TYLA: Research on the method of translating the meaning in questions from German to Vietnamese (based on literary translation data)

Author name: Le Thi Bich Thuy

Thesis title:Research on the method of translating the meaning in questions from German to Vietnamese (based on literary translation data)

Dissertation field: Linguistics

Major: Comparative Linguistics Code: 62 22 02 41

Postgraduate training unit: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

1. Purpose and research objects of the thesis

1.1. Research purpose

The thesis clarifies the meaning of connotation and the mechanism of creating connotation in German questions in order to determine the methods of translating connotation in language in general and the German-Vietnamese language pair in particular. The topic also has useful contributions to translation work, translation evaluation, especially German-Vietnamese literary translation, as well as teaching courses related to the field of Translation.

1.2 Research subjects

The research objects of the thesis are conventional implications, conversational implications and methods of translating the above implications from German questions into Vietnamese.

2. Research methods used

Descriptive method, comparative-contrastive method, sociological method, pragmatic analysis method and statistical method.

3. Main results and conclusions

3.1 Main results

- According to the survey, there are four groups of mechanisms for creating conventional implications in German questions:direct expression,actual verbs indicating the speaker's attitude,social direct expressionandsyntax; mechanisms for generating conversational implications includecomplyandViolation of the principles of cooperation and dialogue, which mainly violates the maxim of Quality.

- The three groups of meanings that appear through the above mechanisms are: the speaker's expectation or suggestion towards the listener; the speaker's attitude towards the listener/third person; the speaker's attitude towards what is said.

- Implicature translation methods include:using particles/adverbs/conjunctions/interjections, semantic change, grammatical change,translate questions without using question words/question adverbs/questioning agentsandliteral translation.

- According to the two criteria that the thesis has proposed to criticize translation:implicationandlanguage standards, the two translations examined in the thesis received positive evaluation results, both from the researchers, from translation experts as well as from the testers.

3.2 Conclusion

- To determine the implication in a question, it is necessary to rely not only on the linguistic signals within the question but also on the contextual factors surrounding the question, and even on the plot.

- There are signs of interlingual implication, at least between the German - Vietnamese language pair, and there are signs of language-specific nature.

- It is possible to combine several methods when translating the meaning in a question from German to Vietnamese.

- To minimize subjectivity in translation evaluation, it is necessary to rely on linguistics and translation criticism theory as well as other complementary research tools, such as experiments.                                      

SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

• Author: Le Thi Bich Thuy

• Dissertation title:Methods for translating implicatures in questions from German to Vietnamese (based on literary translations)

• Field: Linguistics

• Major: Comparative-contrastive linguistics Code: 62 22 02 41

• Graduate training institution: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi

1. Aims and subject of the study

1.1 Aims

The study presented in this thesis aims to clarify implicatures in questions in German and methods for translating implicatures in languages ​​generally and in the language pair German-Vietnamese in particular. The results of the study make useful contributions to translation, translation quality assessment, especially translation from German to Vietnamese, and to translator training as well.

1.2 Subject

The study focuses on conventional implicatures, conversational implicatures and methods for translating implicatures found in questions from German to Vietnamese.

2. Research methods

Descriptive method, comparative method, sociological method, pragmatic analysis method and statistical method.

3. Major results and conclusions

3.1 The major results

- There are four groups of words and constructions that contribute to conventional implicatures in questions in German, namely: discourse deitic expressions, expressive modifiers, social deitic expressions and syntactic constructions. Conversational implicatures found in questions include interlocutors' observation or violation of the cooperative principle and conversational maxims, especially the Quality maxim.

- Three groups of meanings generated by such mechanisms are the speaker's expectations or suggestions to the listener, the speaker's attitudes to the listener or to a third person, the speaker's attitudes to what is said.

- The methods used to transfer implicatures in questions from German to Vietnamese include the utilization of particles/ adverbs/ conjunctions/ interjections; transformation semantics; grammatical transformations; questions without question words (eg WH-words)/ adverbs/ particles; and literal translation.

- Applying two among various criteria for translation evaluation, namely implicatures and linguistic standards, to the assessment of the two Vietnamese versions of the play investigated in the study, all the researchers, translation experts and informants offer positive feedback to the two Vietnamese versions.

3.2 Conclusions

- In order to identify implicatures in questions, not only linguistic signals in the questions, but also the context and even the whole text need to be considered.

- Some signals for implicatures are interlingual in nature, at least between German and Vietnamese, while others can be language-specific.

- It is possible to combine various methods to transfer implicatures in questions from German to Vietnamese.

- In order to minimize intuitive judgment on the part of translation evaluators and increase the validity and reliability of their assessment, it is necessary to base on linguistic factors, grounded theories of translation assessment as well as other supporting research tools such as empirical studies.