Strategies for Translating Endearment Terms: The Case of Oxford Thương Yêu (‘Beloved Oxford’)

Abstract

Literary translation involves more than the transfer of semantic content from a source text into a target language; it also requires the recreation of emotional, interpersonal, and culturally embedded meanings so that target readers may engage with the literary work in ways comparable to the original readership. This study examines the strategies employed in translating Vietnamese terms of endearment into English. It focuses on Duong Thuy’s contemporary Vietnamese novel Oxford thương yêu and Elbert Bloom’s English translation, Beloved Oxford. Drawing on Newmark’s (1988) and Baker’s (1992) classifications of translation strategies, the study develops a nine-strategy framework for analysing each endearment term. It further identifies the dimensions of meaning that are successfully transferred and those that resist translation, while providing explanations for cases of partial or full untranslatability. The combination of qualitative interpretation and quantitative description enhances the rigour and coherence of the analytical process. The findings indicate that seven of the nine strategies were used in translating endearment terms: literal translation, transposition, paraphrase, omission, superordination, borrowing, and couplets or triplets. Although most semantic components were adequately conveyed, some strategies generated partial semantic loss, thereby affecting translation quality. The study suggests that endearment terms remain particularly challenging because they encode culturally specific forms of affection, intimacy, hierarchy, and interpersonal relations in Vietnamese and English. Its findings contribute to research on the translation of affective and relational language and offer a basis for further studies on endearment terms in literary translation.