Aiding the translation process with affixal analyis – A case study in “the old man and the sea”

 TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC 
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM TP HỒ CHÍ MINH 
Tập 18, Số 4 (2021): 592-603 
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
Vol. 18, No. 4 (2021): 592-603 
ISSN: 
2734-9918 Website:  
592 
Research Article* 
AIDING THE TRANSLATION PROCESS WITH AFFIXAL ANALYIS 
– A CASE STUDY IN “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” 
Nguyen Huu Chanh 
Hoa Sen University, Vietnam 
Corresponding author: Nguyen Huu Chanh – Email: nguyenhuuchanh06@gmail.com 
Received: April 05, 2021; Revised: April 14, 2021; Accepted: April 20, 2021 
ABSTRACT 
Affixes have been of a great interest, attracting more and more translators’ attention. While 
English is an inflectional language, Vietnamese is an analytical one. This morphological difference 
requires translators to invest more time for the translation process and affects the quality of the 
translation. This study examines the semantic contribution of English suffixes and prefixes in the 
translation process by categorizing and analyzing various English affixes in the source texts and 
proposing their Vietnamese equivalent for the target texts. The results reveal that implementing an 
affixal analysis in the translation process (1) enhances the translation quality, (2) accelerates the 
translation process, and (3) conveys patterns of meaning associated with affixal stress and 
intonation. These findings yield practical translation practices, thereby ensuring the equivalence and 
consistency in English–Vietnamese translation. 
Keywords: affixes translation; English affixes; prefixes; suffixes; The Old Man and The Sea 
1. Introduction 
In recent years, the interest in having a great command of the English language has 
become common to the Vietnamese people, especially those who work in the translation 
industry. English morphology is of significance in mastering the English language, but 
translators have trouble absorbing the new words, which leads to some specific difficulties 
to the full understanding of any source texts, including those in literature. Despite numerous 
scientific research relevant to utilizing English affixes, those on English prefixes still have 
their limitations. In their research named “The reader over your shoulder”, Graves and 
Hodge (2018) pointed out that English prefixes [that are used in the early stage of the 
acquisition of English as a second or foreign language] help to identify verbs, prepositions 
and other English parts of speech. This means that a prefix creates some changes in parts of 
speech; therefore, English prefixes may function as an indicator of the so-called syntactic 
meaning. Levin (1977) and Wulandari (2018) pointed out that a literary work was associated 
with the author’s intention which the readers needed to study via different linguistic aspects. 
Cite this article as: Nguyen Huu Chanh (2021). Aiding the translation process with affixal analysis – a case study 
in “The Old Man and The Sea”. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Journal of Science, 18(4), 592-603. 
HCMUE Journal of Science Nguyen Huu Chanh 
593 
They stated that poetry, which included the language and some of the poetic sequences, was 
formulated by the grammar to convey the meanings and confirmed to contribute the ideas to 
the language analysis. That is why poetry constitutes to the description of sentences. While 
figuring out some related findings, the authors also considered the questions about the 
evaluation of the English grammar in terms of English morphology. They also mentioned 
the essence of a poem to support the above idea. The characteristic of being “enduring” 
appeared in the poetry, which was not merely stationary, instead, changing from one literary 
to another. They quoted the conclusion of Paul Valéry in his book “The art of poetry” (1938) 
that the identity among the poems was the noted feature, or formed into an explanation to 
display themselves in their way. Therefore, this study aims at researching the efficiency of 
English affixes with a focus on prefixes, in the view of semantics features to discover better 
rules enhancing the quality of translation, then drawing some insightful implications in 
translation training. 
In order to explore and have an insight view of the changing roles of teachers in this 
age, this qualitative study was conducted with the book “The Old Man and The Sea” with 
the specific following research questions: 
- RO1: How effectively do English -Vietnamese translators take advantages of affixes 
in translation process? 
- RO2: How are affixes used in the target texts? 
2. Literature review and Methodology 
2.1. Literature review 
2.1.1. Some basic concepts 
As regards forming a new word, there are two categories, namely derivation and 
inflection. For example, Figure 1 shows that the part of speech is changed or unchanged 
when attaching a prefix regardless of the difference in meanings. Table 1 presents an 
example on suffix PRE_ (according to Cambridge dictionary) as follows: 
Table 1. Diagram of how the words stayed the same in terms of prefixes 
Prefix Part of Speech 
Maintenance 
PRE_ Historic (adj) Prehistoric (adj) 
 Important or likely to be important in 
history 
Describing the period before there were 
written record 
Hyper_ Tension (noun) Hypertension (n) 
 A feeling of nervousness before an 
important or difficult event 
A medical condition in which your blood 
pressure is extremely high 
“Prehistoric” is formed by the base morpheme “historic” and the bound morpheme 
suffix “-pre”. The category of “historic” is an adjective while “-pr” is a prefix. The prefix “-
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pre” creates the grammatical form from the same verb with the same part of speech. It is 
called the inflectional prefix of an adjective (Adjectival prefixes). 
“Hypertension” is the word that constituted from the base morpheme “tension” and the 
bound mo ... able 
“vận rủi” 
“không hề đánh bại” 
“xấu hổ” 
“không thể tưởng tượng nổi” 
“chỉ là con số không” 
“bất tận” 
“được đôi phần” 
“không thể nào tránh khỏi” 
In the example (1), the words with prefixes are repeatedly used, making the flows of 
the story more attractive. In the Vietnamese translation, it varies with many forms, a verb or 
a phrase, partly contribute to avoiding a word many times. Earnest Hemingway aims to use 
“uncramp” in this scenario so that the main ideas can be emphasized. Moreover, “tựa lưng” 
represents a feeling of taking a rest after working so hard. 
In the example (2) shows that after understanding the core meaning of the words, the 
translators are able to use the suitable words since translators do not have to take much to 
absorb the words in the source and then verify the number of words to satisfy the ideas in 
the target text. 
When it comes to example (3), it is essential to mention the meaning of words. The 
translators understand the underlying meanings of the words thanks to prefixes since there 
are many ways to handle the words in Vietnamese why it is “vận rủi” instead of “không 
may”, or “đôi” in “đôi phần”, “nổi” in the phrase “tưởng tượng nổi” which create the unique 
features and effective methods when applying the prefixes into translation. 
Through the points mentioned above, the prefixes should be utilized to highlight the 
noted meanings as a whole. The translator needs to pay attention to the suffixes to figure out 
the meanings of the author. Besides, it is easily recognized from these words the tones and 
rhythms of the sentences: whether the characters are feeling good or in a bad mood. 
3.2.3. Suffixes 
The Figure 3 shows the frequency of the suffix usage in The Old man and the Sea. 
Figure 3. The frequency of using suffixes in The Old Man and the Sea 
HCMUE Journal of Science Nguyen Huu Chanh 
599 
The most frequently used by the translator is -ed form while there are few of the bare 
form of infinitives, which means that the style of Earnest Hemingway is using the -ed form 
to express the meanings. 
Table 4 gives information on Vietnamese - English comparison of affixes. 
Table 4. The Vietnamese - English version to show the flexibility of using suffixes 
Source test (English version) Target text (Vietnamese one) 
Words in different parts of speech 
[...] He loved green turtles and hawls-bills 
with their elegance and speed and their 
value and he had a friendly contempt [] 
[...] Lão yêu giống rùa xanh, lưng khòm, duyên 
dáng, nhanh nhẹn và giá trị lớn của chúng và lão có 
tình cảm suồng sã theo kiểu bạn bè [] 
Words within a sentence that contribute to the meaning 
[...] the female fish had stayed by the side of 
the boat [] 
[...] He was beautiful, the old man 
remembered, and he had stayed [] 
--- 
[...] Then he rested against the bow. He 
rested sitting on the un-stepped mast [] 
[...] con cá đực vẫn cứ sán lại bên mạn thuyền [] 
[...] Nó thật đẹp, ông lão nhớ, và nó thủy chung [] 
--- 
[...] Rồi lão tựa lưng vào mũi thuyền. Lão ngồi nghỉ 
trên đống cột buồn chưa dựng [] 
Words expressed in the source text and the target text 
loved 
politely 
happily 
naturally 
quietly 
motionless 
desperately 
circled 
wildly 
cheerfully 
falsest 
harshness 
widens 
added 
tired 
promptly 
quý 
từ tốn 
hanh phúc 
rõ rồi 
khẽ 
bất động 
bất động 
bay vòng 
loạn xạ 
háo hức 
man trá 
sự nghiệt ngã ấy 
nới rộng thêm 
tăng 
thấm mệt 
vội 
The first illustration shows that "elegance" is a noun, but it turns into an adjective with 
the reduplication form in the target text to describe the person's characteristics. Besides, 
"suồng sã" is used here with a purpose. In Vietnamese, it means to express the actions related 
to each other, that is, to display the relationship between the character and the fish. In this 
case, the meaning is straightforward when analyzing "friend" as a noun and "friendly" as an 
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adjective. Those who are not able to identify the Vietnamese words also understand the 
meanings here. Furthermore, the translator also does not need to spend so much time 
searching for the purpose, which significantly improves the speed of translation. 
In the example (2), one word is used in similar parts of speech in English, but the 
Vietnamese forms are different, ranging from verb (tựa lưng, ngồi nghỉ, sán) to an adjective 
(thủy chung). Therefore, with just a word, a translator can quickly know the writer's meaning 
and purpose so that the right ideas can be transferred into the target text. Besides, "thủy 
chung" is a beautiful word that indicates a very satisfying affection between human beings 
and the fish. 
In example (3), thanks to suffixes, translators have a better way to select the most 
meaningful words in Vietnamese. Some of them are “vội,” “thấm mệt,” “sự nghiệt ngã ấy,” 
etc. With the words "ấy" and "thấm" or some reduplications like "háo hức," the readers can 
effectively understand the context and the mood of the whole story, which is close to 
Vietnamese style and culture. 
Overall, this suffix is the best selected kind of affixes to help the translator achieve and 
digest the English vocabulary effectively in the translation process. Hence, it can be said that 
translators should take advantage of prefixation to improve translation quality. It is 
understandable because suffix is more accessible than the other options. 
3.2.4. Improvement in translation’s quality 
From the number of prefixes utilized within the book, the study showed that the 
translators are not aware of the usefulness of prefixes in the translation process because they 
focus on other strategies given by the professionals. If there is an environment to develop 
translating ability in this area, more and more words will be achieved when considering 
affixation. Besides, the study shows that by using affixation, translators are not only able to 
learn a word itself but also discover other aspects. Parts of speech is the first one for learning 
affixation. Each prefix has its role as an adjective or a verb, and so on when attached to 
another stem. The second thing is the meaning. Every affix brings its meaning with a 
particular rule. Therefore, we can learn as many words as we can. In terms of affection, we 
can realize the word's stress because it is usual that the affixes are attached before the primary 
stress of a word, which is one of the principal findings. 
3.2.5. More advantages of getting meanings from words 
Although this aspect is quite tricky since translators do not generally have time to take 
each piece of words to divide them into each category, and there are other things that they 
need to consider, it is still necessary to make a connection between word formation and 
translation. 
In other words, there must be an adaptation of the translating process and learning 
affixation. For the former, it plays a vital role. Affixes can motivate translators to learn 
English vocabulary efficiently as well as empower them to have a proper awareness, not 
HCMUE Journal of Science Nguyen Huu Chanh 
601 
learning for receptive but for productive purposes. For the latter, it is classified into two 
goals: short-term goals and long-term goals. Hence, they foster the learning ability and 
empower them to be high academic achievers in language and the long-term goal - as 
professional users in the future, this way should be maintained and inspired to future 
translators who get them interested in absorbing the hard-won vocabulary. 
4. Conclusion 
This study has undoubtedly met the demand to increase the active English vocabulary 
since a number of translators and translator learners are frequently unable to be aware of the 
benefits of affixation. This area is very crucial and functional for doing a proper translation. 
However, this study was conducted with only one book, the findings cannot be generalized 
for the entire language. 
 Conflict of Interest: Author have no conflict of interest to declare. 
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HỖ TRỢ QUÁ TRÌNH DỊCH THUẬT BẰNG VIỆC PHÂN TÍCH PHỤ TỐ 
– MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU Ở TÁC PHẨM “ÔNG GIÀ VÀ BIỂN CẢ” 
Nguyễn Hữu Chánh 
Trường Đại học Hoa Sen, Việt Nam 
Tác giả liên hệ: Nguyễn Hữu Chánh – Email: nguyenhuuchanh06@gmail.com 
Ngày nhận bài: 05-4-2021; ngày nhận bài sửa: 14-4-2021; ngày duyệt đăng: 20-04-2021 
TÓM TẮT 
Phụ tố đã được nhiều người quan tâm, ngày càng thu hút nhiều dịch giả. Trong khi tiếng Anh 
là một ngôn ngữ biến hình, thì tiếng Việt là một ngôn ngữ cách thể. Sự khác biệt về hình thái này dẫn 
đến tăng thời gian của quá trình dịch và giảm chất lượng của văn bản đích. Bài viết xem xét sự đóng 
góp về mặt ngữ nghĩa của các hậu tố và tiền tố tiếng Anh trong quá trình dịch bằng cách phân loại 
và phân tích các phụ tố tiếng Anh khác nhau trong các văn bản nguồn và đề xuất tương đương tiếng 
Việt ở văn bản đích. Kết quả cho thấy việc thực hiện phân tích phụ tố trong quá trình dịch (i) nâng 
cao chất lượng bản dịch, (ii) đẩy nhanh quá trình dịch, và (iii) truyền tải các mẫu ý nghĩa liên quan 
đến trọng âm và ngữ điệu của phụ tố. Những phát hiện này mang lại sự đóng góp cho các hoạt động 
dịch thuật thực tế, do đó đảm bảo tính tương đương và nhất quán trong bản dịch Anh – Việt. 
Từ khóa: dịch phụ tố; phụ tố tiếng Anh; tiền tố; hậu tố; Ông già và biển cả