TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1. Background to the study . . 1

1.2. Aims of the study . 2

1.3. Scope and significance 2

1.4. Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . 4

2.1. Introduction . 4

2.2. Overview on translation equivalence 4

2.2.1. The concept of equivalence 4

2.2.2. Different theories of equivalence 5

2.2.2.1 Quantitative approach . 5

2.2.2.2 Qualitative approach 5

2.2.2.2.1 Function-based equivalence 5

2.2.2.2.2 Meaning-based equivalence . 6

2.2.2.2.3 Form-based of equivalence 7

2.3 The problem of non-equivalence 7

2.3.1 Non-equivalence at word level 8

2.3.2 Recent studies on non-equivalence at word level . 10

CHAPTER THREE: THE STUDY . 12

3.1 Selected English – Vietnamese conceptual and lexical semantic

contrastive analysis 12

3.1.1 Conceptual contrastive analysis . 12

3.1.1.1. Concept on kinship 12

3.1.1.2 Concept on color . 14

3.1.1.3 Concept on temperature 14

3.1.1.4 Concept from communication 15

3.1.2 Lexical semantic contrastive analysis . 16

3.1.2.1 Pronouns 16 3.1.2.2 Classifiers 19

3.1.2.3 Word Formation .19

3.2. Classification of non-equivalence at word level 20

3.2.1. No equivalent words between 2 languages 20

3.2.2. The source language concept is not lexicalized in the target language . 24

3.2.3. The target language lacks a superordinate . 25

3.2.4. The target language lacks a specific term . 26

3.2.5 Differences in expressive meanings 28

3.2.6 Differences in physical and interpersonal perspective 29

CHAPTER FOUR: SUGGESSTIONS AND CONCLUSION 30

4.1. Strategies to tackle non-equivalence at word level . 30

4.1.1 Translation by a more specific word (hyponym) . 30

4.1.2 Translation by a more general word (superordinate) 32

4.1.3 Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word . 33

4.1.4 Translation by cultural substitution 35

4.1.5 Translation using a loan word or loan word plus explanation 37

4.1.6 Translation by paraphrasing 38

4.1.7 Translation by omission . 41

4.1.8 Translation by illustration . 42

4.2. Conclusion 43

4.3 Suggested exercises 45

REFERENCES . 47

4

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Baker’s taxonomy of non-equivalence at word level (1992) 10

Table 2: Vietnamese personal pronouns (Thanh Ngo, 2006) 16

Table 3: Addressing terms used among Vietnamese family members

(Duong, 1999) . 17

Table 4: Kinship terms used in social interaction (Duong, 1999) 18

Table 5: Selected categories and examples about Cultural Concepts 21

Table 6: Individualism Index Values among nations

(as adapted from Hofstede , 2000 ) . . 22

ABSTRACT

This study primarily investigates the problem of non-equivalence at word level in translation

between English and Vietnamese which is observed as the weakness of the majority of students

in English Department – Hanoi University.

The paper aims at, first and foremost, presenting rationale, background knowledge and

different approaches relate to non-equivalence before contrasting some typical conceptual and

lexical semantic fields to prove that there is a considerable linguistic gap between English and

Vietnamese. Then the study will propose a classification of non-equivalence based on Mona

Baker’s theory. Eventually, the study also suggests several effective strategies to deal with non-

equivalence at word level in translation.