VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
o0o

ĐẶNG THỊ PHƯỢNG

A TRANSLATION QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE
FIRST THREE CHAPTERS OF THE NOVEL “THE DA
VINCI CODE” BY DO THU HA (2005) BASED ON
J.HOUSE’S MODEL

(ĐÁNH GIÁ CHẤT LƯỢNG BẢN DỊCH BA CHƯƠNG ĐẦU TIÊN
TRONG CUỐN TIỂU THUYẾT “MẬT MÃ DA VINCI” CỦA DỊCH
GIẢ ĐỖ THU HÀ (2005) DỰA THEO MÔ HÌNH CỦA J.HOUSE ) M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS
Hanoi, 2012
Hanoi, 2012
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Trần Xuân Điệp, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ST
Source Text
TT
Translation Text
TQA
Translation Quality Assessment
TL
Target Language
SL
Source Language
SLT
Source Language Text
TLT
Target Language Text
TE
Translation Equivalence

I.2.1. Hatim & Mason‘s model (1990) 7
I.2.2. Peter Newmark‘s model 7
I.3. Development of J .House‘s model 8
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 12
II.1. Application of House‘s model in Vietnam. 12
II.2. Application of House‘s model in other countries. 12
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 14
III.1. Subject of study 14
III.2. Methodology 14
III.3 Data Collection Procedure 14
III.4. Data Analysis Procedure 15
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 16
IV.1. Brief introduction of the original text 16
IV.1.1. Writer 16
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IV.1.2. Readers 16
IV.1.3. Purpose 16
IV.1.4. Organization 16
IV.1.5. Summary of the original text‘s content. 16
IV.2. Findings of the study 17
IV.2.1. Analysis of the original text based on J. House‘s model and Halliday‘s
systemic-functional model. 17
* Statement of Function 26
IV.2.2. ST and TT comparison 27
IV.3. Discussion: statement of quality 39
PART III: CONCLUSION 42
I. Recapitulation of main ideas 42
II. Limitations of the study 42
III. Recommendation for further research 43

http://evan.vnexpress.net/news/phe-binh/dich-thuat/2005/11/3b9acaf9/) hold that the
quality of ―Mật mã Da Vinci‖ is not that poor and it should not be considered to be a
―catastrophe‖ though there are noticeable mistakes in it. Hence, the conductor of this
research wishes to employ a recognized model of TQA in order to evaluate the
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translation quality of the first three chapters of this novel to contribute a voice to the
controversy raised.
II. Scope and objectives of the study
Under the constraints of time and size, the study only focuses on the first three
among 105 chapters in the book ―Mật mã Da Vinci‖ by Đỗ Thu Hà in 2005. In this
study, the investigated chapters will be analyzed under the light of J. House‘s approach
of TQA in order to reach the objectives of (1) discovering the features of the source
text (ST) in the light of Halliday‘s functional grammar and House‘s dimensions and (2)
assessing the level of quality that the translation text reaches. Due to the fact that
House‘s model is constituted based on pragmatic theories of language use meanwhile
concerning semantic and textual aspect, the scope of this study is not limited as its title
may arouse. The paper covers quite a large range of applied linguistics, for example,
constrastive analysis, cross-cultural study, functional grammar, and translation.
III. Research questions
In order to fulfill its objectives stated above, this paper needs to answer the
following research questions:
1. What are the features of the ST in the light of Halliday‘s functional grammar
and House‘s dimensions?
2. To what degree does the translation text (TT) meet the standard of quality as
proposed in House‘s TQA model?
IV. Research methodology
- Qualitative method: This research is a qualitative evaluation; hence, the source
of data is document, and information is gathered by an analysis of documents and
materials. Data are categorized into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and

I.1.1. What is translation?
There are various definitions of translation by different authors; nonetheless,
certain definitions will be discussed in this section due to the restriction of size of the
thesis.
Both Tudor, as cited in Duff (1989:5), and Hatim & Mason (1990) consider
translation as a communicative activity which ―convey[s] messages across linguistic
and cultural barriers‖ (Tudor) and ―takes place within a social context‖ (Hatim &
Mason).
However, Catford (1965), in his book A Linguistic Theory of Translation,
defines translation as ―the placement of textual material in one language (source
language) by equivalent textual material in another language (target language).‖
Holding the same opinion, some other authors also emphasize the significance of
equivalence in translation from the source text to the target text. As Wills (1982a: 112)
argues, ―Translation is a procedure which leads from a written source language text
(SLT) to an optimally equivalent target language text (TLT).‖ Moreover, he indicates
other requirements such as ―the syntactic, semantic, stylistic and text pragmatic
comprehension by the translator of the original text.‖ This definition is strongly
accepted by J. House (1997); in her words, she defines translation as ―the replacement
of a text in the source language (SL) by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent
text in the target language (TL).‖
Those definitions above though differ from their expressions, they all share the
same essence of translation which lies in the preservation of semantic, pragmatic, and
textual aspects of meaning across two different languages. As Hoang, V.V. (2005)
concludes in his book about the nature of translation, ―Translation is both an art and a
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science. It is an art in the sense that it is performed by human beings and human beings
are creative. It is a science in the sense that it is a process going through different
stages: analysis, transfer and restructuring…‖
I.1.2. Translation procedures and methods

Literal translation Free translation
Faithful translation Idiomatic translation
Semantic translation Communicative translation
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(Source: V-diagram of Translation method (P. Newmark, 1988:45))
Among all above-mentioned translation methods, semantic and communicative
translations are the two most common ones which are often used in literary translation
by translators. P. Newmark (1988) stated that a semantic translation is written at the
author‘s linguistics level and used for ―expressive‖ texts, a communicative translation
at the readership‘s and used for informative and vocative texts, therefore, they are able
to fulfill the two main aims of translation, namely accuracy and economy.
I.1.3. Translation equivalence
In translation theory, equivalence is regarded as a central concept. The domain
of equivalents covers linguistic units such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses,
idioms, and proverbs. Hence, finding equivalents is the most problematic stage of
translation.
Jakobson (1959) introduces the notion of ―equivalence in difference‖ and
―sameness in difference‖ (in other words: 'unity in diversity'). Nida (1964) divides
equivalence into two types, namely formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence.
Catford (1964) claims that translation equivalence (TE) occurs when SL and TL texts
or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation
substance. Reiss (1971) introduces ―functional equivalence‖ – the starting point for her
work and carrying the concept of equivalence one step further in her studies. Baker
(1992) explores equivalence at different levels (word and above word level) in relation
to the translation process such as grammatical, textual, and pragmatic aspects.
J. House (1977) emphasizes that equivalence is the conceptual basis not only of
translation but also of translation criticism where equivalence is the fundamental
criterion of translation quality. In her article ―Text and Context in translation‖ (2006),
she states that views of equivalence as simply bases on formal, syntactic, and lexical

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distinction between semantic and communicative translation has also been important
and fruitful.
House (1997) criticizes that Newmark has always spoken against the conception
of translation as solely a ―science‖ maintaining that the translation process is also a
―basic artistic process…requiring the translator‘s taste, wit and elegance‖ (1981: 137).
Consequently, he has refrained himself from setting up a consistent model of
translation quality assessment. Although there is of course always a subjective factor in
evaluating a translation, one must not overemphasize this ―subjective factor‖ denying
the value of scientific inquiry, which enables one to abstract from the mass of details in
individual translations leading to generally valid procedures and evaluative norms.
I.3. Development of J .House’s model
J. House is a German linguistics who has devoted her life to find out a
scientifically based frame work for translation assessment. Her first book about this
term was published in 1977 named ―A model for Translation Quality Assessment‖ and
twenty years later, she revised and updated it into ―Translation Quality Assessment, a
model revisited‖. Being different from scholar with mentalist view or response-based
view, House takes discourse approach to be the original base of her theory. Her model
to criticize a translation, for that reason, roots from five important foundations:
Halliday‘s systemic-functional theory, Prague school ideas, speech act theory,
pragmatics, discourse analysis and corpus-based distinctions between spoken and
written language. Her model is intended to analyze and compare the SL and TL in
different levels: Language/Text, Register, and Genre. This makes the evaluation to be
more fair and complete. In her article published in 2001, House mentioned clearly each
element and the way to compare the two texts.
Regarding the evaluation of the translation, it is said that a good translation
insists the equivalence to the ST. Translation is the replacement of a text in the source
language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in target language
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labels for the referential and non-referential functional components.
House‘s TQA model consists of specific situational dimensions grouped into
two sections: Dimensions of Language User and Dimensions of Language Use.
Dimensions of Language User
Dimensions of Language Use
Geographical origin
Medium
Social class
Participation
Time
Social role relationship

Social attitude
Province
To be more concrete, in Language User, three situational dimensions are
introduced to mark the provenance of a text producer. Geographical origin indicates
the text's producer geographical origin – Unmarked form: Standard British/ American
English. Social class indicates the text's producer position on a social scale –
Unmarked form: Educated middle class speaker of the standard language. Time
provides clues to a text‘s temporal origin.
In Language Use, five situational dimensions are introduced in order for the ST
and TT to be analyzed. Medium can be simple (spoken to be heard or written to be
silently read) or complex (written to be spoken). Participation may also be simple
(Monologue) or complex (the text contains features that show addressee participation).
The text is complex even when a text produced by only one person – a monologue
nonetheless contains features which would normally be assumed to characterize a
dialogue. Social role relationship is the relationship between the addresser and
addressees which is divided into symmetrical (characterized by solidarity and equality
between addresser and addressees) and asymmetrical (marked by some kind of
authority relationship between them). Social attitude is the degrees of social distance or


Mistakes in the denotative meanings of ST and TT consist of wrong selections,
wrong omissions, and ambiguities
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
House‘s model, for its plausibility, can be found in a number of studies of TQA.
A brief summary of such works is as follows.
II.1. Application of House’s model in Vietnam.
Firstly, in her MA thesis, Luong, T.L. (2007) employs House‘s model to assess
the translation quality of the English version of the Law on Investment 2005 of
Vietnam. It was found out that there are mismatches between the two texts on eight
parameters of House‘s model and that the translation text was of poor quality because
it did not completely match the ST‘s functions as well as failed to employ similar
means to perform the two functions of the text. Luong also proposed four implications
for translating Vietnamese legal documents into English.
House‘s model is also found in a study of the translation quality of the travel
guidebook ―Du lich Ha Long‖ by Nguyen, T.Y. (2007). The results of the study
indicated that though there were some mismatches between the ST and TT, the TT
meet the requirements for equivalence of the ST and it had a function consisting of an
ideational and interpersonal functional component.
Another work based on House‘s model was conducted by Le, M. H. (2010). The
findings stated that both covertly and overtly erroneous errors are found in the TT;
however, the TT was claimed to convey both the ideational and interpersonal features
of the ST. At the end of the study, several implications for literary translation are put
forward.
II.2. Application of House’s model in other countries.
House‘s model is also found in studies conducted in other countries. Yamini, H.
& Abdi, F. (2009) investigated the translation quality of the Persian translation of the
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play ―Macbeth.‖ It was found out that the results do not blemish House‘s model in any

As the study of the whole text is beyond the scope of this paper, the object
under investigation is the first three chapters in the SL ―The Da Vinci Code‖ written by
Dan Brown in 2003 and their Vietnamese version translated by Đỗ Thu Hà in 2005.
III.2. Methodology
The present study has a qualitative design. This study is intended to find two
kinds of errors as a consequence of comparing the ST with the TT. The model to be
used in this study is House‘s TQA Model. This study is mainly a library research.
Under House‘s model, the analysis and comparison of the source text (ST) and
translated text (TT) are conducted in two sections: Dimensions of Language User and
Dimensions of Language Use. In the first part, three situational dimensions which refer
to the features marking the provenance of a text producer are introduced including
Geographical origin, Social class, and Time. In the second part, five situational
dimensions namely Medium, Participation, Social relationship, Social attitude, and
Province are applied for the analysis and comparison. Also, on each of the dimensions,
the author analyzes the texts on three aspects: syntactic, lexical, and textual means.
Also, under Halliday‘s functional grammar, the ST would be analyzed in terms of
Field, Tenor, Mode, Transitivity system, Theme, and Mood.
III.3 Data Collection Procedure
The researcher first read the original text thoroughly, and then the ST is
compared to its translation to find two kinds of errors, namely overtly erroneous errors
and covertly erroneous errors. The House‘s model is commonly applied in TQA by
doing the following chronological steps:
i. Doing an analysis to get the ST profile (Analytic method)
ii. Giving a statement of function to the ST related with ideational and
interpersonal meaning (Synthetic method)
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iii. Comparing the two texts to produce a statement of ―in-equivalence‖ which is
categorized into ―covertly erroneous errors‖ and ―overtly erroneous errors‖
(Comparative method).

best known for his best-selling novel ―The Da Vinci Code‖ published in 2003 by
Anchor Books. Beside that success, he also wrote other fiction works which are also
widely recognized all over the world such as ―Digital Fortress‖ (1998), ―Angels and
Demons‖ (2000), ―Deception Point‖ (2001), and ―The Lost Symbol‖ (2009).
IV.1.2. Readers
Generally, the target readers of Brown‘s books are educated ones, especially
readers who are interested in fiction, treasure hunts, and historical and religious
themes. For the novel ―The Da Vinci Code‖, its readers are people who are fond of
thriller fiction, cryptography, fine art, and history of Christianity.
IV.1.3. Purpose
The novel ―The Da Vinci Code‖ was written mainly for entertainment.
IV.1.4. Organization
The novel was divided into 105 chapters excluding the Acknowledgement,
Facts, Prologue and Epilogue. The whole book is 597 pages in length. However, the
first three chapters accounts for only 18 pages.
IV.1.5. Summary of the original text’s content.
Professor Robert Langdon is in Paris on business when he's summoned to The
Louvre. A dead body has been found, setting Langdon off on an adventure as he
attempts to unravel an ancient code and uncover the greatest mystery of all time.
Joining Langdon‘s adventure is beautiful and gifted cryptologist named Sophie Neveu.
At the end of the novel, the secrets about the Royal Blood and Christianity are unveiled
by Langdon without being revealed to anyone else.
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In the first three chapters, Langdon was staying at the Ritz in Paris where he had
just delivered a lecture on religious symbology. The phone call was from the concierge
who told Langdon there was a very important man wanting to see him. Minutes later,
Lieutenant Jérôme Collet, an agent of DCJP, came to Langdon‘s room and asked for
Langdon‘s help in investigating the death of Jacques Saunière – the curator of Louvre
Museum. Collet showed Langdon a strange picture of Jacques‘s corpse and drove

Theme dynamics: Thematic movement frequently arranged in sequences of
theme-rheme movements to ensure given-new ordering. For example:
+ ―Silas turned his attention now to a heavy knotted rope coiled neatly on the
Theme Rheme
floor beside him. The knots were caked with dried blood.‖ (p.17)
Theme Rheme
Clausal linkage: In clause complexes, ample use of transitional signals could be
seen. For example:
+ ―Although his female colleagues insisted the gray only accentuated his
bookish appeal, Langdon knew better.‖ (p.9)
+ ―The hostess began reading choice excerpts from the inane article, and
Langdon felt himself sinking lower and lower in his chair.‖ (p.10)
IV.2.1.2. Tenor
A. Author‘s Temporal, Geographical and Social Provenance
Marked – past (2003), Educated middle class speaker of the standard language,
Standard American English.
B. Author‘s personal (Emotional and Intellectual) Stance:
The author views the incidents that happened in the text with seriousness and
objectiveness as he is the teller of the story.
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Syntactic means: Presence of structures describing stressful situations without
humor. For example:
+ ―His books on religious paintings and cult symbology had made him a
reluctant celebrity in the art world, and last year Langdon's visibility had increased a
hundredfold after his involvement in a widely publicized incident at the Vatican. Since
then, the stream of self-important historians and art buffs arriving at his door had
seemed never-ending.‖ (p.8)
+ ―Langdon was feeling anything but fortunate, and coincidence was a concept
he did not entirely trust.‖ (p.18)

a. Presence of elliptical clauses and contractions, for example:
+ ―‗What is the capital‘s name?‘ Langdon asked, changing topics.
‗Bezu Fache,‖ the driver said,…‖ (p.23)
+ ―No, I haven’t climbed the tower.‖(p.19)
b. Use of first, second, and third personal and possessive pronouns.
2. Lexical means:
a. Presence of emotive subjectivity markers such as ―I hope…‖ (p.7), ―I
thought…‖ (p.11), ―I think…‖ (p.19), ―I assume…‖ (p.19).
b. Presence of interjections or spoken language signals, for example, ―well‖
(p.11).
c. Interspersion of subjectively qualifying modal adverbial such as: ―not‖ (p.7,
p.10).
d. Interspersion of words and phrases or structures marker [-formal]. For
example:
+ ―‗Would you be so kind,‘ Langdon said, doing the best to remain polite,
‗could you take the…‘‖ (p.8)
+ ―Mr. Langdon, again my apologies…‖ (p.11)