iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………… iv ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………… vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale of the study………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the study……………………………………………………………………… 1.3 Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………… 1.3.1 The theoretical framework………………………………………………… 1.3.2 The chosen text……………………………………………………………… 1.4 Methods and data of the study………………………………………………………… 1.5 Design of the study…………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……………………………………… 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………… 2.2 Functional Grammar – A model of language in context ………………………………5 2.2.1 Strata of the systemic functional model…………………………………… 2.2.2 Metafunctions……………………………………………………………… 2.3 Transitivity system: processes, participants and circumstances……………………… 2.3.1 Three components of the process…………………………………………….8 2.3.2 Types of process…………………………………………………………… 2.3.3 Circumstances……………………………………………………………… 12 CHAPTER III: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF MATERIAL PROCESS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE……………………………………………………………………… 14 3.1 The framework of the material process in English…………………………………… 14 3.1.1 The process………………………………………………………………… 14 3.1.2 Participants in Material processes……………………………………………15 3.1.3 Circumstances in Material processes…………………………………………16 3.1.4 Material Processes and tense……………………………………………… 17 3.1.5 Material processes and voice……………………………………………… 18 3.2 The framework of the material process in Vietnamese……………………………… 18 3.2.1 Identifying Material processes……………………………………………….19 3.2.2 Material Processes and voice…………………………………………………20 v CHAPTER IV: MATERIAL PROCESS IN THE ORIGINAL AND VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED EXTRACT FROM “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY HEMINGWAY: A FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON………………………………………………………… 22 4.1 The author Hemingway and the novella “The old man and the sea”………………… 22 4.1.1 Hemingway and his individual style………………………………………… 22 4.1.2 The novella “The old man and the sea”…………………………………… 23 4.2 The Vietnamese translated version by Lê Huy Bắc…………………………………… 25 4.3 A Functional Comparison of Material Process in the original and Vietnamese translated extract from “The old man and the sea” by Hemingway………………………………… 25 4.3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………… 25 4.3.2 Transitivity………………………………………………………………… 26 4.3.3 Material Processes in the original and the translation……………………… 27 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………… 38 5.1 Recapitulation………………………………………………………………………… 38 5.2 Implications of the study……………………………………………………………… 40 5.3 Suggestions for further study………………………………………………………… 42 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………… 43 APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………………….I Text 1: Analysis of the English text into clause complexes APPENDIX 2……………………………………………………………………………….IV Text 2: Analysis of Vietnamese-translated text into clause complexes APPENDIX 3……………………………………………………………………………….VII Table 2: Transitivity pattern of the English text APPENDIX 4……………………………………………………………………………….XIV Table 3: Transitivity pattern of the Vietnamese – translated text vi ABBREVIATIONS A ENGLISH Pro : Process Rel : Relational Mat : Material Per : Perception Cir : Circumstance Extent T : Extent, Temporal Extent S : Extent, Spatial Loc T : Location, Temporal Loc S : Location, Spatial Man Q : Manner, Quality Man C : Manner, Comparison Man M : Manner, Means Cause P : Cause, Purpose Acc C : Accompaniment, Comitative Role G : Role, Guise Fini : Finite Pred : Predicate Fig : Figure No of occ / NOC : Number of occurrence B VIETNAMESE QT : Quá trình vc : Vật chất tt : Tinh thần pn : Phát ngôn hv : Hành vi ĐTh : Đương thể TT : Thuộc tính CT : Cảm thể HT : Hành thể vii ĐT : Đích thể PNT : Phát ngôn thể UT : Ứng thể CC : Chu cảnh pc : Phong cách tg : Thời gian đv tg : Định vị, thời gian pc cl : Phong cách, chất lượng pc ss : Phong cách, so sánh CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Not until I had pursued Master degree of Applied Linguistics at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, did I have the first chance to familiarize myself with one of the most important schools of linguistics, which is so-called “Functional Grammar” from Professor Hoang Van Van’s lectures This type of grammar deeply impressed me especially when it was brought into comparison with another well-known subtype of grammar; that is, Traditional Grammar I got to know Traditional Grammar, through its simple grammatical rules from my first days of the 6th grade When I studied at the university, it seemed that I was fully aware of the notion “Traditional Grammar” Williams (2005) defined the Traditional Grammar as “the collection of prescriptive rules and concepts about the structures of language that is commonly taught in schools” This means that Traditional Grammar refers to ways of analyzing words into such functions as Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O), Complement (C) and Adverbial (A) and analyzing sentences basing on seven major clause types: SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA All of these rules are presented clearly by Quirk et al (1985) in “A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language” All in all, this kind of grammar takes linguistic structures as its priority; therefore, it has limitations on interpreting the organization of a discourse As a result, Functional Grammar or Systemic Functional Grammar was developed by the linguist Halliday in the 1960s in order to solve the problems of discourse analysis In fact, a functional grammar was designed to study the wording and interpret the wording by reference to what it means (Halliday, 1994) In detail, it is particularly helpful for explaining how language is selected and organized in particular ways for particular sociocultural purposes Three important variables are Field (subject matter), Tenor (roles and relationships), and Mode (mode and medium) Other Systemic Functional Grammar terms which people might have approached include circumstance, participant and process Moreover, Systemic Functional Grammar is useful for explaining the structuring of clauses, sentences, texts, discourses by analyzing their cohesive devices Among all of these categories, what I am most interested in is types of process in general and material process in particular since material process is a popular process in English So I have decided to choose “material process” as the topic of my minor thesis In addition, functional grammar has been studied by many famous linguists in the world like M.A.K Halliday (1985, 1994), Bloor (1995), Eggins (1994) and Thompson (1996); among all of whom, Halliday is considered to be a vanguard grammarian because of his great contributions In Vietnam, firstly Cao Xuân Hạo and then Hoàng Văn Vân did researches on Vietnamese in the light of systemic functional grammar Their studies respectively are Tiếng Việt – Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức (1991) and Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm cú Tiếng Việt: mô tả theo quan điểm chức hệ thống (2002), in which types of process especially material process in Vietnamese are investigated Thus, however small my study is, I myself would like to contribute to this fledgling field by examining material process through both English and Vietnamese using the same theoretical framework – systemic functional linguistics The functional comparison between material process in English and Vietnamese was carried out by Huỳnh Thị Cẩm Nhung in 2002 However, in my opinion, the scope of this thesis is rather broad because the analysis is not attached to any specific texts or discourses As far as I am concerned, I have chosen to compare material process in an extract from “The old man and the sea” by Earnest Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version by Lê Huy Bắc for three reasons Firstly, I find myself have a passion for literature Secondly, in order to compare items in two languages, it is vital to show that they are contextually equivalent Such equivalence can be best achieved by reference to translation as “translation is the replacement of textual material in one language by equivalent textual material in another language” (Cartford, 1965) In the end, assuming English to be the control language and Vietnamese to be the comparative one, the comparison will become easier and more effective if I compare the translation which is translated by an experienced and excellent linguist and has won public recognition with the original From all reasons above, it is hoped that this study will provide some insights into the understanding of the translation of material process in literature 1.2 Aims of the study The aim of this study is to answer the following questions: a What is material process? b Are Material processes in the original extract from “The old man and the sea” written by Hemingway the same as those in its Vietnamese translated version? c What implications of translation equivalence does the study have for Vietnamese teachers, students and translators of literary works? In order to find the answers to the research questions above, an attempt is made to examine how material process is conceptualized in English and Vietnamese by synthesizing the works of Halliday (1994) and Hoàng Văn Vân (2002) So as to make the comparison between the original and translated version, Halliday’s and Hoàng Văn Vân’s theoretical framework are chosen to be the descriptive framework of my study Finally, basing on the findings of the study, I would like to offer some implications for translating material process in literature into Vietnamese 1.3 Scope of the study 1.3.1 The theoretical framework In this study, I not have an ambition to cover all aspects of functional grammar Only issues related to material process such as framework, elements and features are taken into consideration Moreover, material process is a small domain in a grammatical space which is known as transitivity In fact, the Systemic Functional Linguistic model of language recognizes three social functions: ideational, interpersonal and textual Among them, ideational function is divided into experiential and logical Experiential function is realized by transitivity system As a result, metafunctions, the grammar of experience and its representation in the transitivity system are also examined briefly 1.3.2 The chosen text The scope of investigation is limited to the written extract from Hemingway’s novella “The old man and the sea” and, equivalently, its Vietnamese version which is translated by Lê Huy Bắc The original extract is from page 88 to 94 and the translated version is from page 64 to 70 of the whole story However, during the process of analysis, I have cut down some unnecessary clauses so that I can analyze the text more easily As a result, the chosen text in both languages has shrunk (from to pages) The reason is that there is not enough space for a minor thesis to investigate the whole novella of more than 125 pages An extract of only pages seems to be more feasible Furthermore, this extract is about the old man’s fierce battle with a giant marlin on the sea So, it is supposed to contain a high density of verbs of action which are frequently the representation of material process – process of DOING This study is confined to an analysis at clause-level 1.4 Methods and data of the study From these aims above, the study is carried out basing mainly on two methods: descriptive and comparative The former concerns with the description of material process in English and Vietnamese and the latter concerns with the comparison of the process in the two languages As I have said above, the data used for the study are taken from page 88 to 94 of the source language text and the corresponding pages in the Vietnamese version The analysis of the source language text’s clause is based on Halliday’s theory (1994) The investigation of the translated text is based on both Halliday’s and Hoàng Văn Vân (2002)’s theory 1.5 Design of the study This thesis is designed in five chapters: Chapter I: introduces rationale, aims, scope and methodology of the study Chapter II: provides the theoretical orientations for the study: systemic functional theory and its related issues to the topic of my thesis Chapter III: discusses some basic notions of material process such as Actor, Goal and Circumstance Chapter IV: is concerned with the comparative analysis between participants, process and circumstances of material process in English and Vietnamese Chapter V: tries to reach the most clear-cut possible conclusions about the equivalence between the two versions and provides some implications for translation task CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Introduction Material process, in reality, is considered to be a small domain in a grammatical space which is known as TRANSITIVITY Within the scope of my study, this chapter will be devoted to a review of the issue most relevant to the thesis’s topic; that is transitivity system Before that, we would like to give a brief introduction of Halliday’s Functional Grammar and three types of meaning which are closely related to transitivity system 2.2 Functional Grammar – A model of language in context Functional grammar is a way of looking at language as “a social semiotic resource for expressing meaning in contexts” (Halliday, 1994) It is implied that language is not “a set of all grammatical sentences” but only makes sense when placed in context Context is divided into two communication planes: genre (context of culture) and register (context of situation) Genres are “staged goal – oriented social processes in which speakers engage as members of a culture” (Martin, 1985) They include a wide range of routinized structures from everyday genres such as buying and selling, telling stories, gossiping, etc to the genres of “recognizable social activity” like educational genres, literary genres, etc Register is a semantic concept It can be defined as “a configuration of meanings that are typically associated with a particular situational configuration of field, mode and tenor” (Halliday, 1985) That is to say, register constrains the meanings that are likely to be made in situational contexts in society It is studied in terms of three contextual variables or parameters: field, mode and tenor It can be summarized briefly from Halliday’s theory (1994) that field refers to “what is happening” (by analyzing texts), tenor refers to “who is taking part” (by analyzing the interaction) and mode refers to “what part the language is playing” (by analyzing the ways messages are constructed) Not only does Halliday put language in context, he also has an idea of language in use when claiming that a language consists of a set of systems, each of which offers the speaker (or writer) choice of ways of expressing meaning The form of language that people use to express meanings is influenced by complex elements of specific situations For example, a business letter requesting payment of a debt is likely to be very different in format and style from a letter on a similar topic written to an old friend (Bloor, 1995) Halliday’s grammar is both semantic and functional The former which is concerned with meaning or language in context is represented by four strata: Context – Semantics – Lexicogrammar – Phonology; while the latter concerning with function or language in use is represented by three metafunctions: experiential – textual – interpersonal 2.2.1 Strata of the systemic functional model The following strata are set up in Systemic Functional Linguistics: Fig 1-2 Four strata of SF Model (Teich, 1999: 13) Phonology refers to the sound system of a language; Lexico-grammar refers to the words and the structure of words; and Semantics refers to the systems of meaning in a language There is a general principle that the categories of a lower stratum realize the categories of a higher stratum (Halliday and Matthiessen, 1997) In this sense, the relation between strata is natural 2.2.2 Metafunctions The SFL model of language recognizes three social functions: (i) The interpersonal function to enact relationships (ii) The ideational function to represent experience (iii) The textual function to organize text (Martin & Rose, 2003: 6) These three functions are interwoven with each other so that we can achieve all three social functions simultaneously They are also of equal status; none is more important than any other In detail: (i) Ideational function: is concerned with “the speaker’s experience of the real world” (Halliday, 1970: 143) Ideational function reflects the field parameter of register Within the ideational, there is a subdivision into experiential and logical The experiential refers to “propositional content encoded as processes, events, participants, and the accompanying circumstances, etc” (Teich, 1999: 15) In other words, experiential function is realized by TRANSITIVITY system These issues of transitivity which are the focus of my study will be discussed further in one section below The logical refers to “some general organizing relations expressed”, for instance, paratactic versus hypotactic organization The following example is an illustration for the experiential and logical analysis of a clause: ... CHAPTER IV: MATERIAL PROCESS IN THE ORIGINAL AND VIETNAMESE TRANSLATED EXTRACT FROM ? ?THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA? ?? BY HEMINGWAY: A FUNCTIONAL COMPARISON………………………………………………………… 22 4.1 The author Hemingway. .. Vietnamese translated version by Lê Huy Bắc…………………………………… 25 4.3 A Functional Comparison of Material Process in the original and Vietnamese translated extract from ? ?The old man and the sea? ?? by Hemingway? ??………………………………... Hemingway and the novella ? ?The old man and the sea? ??………………… 22 4.1.1 Hemingway and his individual style………………………………………… 22 4.1.2 The novella ? ?The old man and the sea? ??…………………………………… 23 4.2 The Vietnamese