Loss and gain in the Vietnamese translational equivalents of stylistic devices used in the novel series The Lord of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Tóm tắt

With their own distinctive characteristics, stylistic devices (SDs) play an important role in expressing the contents of literary works in general and novels in particular. This study is aimed at identifying lexical SDs and syntactical SDs in the novel series The Lord of The Rings and investigating loss and gain in terms of lexis, structure and meaning in their Vietnamese translational equivalents. The lexical SDs discovered include simile, repetition, metaphor and personificatio, whereas the only syntactical SD found is the rhetorical question. The study has applied the translation shift theory of Catford [1] [2] to explain what underlies loss and gain, which are inevitable phenomena in translation. The research results show that loss and gain in meaning originate from loss and gain in lexis as well as in structure. It is hoped that the findings can be useful for SDs teaching and learning as well as English-Vietnamese translation. Key words: Stylistic devices; The Lord of The Rings; loss and gain; translational equivalents; translation shifts.