VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE VƢƠNG THỊ THANH NHÀN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF TERMS IN QUAN HO BAC NINH FOLK SONGS (Tương đương trong dịch thuật ngữ dân ca Quan Họ Bắc Ninh) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE VƢƠNG THỊ THANH NHÀN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF TERMS IN QUAN HO BAC NINH FOLK SONGS (Tương đương trong dịch thuật ngữ dân ca Quan Họ Bắc Ninh) M.A COMBINED PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến Hanoi - 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION  i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSii ABSTRACT...iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.. iv LIST OF TABLES.viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PART A: INTRODUCTION1 I. Identification of the problem and rationale for the study1 II. Aims of the study2 III. Scope of the study3 IV. Significance of the study3 V. Organization of the study4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT .5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 I. Translation equivalence 5 1. Definitions of translation 5 1.1. From linguistic approach5 1.2. From cultural approach .6 2. Different theories of translation equivalence8 2.1.  8 2.2. -11 3. Translation of culture-specific concepts16 3.1. Different views on culture-specific concepts16 3.2. Translation strategies for culture-specific concepts17 II. Terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs as culture-specific concepts.24 1. Description of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs 24 1.1. Origin of 24 1.2. Performance 25 1.3. Quan Ho 26 1.4. Quan Ho si27 2. Outstanding features of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs27 2.1. From artistic aspect27 v 2.2. From cultural aspect28 3. Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms as culture-specific concepts29 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS30 I. Phase 1: Identification of 30 1. Data collection methods30 1.1. Document review30 1.2. Observation 31 1.3. Interviews 31 2. Data analysis methods 32 II. Phase 2: Analysis of QHBN 38 1. Data collection methods38 1.1. Document review38 1.2. Observation 39 1.3. Interviews.39 2. Data analysis methods 39 3. Phase 3: Creatio39 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40 I. What are translation strategies for terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? 1. Transfer45 2. Literal tra45 3. Redu49 4. Cultural 50 5. Descriptive 52 6. Co53 II. What are suggested translations of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? 55 PART C: CONCLUSION .60 I. 60 II. .61 vi III. .62 REFERENCES64 APPENDICES I vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS QHBN: Quan Ho Bac Ninh SL/ ST: Source language/ source text TL/ TT: Target language/ target text viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: QHBN terms in Vietnamese Table 2: English equivalents of QHBN terms Table 3: QHBN terms translated by literal translation Table 4: QHBN terms translated by reduction Table 5: QHBN terms translated by cultural equivalents Table 6: QHBN terms translated by descriptive equivalents Table 7: QHBN terms translated by couplets Table 8: Glossary of key terms in QHBN folk songs 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION I. Identification of the problem and rationales for the study Quan Ho Bac Ninh singing was recognized as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity at the fourth session of the UNESCO International Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, which took place in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from September 28 to October 2, 2010. After that, Vietnam snapped into action to protect its indigenous art form. In October 2011, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism claimed that Quan Ho singing had been listed as a cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Among the measures taken to preserve and promote the heritage, introducing Quan Ho Bac Ninh documents in English to international friends is an indispensable part. However, the translation process has encountered a number of challenges due to the following reasons:  As a cultural heritage of humanity, Quan Ho Bac Ninh is characterized by its distinction in local customs, musical features and singing outfits. Then the terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh are considered culture-specific concepts. In translation theory, non-equivalence caused by culture-specific items has put an unanswered question and this issue calls for more researches from translators as well as theorists to figure out better solutions.  Remarkable efforts in the field have been made with the introduction of many articles and journals about Quan Ho Bac Ninh written in English. However, terminological inconsistency has existed among those documents. A glossary will help to standardize the way Quan Ho terms are translated and increase the quality of products made by different translators. Once the glossary is provided, confusion among the target readership will not occur 2 when they have access to a variety of materials about Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs. As a child growing up with the sweet melody of Quan Ho songs, the researcher has nurtured a great love for the folk. Bac Ninh is famous for traditional festivals held constantly around the year so the researcher has chances to join many social events in Quan Ho hometown. A period of time working with experts on Quan Ho folk songs has also brought the researcher particular understanding about this unique type of music. In addition, it is  will set firm background for related studies. These above grounds have encouraged the researcher to conduct a study on “Translation Equivalence of Terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh Folk Songs”. The study is hoped to be a modest contribution to the field. II. Aims of the study The study is firstly aimed at examining the problem of non-equivalence caused by culture-specific concepts like Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms so that solutions to overcome the difficulties will be worked out. Then, the study will highlight a number of strategies to deal with Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms as culture-specific items. Finally, several suggested translations of key terms in Bac Ninh Quan Ho folk songs will be given. In brief, these aims can be summarized into two research questions as follows: - What are the strategies to form equivalents of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? 3 - What are the suggested equivalents of terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs? III. Scope of the study Within the limitation of time and reference materials, the study will address the problem of non-equivalence rather than stretching efforts in other differnt aspects of translation equivalence. In addition, the researcher will not focus on all the terms used in Quan Ho singing documents. Only some key terms related to the following points will be discussed: - Quan Ho singing origin and social practice (with major focus on several customs) - Quan Ho singing forms - Quan Ho singing tunes - Quan Ho singing techniques - Quan Ho singing outfits IV. Significance of the study Once being completed, the study will serve as one of the initial small-scale researches on the non-equivalence in translation of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk terms with different strategies to cope with the problem. When the findings of the study are revealed, there might be several implications for those working on translating Quan Ho singing documents to take them into consideration. The glossary of key terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs will certainly be an effective supporting tool for those who take interest in this type of music and want to introduce it to international friends. [...]... impossible The translation focusing on the purpose of writing the source language text is, however, always possible Whether we translate them or not, and the chosen technique depends on their importance and function in the given text II Terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs as culture-specific concepts 1 Description of Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs 1.1 Origin of Quan Ho singing Quan Họ Bắc Ninh folk songs are... villages Out of the 44 traditional Quan ho ̣ villages in Bắc Ninh province, there are 33 pairs of friendship villages, making up nearly 80% of the total The friendship customs are distinctive from those in the locations in the Red River delta, in that they are linked to a folklore performance 1.2 Performance of Quan Ho songs Quan họ singing has main types: hát thờ (singing at rituals), hát hội (singing at... development Quan Ho genre is rare in that it occupies the record of the texts and melodies Even in dozens of villages and with limited population, Quan Ho Bac Ninh has a huge number of more than 200 original melodies, not including their varieties 2.2 From cultural aspect In terms of culture, experts view Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs as:  A living, elegant and artistic style It is said that attending Quan Ho. .. the verses in literature ways, the singing instead of speaking and the specific use of personal pronouns  A multidimensional convergence center Quan Ho songs in Bac Ninh is not only a local point but a convergence center There is an intersection of different field such as history, ethnology, literature and fine art 3 Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk song terms as culture-specific concepts As explained by Eniko... and firm spirit Quan Ho singers know very well the products of their community and their own identities of the songs They can spot the Quan Ho voice” and make distinction between the ancient Quan Ho songs and the new Quan Ho songs They are also skilled in adapting and homogenizing the songs of other genres and from other locations, which then results in a development into their own capital with their... alternating response songs between male and female singers There is no consensus on their historical origin By comparing Quan họ lyrics with the development of the Vietnamese language, some claim that Quan họ songs developed in the middle of the 18th century 24 The owners of Quan họ songs are the Việt peasants in villages who mainly practice wet rice cultivation Quan ho ̣ folk songs exist in a cultural... material in another language” Yet, it is still vague in terms of the type of equivalence Culture was not taken into account Next, Nida and Taber (1969) explain the process of translating as follows: Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style In the definitions of translation. .. Bac Ninh folk songs 2.1 From artistic aspect In terms of arts, Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs can be seen as:  A heritage with highly artistic values Quan Ho folk songs have historically developed from a period of defined texts with simple melodies to the more recent structure in which the music has gone beyond the strict control of verse and tune to allow a free singing style that lets the singer to... handled down orally in the folk tradition Quan Ho songs have reached their artistic peak in composition as well as performance with the shape of several models, principles of performing arts in addition to behavioral aspects However, Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs have yet to reach the position of a professional art It is the art of “self-composing and self-performing”, as claimed by Hong Thao (1977)  High... (singing for prizes), hát canh (the singing at a host‟s house) The singing at a host‟s house has three phases including giọng Lề lối (standard tune), giọng Vặt (variety tune) and giọng Giã bạn (farewell tune) types Quan họ is sung in pairs with one person singing the leading tune and another sings a secondary part, but the two tunes should be in perfect harmony at the same timbre There are four singing . & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE VƢƠNG THỊ THANH NHÀN TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE OF TERMS IN QUAN HO BAC NINH FOLK SONGS (Tương đương trong dịch thuật ngữ dân. number of strategies to deal with Quan Ho Bac Ninh terms as culture-specific items. Finally, several suggested translations of key terms in Bac Ninh Quan Ho folk songs will be given. In brief,. translating Quan Ho singing documents to take them into consideration. The glossary of key terms in Quan Ho Bac Ninh folk songs will certainly be an effective supporting tool for those who take interest