The document discusses problems of equivalence at the word level when translating between languages. It identifies 11 common problems including culture-specific concepts, words with no direct translation, semantic complexity, different distinctions in meaning, lack of superordinates or specific terms, and differences in frequency or purpose of forms. It then outlines 8 strategies for dealing with non-equivalence, such as using more general, neutral, or paraphrased words, loan words with explanation, translation by omission or illustration.

1. COMPOSERS: THANH+ CUC
CONTENT: PROBLEMS OF EQUIVALENT
DATE OF PRESENTATION: April 29TH 2012

2. PROBLEMS WITH NON-
EQUIVALENCE AT WORD LEVEL
1.Culture-specific concept 2.The SL concept is
not lexicalized the target language (TL) 3.The
source language (SL) word is semantically
complex 4.The SL and the TL make different
distinction in meaning 5.The TL lacks a
superordinate 6.The TL lacks a specific term
(hyponym) 7.Differences in physical or
interpersonal perspective 8.Difference in
expressive meaning 9. Differences in form 10.
Differences in frequency and purpose of using
specific forms 11.The use of loan words in the
SL

3. • 1.Culture-specific concept-The SL
word may express a concept which is
totally unknown in the target culture-
the concept may be abstrac t or
concrete,related to religious belief,so
cial custom or even a type of
food.Such concepts are often referred
to as“culture specific”Eg:The VNese
use the word “ông mãnh” to refer to a
young died man. The other countries
people couldn’t know what“ ông
mãnh” is if they don’t understand this
Vnese s’custom.

4. • 2.The SL concept is not lexicalized the
target language (TL)-The SL word may
express a concept which is known in
the target culture but it isn’t allocated a
TL to express it.Ex:The word:“quântử”
refers to a talented and straight
forward man who possesses much
good quality in accordance with
Confucian.There is no equivalent word
in E.sometimes it can betranslated as
“gentleman” but it is restricted in
certain circumstance.Or: the concept
“mặccả”-put the price up expecting
people to bargain

5. • 3.The SL word is semantically
complex .This is fairly common
problem in translation. Words do
not have to be morphologically
complex to be semantically complex
.In other word which consists of
single morpheme can sometimes
express a more complex set of
meanings than a whole sentence.
Eg:In Vietnamese “tôi tiễn anh ta ”
the word “tiễn” means “I take him
out the door and say goodbye”.

6. • 4. The SL & TL make different
distinctions in meaning. The TL may
make more or fewer distinctions in
meaning than the SL .Ex:Vnese:aunt:
cô,dì,thím,mợ,bác
gái.uncle:chú,cậu,dượng,bác trai
.When translator translates from
English to Vnese,he gets some
difficulties, he has to depend on the
context to translate it accurately.

7. • 5.The TL lacks a superordinate.The TL
may have specific words but no
superordinate word (general word) to
head the semantic field.Ex:Vietnamese
doesn’t have the general word for
“rice’’.It is translated as
“mạ,lúa,thóc,gạo,cơm,cốm,bỏng…”dep
ending on the context Or:English
doesn’t have the general word for
“đàn”,depending on the kind of animal
to use different word such as:a flock of
bird / sheep,a pride of lions / deer,a
pack of dog and so on

8. 6.The TL lacks a specific term
(hyponym).The TL may have
superordinate words (general word) but
lacks specific words. Ex1:“to wear”-
Eng:depend on the context to
understand its meaning-Vnese:many
hyponyms for it:mặc (quần áo) ,đi
(tất,giày),để (râu),đội (mũ),bôi (son) and
so on….Ex2:“cooking”-Eng:many
hyponyms:boil,roast,bake,brew,braise,s
immer,poach,grill,seal,glaze,prick,brow
n.-
Vnese:sào,nấu,quay,rán,hấp,luộc=>lack
s words to express

9. • 7.Differences in physical or
interpersonal perspective-Physical
perspective:concerns the location of
the things or people of the context with
others Ex:Vnese:to“come /
go”–“đi”English:+Come:means getting
closer the speaker + Go:means getting
away from the speaker-Interpersonal
perspective :drawn the attention to the
relationship among participants in the
discourse . Ex:English:“to give”-
present voluntarily and with out
expecting compensation
Vnese:biếu,tặng,cống,nạp,đưa,cho…

10. • 8.Differences in expressive meaning .A
word has different expressive meaning
between SL and TL Ex 1:“sexy”-Eng: it
means attractive which has positive ,
complementary meaning (praise)-Vnese:it
means wearing erotically (khiêugợi),has
negative meaning .Ex2:“exotic”-Eng:it
means unusual and exciting because of
coming from a distant country,has neutral
and positive meaning.-Vnese:it often
conveys a disapproving meaning (ngoại lai)

11. • 9.Differences in form .There is no
equivalence in TL for a particular form
in SL text. Prefixes & suffixes in E often
have no equivalent in other languages.
Ex:“employer”,“creditor”,transferee”Th
e suffixes “er,or,ee”…Vnese have no
direct equivalent in producing such a
form so it is often replaced by
paraphrase depending on the meaning
they convey

12. 10.Differences in frequency and
purpose of using of specific
forms .A particular form does have
equivalent inTL but there may be a
difference in the frequency with
which it is used or purpose for
which it is used.Ex:-Eng:“_ing”
form in English is used differently
from using in gerund

13. 11.The use of loan words in the
source text .The source text use
loan words , so it is difficult to find
loan words in TL Ex:“sơn hào,hải
vị”are 2 loan word from Chinese
Eng has no equivalent loan word.

14. Strategies for non-equivalence at
word level
• 1.Translation by a more general word
2.Translation by more neutral / less
expressive word 3.Translation by
cultural substitution 4.Translation
using a loan word or loan word plus
explanation 5.Translation by
paraphrase using a related word
6.Translation by paraphrase using
unrelated words 7.Translation by
omission 8.Translation by illustration

15. • 1.Translation by a more general word
• This strategy uses a more general
word to replace them or specific
one .It’s the most common strategy
for dealing many types of non -
equivalence,particularly in the area of
propositional meaning . Ex:-Eng:
makes distinctions among mopeds ,
scooters and motorcycles depending
on wheels and engines.-Vnese : use
the general word “xe máy”for all

16. • 2.Translation by more neutral / less
expressive word .The strategy uses more
neutral /less word to replace words which
don’t have equivalent words. It is particularly
useful to an expressive word . Ex1:The word
“sexy” should be transferred as “quyến rũ”
in Vnese since it is more neutral and not
likely to convey a disapproving meaning as
“gợi tình” Ex2:Oversea Vietnamese was
delighted with remarkable change in the
mother land.Should be translated:Việt kiều
vui mừng trước sự thay đổi của quê hương It
is better than “mẫu quốc”

17. 3.Translation by cultural substitution-.This strategy
involves replacing a cultural-specificite more
express with one of the different meanings but
similar impact in the translated text.-This strategy
gives the reader a concept which they can
identify and understand,familiar and appealing to
them.-Most Vietnamese translators dislike this
strategy and prefer direct translation claiming
that is a way for the original text. Eg:In English
“the baby weights six pounds ”Translate into
Vietnamese ,instead of “đứa bé nặng 6 cân Anh
”we say“đứa bé nặng 2,7kg”.Eg 2:“mother day”
in English is translated as “ngày lễ vu lan”in
Vietnamese. Because both are a day to honor
mother and motherhood in both countries.

18. 4.Translation using a loan word or loan word
plus explanation-This strategy is
particularly deal with culture-specific items,
modern concepts ,-This strategy is very
useful when the translator deal with
concept so wide as that are new to target
audience ,culture-specific items ,and
proper name so if diseases or medicines
that a widely known in English names. Eg:
“HIV and AIDS” are two familiar concepts
with most people in the word .Therefore
,they often used as in the SL without
accompanying explanation

19. • 5.Translation by paraphrase using a related
words.This strategy tends to be used when the
concept expressed by the source item is lexical in
the TL but in a different form , and when the
frequency with which a certain form is used in the
source text is significantly higher than would be
natural in the TL . Ex:-In English : “the integrated
resorts are fully opened , gaming areas will take
up less than 3 percent of the Gross Floor Area for
Marina Bay Sands.”-In Vnese: “Các khu nghỉ
dưỡng kết hợp đa chức năng mở cửa hoàn toàn ,
khu vực sòng bài chỉ chiếm chưa tới 3% tổng
diện tích mặt bằng của Marina Bay Sands . ”As in
dictionary,“integrated”is an adj referring to the
stated of combining many different parts are
closely connected and work successfully
together,but it is not lexicalized clearly in Vnese

20. • 6.Translation by paraphrase using unrelated
words .If the concept expressed by the
source item is not lexicalized at all the TL,the
paraphrase strategy can still be used in
some context.Instead of a related word,the
paraphrase may be base on modifying a
superordinate or simply on unpacking the
meaning the source item .Eg. In English
”Compulsory school attendance was only
through grade five.”the word“attendance“in
Vietnamese means“sự tham dự”it seems to
be not appropriate here.Therefore we
translate into Vnese“giáo dục bắt buộc chỉ
hết lớp năm.

21. • 7.Translation by omission-If the meaning
conveyed by aparticular item or expression
is not vital enough to the development of the
text to justify distracting the reader with
lengthy explanations,translators can often do
simply omit translating the word or
expression in question Eg:-SL”long hours
and shared stress at work are leading to
office romance.”the word “romance”in
English can be translated as “tình / chuyện
tình / chuyện tình lãng mạn / mối tình lãng
mạn”the shorter version,though can convey
the implication which is enough for the
reader to understand.Therefore we translate
the SL into Vietnamese as “thời gian làm việc
chung lâu và sự chia sẻ khó khăn khi làm
việc là tác nhân cho tình công sở”

22. 8.Traslation by illustration. This is a useful
option if the word which lacks an equivalent
in the TL refers to a physical entity which can
be illustrated , particularly if there are
restrictions on space and if the text has to
remain short , , concise , and to the point .
Eg: In Vietnam,having toys named “tò
he”which made from colored rice dough .It is
made to depict different heroes and ordinary
people of daily life , symbolic animal .It is
difficult for a foreigner readers to visualize
what exactly a “tò he ”is showing a photo of
it.