VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THANH HOA A STUDY ON PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF THE STORY “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” BY JOHN PERKINS (Nghiên cứu tính tương đương ngữ dụng dịch Anh- Việt tác phẩm “Lời thú tội Một sát thủ kinh tế” John Perkins) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English linguistics Code: 602215 Hanoi, 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THANH HOA A STUDY ON PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN THE ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF THE STORY “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” BY JOHN PERKINS (Nghiên cứu tính tương đương ngữ dụng dịch Anh- Việt tác phẩm “Lời thú tội Một sát thủ kinh tế” John Perkins) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr LÊ HÙNG TIẾN Hanoi, 2009 TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Purposes of the study Scope of the study Methodology Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 What is Pragmatics 1.2 Pragmatic Markers 1.3 What is Equivalence in Translation 1.4 Pragmatic Equivalence 10 1.5 E A Nida’s response-based approach on Translation Quality Assessment 14 1.6 Pragmatic features of the source text and the receptor of the target text 16 CHAPTER 2: PRAGMATIC MARKERS IN THE ORIGINAL TEXT 20 2.1 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Rhetorical Structure 20 2.1.1 Emphasizer 20 2.1.2 Comment Msarker 20 2.1.3 Evidential Marker 20 2.1.4 Resumption Marker 21 2.1.5 Addition Marker 21 2.1.6 Concluding Marker 22 2.1.7 Evaluator 22 2.1.8 Topic Shifter 22 2.1.9 Clarifier 22 2.2 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Sequential Structure 23 2.2.1 Opening segment boundary marker 23 2.2.2 Closing segment boundary marker 23 2.3 Functions of Pragmatic Markers in Inferential Structure 24 2.3.1 Contextual Constrainer 24 2.3.2 Monitoring Marker 24 2.3.3 Justification Marker 24 2.3.4 Face-threat mitigator 25 CHAPTER 3: TREATMENTS OF PRAGMATIC MARKERS IN THE 26 VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION 3.1 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Rhetorical Structure 27 3.1.1 Treatment of Emphasizer 27 3.1.2 Treatment of Comment marker 27 3.1.3 Treatment of Evidential Marker 27 3.1.4 Treatment of Resumption Marker 27 3.1.5 Treatment of Addition Marker 28 3.1.6 Treatment of Concluding Marker 28 3.1.7 Treatment of Evaluator 28 3.1.8 Treatment of Topic Shifter 28 3.1.9 Treatment of Clarifier 29 3.2 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Sequential Structure 29 3.2.1 Treatment of Opening segment boundary marker 29 3.2.2 Treatment of Closing segment boundary marker 29 3.3 Treatment of pragmatic markers in Inferential Structure 29 3.3.1 Treatment of Contextual Constrainer 29 3.3.2 Treatment of Monitoring Marker 30 3.3.3 Treatment of Justification Marker 30 3.3.4 Treatment of Face-threat mitigator 30 3.4 Analysis of the pragmatic equivalence in the translation with regards to 31 pragmatic markers through a written discourse completion task 3.4.1 The participants 31 3.4.2 The instruments 31 3.4.3 Data analysis 31 3.4.4 Results 31 PART 3: CONCLUSION 41 Findings of the study 41 Implications 42 Recommendations for further research 43 REFERENCES 44 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Much ink has flown on discussing the term equivalence in translation It 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 It signifies any relation characterizing translation under a specified set of circumstances Equivalence was a relationship between two texts in two languages, rather than between the languages themselves It can be said that success of a translation is determined not only by the equivalence of meaning The degree of success also depends on some other factors like stylistic equivalence, pragmatic equivalence or textual equivalence The neglect of any equivalence for any possible reasons may affect or reduce the target readers‟ reception of a translation Therefore, it is required for a considerate translator to be aware of the SL text‟s pragmatic peculiarities and reproduce them in the target language one In practice, an important assumption which translators entertain seems to be one epitomized by something Eugene Nida said many years ago, echoing Jakobson (1959): “Anything which can be said in one language can be said in another, unless the form is an essential element of the message (Nida and Taber 1969:4).” The focus of the study will be put on pragmatic equivalence between the source and target language texts, which is indicated by taking pragmatic markers in both texts into consideration Accordingly, the book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” (published in 2004) is chosen John Perkins lifted the veil on a world rarely seen by most people He took us on a tour of the costs and consequences of American corporate hegemony, dispelling myths of the „free market‟, and forcing us to peer deep into our own souls As Perkins states in his earlier works, "The world is as you dream it," so the question is, “what will you dream?” This book is translated into Vietnamese by a group of translators headed by Lê Đồng Tâm and has caught a great interest of certain Vietnamese readers 2 Purposes of the study The study sets out to obtain the purposes as follows: - To investigate the numerous functions of pragmatic markers in the ST as well as the treatment of these markers in the TT - To study the dynamic equivalence between the original text and its translation - To suggest some implications for teaching and learning of English in general and translation studies in particular Scope of the study The study is focused on dynamic equivalence between “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” & its “Lời thú tội sát thủ kinh tế” More specifically, the study is confined to the relationship between pragmatic effect of pragmatic markers valid for different receiver groups and habits of using these markers as well as of choosing language style in different language pairs The ground for the investigation in this study is the notion of dynamic equivalence proposed by Nida & Taber (1969), Koller (1989), Baker (1992), Newmark (1981), Hatim and Mason (1990) and Monia Bayar (2007) and the conception of pragmatics and pragmatic markers suggested by Levinson (1983), Richards J.C, Platt J & Platt H (1992) and Fraser (1999) Methodology 4.1 Research Questions - What are pragmatic features of the source text and the receptors‟response to the translation text? - What are functions of pragmatic markers demonstrated in John Perkins‟s original work? Are these markers treated equivalently in the translation text? - To what extent are the original text and the translation pragmatically equivalent? 4.2 Methods On the one hand, this study will be conducted under the corpus-based analysis The aim of this method is to attempt to outline the existing territory occupied by a new field of research in translation studies The research techniques are gathering quantitative data via a survey questionnaire and presenting the results through statistics and tables On the other hand, the qualitative method will be resorted to as a supplementary one and not officially employed It will help understand the meaning of the numbers produced by quantitative methods Using quantitative methods, it is possible to give precise and testable expression to qualitative ideas This combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathering is often referred to as mixed-methods research 4.3 Data collection procedures To investigate the pragmatic equivalence between the original text “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” and its Vietnamese translation, the following steps will be taken to collect data for the study: - doing document analyses to build up a strong theoretical framework for the study - conducting a survey according to DCT method to identify and collect all pragmatic markers explicit in the SL and TL texts In the DCT the discourse is structured so that part of it is left open and part closed A space is provided for subjects to supply speech act under investigation, but the response is provided in order to cue the respondent as to the appropriate nature of the speech act realization, i.e., the level of formality, and a description of the roles and relationship of the interlocutors Also the DCT is an effective means of studying the stereotypical perceived requirements for a socially appropriate response and is a good way to gain insight into social and psychological factors that are likely to affect speech and performance i.e it avoids those very context specific constraints that influence authentic data Cohen (1996, p.25) concludes that “discourse completion tests are effective means of gathering a large amount of data quickly, creating an initial classification of semantic formulas, and ascertaining the structure of speech act under consideration.” - holding discussions with colleagues in the field to investigate their viewpoints and experience in translating pragmatic markers 4.4 Data Analysis To facilitate the process of analyzing data, the inductive method has been employed Then, comparison and contrast between the original and its translation are made as well as detailed analyses are carried out so that a conclusion on the level of pragmatic equivalence between the original and translation can be reached Design of the study The study is composed of three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion The introduction states the rationale, purposes, scope, methodology and design of the study The development consists of three chapters: Chapter one: Theoretical background Chapter two: Pragmatic markers in the original text Chapter three: Treatments of pragmatic markers in the Vietnamese translation The conclusion summarizes the main points discussed in the previous parts and puts forwards some implications for translation learning and practice PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 What is pragmatics? Some linguistics tend to take into consideration intensional definitions of pragmatics which are: "the study of the relations of signs to interpreters" (Morris, 1938: 84); "the study of indexical rules for relating linguistic form to a given context" (Bates, 1976: 3); "a theory that has as its subject matter the relationship between a language, its subject matter, and the users of the language" (Martin, 1971 : 138); "the theory of the relation between the language users and the language structure" (Apostel, 1971: 33); "the science of language use" (Haberland and Mey, 1977: 1) Others deal with extensional definitions: "Pragmatics is the study of deixis, implicature, presupposition, speech acts, and aspects of discourse structure" (Levinson, 1983:27); "Pragmatics, for a natural language, concerns 'illucutionary force', 'implicature', 'presupposition', and 'contextdependent acceptability'" (Gazdar, 1979: 2) Richards J.C, Platt J & Platt H (1992:284) regards Pragmatics as the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationships between sentences and the contexts and situations in which they are used Pragmatics includes the study of: a how the interpretation and use of UTTERANCES depend on knowledge of the real world b how speakers use and understand SPEECH ACTS c how the structure of sentences is influenced by the relationship between the speaker and the hearer 1.2 Pragmatic markers Pragmatic markers are polyfuntional cues that predicate changes in the speaker‟s cognition, attitudes, and beliefs and facilitate the transmission of illocutionary ... “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” BY JOHN PERKINS (Nghiên cứu tính tương đương ngữ dụng dịch Anh- Việt tác phẩm ? ?Lời thú tội Một sát thủ kinh tế? ?? John Perkins) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English... focused on dynamic equivalence between “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” & its ? ?Lời thú tội sát thủ kinh tế? ?? More specifically, the study is confined to the relationship between pragmatic... consideration Accordingly, the book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” (published in 2004) is chosen John Perkins lifted the veil on a world rarely seen by most people He took us on a tour of the costs