Material process in "The Old man and the sea" by Hemingway and its Vietnamese translated version: A systematic funtional comparison

Abstract

In this study, an attempt is made to explore whether such categories as the number, configurations, voice and tense of material processes in the translation of the written extract from “The old man and the sea” by Lê Huy Bắc are equivalent to those in the original by Hemingway. The data analysis is based on the framework of Halliday’s (1994) and Hoàng Văn Vân’s (2002). The conclusion claims that there exists both analogies and deviations in the translation in comparison with the original. However, the deviations are inevitable due to the fact that each country has its own linguistic and cultural features. It is undeniable that the translator tried to keep the target text equivalent to the source text as much as possible. Moreover, it is vital for translators of literature to pay much attention to linguistic features and cultural contexts, the author’s individual style and the genre of the text he or she is going to translate.