A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN TRANSLATION: A CASE STUDY of the VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH VERSION OF CÁNH ĐỒNG BẤT TẬN

Abstract

With the development of modern society, more and more Vietnamese literary proses have been translated to transfer the Vietnamese literature into the wider world by utilizing the rhetorical devices to express the figurative meanings in the target texts. This paper scoped with four types of figures of speech, namely simile and metaphor which were creatively used in a Vietnamese prose Cánh đồng bất tận and the translated version Endless Field. With the aim at making comparisons in the literary devices in translation equivalents, the study has investigated 162 English sentences and 160 Vietnamese ones in both texts. From the findings, it resulted that (1) The source and target text employed the rhetorical devices to mean the author’s ideas; (2) Both simile and metaphor were equally utilized in Vietnamese and English translated versions; (3) There was the usefulness of word choices and meanings to create an attractiveness of a story. It is hoped to make a significant contribution to enhance the translating competencies of student translators at the university, of professional translators in authentic practices and of management issues in the future.