English-Vietnamese translation assessment of culture-specific references in a literary text: A functional-pragmatic perspective

• Main Author: Triệu, Thu Hằng, 1991-
• Other Authors: Lê, Hùng Tiến
• Format: Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Tiếng Anh > Dịch thuật ; Văn bản văn học ; Ngôn ngữ học ứng dụng; 418.04
• Online Access: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/69806
• Institution: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

This descriptive, comparative, and evaluative study attempts to assess the English-Vietnamese translation of culture-specific references (CSRs) in a literary text from the functional-pragmatic perspective of House’s model (2015). After operating House’s model (2015) in the context of English-Vietnamese translation, the supplementation for the model in this context is drawn out. This study focuses on the three categories of CSRs, namely proper names, person reference forms, and regional dialects in a literary text. The qualitative analysis approach, with descriptive and comparative procedures, was primarily adopted in this study. The quantitative analysis was employed to count the frequency of translation strategies adopted by the translator in translating the chosen CSRs. The primary sources of data include the Source Text (ST – “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, 2014), the Target Text (TT – “Harry Potter và Hòn đá phù thuỷ”, 2016), the three categories of proper names, person reference forms and regional dialects in the ST and their equivalents in the TT. The primary sources of data were analyzed and assessed from the functional-pragmatic perspective of House (2015). The secondary sources of data, employed to triangulate with the textual analysis of the primary sources of data from the functional-pragmatic perspective, include the interview transcripts of the ST author, the translator, and interviews with two other literary translators and an expert in the field. Such triangulation was deployed to ensure the trustworthiness of the study.