VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION
GRADUATION PAPER
A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON
EUPHEMISM EMPLOYMENT
IN TWO VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONS OF
GEOGRE ORWELL’S THE ANIMAL FARM
Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh, MA
Student : Vũ Hồng Nhung
Year of enrolment : QH2010.F1.

HANOI, 2014
ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH VIỆC SỬ DỤNG UYỂN NGỮ
TRONG HAI BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG VIỆT CỦA TÁC
PHẨM THE ANIMAL FARM (GEORGE ORWELL)
Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS. Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Linh
Sinh viên : Vũ Hồng Nhung
Khóa: QH2010.F1. HÀ NỘI, 2014
DECLARATION
I hereby state that I, Vũ Hồng Nhung, QH2010.F1.E21, being a candidate for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to
the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the

resulted in by the cultural conflict(s) between the source language and the target
language. However, there are no abundant resources for studies on this research
topic at present; therefore, the researcher was inspired to conduct a comparative
study on euphemism in two Vietnamese translations of George Orwell’s The
Animal Farm, which are translations produced by Phạm Minh Ngọc and An Lý.
Accordingly, a two-fold objective is addressed, particularly to figure out how
different and/or similar the translations are and what approaches taken by two
translations to employ euphemism. Thanks to the methodology presented in
Chapter 3, the researcher finds out that both of translators did employ
euphemistic expressions though the frequency of euphemism employment in
An’s translation is greater than that in Phạm’s. In addition, two main
approaches taken to employ euphemism are also called out which are
grammatical and lexical modalities. Hopefully, this paper’s findings and
suggestions could partly contribute to enriching the data source on euphemism
employment in translation for further studies.
iii
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
Table of contents iii
List of abbreviations v
List of tables and figures vi
Chapter 1- Introduction 1

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale 1
1.2.Aims and objectives 2
1.3.Scope of the study 3
1.4.Significance of the study 3
1.5.Organization of the study 3

References 38
Appendix 40
v
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education
- ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies
- VNU: Vietnam National University
- SL: Source language
- TL: Target language
vi
v
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
- List of tables
No. Table Page
1
Table 4.1: A demonstration of how source words/ phrases
are translated into Vietnamese by two translators
20
2
Table 4.2.1.a: A demonstration of lexical modality-based
euphemism employment in the two translations.
27
3
Table 4.2.1.b: A demonstration of phrase in replace of
word/ phrase modality presented in the two translations
28
4 Table 4.2.1.c: A demonstration of Sino-Vietnamese
involvement in the two translations
29

made full use of on the platform of translation theory so as to produce a high quality
translation. Obviously, there exists cultural differences between languages; therefore,
in addition to transferring the explicit content of the literary work, a translator is
expected to utilize proper representation language to denote a certain matter. For
example, a political issue mentioned in a source text, which is considered neutral in the
source culture, might be offensive or extremely sensitive in the target culture. Or in
other case, the target language is selected carefully to ease the intensive atmosphere in
literature. Hence, the translator needs be aware of and pay best attention to the
language expression, particularly lexical choice, in order that the key message is still
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well-conveyed while the severe tone is regulated. In a nutshell, that modus of
translation is likely to involve euphemism in translation.
In spite of the vital role of euphemism in translation that partly orients
audience’s emotion to some extent; the number of studies on this field is still finite.
Furthermore, up to now, there have been very few researchers in Vietnam in general
and none at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE), University
of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi
(VNU) who lend insight into the popular ways of euphemism translation in literature.
The most updated research was carried by Phan Thị Thu Thủy in Đà Nẵng city two
years ago entitled An investigation into English-Vietnamese translation of euphemism.
M.A. defended in the University of Danang. Nevertheless, this study has not
pinpointed the key issue yet. It would rather calculate the rates of euphemism
employment or translation in a number of books that seem irrelevant to each other,
then give the explanation for it.
For all above-mentioned reasons and being inspired to seek something new in
translation practice, the researcher wishes to carry out a study entitled “A
comparative study on euphemism employment in two Vietnamese translations of
George Orwell’s The Animal Farm”. This study coupled with its findings is expected
to serve as a useful source of reference and assistance for those who hold an interest in
this area.

1.5. Organization of the study
The paper consists of 5 chapters.
Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the subject and an overview of the
paper.
Chapter 2 reviews relevant literature including an overview of definitions of key
concepts (translation and euphemism) as well as some fundamental theories of
translation and euphemism translation.
Chapter 3 describes the method utilized in this study.
Chapter 4 presents and analyzes the collected data from questionnaire’s responses
and text analyses.
3
Chapter 5 summarizes some main issues mentioned in the research, offers the
limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. Following the
chapters are the references and appendices.
4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is expected to describe and provide critical comments on previous
studies which relates to the research topic.
2.1. Translation
2.1.1. Definitions of translation
Translation has long been an essential social science owing to the
demand for mutual understanding among people speaking different languages.
Since it came into existence, there has been a wide range of definitions denoting
what translation is. Following are among the three most updated ones:
In his book of A Linguistic Theory of Translation (1965), Cartfod
considers that translation is no longer a dangerous technique once people can
apprehend its nature and control its usages. Besides, it is very translation that
operates the process of a text’s language transferring. Particularly, “translation
is the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent
textual material in another language (TL)” (p. 25) in which the core issue of

translator is supposed to at least partly acquire the knowledge of translation
theory. Whenever translation is mentioned, it always refers to a process
comprising the harmonic transference of language that allows the recipients to
get the point with what messages that the author is trying to convey. Thus, a
large number of researchers have spent time on the perusal of translation
methods. Below are predominant methods suggested by prestigious scholars.
First and foremost, Newmark (1988) concerns the differences between
translation methods and translations by indicating “while translation methods
relate to whole texts, translations are used for sentences and the smaller units of
language” (p.24). Then, he proposes eight methods of translation, particularly:
6
(1) Word for word translation is the process in which SL word-order is
preserved, and it barely pays attention to grammar. Words are translated
by their most common meanings and out of context.
For example:
They met many difficulties. (Orwell, 1945, p. 11)
 Họ gặp nhiều khó khăn. (Phạm, 2003, p. 17)
(2) Literal translation is the process in which SL grammatical
structures are converted to their nearest equivalent in the TL, BUT
words are still translated singly and out of context.
For example:
There were more songs, more speeches, more
processions. (Orwell, 1945, p. 44)
 Ca hát nhiều hơn, diễn thuyết nhiều hơn, diễu hành cũng
nhiều hơn. (An, 2013, p. 132)
(3) Faithful translation is the process in which words are translated in
context BUT uncompromising to TL. It would transfer cultural words
rather than naturalize and often read like a translation.
For example:
The farm had had a fairly successful year.

 Ra giêng, trời trở rét cắt da cắt thịt. (An, 2013, p. 56)
(7) Free translation is to reproduce the matter without the manner; the
content without the form of the original and paraphrase much larger
than the original.
(8) Adaption is the freest form of translation and preserves the theme,
plots, characters only in which the SL culture is converted to the TL
culture. It is a kind of rewriting the text in translation.
In addition, sharing the concern on translation methods, Levý (1984), a
paramount Czech translation scholar, believes that there exists immorality if a
translator is bound to omit or contract any difficult or challenging expression
that needs translating. In his opinion, the translator is also responsible for
figuring out the solution to the most hard-to-tackle problem(s). Besides, he
propounds that the functional view must be adopted both meaning and manner.
Albeit the translator could never be the author of the SL text, he is the one who
produces its translation; therefore, he is still required to consider his
professional ethic as the way to show his respect to the TL readers.
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In a nutshell, there is no right or wrong translation method. It is how the
translator employs the methods that matters. It is advisable that the translator
flexibly applies each method in the appropriate context to make full use of it.
2.1.3. Communicative translation and Semantic translation
Putting himself in the readers’ shoe, Newmark (1988) distinguishes
communication translation and semantic one which is illustrated as in the
following diagram:
D
Diagram 2.1.: Distinction of communicative translation and
semantic translation (Newmark, 1988, p.47)
Newmark (1988, p. 47) also entrusts that “only semantic and
communicative translation fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are
9

approach each other’s culture ultimately.
Also, Kramsch (1998) concedes in his book of Language and
Culture that language is a major means of communication by which human
exchange with each other their life information inclusive of delivering their
culture identity. As a role of a scholar, he does not deny that “words also
reflect author’s attitude and beliefs, their point of view” (p. 4). Thus, it is
very language that “expresses cultural reality” (p. 4) as people’s utterance
often involves their popular experience. They are supposed to create
experience via the language that they use.
In such a way, the researcher finds out that there exists a close-knit
relation between language and culture. Thus, a translator is compulsory to
take cultural factor into consideration when doing the job of language-
transferring.
2.2.2. Definitions of equivalence in translation
Equivalence is defined in Oxford Dictionary (2005, p. 493) as the
state of “equal in value, meaning, importance”. Hence, it can be said that in
a specific linguistic unit in one language carries the same intended meaning
or message embedded in a specific linguistic medium in another language,
then these two units are regarded as the equivalents.
Mentioning equivalents, researchers can refer to basic linguistic
elements namely morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, idioms and proverbs.
Thus, figuring out the equivalent is a quite challenging stage in translation
process. However, the translator is not expected to always find out one-to-
one equivalents. The equivalence term here shall be understood with the
comparative meaning as sometimes two different linguistic units in the two
languages perform the same function. In other words, it is the relationship
between a ST and a TT that allows the TT to be considered as a translation
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of the ST. And, equivalence performs a relationship between two texts in
two different languages instead of the languages themselves.

selecting words for a translation in order to get targeted expression as its
translator’s set objectives. To do so a translator is required to make the same
great efforts as in clarifying TL readership. This classification supports
translator to obtain the translation effectiveness.
2.3. Euphemism
2.3.1. Definitions of euphemism
Once cross-cultural expression is shown out, cultural translation will be
required which led the translator to be aware of both of the source and target
cultures. In order to avoid unexpected misunderstanding or cultural conflicts,
the translator asks for help of euphemism in translation. According to the
definition of euphemism introduced in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
(n.d.):
Euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive
expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant;
also: the expression so substituted.
Whilst a semantic research, Leech (1981, p. 45) regards euphemism as
“the practice of referring to something offensive or delicate in terms that make
it sound more pleasant.” Eighteen years later, Sanderson (1999) raises his voice
in agreement with the idea that “euphemism can be used as a way of being
vague and unclear, or to cover up the truth or reality of a situation” (p. 259).
Simply to understand, there are certainly phrases in a society or culture
that cannot be explicitly expressed in other society or culture. Therefore,
13
euphemism appearance is bound to ease the tense that could happen in the
translation. In addition, euphemism is no longer concerned by Western
scholars; a number of Asian researchers inclusive of Vietnamese ones have
conducted studies related to euphemism usage. Particularly, Trương (2003), in
his master thesis studying on Euphemism, shares his agreement on euphemism
utility which happens in courteous communication context that may involve the
art of using language. Regarding other aspect, earlier research (Nguyễn, n.d.)

As writing in Introduction to Semantics and Translation, Barnwell
(2003) concludes some way of euphemism translation, such as explicit
translation, equivalent-based translation. By the same token, another expert,
Larson (1984) emphasizes that it is essential for a translator to recognize the
euphemistic nature of TL language and diagnose when using euphemism is
proper.
After a period of time investigating into the field of euphemism-
employing in translation, the researcher finds out that among all of the research
that the researcher has chance to access regardless domestic or foreign sources,
their authors mainly focus on how to translate an English euphemism into
Vietnamese, which means that the writer of SL text does utilize euphemism in
his piece of writing. Nevertheless, the researcher is concerned about the
situation that how to employ Vietnamese euphemism to translate English
original words rather than English euphemism. Likewise, the researcher is
supposed to discover Vietnamese euphemism shown in the translated versions
then reflect them in the SL text to find the answers for all research questions
mentioned above.
In conclusion, this chapter has presented some key theories on translation,
concepts and classification of euphemism which are in need for a deeper investigation
on euphemism-employing in English-Vietnamese translation.
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter covers the research questions, research approaches, the
participants of the research, the data collection instruments, the procedures of data
collection and analyses.
3.1. Research approaches
In this paper, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed which
are composed by text-research and questionnaire. The stages of text-research and
questionnaire are to help the researcher gather highly in-depth demographic and
background information data so as to identify what and how euphemism is employed