Tụi nó đứng hai bên thằng
on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bé nhợt nhạt trông như là vệ sĩ. Thấy Harry nhìn
bodyguards. hai đứa kia, thằng bé nhợt nhạt hờ hững giới thiệu:
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale À, đây là Crabbe, còn đây là Goyle. Tao là Malfoy,
boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. Draco Malfoy.
"And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Ron ho khẽ mấy tiếng, chắc là để ém tiếng cười
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been khẩy. Draco Malfoy ngó Ron: - Bộ thấy tên tao
hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him. buồn cười lắm hả? Tên mày tao chưa thèm hỏi nha!
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask Ba tao đã nói cho tao biết hết về tụi tóc đỏ Weasley
who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys nhà mày rồi, mặt đầy tàn nhang, con thì đông đến
have red hair, freckles, and more children than they nổi nuôi không xuể chứ gì!
can afford." Nó quay lại Harry: - Potter à, rồi mày sẽ thấy là có
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some những gia đình phù thủy sang hơn. Mày đừng vội
wizarding families are much better than others, kết bạn với đám tầm thường. Chuyện đó tao giúp
Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the mày được.
wrong sort. I can help you there." Nó giơ tay để bắt tay Harry, nhưng Harry không
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry thèm nắm lấy. Harry chỉ lạnh nhạt nói: - Cám ơn.
didn't take it."I think I can tell who the wrong sort Tao nghĩ tự tao cũng biết được đứa nào tầm
are for myself, thanks," he said coolly. thường, đứa nào không rồi!
Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge Nghe đến đó. Draco Malfoy không đến nỗi đỏ mặt,
appeared in his pale cheeks. nhưng hai gò má nó cũng hơi đổi màu. Nó chậm rãi
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. nói: - Nếu tao là mày, Potter, tao sẽ cẩn thận hơn
"Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way một chút. Mày rồi sẽ đi vào vết xe đổ của ba má
as your parents. They didn't know what was good mày nếu không biết lễ phép hơn. Tại ba má mày hồi
for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like đó cũng không biết điều gì là tốt cho họ. Mày mà cứ
the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on giao du với đám giẻ rách như bọn Weasley và lão
you." … Hagrid ấy thì có ngày cũng tiêu ma. …
In order to assess the Vietnamese translation of “I-You” dyad, House’s model,
incorporated with Appraisal Theory, is adopted as follows.
- ST analysis
Field: This excerpt is about the greeting between Harry, Ron and Draco Malfoy at
the Hogwarts School of Wizards. In this excerpt, the writer employed a high density of
adjectives to describe the traits and appearance of characters such as “pale”, “thickset”,
“mean”, “better”, “wrong”, etc. Additionally, the writer used adverbs to modify
adjectives and verbs such as “extremely”, “carelessly”, “coolly”, and “bravely”. There
is the predominance of relational processes to introduce about characters in this extract.
(Eg: both of them were thickset and extremely mean; they looked like bodyguards; all
the Weasleys have red hair; some families are much better than others). The effect of
this distribution is to focus on the quality and attributes of the characters.

Tenor: there are three primary participants, namely Harry, Ron and Draco Malfoy.
There are also two subordinate participants; they are Draco’s friends, Crabbe and
Goyle.
- Author’s implied stance:
In order to figure out ST writer’s attitude, Appraisal Theory is applied as shown below:
Appraising Appraiser Attitude Appraised
items Affect Judgment Appreciation
pale Harry - Draco
reaction
thickset Harry - Draco’s friend
reaction
(extremely) Harry - Draco’s friend
mean propriety
carelessly Harry - Draco
tenacity
much better Draco + himself
(than others) capacity
wrong (sort) Draco - Ron
capacity
bravely author + Harry
 tenacity
Table 3. ST’s writer attitude via Appraisal Theory
Linguistic realizations of negative affect are prevalent in the extract. The use of lexical
items denoting negative affect reveals the disapproving attitude among characters.
Harry and Ron take a negative attitude towards Draco, which is reflected through the
use of words such as “look extremely mean, carelessly, snigger, coolly”. Draco also
adopts a negative attitude towards Ron through the use of words such as “wrong sort,
riff raff”.
- Social role relationship: symmetrical among Harry, Ron and Draco. Harry, Ron and
Draco Malfoy are male students at the same age attending Hogwarts magical school.
- Social attitude: marked by informality.
+ Spoken language is used in the extract;
+ The use of contractions (Think my name’s funny […]; You’ll soon find out […]; I’d
be careful […]; Unless you’re a bit politer, you’ll go the same way as your parents)
+ The use phrasal verbs are used such as “hang around, riff raff, rub off on”.
+ The use of full name “Draco Malfoy” and last name “Potter” shows the distance in
terms of the relationship between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.
Participation: participation is complex because there is both monologue and dialogue.
Mode: the medium of the text is “written to be read as if spoken”.

- Comparison between ST-TT and statement of quality

The Vietnamese translation of “mày-tao” is functionally equivalent to the original in
this context for the following reasons. Regarding writer’s implied attitude, the
Vietnamese rendition of “mày-tao” conveys the ST writer’s implied connotation. The
appraising items with equivalent negative connotations are employed in Vietnamese
version.
Appraising Equivalent Appraiser Attitude in Appraisal theory Appraised
items in appraising items Affect Judgment Appreciation
 English in Vietnamese
pale nhợt nhạt Harry - Draco
reaction
thickset chắc nịch Harry - Draco’s
reaction friend
(extremely) hung tợn Harry - Draco’s
mean propriety friend
carelessly hờ hững Harry - Draco
tenacity
much better sang hơn Draco + himself
(than others) capacity
wrong sort đám tầm thường Draco - Ron
capacity
bravely can đảm author + Harry
tenacity
Table 4. Comparison of ST writer’s attitude and TT translator’s attitude via Appraisal Theory
It can be seen that the use of Vietnamese lexical items with negative connotations “hờ
hững, đám tầm thường, đám giẻ rách” conveys the implied attitude of the ST writer as
well as the disapproving attitude among characters. The TT reflects a negative attitude
of Harry and Ron towards Draco (look extremely mean-hung tợn, carelessly-hờ hững,
snigger-cười khẩy, coolly-lạnh nhạt). Besides, the TT also reveals Draco’s negative
attitude towards Ron and Harry (wrong sort-đám tầm thường, riff raff-đám giẻ rách).
Therefore, Vietnamese translation “mày-tao” in this context is appropriate.

In terms of social attitude, the Vietnamese translation of “mày-tao” contributes to

denote the informality as shown in the ST analysis. Since colloquial language is
employed in the original via the use of phrasal verbs (used by Draco), the use of
colloquial language in Vietnamese equally contributes to expressing such informality.
Several examples are “hang around-giao du, riff raff-đám giẻ rách, rub off on-có ngày
cũng tiêu ma, go the same way-đi vào vết xe đổ”. Hence, the choice of “tao-mày” plays
a part in the overall informal atmosphere of the conversation.

Furthermore, the Vietnamese translation of “mày-tao” contributes to denote the

relationship between characters. The original employs full name “Draco Malfoy” and
the last name of “Potter” to show the distance in terms of the relationship between
Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter; thus, the use of “mày-tao” also reflects the distance in
terms of the relationship between these two characters. In Vietnamese, the first person
singular pronoun “tao” and its reciprocals “mày” (you) in the second person are used
primarily among intimates, close friends of the same age to express intimacy. In
Vietnamese, the use of “tao-mày” also implies strong disrespect and arrogance between
speakers. In this case, the use of “tao-mày” reveals strong disrespect and distance
between Draco Malmoy and Harry.

Overall, the choice of “mày-tao” is appropriate in this context. There are differences
between English and Vietnamese addressing systems. While the number of English
personal pronouns is seven (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973), the number of Vietnamese
ones is twenty (Nguyễn Thiện Giáp, 2004). In this case, cultural filter is adopted in the
Vietnamese translation of “I-You”. Cultural filter is a means of capturing socio-cultural
differences in expectation norms and stylistic conventions between the source and
target linguistic-cultural communities (House, 2015). Via this case, we can see the
translator’s attempt in selecting the appropriate personal pronouns among the diversity
of personal pronouns in Vietnamese to convey the connotations embedded in the ST

5.3 Dialects
In addition to forms of address, dialects also serve as an important aspect for
characterization in a literary text, which poses the translator huge challenges. Dialects
cover user-related language varieties, including temporal varieties, sociolects, idiolects
and geographical dialects (Hatim and Mason, 1990, p. 39). Consider the following
example:
Context:
 ST
"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go
of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started
licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not
as fierce as he looked.
"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was
pouring boiling water into a large teapot and
putting rock cakes onto a plate.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at
Ron's freckles. I spent half me life chasin' yer twin
brothers away from the forest." The rock cakes
were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost
broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to
be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about
their first -lessons. Fang rested his head on
Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.
Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call
Fitch "that old git." "An' as fer that cat, Mrs.
Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang
sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the
school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid
of her - Fitch puts her up to it."
TT
Lão Hagrid thả con Fang ra, bảo: - Cứ tự nhiên như
ở nhà nha các cháu. Con Fang cũng giống như chủ
nó, coi hung hăng vậy mà rất thân thiện. Nó chạy
ngay lại bên Ron và bắt đầu liếm tai thằng bé.
Harry giới thiệu với lão Hagrid: - Đây là bạn Ron.
Lão Hagrid đang rót nước sôi vào một cái ấm trà to,
vừa liếc mấy nốt tàn nhang trên mặt Ron vừa bảo:
Một đứa nữa của nhà Weasley hả? Ta đã tiêu hết
nửa đời ta chỉ để rượt đuổi hai thằng anh cháu ra
khỏi khu rừng cấm đấy. Lão Hagrid bày mấy cái
bánh cứng như đá ra dĩa mời hai đứa. Những cái
bánh này đủ sức làm gãy bất kỳ cái răng nào, nhưng
hai đứa vừa phải làm như ăn ngon lắm vừa đua nhau
kể cho lão về những bài học đầu tiên của mình. Con
Fang tỳ mỏm lên gối Harry và nhễu nước miếng
khắp tấm áo dài của nó.
Cả Harry và Ron đều khoái chí khi nghe lão Hagrid
gọi ông giám thị Flich là lão già đó. - Còn con mèo
đó, bà Norris, ta đã định cho Fang độp nó từ lâu rồi.
Các cháu biết không? Mỗi lần ta có việc đi vô
trường là con mèo đó theo ta khắp nơi. Không thể
nào thoát được nó. Chắc lão Flich biểu nó làm vậy.

- ST analysis
Field: This excerpt is an informal meeting between Harry, Ron and Hagrid after the
children’s lesson. This is the first time the children have been to Hagrid’s house.
Relation processes are predominant to describe the attributes of Hagrid and the
children’s feelings for Hagrid (Eg: Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he
looked; Harry and Ron were delighted to hear ...)

Tenor:
- Author’s temporal, social and geographical provenance: marked by the use of West
Country dialect of Hagrid. The recognition of the character’s dialect was possible due
to the comparison between non-standard marks present in Hagrid’s speech and Trudgill
and Hannah (1999) study of English dialects. Moreover, it was an interview given by
the author that provides the clue that Hagrid’s dialect is West Country. There is a
plenty of examples from the above excerpt to reveal West Country dialect of Hagrid
(Make yerselves at home; I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers; An' as fer that
cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I
go up ter the school….)
- Author’s stance:
Appraisal Theory is adopted to explore ST author’s attitude:
Appraising Context Appraiser Attitude Appraised
items in Affect Judgment Appreciation
English
lucky It was lucky that Harry had Harry + Meeting
tea with Hagrid to look satisfaction with Hagrid
forward to
warmth His eyes were black like Harry + Hagrid
Hagrid's, but they had none reaction
of Hagrid's warmth
not as Like Hagrid, Fang was Harry + Hagrid
fierce as clearly not as fierce as he reaction
looked.

delighted Harry and Ron were Harry and + Hagrid’s

delighted to hear Hagrid call Ron happiness talk
Fitch "that old git."
Table 5. ST’s writer attitude via Appraisal Theory
The analysis shows that the author adopts positive attitude towards Hagrid. In an
interview, Rowling disclosed that Hagrid has a West Country accent (Rowling, 2007 1).
This accent is often regarded as a provincial one, related to more undereducated or
agricultural communities (Agha, 2003). Consistently throughout the text, he is “Keeper
of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts” (Rowling, p. 50), and he was kicked out of the
school when he was thirteen “I was I was at Hogwarts meself but I-er-got expelled, ter
tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But
Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper” (Rowling, p. 65). He is associated with
animals and drinks a lot, furthering his undereducated persona. Hagrid’s dialects
combined with author’s description about him reveals that although Hagrid is
undereducated, he is kind-hearted and much loved by many other characters.

1
What happened in 1999? (2007). Retrieved 22 January 2018 from http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/list1999.html
- Social role relationship: Hagrid is much older than Harry and Ron.
- Social attitude: Informal, intimate. (Use of idiomatic expression: Make yerselves at
home; Use of contractions: I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers; An' as fer that
cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, etc.)
- Participation: complex
Mode: written as if spoken

- ST-TT comparison and statement of quality

In terms of author’s geographical provenance, the ST-TT comparison shows the
interpersonal loss of Hagrid’s geographical dialect in the TT, which affects the tenor of
discouse. In other words, the interpersonal function that dialect serves in the ST is
weakened in the translation. The pronunciations of “you” as “yer”, “to” as “ter”, the
dropping of final consonants are not found in TT. It is understandable that no
equivalent dialect in the Vietnamese culture serves the role of the West Country dialect
in the ST. Although there are attempts by the translator to employ colloquial language
in Vietnamese, the pragmatic purpose of geographical dialects in revealing social
status, education and characterizing Hagrid is not visible.

The dialectual marks from Hagrid’s speech have been neutralized through the use of
standard language in Vietnamese although some colloquial words in Vietnamese are
employed to avoid the total neutralization of his speech. Colloquial words in TT is
employed with low frequency such as “Cứ tự nhiên như ở nhà nha các cháu”; “một
đứa nữa nhà Weasley ...”, “Ta đã tiêu hết nửa đời ta ...”; “Còn con mèo đó, Bà Norris,
ta đã định cho Fang độp nó từ lâu rồi ...”.

One might argue that there have been attempts in using colloquial words to feature the
friendliness and the level of language of Hagrid. Several colloquial words including
“nha”, “đứa”, “tiêu”, “độp” are employed to reflect friendliness and the level of
language of Hagrid. Besides, the warmth of Hagrid is conveyed through the context
such as “Con Fang cũng giống như chủ, coi hung hăng vậy mà rất thân thiện”, “Cả
Harry và Ron đều rất khoái chí khi nghe lão Hagrid gọi ông giám thị Filch là lão già
đó”. The appraising items “rất thân thiện”, “rất khoái chí” via Appraisal Theory convey
positive attitude in Vietnamese, which is corresponding to the positive attitude of Harry
and Ron towards Hagrid reflected in the original. However, it should be noted that
colloquial expressions are commonly used by not only Hagrid but also other young
characters in the novel. Also, the small number of colloquial words in TL is inadequate
to convey the peculiarity of Hagrid’s speech. The vernacular language, which to
contributes to sharpen the fact that though Hagrid is a less-educated person, he is
warm-hearted and trusted, is still partly lost in the TT.

There are possible reasons underlying the functional loss of geographical dialect
features in the TT. Firstly, there are linguistic differences between English and
Vietnamese. While English is an Indo-European language, Vietnamese is Austro-
Asiatic family. Landers (2001, p 59) also agrees that “no dialect travels well in
translation”. Secondly, it is understandable that translating a dialect into the TL can
have possible pitfalls, including the risk of sounding artificial in the TL, the risk of
producing an undesired effect such as comicality or the risk of generating something
that will not achieve the communicative goal intended. However, research findings
show that the translation of such marked language for standard language possibly
disfigure a character’s speech.

Generally, Sanchez (1996) proposes three steps to deal with dialect. Firstly, it is
necessary for the translator to decide how important the passages in dialect are in the
ST. To do this, he/ she will have to be very familiar with the ST language and culture.
Secondly, he/ she will have to make the decision whether the dialectual speech is to be
used in the TL version. Thirdly, if the decision has been in the affirmative, another
delicate decision will have to be made in respect of which form of TL dialect is to be
used - for which, it will also be necessary for the translator to have a good knowledge
of the various TL dialectal variants.

More practically, lexicalization (Berezowski, 1997) can be a strategy for consideration,

in which the translator renders some qualities of the dialect present in ST but expresses
it to a lesser degree. This strategy is prominent on the lexical level. There are several
types of lexicalization, including rural (which borrows vocabulary from regional
dialects), colloquial (which reveals social status of speakers), diminutive (used mainly
with very young or elderly characters) and artificial lexicalization (which involves
neologisms). Coming back to our main point of translating dialects in HPPS, it is
feasible to increase the amount of colloquial words to indicate the social status of
Hagrid. It is also realistic for the translator to employ rural lexicalization strategy in
which the translator borrows vocabulary from TL regional dialects to compensate for
ST regional dialects. This strategy is achievable because West Country dialect is often
regarded as a provincial one, related to more undereducated, agricultural and rural
communities (Agha, 2003).

VI. Concluding remarks

Theoretically, the study reveals two modifications for House’s model in the context of
English-Vietnamese translation. First, the study proves the usefulness of incorporating
Appraisal theory into Tenor within House’s model (2015) in order to explore the
implied attitude embedded in the original. This incorporation is reasonable because
Appraisal Theory is for exploring, describing, explaining the way language is used to
evaluate, adopt stance, to construct interpersonal positionings and relationships (White
and Eldon, 2012). House’s model, incorporated with attitudinal resources in Appraisal
Theory by Martin and White (2005) proves particularly useful in handling English-
Vietnamese assessment of forms of address. The choice of addressing forms depends
on a number of contextual factors, including social status, social role relationship, and
social attitude in specific communicative situations. These parameters are fully
discussed in House’s model (2015) as well as attitudinal resources of Appraisal Theory
by Martin and White (2005). Second, compensation strategy is adopted in English-
Vietnamese translation in dealing with CSRs such as literary proper names, literary
dialects to make up for the linguistic and cultural differences between English and
Vietnamese. The theoretical modifications in the context of English-Vietnamese
translation are of significance since House’s model is originally developed for the
language pair of English-German.

Practically, the in-depth analysis of the proper names reveals that literary proper names
carry meaning and provoke connotations. No matter the literary name carries
contextual meaning, it remains non-translated in the Vietnamese text. It is suggested
that compensation strategy (end-of-book glossary) is adopted to make up for the
linguistic and cultural differences between English and Vietnamese. Concerning forms
of address, while literary proper names are overtly translated in the TT, forms of
address are covertly translated into Vietnamese. As the translator in HPPS employed,
the use of TL-oriented strategy is recommended in dealing with forms of address from
English to Vietnamese. This strategy has lead to the gain of socio-cultural and
pragmatic implications of Vietnamese forms of address. TL-oriented strategy is
adopted in which the translator anchors a reference firmly in the target culture. Via this
strategy, the translators select the appropriate personal pronouns among the diverse
system of personal pronouns in Vietnamese and break through the cultural barriers
between English and Vietnamese to recreate a natural and functional translation in
Vietnamese. In terms of dialect translation, the research findings show the functional
loss of geographical dialect in the TT. The Vietnamese translation does not achieve full
functional equivalence because the ST geographical dialect features are not visible in
the TT. It is understandable that there are linguistic and cultural differences between
English and Vietnamese. However, it can be partly compensated by the lexicalization
strategy in which the translator adopts colloquial language and rural vocabulary.

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ĐÁNH GIÁ DỊCH ANH-VIỆT CÁC YẾU TỐ MANG ĐẶC TRƯNG VĂN HOÁ
TRONG VĂN HỌC: HÀNH TRÌNH CHUYỂN NGỮ “HARRY POTTER” TỪ ANH
SANG VIỆT
Nghiên cứu nhằm đánh giá dịch Anh-Việt các yếu tố mang đặc trưng văn hoá trong văn học.
Để hiện thực hoá mục đích nghiên cứu, mô hình chức năng dụng học của House (2015), kết
hợp các nguồn về Thái độ theo thuyết Đánh giá ngôn ngữ của Martin và White (2005), được
lựa chọn làm khung phân tích cho quá trình đánh giá. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ bản gốc “Harry
Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2014) và bản dịch tiếng Việt “Harry Potter và Hòn đá
phù thuỷ” (2016). Nghiên cứu tập trung vào ba nhóm yếu tố mang đặc trưng văn hoá, bao gồm
tên riêng trong văn học, từ xưng hô và phương ngữ. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy chức năng bị
mất đi một phần trong quá trình chuyển ngữ tên riêng và phương ngữ trong văn học từ Anh
sang Việt, đây là điều không thể tránh khỏi do sự khác biệt về ngôn ngữ và văn hoá giữa Anh
và Việt. Đối với nhóm từ xưng hô, kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy nỗ lực của người dịch trong
việc lựa chọn đại từ xưng hô phù hợp trong một hệ thống đại từ xưng hô hết sức đa dạng của
tiếng Việt để đem đến một bản dịch tự nhiên và phù hợp về ngôn cảnh tình huống cũng như
ngôn cảnh văn hoá. Dựa trên kết quả nghiên cứu, chúng tôi đề xuất các chiến lược dịch tên
riêng, từ xưng hô và phương ngữ trong văn học. Ngoài ra, sau khi vận hành mô hình của
House trong bối cảnh dịch Anh-Việt đối với thể loại văn học, nghiên cứu khẳng định hiệu quả
của việc kết hợp các nguồn về Thái độ theo thuyết Đánh giá ngôn ngữ của Martin và White
(2005) để tìm ra thái độ của tác giả thể hiện trong văn bản nguồn, phục vụ thực tiễn đánh giá.
Từ khoá: tên riêng trong văn học, từ xưng hô, phương ngữ, đánh giá chất lượng bản dịch, dịch
văn học