An analysis of linguistic errors committed in translation by English major students at hung vuong university

82
TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HÙNG VƯƠNG HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
Tập 14, Số 1 (2019): 82–94 Vol. 14, No. 1 (2019): 82–94
Email: tapchikhoahoc@hvu.edu.vn Website: www.hvu.edu.vn
ISSN 
1859-3968
Email: cucsuzan@gmailcom
1. Introduction
Error analysis in language teaching 
in general and in translation teaching in 
particular is becoming popular as it opens 
the way to see the learners’ competence 
In translation teaching, error analysis has 
been an effective way to assess the students’ 
translation performance [3][5][6]
In assessing translation, linguistic 
aspect plays the major role in deciding 
whether the translation is successful 
or not Linguistic errors committed in 
translations will then cause the failure 
AN ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC ERRORS 
COMMITTED IN TRANSLATION BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS 
AT HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
Pham Thi Kim Cuc, Truong Thi Thuy Ninh, Nguyen Thi Thin 
Hung Vuong University
Received: 11/6/2019; Revised: 01/7/2019; Accepted: 08/7/2019
AbsTrAcT
The study aimed to analyze the linguistic errors committed by English major students, Hung Vuong University, in their Vietnamese English translation, and inform some implications of pedagogy to 
improve the translation ability of the students To this end, 68 Vietnamese students, who at the time 
of the study were studying English as their major, were subjected to a Vietnamese-English translation 
test Translation errors were analyzed using Guide Sheet for Linguistic Error Analysis by Na (2005) in 
which linguistic errors roof five sub-types: morphological errors, grammatical errors, syntactic errors, 
collocational errors, and wrong form errors Findings showed that syntactic errors occur the most fre-
quently, followed by collocation errors, then others Results were discussed and implications for the 
improvements of translation ability and recommendations for future research were presented
Keywords: translation errors, morphological errors, grammatical errors, syntactic errors, collocational 
errors, wrong form errors
of the translation [2][5][6] Therefore, 
awareness of such errors can help to avoid 
committing them and as a result, the 
translation quality will be improved
The purpose of the study is to analyze 
the linguistic errors committed by English 
linguistics students who become translators 
in the future Meanwhile, the specific 
objectives of this study were to (1) analyze the 
linguistic errors committed by students in 
Vietnamese English translation, (2) inform 
some pedagogical implications basing on the 
analysis of errors
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TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ Pham Thi Kim Cuc et al
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. Translation
Finding out the concept of translation 
faces with many as it is hard to define this 
term because of its polysemy as different 
scholars have their own approaches to look 
into the term In combining their viewpoints, 
translation can be considered as transferring 
meaning from the source language to the 
target language in written texts to give the 
sense of the original and the naturalness of 
the expressions The “sense of the original” 
emphasizes the transfer of meaning of the text 
and the ideas that the author wants to convey 
through the text and serves the purpose of 
the translation By the term “the naturalness 
of the expressions” it is recommended that 
the translation must reflect the language 
style and other extra-linguistic elements of 
the target language in the translation
2.2. Errors
The term “error” usually means that 
something is wrong Lennon (1991, p182) 
[4] considers an error as “a linguistic form 
or combination of forms which, in the same 
context and under similar conditions of 
production, would, in all likelihood, not be 
produced by the speakers’ native speaker 
counterparts”
2.3. Translation Errors
Translations errors are defined differently 
depending on translation theories and 
norms [3] The most acceptable concept 
of translation errors is the one stated by 
American Translators Association (ATA) 
(2016) According to ATA (2016) [1], 
translation errors are negative impact(s) on 
the understanding or use of a target text
In the language teaching and learning 
process, especially the teaching and learning 
of translation, errors play a crucial role as 
error analysis has been an effective tool to 
assess translations performed by students 
[9] The number of errors committed by 
students reflect the students’ performance in 
translation [5]
2.4. Linguistic Errors in Translation
The taxonomy for linguistic error analysis 
adopted from Na (2005) was utilized 
in the present study According to Na’s 
Guide Sheet for Linguistic Error Analysis, 
linguistic errors include morphological 
errors, grammatical errors, syntactic errors, 
collocational errors, and inappropriate word 
form (See Appendix 1)
Morphological errors are errors involving 
a failure to comply with the norm in building 
word structure
Grammatical errors are errors that occur 
in handling the word structure, including 
incorrect verb tenses or verb forms, incorrect 
case of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and the 
use of adjective when a verb is needed
Syntactic errors are made when learners 
have to handle any structures larger than 
words Errors in this category occur when 
students have problems with the building of 
a phrase, a clause or a sentence
Collocational errors are the ones made in 
the idiomatic usage of the target language
Inappropriate word form refers to cases 
when the word form is not correctly chosen, 
ie, the learner uses a noun instead of an 
adjective The root of the word may be 
correct, but the wrong form is used
2.5. Related Studies in Tranlation 
Error Analysis
Studies relating to translation error 
analysis can be found in the literature 
both domestically and int ... the target language
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Example (56) shows the confusion of the 
students as they try to combine the word 
key and success with different words to 
express the meaning and fail to come to the 
right collocation of ‘the key to the success’ 
Similarly, limitation in students’ knowledge 
of English collocation is presented in 
examples (57) and (58) when they cannot 
use the collocations ‘such���as’ and ‘take 
advantages of ’ in translating the source text
(56) Source text: Còn cao siêu thể hiện 
ở tiềm năng: Đây chính là chìa khoá để đi 
tới thành công của các doanh nghiệp trong 
tương lai�
Translated text 1: The sublimity is expressed 
in its potential as electronic commerce is 
the key to go (redundant) to the success of 
enterprises in the future�
Translated text 2: The sublimity is shown in 
its potential: It is the key to reach (redundant) 
the success of enterprises in the future�
Translated text 3: The sublime (sublimity) 
is expressed in its potential: It is the key of (to) 
the success of enterprises in the future�
Possible translation: And its sublimity is 
shown in its potential as it is the key to the 
success of enterprises in the future
(57) Source text: Bình thường ở chỗ: các 
doanh nghiệp Việt Nam, nhất là tại Hà Nội 
và thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, từ lâu đã sử 
dụng các phương tiện như máy điện thoại, 
fax, email trong giao dịch thương mại 
Translated text: It is simple because 
many Vietnamese enterprises, especially 
those in Hanoi and Hochiminh city, have 
been using such means of communication 
like (as) telephones, faxes, emails��� in 
business transaction�
Possible translation: It is simple because 
many Vietnamese enterprises, especially 
those in Hanoi and Hochiminh city, have 
been using such means of communication 
as telephones, faxes, emails in busi-
ness transaction
(58) Source text: Nếu không sử dụng thương 
mại điện tử thì các doanh nghiệp không tận 
dụng được các ưu điểm hơn hẳn các hình thức 
kinh doanh khác�
Translated text 1: If enterprises do not use 
electronic commerce, they cannot use (take) 
the advantages of electronic commerce which 
are greater than those of other business forms�
Translated text 2: If electronic commerce is 
not applied, enterprises cannot get (take) the 
greater advantages of electronic commerce 
than (those of) other business forms�
Possible translation: If electronic com-
merce is not applied, enterprises fail to take 
the greater advantages than those of other 
business forms
Inappropriate word form errors occur 
when students confuse different words of the 
same family; that is, the root of the word is 
correct, but the wrong form is used The most 
common errors observed are the confusion 
among verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs 
of the same root Examples (59) and (60) are 
the two examples illustrating the errors of 
inappropriate word form
(59) Translated text: If enterprises do not 
apply electronic commercial (commerce), 
they will not take���
(60) Translated text:  It’s very convenient 
for customers to choice (choose)�
4.2. Implications of Pedagogy
In this paper, the linguistic errors com-
mitted by English major students in Viet-
namese English translation are taken into 
accounts As shown in the study results, 
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TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ Pham Thi Kim Cuc et al
linguistic errors occur with high frequency 
in students’ translation It is strongly believed 
that an intensive grammar course target-
ing in providing students with knowledge 
and practice in the main points of English 
grammar can help to avoid linguistic errors 
in translations
Of the five sub-types, syntactic errors 
including phrase, clause and sentence errors 
occur the most frequently This reflects 
the reality of students’ translation ability 
observed by translation teachers in their 
teaching that in Vietnamese English trans-
lation it is not challenging for students to 
get the word meaning but how to combine 
words together to form a phrase, then a 
clause and finally a sentence is not an easy 
task to do To solve this problem, translation 
teacher is suggested to give students more 
opportunities to practice forming phrases, 
clauses, or sentences Exercises to practice 
avoiding syntactic errors in translation can 
be in such forms as matching Vietnamese 
phrases with their equivalences, reordering 
the given words to form an appropriate 
phrase or clause, analyzing the errors in the 
given translations of the sentences
Collocation, the ability to choose the right 
combination of words in English, also causes 
students’ errors in translation It is suggested 
that English should be taught and learned 
in context, and in providing students with 
English vocabulary be sure that students 
do not learn the word separately but words 
going together
5. Conclusion
The errors committed by the translation 
tell us something about their translation 
competence and the translation training 
process Basing on the analysis of linguistic 
errors in the Vietnamese English translation 
of the English linguistic students at Hung 
Vuong University, some implications for the 
translation course training and translation 
teaching have been suggested It is highly rec-
ommended that more studies in translation 
error analysis viewing errors from different 
aspects as well as researches focusing on lin-
guistic teaching and learning in translation 
be conducted
References
[1] American Translators Association (2016) 
Retrieved from atanetorg/certifica-
tion/aboutexams_overviewphp
[2] Hang, N, & Hang, T (2015) Vietnamese-English 
translation errors made by second year trans-
lation-major students: An initial step towards 
enhancing translation standards Scientific 
Journal, Vietnam National University, 31, 22-32
[3] Hansen, G (2010) Translation “Errors” In Y 
Gambier & L V Doorslaer (Eds), Handbook of 
Translation Studies, 1 Amsterdam: John Benja-
mins Publishing Company
[4] Lennon, P (1991) Error: Some problems of 
definition, identification, and distinction 
Applied Linguistics, 12(2), 180-195 https://doi
org/101093/applin/122180
[5] Na, P (2005) Errors in the translation of top-
ic-comment structures of Vietnamese into 
English A dissertation The University of Sydney, 
Australia Retrieved from 
westernsydneyeduau
[6] Popescu, T (2013) A Corpus-based approach 
to translation error analysis A case-study of 
Romanian EFL learners Procedia Social and 
Behavioral Sciences 83, 242 – 247 DOI:101016/j
sbspro201306048
[7] Seguinot, C (1990) Interpreting errors in trans-
lation META, (25(1), 68-73
[8] Suskie, L A (1996) Questionnaire survey 
research: What works (2nd ed) Tallahassee, FL, 
The Association for Institutional Research
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TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ Tập 14, Số 1 (2019): 82–94
[9] Waddington, C (2001) Different Methods of 
Evaluating Student Translations: The Question 
of Validity META: Translators’ Journal 46(2): 
311-325, eruditorg/iderudit/004583ar
APPENDIX 1: GUIDE SHEET FOR LINGUISTIC ERROR ANALYSIS
(Adapted from Na, 2005)
1. Morphological errors
1.1. Nouns
• Addition of plural marker: Students add 
the plural marker ‘s’ to a singular noun or 
a collective noun which is considered to 
be singular.
• Omission of plural marker: Students 
omit the plural marker ‘s’ at the end of a 
plural noun.
• Incorrect use of possessive case: Students 
use the possessive case incorrectly.
1.2. Verbs
• Inappropriate verb construction: Students 
are unable to provide the correct form of 
the verb.
PHÂN TÍCH CÁC LỖI NGÔN NGỮ KHI DỊCH 
CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH
Phạm Thị Kim Cúc, Trương Thị Thúy Ninh, Nguyễn Thị Thìn
Trường Đại học Hùng Vương
Tóm TắT
Nghiên cứu nhằm mục đích phân tích các lỗi ngôn ngữ sinh viên chuyên tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Hùng Vương mắc phải khi biên dịch từ tiếng Việt sang tiếng Anh, trên cở sở đó đề xuất một số gợi 
ý sư phạm nhằm nâng cao năng lực dịch của sinh viên Có 68 sinh viên chuyên tiếng Anh tham gia một 
bài kiểm tra dịch từ tiếng Việt sang tiếng Anh Các lỗi dịch được phân tích sử dụng “Hướng dẫn phân 
tích lỗi ngôn ngữ trong dịch” (Na, 2005), trong đó lỗi ngôn ngữ chia thành 5 loại: lỗi hình thái, lỗi ngữ 
pháp, lỗi cú pháp, lỗi cặp từ, và lỗi dạng từ Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy sinh viên mắc lỗi cú pháp nhiều 
nhất, sau đó là lỗi cặp từ, và các loại lỗi khác Nhóm nghiên cứu đã thảo luận các kết quả thu được, đưa 
ra các đề xuất để nâng cao năng lực dịch của sinh viên, đồng thời đưa ra các hướng nghiên cứu trong 
tương lai
Từ khoá: lỗi dịch, lỗi hình thái, lỗi ngữ pháp, lỗi cú pháp, lỗi cặp từ, lỗi dạng từ
• Subject/Verb agreement: There is a disagree-
ment between the subject and the verb.
2. Grammatical errors
2.1. Adjectives
2.2. Adverbs
2.3. Articles
2.4. Conjunctions
2.5. Determiners
2.6. Pronouns
2.8. Prepositions
2.9. Verbs
2.10. Participles
The deviations are classified in five ways:
• Misuse: When the word class should not 
be used.
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TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ Pham Thi Kim Cuc et al
• Omission: When the word class is omitted.
• Addition: When word class is added.
• Inappropriate choice: When the word class 
is used correctly but the specific form is 
chosen inappropriately.
• Misplacement: When the word class is 
placed in the wrong position.
3. Syntactic errors (Phrase structure, Clause 
structure and Sentence structure)
3.1. Phrase structure
• Addition of unnecessary words.
• Inappropriate noun phrase construction.
• Inappropriate verb phrase construction.
• Inappropriate phrase construction (Other 
types of phrases except Noun and Verb 
phrase).
• Incomplete phrase.
• Misordering.
• Nonparallel combination.
• Inappropriate use of possessive case.
• Omission of possessive marker.
3.2. Clause structure
• Addition of subject.
• Omission of subject.
• Addition of unnecessary phrase.
• Addition of verb.
• Inappropriate clause construction.
• Inappropriate combination of subject and 
passive verb.
• Incomplete clause.
• Misordering.
• Nonparallel combination.
• Omission of main verb.
• Omission of the relative pronoun.
3.3. Sentence structure
• Addition of clause
• Addition of unnecessary phrase.
• Addition of verb.
• Inappropriate choice of subject.
• Inappropriate combination of subject and 
passive verb.
• Inappropriate combination of two clauses.
• Inappropriate sentence construction.
• Incomplete sentence.
• Lack of coordinating conjunction.
• Misordering.
• Misordering of relative clause.
• Misuse of relative clause.
• No logical connection between subject 
and predicate.
• Nonparallel combination.
• Omission of main clause.
• Omission of main verb.
• Omission of relative pronoun.
• Omission of subject.
• Repetition of subject.
4. Collocational errors
Collocational errors cover lexical collocations. 
When the meaning relation between individual 
lexical items and those that habitually co-occur with 
them in the language is broken. They can be: free 
combination, restricted combination, multi-word 
expressions which include irreversible binominals, 
phrasal verbs or idioms
5. Inappropriate word form
The students confuse different words of the 
same family; that is, the root of the word is correct, 
but the wrong form is used.
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Read the instructions carefully and then 
translate the following text into English.
Instructions: The following excerpt is from an 
article discussing about the application of Electronic 
commerce in Vietnam. It should be translated for a 
general audience. Translate the following text for the 
specified purpose.
Có người cho rằng thương mại điện tử là một 
ngành mới phát triển và liên quan đến công nghệ 
cao. Thương mại điện tử vừa “cao siêu” nhưng lại 
cũng rất bình thường. Bình thường ở chỗ: Các doanh 
nghiệp Việt Nam, nhất là tại Hà Nội và thành phố Hồ 
Chí Minh, từ lâu đã sử dụng các phương tiện như 
máy điện thoại, fax, email trong việc giao dịch 
thương mại và đó cũng chính là một trong số các 
phương thức hoạt động đơn giản nhất của thương 
mại điện tử. Còn “cao siêu” được thể hiện ở tiềm 
năng: Đây chính là chìa khóa để đi tới thành công 
của các doanh nghiệp trong tương lai. Nếu không 
sử dụng thương mại điện tử thì các doanh nghiệp 
không tận dụng được những ưu điểm hơn hẳn với 
các hình thức kinh doanh khác. Và dường như công 
ty, doanh nghiệp nào sớm áp dụng thương mại 
điện tử thì sớm thành công.
Thương mại điện tử không chỉ đem lại nhiều 
lợi ích cho các doanh nghiệp mà còn với cả khách 
hàng. Mọi người đều có thể mua gần như tất cả 
mọi sản phẩm trên mạng: Từ xà phòng, khí đốt đến 
những chiếc ô tô, căn nhà; từ những chiếc máy vi 
tính, những quyển sách đến những đôi tất, áo sơ 
mi Tất cả đều được rao bán trên mạng. Việc lựa 
chọn dường như cũng thuận tiện và rộng khắp 
hơn, đó là chưa kể đến những lợi ích khi so sánh 
giá cả, kiểu loại giữa các hãng... Khách hàng, thay 
vì phải lang thang trên đường phố, tìm kiếm, ngắm 
nhìn vừa mất công vừa mất thời gian, nay chỉ cần 
ngồi trên ghế và “di chuột”, họ có thể đến được tất 
cả các “gian hàng” không chỉ trong nước mà còn 
cả trên thế giới, đồng thời lựa chọn được những 
mặt hàng với giá cả ưng ý cùng những thông 
tin cần thiết. Tại Việt Nam, những doanh nghiệp 
thành công trong lĩnh vực thương mại điện tử hiện 
mới chỉ là những doanh nghiệp chuyên về dịch vụ 
sản phẩm công nghệ cao hay các doanh nghiệp 
xuất nhập khẩu.
(Adapted from Translation Practice 3 Textbook–
Ha Noi University)
APPENDIX 2: VIETNAMESE ENGLISH TRANSLATION TEST
VIETNAMESE ENGLISH TRANSLATION TEST
Time allowance: 60 minutes
Paper dictionaries are permitted