This study explores into the translation equivalence of English passive sentences in literary discourse and sci-tech & natural science discourse. Widdowson's (1979) classification of translation equivalence at sentence level, namely structural and semantic, has been taken as the analytical framework. The research findings show similarities and differences in the translation of English passive sentences in literary discourse and sci-tech & natural science discourse into Vietnamese, which include the translation strategies, the types of translation equivalence, and the translation of the passive marker 'by'. The findings point out five common strategies for translating the English passives into Vietnamese with this order of frequency: activization, passivization, ergativization, adjectivalization, and copularization. However, passivization is more popular in the translation of sci-tech & natural science discourse than in that of literary discourse, 88.96% and 38.85%, respectively. Meanwhile, activization is much more preferred in the translation of literary discourse than in that of sci-tech & natural science discourse, 48.40% vs. 6.49%, respectively. The preference of passivization in sci-tech & natural science discourse leads to a great proportion of structural equivalence (88.96%), and a small proportion of semantic equivalence (11.04%), while in the literary discourse the structural translation accounts for only 38.85%, and semantic translation - 61.13%. The passive marker 'by' is also found to be translated into different words in Vietnamese. It is hoped that the suggested implications are useful not only for English-Vietnamese translation studies, but also for English teaching and learning.
This study explores into the translation equivalence of English passive sentences in literary discourse and sci-tech & natural science discourse. Widdowson's (1979) classification of translation equivalence at sentence level, namely structural and semantic, has been taken as the analytical framework. The research findings show similarities and differences in the translation of English passive sentences in literary discourse and sci-tech & natural science discourse into Vietnamese, which include the translation strategies, the types of translation equivalence, and the translation of the passive marker 'by'. The findings point out five common strategies for translating the English passives into Vietnamese with this order of frequency: activization, passivization, ergativization, adjectivalization, and copularization. However, passivization is more popular in the translation of sci-tech & natural science discourse than in that of literary discourse, 88.96% and 38.85%, respectively. Meanwhile, activization is much more preferred in the translation of literary discourse than in that of sci-tech & natural science discourse, 48.40% vs. 6.49%, respectively. The preference of passivization in sci-tech & natural science discourse leads to a great proportion of structural equivalence (88.96%), and a small proportion of semantic equivalence (11.04%), while in the literary discourse the structural translation accounts for only 38.85%, and semantic translation - 61.13%. The passive marker 'by' is also found to be translated into different words in Vietnamese. It is hoped that the suggested implications are useful not only for English-Vietnamese translation studies, but also for English teaching and learning.
Poster No.45 (Meeting Hall No.2) VietTESOL International Convention 2022 convention@viettesol.org.vnTechnical Issues?
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