Application of house’s model for translation quality assessment in assessing the english version of the vietnam’s law on investment no 59-2005-qh11

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF GRADUATE STUDIES LƯƠNG TỐ LAN APPLICATION OF HOUSE’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE VIETNAM’S LAW ON INVESTMENT NO. 59/2005/QH11 ÁP DỤNG MÔ HÌNH ĐÁNH GIÁ CHẤT LƯỢNG BẢN DỊCH CỦA HOUSE VÀO VIỆC ĐÁNH GIÁ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH LUẬT ĐẦU TƯ SỐ 59/2005/QH11 M.A. Thesis Combined Programme Thesis English Linguistics 60 22 15 HA NOI - 2007 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF GRADUATE STUDIES LƯƠNG TỐ LAN APPLICATION OF HOUSE’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN ASSESSING THE ENGLISH VERSION OF THE VIETNAM’S LAW ON INVESTMENT NO. 59/2005/QH11 ÁP DỤNG MÔ HÌNH ĐÁNH GIÁ CHẤT LƯỢNG BẢN DỊCH CỦA HOUSE VÀO VIỆC ĐÁNH GIÁ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH LUẬT ĐẦU TƯ SỐ 59/2005/QH11 M.A. Thesis Combined Programme Thesis Major: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Asso. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến HA NOI - 2007 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by other persons, except where due to references has been made in the text. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Asso. Ph.D. Lê Hùng Tiến, who guided me throughout the accomplishment of this research. If it had not been for his kind guidance, insightful comments and valuable support, my thesis would not have been completed. I also owe my gratitude to my family, who have always been very supportive with my study. My parents always encourage me in difficult times. And my mother, especially, often helps me to do housework so that I can have more time to work on my papers. Personally, I highly appreciate all the assistance. I am greatly interested in this study as it is of great help for myself. However, I am responsible for any remaining mistakes and short comings that are found in this work. ABSTRACT In today’s world where no nation can ignore the economic integration trend, the demand for easy access to the body of legal documents of a country is greater than ever before. More and more legal documents are being translated into English, the international language of communication, for reference purposes. This calls for studies into the field of legal translation to come up with methods and strategies of translation, as well as assessment and evaluation of translations. This study aims at revealing the most basic features of Vietnamese and English legal language, and basic concepts of translation theory in general, legal translation in particular. Then it will test the appropriateness of House’s model for translation quality assessment in assessing English translations of Vietnamese legal documents. This is done through the application of the model in assessing the English version of the Law on Investment 2005 of Vietnam and conclusions based on the findings. Finally, implications for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English will be proposed. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement of authorship i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi List of diagrams vii INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rational for the study 1 2. Significance of the study 2 3. Scope and objectives of the study 2 3.1. Scope of the study 2 3.2. Research questions 2 4. Research methods 2 5. Overview of the study 3 CHAPTER 1. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4 1.1.CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL LANGUAGE 4 1.1.1. An overview of legal traditions in the world 4 1.1.2. Vietnamese legal system 6 1.1.3. Vietnamese legal language 7 1.1.3.1. History of Vietnamese legal language 7 1.1.3.2. Linguistic features of Vietnamese legal language 7 1.1.4. English legal language 10 1.1.4.1. History of English legal language 10 1.1.4.2. Linguistic features of English legal language 11 1.2. TRANSLATION THEORY 16 1.2.1. Definition of translation 16 1.2.2. Translation methods and strategies 17 1.2.2.1. Translation methods 18 1.2.2.2. Translation strategies 20 1.2.3. Translation equivalence and assessment 21 1.2.4. Translation of legal documents 24 CHAPTER 2. APPLICATION OF HOUSE’S MODEL FOR TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT 27 2.1. Presentation of the model 27 2.1.1. An overview of the model 27 2.1.2. Operation of the model 28 2.2. Application of the model 31 2.2.1. Analysis of Source Text 32 2.2.2. Statement of function 47 CHAPTER 3. DISCUSSION 49 3.1. Comparison of Target Text and Source Text 49 3.2. Quality of the translation 57 3.3. Implications for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English 59 CONCLUSION 62 REFERENCES 64 Appendix A. Vietnamese version of the selected text I Appendix B. English version of the selected text V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL: Source Language TL: Target Language ST: Source Text TT: Translation Text LIST OF DIAGRAMS Global Distribution of Legal Systems Page 5 The schema for analyzing and comparing original and translation texts Page 30 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study Globalization and integration is an inevitable trend in today’s world. Any country that rejects this trend will soon be lagged behind in all major fields of social life. But communication is successful only when the participants can understand each other. This cannot be achieved if nations with different languages never try to understand the language of another. Therefore, the need for translation between languages is greater than ever before. And because English is an accepted contemporary international language, more and more documents in other languages are being translated into it. These are documents of all fields: politics, economics, culture, etc. But when can a translation be considered ‘good’ still draws much discussion. Translation theorists have their own founded criteria for translation quality assessment. Among distinguished scholars of this field is Julian House, a German linguist, with her model for translation quality assessment. On its route to international economic integration, Vietnam has to make many new laws as objectively required. Laws in Vietnamese obviously have legal validity. But reliable English versions of these laws are desirable to foreign investors before and on coming to do business in Vietnam. Though these English versions do not have legal value, they should facilitate the process of understanding and obeying Vietnam’s laws of foreign enterprises. A good translation of a legal document will mitigate misinterpretations and misapplications. Of the most recently enacted laws in Vietnam, the Law on Investment of 2005, number 59/2005/QH11 is one that has received much attention and discussion. The Law has been translated into English by several translators. An assessment of the English version of this law is thus desirable. 2. Significance of the study The results of this study will help test the quality of the English translation of the Law on Investment 2005 of Vietnam under the model developed by the German linguist House, and suggest any timely changes should there be to limit avoidable misunderstandings by foreign investors in interpreting the law. Besides, the study will also propose some suggestions concerning the translation of Vietnamese authoritative legal documents into English. 3. Scope and objectives of the study 3.1. Scope of the study The Law on Investment 2005 consists of eighty-nine articles, divided into ten chapters. A study of the whole document is therefore an overload for this paper. So the paper will analyze chapter II only, the title of which is “Bảo đảm đầu tư”. There are seven articles in this chapter, from Article 6 to Article 12. 3.2. Research questions The study aims at finding answers to two questions: How good is the translation according to House’s model and what are the remaining problems of the translation? What are some implications for the translation of Vietnamese legal documents into English? 4. Research methods This study aims at assessing the quality of the English translation of the Law on Investment of Vietnam. Therefore, a set of parameters for assessment is necessary. Among the various criteria and models for translation quality assessment, House’s model is chosen in this study because it is deemed to have a comprehensive set of parameters for assessing functional and pragmatic equivalence of the translation text. Furthermore, as House argues, the model can be applied with a wide range of texts. In applying House’s model, a source text is first selected, then analyzed to draw its textual profile along the eight situational dimensions and a statement of function of the ST will be made. Similarly, a profile of the translation text will be come up with and compared with the ST’s to find out mismatches before a statement of quality can be drawn about the TT. 5. Overview of the study The study contains three chapters: Chapter 1 – Review of Literature The first part of this chapter will first introduce the main legal traditions in the world and then give a brief introduction to the legal system of Vietnam. After that, it will elaborate linguistic features of Vietnamese and English legal languages. The second part discusses different aspects of translation: definition, methods and strategies, and equivalence and assessment. Basic characteristics of legal translation will also be presented. Chapter 2 – Application of House’s model for translation quality assessment In this chapter, House’s model for translation quality assessment will first be presented and then applied in assessing the English translation of the Law on Investment 2005 of Vietnam. Chapter 3 – Discussion of results and implications Findings about the quality of the translation text which is based on the application of the model will be discussed and implications for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English will also be come up with. CHAPTER 1. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 1.1. CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL LANGUAGE Statutes are generally promulgated by the state to govern people’s behaviors in all aspects of social life. They create, modify, or terminate the rights and obligations of individuals and institutions. Once enacted, a legal document becomes authoritative and no law-maker will be there to explain the wording and to guide the application of the rules in the law. Therefore, the rules set out in legal documents have to be clear, precise and unambiguous, on the one hand, to avoid misinterpretations and misapplications of them, and inclusive, on the other, to cover all the possible cases that can emerge within the governing scope of the law. To ensure these dual characteristics of legal rules, law-makers have to make full use of the written language, may it be English, French, Vietnamese or any other one. Therefore, the language of this type of documents is highly specialized. In this study, the term “legal texts” refers to any document within the field of law, and “legal documents” to statutes, documents issued by the law-making body of the country. And “legal language” is restricted to the language of these legal documents. 1.1.1. An overview of legal traditions in the world Before the serial collapse of some socialist countries in the world in the early 1990’s, there existed a strong belief among scholars in socialist countries that there were only two traditions of law, i.e. the socialist and the capitalist ones, with the latter including Anglo-American as well as Continental (Civil) law systems. Western scholars, on the contrary, distinguish between two main traditions, i.e. the Anglo-American and the Continental traditions, with socialist legal systems belonging to the latter one (Bogdan, 1994:63). Today, it is commonly agreed that there are five groups of legal systems worldwide distributed as follow: Global Distribution of Legal Systems Source: Of these five traditions, Civil Law and Common Law are predominant and will be discussed further in details. Civil Law, also known as Continental Law or Roman Law, originated from Roman law, more specifically, from the sixth century “Corpus Juris Civilis”, a code consolidating all of the laws in continental Europe during the reign of Roman emperor Justinian. In countries that follow the civil law tradition, statutes are the basis of the legal system. Solutions for each individual case are prescribed in the provisions of the legal codes, on which sentences have to be based. National legal systems developed through the process of codification. Common Law shares roots in Roman law with Civil Law but has a much different evolution from that of Civil Law. The general principles of Common Law grow out of the judicial decisions in court cases by individual judges over a long period of time. The main source of law and the basis for rules of conduct are past cases, not codes or legislation. The common law systems include all present and former members of the British Empire, as well as the United States of America. But it should be noted that the present common law of the U.S. differs to a great extent from the common law of Britain, despite the two countries being significant representatives of Common Law. Therefore, the language of these two systems poses considerable differences in terms of technical terminologies. 1.1.2. Vietnamese legal system As stated above, the legal system of Vietnam, like those of other socialist countries, is now considered a member of the Civil (or Continental) law tradition. It takes nationally enacted legal documents as its basis. Vietnamese statutes are enacted by the National Assembly of Vietnam, the highest organ of State power and the only organ with legislative power of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (the 1992 Constitution of Vietnam, amended in 2000). In a socialist-oriented country like Vietnam, law is an important means of realizing lines and policies of the Communist Party – the leading party – to ensure the right path of development of the country, the foundation of which is public ownership. This explains why the idea of public ownership appears quite frequently in Vietnamese statutes. Vietnamese laws have a wide governing scope, from the organization and operation of the State organs to the rights and obligations of the citizens, as well as the operation of the different aspects of social life (Nguyen Dang Dung et al., 1995). The legal system of Vietnam consists of a constitution – the fundamental statute of the whole system, more than 100 statutes, and thousands of by-law documents of all kinds (Hệ thống văn bản quy phạm pháp luật, Bộ Tư pháp, 2007). Since its independence in 1945, there have been five constitutions, with the one being in effect dated in 1992. And during its economic integration, Vietnam is continuously perfecting its legal system by amending old laws and enacting new ones. 1.1.3. Vietnamese legal language 1.1.3.1. History of Vietnamese legal language The history of Vietnamese legal language cannot be traced as clearly as its English counterpart because of its shorter history of development, as well as of the shorter history of the legal system. The development history of the Vietnamese language can be summarized as follows, according to Tran Chi Doi, Nguyen Thien Giap (2005: 15-19) and the National Center of social sciences and humanity (2002: 13-15): Vietnamese as a distinct language did not start to develop until the 9th century. From the 9th century through the early 14th century, Vietnamese was used by ordinary people as their mother tongue, but Chinese was still used as an administrative tool. The script of Vietnamese, the Nom, appeared in the period from the early 14th to the late 15th centuries, during which Vietnamese had not gained its status as an administrative language. This period also witnessed the development of a class of Chinese-Vietnamese words. In 1651, with the Annam-Lustin-Latin dictionary by priest A. de Rhodes, Vietnamese started to be recorded in Latin, which contributed to its emergence to be a scholarly language and even at times the state’s administrative language during the period from the early 16th to the early 19th centuries. By the early 20th century, Vietnamese had almost completed its development. And after the August Revolution, it was recognized as the official language of Vietnam. It is now the language of all socio-economic activities, including politics. 1.1.3.2. Linguistic features of Vietnamese legal language Before Tien’s doctoral thesis in 1999, which studied linguistic features of Vietnamese legal language as a separate discourse type, legal documents were only treated as a sub-type of documents of the administrative style. Some notable works are those of Dinh Trong Lac and Nguyen Thai Hoa; and Cu Dinh Tu. A study of these works points out the following linguistic features of the language of Vietnamese legal documents: 1.1.3.2.1. Lexical features * Words are rhetorical and there is a moderate number of bookish words. * There is technical vocabulary for both the general legal field and specific branches of law: chế tài, biện pháp hành chính, năng lực pháp luật, quy phạm pháp luật, xét xử sơ thẩm, xét xử giám đốc thẩm, etc. (general), bị can, đương sự, thế chấp, giao kết hợp đồng, thoả thuận hợp đồng, etc. (specific). * Nouns are used with a high frequency, especially nouns formed from verbs, making the document highly nominalized. * There is a high percentage of words with Chinese origin. * Lexical items are carefully selected. There are no vague or ambiguous words, no jargons, slangs or colloquial words. 1.1.3.2.2. Syntactic features * Post-modifications in nominal groups are often extended to a rather abnormal length: (doanh nghiệp) có vốn đầu tư nước ngoài đã đầu tư trong các lĩnh vực không thuộc lĩnh vực đầu tư có điều kiện, (đầu tư) thông qua mua, bán cổ phần, cổ phiếu, trái phiếu và giấy tờ có giá khác của tổ chức, cá nhân (theo quy định của pháp luật), etc. * Impersonal constructions + Avoidance of first and second personal pronouns Nhà đầu tư được đầu tư phát triển + Passives + Nominalizations Việc ưu đãi đầu tư, (thời hạn) hoạt động, (phù hợp với) quy hoạch sử dụng đất * Use of modal verbs to establish rights and obligations For establishing obliged and forbidden actions, the modal verbs “phải, không được” are used. For establishing permitted actions, the modal verb “được” is used. Besides the explicit use of modal verbs, the sense of obligation can also be expressed implicitly in Vietnamese: có thể (được), (phải) theo * Long complex sentences with co-ordinate structures to classify or to detail the circumstances of application of the provision. Điều 87. Xử lý vi phạm 1. … 2. Người lợi dụng chức vụ, quyền hạn cản trở hoạt động đầu tư; có hành vi sách nhiễu, gây phiền hà đối với nhà đầu tư; không giải quyết kịp thời yêu cầu của nhà đầu tư theo quy định; không thực thi các công vụ khác do pháp luật quy định thì tuỳ theo tính chất, mức độ vị phạm mà bị xử lý kỷ luật, xử phạt hành chính hoặc bị truy cứu trách nhiệm hình sự. (Law on Investment 2005 of Vietnam) * A system of enumeration with numbers I, II, III, …, 1, 2, 3, … or letters a, b, c, … is used to separate the parts of complex structures, making them clear in terms of meaning. * Use of syntactic discontinuity. * Chapters and articles are summarized with a noun phrase: Điều 45. Thủ tục đăng ký đầu tư đối với dự án đầu tư trong nước, Điều 66. Bảo lãnh của Nhà nước cho một số công trình xây dựng và dự án quan trọng. 1.1.3.2.3. Textual features * Repetition of nouns Điều 36. Ưu đãi về sử dụng đất 1. Thời hạn sử dụng đất của dự án đầu tư không quá năm mươi năm; đối với dự án đầu tư có vốn đầu tư lớn nhưng thu