Tài liệu Investigating the use of marketing lexis in the series market leader - a comparative study in business translation

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES ENGLISH DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATING THE USE OF MARKETING LEXIS IN THE SERIES MARKET LEADER - A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN BUSINESS TRANSLATION SUPERVISOR: DAO MINH TRUNG, M.A STUDENT: NGUYEN HOANG XEM DATE OF BIRTH: 23/06/1990 COURSE: 36 (2010 – 2014) CLASS: NN10Z8A1 STUDENT’S CODE: 7107115 CAN THO -2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to finish my graduation paper, I have received a lot of help from my honor teachers and friends. I would like to say thank you to all. Firstly, I would like to give a big gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Mr. Dao Minh Trung, who is always with me and gives me so much supporting. It is not easy to express how much the help from my supervisor and it is not easy for me to express my acknowledgement, I cannot finish my thesis without helping from my supervisor Secondly, my friends are people who I would like to express my deep gratitude. My friends helped me find document as well as they always encourage me to finish my study. Finally, I would like to thank all the staff members in LRC (Learning Resource Center). They provided me all facilities when I was doing my research. To sum up, big thanks send to all who help me finish my research. i Table of Contents Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………………………..i Table of contents ………………………………………………………………………ii List of tables ……………………………………………………………......................iv Abstract ………………………………………………………………………….….....v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………..Error! Bookmark not defined. 1.1. Rationale………………………………………………………………………...Erro r! Bookmark not defined. 1.2. Aims and scope of study………………………………………………………...Error! Bookmark not defined. 1.3. Significance of the research ……………………………………………….........Error! Bookmark not defined. 1.4. Thesis organization………………………………………………………….......Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………… …Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.1. Definition of translation……………………………………………………... …Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.2. The importance of translation………………………………………………... …Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.3. Some kinds of translation……………………………………………………. …8 2.4. Definition of lexis………………………………………………………...........Error! Bookmark not defined. ii 2.4.1. Definition of words………………………………………………………..Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.4.2. Definition of phrases………………………………………………………Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.5. The roles of lexis in language………………………………………………….Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.6. Defining marketing lexis and role of lexis in marketing………………………Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.7. Introduction of “Market Leader” textbook series………………………….......Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.8. Research questions……………………………………………………………..Error! Bookmark not defined. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY…………………………………......Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.1. Generalizing Vietnamese and English marketing lexis……………………......Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2. Analyzing the use of marketing lexis in “Market Leader” textbooks…………Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.2.1. Classification of marketing lexis in “Market Leader”…………………......18 3.2.2. Analyzing the use of marketing lexis in the series of “Market Leader”....Error! Bookmark not defined...32 3.2.3. Analyzing the meaning of marketing lexis used in “Market Leader”…......Error! Bookmark not defined.6 3.3. Comparative analysis of between English and Vietnamese marketing lexis in terms of the series “Market Leader”……………………………………………......40 3.3.1. Translating English marketing lexis into Vietnamese…………………......40 3.3.2. Comparative studies of between English and Vietnamese marketing lexis in business translation……………………………………………………………....52 iii 3.4. The difficulties and methods in translating marketing lexis……………...........Error! Bookmark not defined.8 3.4.1. Some difficulties in translating marketing lexis……………………….......Error! Bookmark not defined.8 3.4.2. Some methods when translating marketing lexis………………………….61 3.5. Summary……………………………………………………………………….64 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION……………………Error! Bookmark not defined.5 4.1. Results………………………………………………………………………….Error ! Bookmark not defined.5 4.2. Discussion………………………………………………………………….......Error ! Bookmark not defined.6 4.3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..Error! Bookmark not defined.7 CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS……………………..Error! Bookmark not defined.9 5.1. Limitations of the research…………………………………………………….Error! Bookmark not defined.9 5.2. Recommendations……………………………………………………………..Error! Bookmark not defined.9 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………….....71 iv List of Tables Table 3.1 Marketing words in the series “Market Leader”…………………………...19 Table 3.2 Marketing phrases in the series “Market Leader”…………………….........21 Table 3.3 Typical marketing lexis that classified in terms of parts of speech………..29 Table 3.4 Some typical English marketing lexis translated into Vietnamese………...40 v ABSTRACT The globalization and integration process promote strongly the need of communication around the world and English is considered an efficient means. However, there is a common belief that a good English speaker is enough to communicate with any other people, who also use English, about any topics in different cultures, translation is not necessary. As a result, this study, about the investigation the use of marketing lexis in the series “Market Leader” and translate some of them, is implemented to prove that how important translation is and how difficult in translation a specific field is. Also, the study would like to show readers how excellent the use of marketing lexis. In order to reach these aims, analyzing the use and meaning of the marketing lexis is done first, then translating some of them. The findings showed that translating a specific field is not easy, many problems may be encountered. Besides, the interesting things behind the use of marketing lexis are discovered. Basing on the findings, this study has promising implications for educational situations as well as for translating contexts. vi vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale At present, we are on the way of integration into globalization trend; therefore, the need of communication with international environment is more and more increasing. Especially, when our country is one of the members of World Trade Organization (WTO), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) as well as business partner in other international organizations and nations as Europe Union (EU), World Bank (WB), the United States, Japan, etc. the need of exchanging is more crucial. In front of this situation, it is said that English is an important tool for our country to communicate with the world effectively. However, hardly people think that translation is very important too. In fact, translation is an indispensable factor for integrating and developing of our country. Why do we need translation? As mentioned above, the need of using English to exchange information as well as communicate is increasing day by day. As a result, translation is considered as a useful string to connect the world. In fact, English appears every corner of society as economy, politics, culture, sports. However, every field has particular characters. In other words, the use of English in one field is not exactly alike the others’. English in economy is different from English in sports, for instance. This is the problem that we need to recognize. Generally, many people can communicate quite well by English in terms of speaking, writing, reading, but translation or interpretation is not an easy task. The numbers of people who can translate or interpret are not as many as the numbers of people who use English. Translating or interpreting about common themes is difficult but translating or interpreting a particular area, specialized topic, is more difficult. Translating in a specialized field is the main work that the researcher is going to do during the research paper. As an English translation and interpretation student, the researcher would like 1 to do a research about translation as well as the use of lexis in business. Specifically, the researcher is going to investigate the use of marketing lexis in the series “Market Leader” and show translation of technical words and phrases in marketing. The researcher chooses this topic because of the need of reality. In fact, the research about the topic in marketing is not many; meanwhile, our country is integrating with the world business, the need of exchanging marketing information in particular with other countries is growing significantly which promotes the research done to meet the need. The researcher chooses the series “Market Leader” textbooks as main material to analyze because this is one of the most famous business textbooks for Vietnamese readers. The textbooks not only cover most of the field of economy in general, but marketing in particular. Moreover, the researcher would like to find out interesting meanings behind simple words and phrases. Like many other studies, the researcher hopes that the study will contribute to the specialized field for English learners and researchers; especially for translation and interpretation learners. 1.2. Aims and scope of study Knowledge is infinite, but our ability is finite. The more deeply we research, the more widely we know. In fact, because of limitation of time and ability, the researcher cannot mention all the lexis in all the fields. The researcher only focuses on lexis used in the field of economy, especially marketing sector. More specifically, the researcher is going to use lexis in “Market Leader” textbooks as the source for the study. Besides, the researcher is going to analyze lexis in terms of translation as the main means in the research, not interpretation. If the researcher uses both translation and interpretation, there will be more things to discuss. Therefore, in the scope of this study, the researcher would like to focus on some main points to help readers understand more deeply about the equivalent meanings of lexis in marketing field between English and Vietnamese. Also, the researcher would like to show how to 2 translate English words and phrases in marketing into Vietnamese as well as difficulties that readers may encounter. Therefore, this research aims at: - Giving definition of translation and its role, - Giving definition of lexis and their linguistic meaning in Vietnamese language, - Analyzing common marketing lexis in the series “Market Leader” to find out their meanings, - Translating some typical marketing lexis in the series, - Offering some methods of translating marketing lexis, - And helping readers visualize the importance of translation in marketing. 1.3. Significance of the research Many people still have thought that a person who uses English fluently can translate English into Vietnamese easily or vice verse. This thought is not really true because translation is not an easy task. It requires not only good English skills, but translation skills and more knowledge on culture, society. So, this study is going to show readers how difficult translation is. Besides, it may be the first project at Can Tho University studying about translation of marketing lexis using “Market Leader” textbooks. Additionally, it can be used as translating document to support for translators in terms of translating the textbooks into Vietnamese. 1.4. Thesis organization In order to have a complete thesis on both content and organization, this paper is divided into five chapters and references. Chapter one introduces about the reasons, aims and scope, significance and organization of the thesis. This chapter will not only help readers understand why this topic is chosen but also generalize both the content and structure of the study. 3 In chapter two, literature review will be presented – the theoretical background – of some main issues in the topic. Respectively, the characteristics of translation and methods are presented in detail. Also, the definitions of lexis, word and phrase as well as the roles of lexis are described. In this chapter, the introduction of the series “Market Leader” is presented. Chapter three deals with the research methodology of the study. It will generalize Vietnamese and English marketing lexis and analyze the use of marketing lexis in “Market Leader” textbooks that are used as the source for comparative analysis between English and Vietnamese marketing lexis. After that, the methods and difficulties are introduced. Chapter four provides the results, discussion and conclusion concerning the analysis and translation of marketing lexis in the series “Market Leader”. Chapter five gives some limitations of the research as well as recommendations for the learners, teachers and translators in learning, teaching and translating issues. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the researcher is going to review some important concepts such as translation, lexis, words and phrases to give readers a chance to remember these basic concepts and closely hold the content of the thesis up. Besides, the roles of these concepts and the introduction of the series “Market Leader” are offered logically. 2.1. Definition of translation Since translation appears in our society, theory of translation also may appear after that. Definition of translation in theory of translation is one of the big issues that many scholars have discussed so much. Until now, a lot of famous linguists, anthropologists, translators as well as many other famous writers have given different definitions of translation. It can be said that every author has their own definition because they approach different aspects of translation. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th edition, translation is defined as “the process of change something that is written or spoken into another language”. This definition is quite general; it just focuses on “process” to change written or spoken forms. According to Lili (2009), he defines that translation “involves the transfer of messages between two different language systems and cultures”. At this definition, the author approaches translation in terms of meaning of languages but the meaning is in the background of “language systems and cultures”. Similarly, Nugroho (in Meaning and Translation) writes translation as “a process of rendering meaning, ideas, or messages of a text from language to other language”. Like Lili, Nugroho also bases on meaning to give definition of translation. In the research article of Adelnia (2011), his definition of translation is “to transfer meaning from one language to another. A written or spoken source language text will be exchanged by its equivalent written or spoken target language text”. According to Adelnia, he not only emphasizes meaning but the form of the language. In other words, he emphasizes the form in terms of equivalent written and spoken forms. 5 From another point of view, Xiang (2011) writes “translation is a kind of crosslinguistic, cross-cultural and cross-social communication”. Clearly, Xiang not only bases on meaning aspect, he also concentrates on linguistic, culture and social communication; therefore, his definition is more expanded. He also gives additional explanation that translation is “as a kind of communication, the main purpose is nothing but to establish equivalence between the source text and the target text”. However, the equivalence is mentioned here that is meaning equivalence, not the form or style. With different expression but the similar idea, Le (2000) writes “translation is an effort to paraphrase the ideas in the source language in their equivalent and natural expression in the target language”. Approaching deeply and widely about definition of translation, some great and famous linguists give similar opinions. According to Catford (1965), “translation is the replacement of textual material in one language (source language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language) (as cited in Hoang, 2005, p.10). Also, cited in Hoang, Wilss (1982) points out “translation is a procedure which leads from a written SL text to an optimally equivalent TL text, and which requires the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic comprehension by the translator of the original text” (as cited in Hoang, 2005, p.10). Besides, Newmark (1969) writes “translation is a craft consisting of the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in another language” (as cited in Nguyen, 2005, P.9). Popovic (1980) also defines “translation is recoding of a linguistic text, accompanied by the creation of its new linguist appearance and stylistic shape” (as cited in Sokolovsky, 2010). Considering Nida’s definition of translation, a well-known translation theorist as well as linguist (2004), “translation consists in 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” (as cited in Shiyang, 2009). In general, if looking back the translation’s definition of Catford, Wilss, Newmark and Nida, it can be realized that both of aspects, meaning and form, of language are mentioned. In other words, 6 these authors approach translation in terms of content and style of language; they would like to remain content and style when translating into another language. Content and style are two main criteria that most of the translators put into their works. To sum up, according to different authors’ perspectives, they can give different opinions about definition of translation. Some opinions focus on the meaning; others focus on both meaning and style or form of language. In the modern trend, both meaning and style are applied by most translators as a language is not the same to others, “each of which has its own special features” (Jacobs, 1993, p. 3). 2.2. The importance of translation It is difficult to know when translation appears, but one thing can be sure that it appears simultaneously with language of human to meet the need of communication although the ways of translating in the past are very different from now. From the past to nowadays, it has not been denied the importance of translation in human’s life. Knowing that different parts of the world use different languages, every language reflects its special characters as culture, society, custom, etc. It is not easy for someone who would like to “communicate” with other part of the world even they can use the other language quite well. Meanwhile, the world of human is a united entity; people need to interact to exist and develop. In these cases, translation is really useful and effective, and it appears in all areas of society such as economy, language, culture, politics, and sports. The more modern our society becomes, the more important translation is. It “is an activity of enormous importance in our modern world” (Hoang, 2005, P. 9) because “the format of translation has partly moved away from books to reports, contracts, brochures, journals and magazines, instructions, and advertisements; its topics range from literature to every type of information with great emphasis to science and technology” (Hoang, 2005, P. 9). If there is no translation, we cannot know what happened or happening in the world. Especially, the background of globalization and integration of the world economy, translation plays an extremely significant role in 7 connecting the world. We need to do business to English speaking countries in particular and non-English speaking countries in general all around the world. More specifically, translation is a mean for people to get along with and integrate the world better in terms of communication. Xiang (2011) writes “translation has always functioned as a bridge for people who do not know foreign languages to understand the source text” and “translation, in essence, is basically a kind of communication”. In order to prove the role of translation, Duff (1985) also says “as a process of communication, translation functions as the medium ‘across the linguistic and cultural barriers’ in conveying the message written in the foreign languages” (as cited in An overview of translation, p. 9). According to Duff, the translation can solve the linguistic and cultural barriers to transfer message from language to another language. More clearly, Nida (1981) points out “translation means communication because it has three essential elements to form a process of communication. The three essential elements are source, message and receptor, and these elements must be found in all communication activities”. All in all, the role of translation in human’s languages is extremely important. It is a mean to communicate and transfer message through cultural and linguistic barriers. Indeed, the society can develop thanks to translation. 2.3. Some kinds of translation Like definition of translation, different authors give different kinds of translation. Although there are many different kinds, they have common characters. Basing on “Rotledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies”, there are three main kinds of translation: imitation (free translation), paraphrase (sense-for-sense translation) and metaphrase (copy/word-for-word translation) (as cited in Nguyen, 2007, p. 133). According to this document, the paraphrase is the best one in the three methods because this method does not “limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author’s words”. 8 In the 1976 study, Brislin gives four types of translation that relate to some aspects of linguistic and culture. The first type is pragmatic which “is the translation of a message with an interest in accuracy of the information meant to be communicated in the target language form”. The second is aesthetic – poetic that relates to emotion, feeling, and beauty of the original text. The third type is ethnographic that “explicates the cultural context of the source and second language version”. And the last is linguistic translation that “is concerned with equivalent meaning of the constituent morphemes of the second language and with grammatical form”. Specifically, Lili (2009) points out two main types of translation that are direct translation and oblique translation. Basing on two main translation methods, the author subdivides into other methods in each main method. In direct translation, there are three other types of translation such as borrowing, calque, and literal translation. Also, oblique translation is subdivided into four other types as transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. According to Lili, each kind has its own advantages and disadvantages. Besides, there are many classifications of translation from different authors. The Lili’s classification can be summarized by following diagram: 9 Borrowing Direct translation Calque Literal Translation techniques Transposition Modulation Oblique translation Equivalence Adaptation Shortly, if considering the matter in general background, it is easy to recognize that there are two main types of translation: literal translation and figurative translation. In this study, translation means transferring messages of English words and phrases into Vietnamese literally. 2.4. Definition of lexis Although lexis is common word and many people know what the lexis is, lexis is also misunderstood sometimes. In other words, some people think that lexis is vocabulary or vice versa. This thought is not exactly right. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th edition, lexis is “all the words and phrases of a particular language” while vocabulary is “all the words that a person knows and uses”. Clearly, there is a big difference between lexis and vocabulary that vocabulary refers to words alone, lexis relates to not just words but the bigger elements like particles, fixed expression and so on. Meanwhile, Hameed defines that lexis is “strings of words which go together”. The single word does not exist in Hameed’s definition. However, according to 10 Wikipedia lexis is “the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language, the artifact of which is known as a lexicon”. Lewis (1997) also writes “lexis is a more general word than common vocabulary. Vocabulary is often used to talk of the individual words of language; lexis covers single words and multi-word objects which have the same status in the language as simple words, the items we store in our mental lexicons ready for use” (as cited in the lexical approach p. 18). The definition of Lewis is quite specific and clear. Olga (2001) gives shorter definition of lexis “lexis includes not only the single words but also the word combinations that people store in their mental lexicons” (as cited in the lexical approach). In conclusion, every author gives their own definition but lexis consists of two parts: words and phrases. In order to make it easy to understand, the research uses the Oxford’s definition. The reason we choose lexis in our research paper, not vocabulary, because the term “lexis” can cover aspects of translation in marketing. Translating not only transfers single words, but phrases in context. 2.4.1. Definition of words Words are one of the two main parts in lexis’ definition and everyone knows what a word is. It can be said that word is vocabulary. However, the definition of word is not simple at all. So far, there have been a lot of definitions of word. The common definition is given by Oxford Dictionary that word is “a single unit of language means something and can be spoken or written”. This definition is so good, it mentions “single unit” but recognizing a single unit in a language is not easy. More specifically, Carter (1998, p. 4) writes “a word is any sequence of letters bounded on either side by a space or punctuation mark”. The author also explains more that a word also is “a limited number of other characteristics such as hyphen and apostrophe”. Unlike the definition in Oxford Dictionary, the definition is approached in terms of letters of a word to give its definition. Also, Carter gives one more definition that he focuses on the syllable of word. He points “a word is that it will not have more than one syllable” (p. 6). Approaching the meaning aspect of word, Nguyen (2009) defines “a word is the 11 smallest of the linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech and writing. Words are meaning units that can be combined to form phrases and sentences”. Indeed, there are many problems in trying to define a word. However, the research chooses the definition in Oxford Dictionary. 2.4.2. Definition of phrases Phrases are the second important part of lexis’s definition that the researcher is going to discuss in the research. If word is defined as a single unit, the phrase is defined as a group of words. Like definition of word, the researcher also uses definition of phrase in Oxford Dictionary in the study; a phrase is “a group of words without a finite verb, especially one that form part of a sentence”. Besides, the researcher would like to mention some other definitions from different authors. A phrase is defined by Lyons (1969) as “any group of words which is grammatically equivalent to single word and which does not have its own subject and predicate” (as cited in A study of the Structure of Telugu Phrases). Also, according to this research, phrase is a sequence or a potential sequence of two or more words which interrelate with each other in such a way that they function as a single unit to fill clause level slots”. Considering other aspect, Longacre (1964) points out “a group of syntagmemes of a hierarchical order ranking above such syntagmemes as the word and/or stem and below such syntagmemes as the clause and sentence” (as cited in A study of the Structure of Telugu Phrases). No matter what definition of phrase is given, phrase is an element below the clause level and above the word level. 2.5. The roles of lexis in language It cannot be denied the important role of lexis in language because lexis consists of words and phrases. If considering words as the basic single meaningful units of a language, all the activities of language involve words and they contribute the meaning to language. The phrases will contribute not only the meaning, but the vivid and colorful aspects of language. Therefore, lexis plays extremely important role in 12