GRAMMATICAL EQUIVALENCE

1.What is grammar?
Grammar is the set of rules which determine the way in which units such as words and
phrases can be combined in a language and the kind of information which has to be made
regularly explicit in utterances. While a language can communicate any idea, grammar affects
how easily some concepts are expressed.

2.Grammatical equivalence:
Grammar is organized along two main dimensions: morphology and syntax.
GRAMMAR

Morphology Syntax

Covers the structure of Covers the grammatical

words, the way in which
the form of a word
changes to indicate
specific contrasts in the
grammatical system
Ex: Most nouns in
English have two forms,
a singular form and a
plural form: man/ men,
child/ children, car/cars.
structure of groups,
clauses and sentences.
Ex: The linear sequences
of classes of words
which are allowed in a
given language.
“ Váy của chị đẹp quá”
“Your skirt is beautiful”

“Grammatical choices are normally expressed morphologically, but may also expressed
syntactically for instance by manipulating the order of elements in a clause to indicate
certain relations between them or to signal the function of the clause (cf. the difference
between the order of elements in a statement and a question in English: She had forgotten
about the party. / Had she forgotten about the party?).”

*In translation :

● Grammatical choices in translation are obligatory

● Languages with morphology (e.g., English) require marking categories like number
(singular/plural) on nouns.
● Languages without morphology for numbers (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese,
…) don't require marking numbers on nouns unless essential and usually added
with separate words.
● The grammar of a language stays relatively constant throughout a wide span of
time.
 ● Grammatical rules can be manipulate excepts for some specific effects (jokes, poets,
…)
Example:
a pretty a day
(and every fades)
is here and away Making poetic rhythms
(but born are maids
to flower an hour
in all, all)
3. The diversity of grammatical categories across languages.

● Difficult to find a notional category that is regularly and uniformly expressed in

● all languages

● Universals like time and number can vary across languages.

● Some languages have unique grammatical categories (e.g., object shape in Yana and
Navajo).
● Languages can highlight specific aspects of experience (e.g., Amuesha marking
deceased people's names).
● Languages can prioritize social concepts (e.g., English - time, Aztec - respect,
Korean/Japanese - social hierarchy).
Differences in how languages structure sentences can lead to unintended changes in
meaning during translation:

● Adding information occurs because the TL might have grammatical category

that the SL lacks. This can happen when the target language requires information not
explicitly stated in the source language.
● Missing the original information, missing detail because the ST doesn’t provide
a clear context.
The change in the information content of the message may be in the form of omitting
information specified in the source text.
If the target language lacks a grammatical category which exists in the source language, the
information expressed by that category may have to be ignored.
“No lack of grammatical device in the language translated into makes impossible a literal
translation of the entire conceptual information contained in the original' (1959:235,
Jakobson)
In practice, the lack of a grammatical device can make the translation of 'the entire conceptual
information' very difficult.
4. Some majors categories illustrates the difficulty in different grammatical structures
translation.

● Number

● Gender-

● Person

● Tense and aspect

● Voice

5. Word order

● Different languages have varying degrees of fixedness in word order

● Case inflections - grammatical markers on nouns that indicate their role in a

sentence (subject, object, etc.) EX: Tôi gặp Lan. “gặp” is the marker, indicates the role
of the name “Lan”
● Since word order can impact meaning, it's crucial in translation to maintain a
coherent message.
6. Text
‘This “meaning potential' is only realized in communicative events, that is, in text.’
Brown and Yule (1983:6), text is defined here as 'the verbal record of a communicative
event; it is an instance of language in use rather than language as an abstract system of
meanings and relations.’
*Text vs. Non-text
Understanding the overall message is crucial before translating.

● A good translation should be natural and readable in the target language, not just
grammatically correct.
● Try achieving text-level equivalence, where the translated text functions well in the
target language.
● Different languages and cultures have preferred ways of structuring information.

*Feature of text organization

Any text, in any language, exhibits certain linguistic features, like a stretch of language, which
allow us to identify it as a text. (cho sơ đồ vào hoặc Mai Anh sửa lại giúp t nếu thấy sơ đồ t tệ
quá =))) )
There mainly two features of text organization: Connection of text and the genre/text type. There
are 3 main type of connections (3 cái)… And Genre/Text type (đọc phần ở dưới mục)
 Connection Genre

F.O.T.O Culturally specific to a

particular field

Thematic Cohesion

Coherence Text type

Focuses on the overall

structure and function.

*Notes cho khi cần trả lời câu hỏi:

Genre: Focuses on the social context and specific communicative purpose of a text. It's more
culturally specific and associated with established forms within a particular field or community.
(e.g., religious texts, love letters, sonnets)
Text type: Focuses on the overall structure and function of a text. It's broader and categorizes
texts based on how information is presented. (e.g., narratives, expositions, arguments)
Thematic and information structures: How information is arranged within and across sentences
to develop a topic.
Cohesion: Relationships between characters and events that make the text flow.
Coherence and implicature: Underlying connections that create a unified meaning.