Some Notes for Translating Vietnamese and English Sentences

The paper is about how to identify the attributes closely related to the two notions named Subject and Đề, the latter including the Topic and the Range Topic, as well as to find out how to translate the Vietnamese sentences the basic structure of which is the Topic-Comment structure into the English sentences the basic structure of which is the Subject-Predicate structure. The paper starts with a selected Vietnamese declarative which in its typical Topic-Comment structure with a succession of three Range Topics in the initial position in order to show the time and space in which whatever presented in the Comment occurs. The paper then presents, one after another, the two suggested translated versions in English: the former requires a Subject which doubles as Topic, which is ‘you’ in this case, in order to play the semantic role of “the Actor”; the latter is an inverted sentence in English, which is definitely equivalent in sense and better reflects the very Topic-Comment structure as well. Considerable attention has been paid to the distinction between the Topic and the Range Topic in the Vietnamese sentences in question. Such a distinction is crucial not only to widely perceiving what is called “meaning” but also to producing wellformed translated versions, either from English into Vietnamese or vice versa. After the theoretical points that are based basically on Functional Grammar are some notes for translating Vietnamese and English sentences. Hopefully, this contributes to drawing the attention of those who have practiced translating, and hopefully professional translators as well, to sophisticated issues in translation, both from and into the English language, which is part of the whole process of language learning.


Introduction
It is still observed that students whose major is English at a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, have translated the following Vietnamese declarative which begins with two or more Range Topics [1] into an English sentence without any Subject: Nowadays, having the green trees, the flavor of flowers, the sweet of fruits in all the country and... ; Nowadays, all over the country wherever saw the green trees, smell of flowers and of...
Below is my analysis of the translated version of the above mentioned Vietnamese sentence, suggested by a university teacher who is in charge of a course named Vietnamese-English Translation:  While the given Vietnamese declarative is in its typical Topic-Comment structure with a succession of three Range Topics in the initial position in order to show the time and space in which whatever presented in the Comment occurs, its equivalent English sentence requires a Subject which doubles as Topic (abbreviated to S/T) [1], which is 'you' in this case, in order to play the semantic role of "the Actor". Obviously, to convey the same meaning, each of the two languages uses one or more than one means, as stated by R. Jacobson [2]: languages basically differ not in what they can express but in what they must express.
Presumably, the over-mentioned suggested key fails to indicate the Topic-Comment structure of the original Vietnamese sentence in question and the teacher who has created the key did apply an intentional change and/ or unnecessary transposition instead of using the English inverted sentence, which is definitely equivalent in sense and better reflects the very Topic-Comment structure as well. That is the reason why I would like to propose another translated key for the Vietnamese sentence: From the issues in my teaching practice at higher education in Vietnam, I have tried my best to enter the field of research, with the real hope that whatever has been found in that research will serve my permanent job as a life-long non-native teacher of English.

Literature Review
In oder to have the theoretical ground for the practice of translating sentences, mostly declarative sentences, from English to Vietnamese and from Vietnamese to English, the author of this paper has perceived and then developed the achievements of the book named The Vietnamese Functional Grammar. Volume one. Sentences in the Vietnamese Language by Cao Xuan Hao (chief author), Hoang Xuan Tam, Nguyen Van Bang and Bui Tat Tuom [1998], basing specifically on the following notions:

The Topic-Comment Structure of the Vietnamese Sentence
The syntactic structure of a sentence in the Vietnamese language corresponds basically to the structure of a proposition. It consists of two parts: the Topic (abbreviated to T) and the Comment (abbreviated to C), corresponding respectively to the Subjectum và the Praedicatum of the structure of a proposition. The completeness of the Vietnamese sentence results from the fact that the sentence itself forms an utterance which has its own truth value as well as its illocutionary force, and which is percieved by the hearer as a well-formed speech act [3: 22-23]: The order of the Topic preceding the Comment is normal in the vast majority of Vietnamese sentences. The opposite order is too rare to be found only in a small number of special circumstances. This is because the Topic expresses the Subjectum of a proposition, which is the starting point of an assertion.

Topic
-Definition: In the Vietnamese language, the Topic is a semantic as well as a grammatical subject matter. Its status as a meaning component of a sentence is clarified via the following definition: "The Topic is the first immediate constituent of a sentence which indicates the scope of application of its second immediate constituent: the Comment." [3: 41] -Classification: The majority of the Topics in Vietnamese sentences are Inner Topics, which differ from Outer Topics in the fact that the former is included in the syntactic structure of the Vietnamese sentence while the latter is not. There is no pause after the Inner Topic, which consists of two subtypes: 1) The Topic is a sentence component which refers to whatever (either an individual, or a collection, or a state of affairs) being talked about. 2) The Range Topic (abbreviated to RangeT) is a sentence component which indicates the time, the space, the condition, or the situation in which whatever being mentioned in the Comment is valid. The Topic and the Range Topic share the same function: identifying the scope of the application of the Comment; they differ basically in the properties of the thing in the former and those of the background in the latter. Distinction between the Topic and the Range Topic: thế in (5a) là the Range Topic, while thế in (5b) is the Topic [3: 34].
'This machine many places order ∅ because ∅ runs well, ∅ consumes less fuel, price ∅ is quite low' The Topic's influence on co-referential deletion [3: 51] indicates that the Topic in Vietnamese declarative sentences is simmultaneously a syntactic component of the sentences. On the other hand, the Topic in the English language is only a subject matter of semantics. Quite often, the Subject doubles as the Topic (abbreviated to Subject/T) of English declarative sentences. The Subject which does not double as the Topic is the grammatical subject, also called the dummy subject, like it or there. Obviously, the section following either the Subject/T or the dummy subject is the Predicate which doubles as the Comment (abbreviated to Predicate/C).

The Subtopic and the Minor Comment of an Embedded Clause
When the Topic of the Vietnamese sentence is in the form of an embedded clause (and thus called the clausal Topic), the two immediate constituents of this clausal Topic are respectively called the subtopic (abbreviated to subT) and the minor comment (abbreviated to minorC) [3: 36; 73-77].
Below is the linear presentation of the Vietnamese sentence numbered (7) 1 :

person who is like that then we have no other comment.'
And below is the linear presentation of a two-level complex sentence the Comment of which is an embedded clause, resulting in the clausal Comment: (4b') Trong tình hình đó (RangeT of Situation) ⊥ (C) ta (subT) # (minorC) phải cố gắng.

The Optionality of the Topic in Vietnamese Sentences
According to Ch. Li và S. Thompson, the Subject is always "an argument of a predicative constituent" [4], while the Topic "is not determined by the verb … the speaker still has considerable freedom in choosing a topic noun phrase regardless of what the verb is" [4 : 463].
(8a) Cây này 'One day Long ride a bicycle, the other day Long ride a motorbike' 'Where people not yet build houses, we will plant vegetables' The Topic or the Range Topic of Vietnamese sentences is not only in the form of a noun phrase, as mentioned above by Ch. Li và S. Thompson [4]: 'Talk Mrs. Ba talk a lot' (9b) Nếu nói về con người (RangeT of Condition) THÌ (C) đó (subT) # (minorC) LÀ vốn quý nhất.
'If talk about human beings then those be the most precious capital'

The Markedness of the Topic in English Sentences
There are cases in which the Topic is marked in the English language, i.e. the Topic does not double as the Subject of a sentence, as in (10a) and (10b); on the contrary, the Topic is not marked at all in the Vietnamese language, as observed in the suggested translated versions of the two given English sentences:

The Contrastiveness of the Topic in English Sentences
The Topic in English sentences is marked and simultaneously contrasts with either another Topic or a certain argument in its preceding sentence or the embedded clause of this sentence: '(Hầu hết các ví dụ là trong sách, riêng) ví dụ này (T) THÌ (C) tôi I (subT) # (minorC) tự nghĩ ra. ' (11c) (I find I get on with his wife very well, but) him The above-mentioned illustrations help to confirm that, in English sentences, topicalization is a signal of the Subject-Predicate structure in which a certain argument of the predicative constituent, i.e. the verb phrase, of a sentence, is inverted to its initial position to play the role of the Topic, which is obviously marked. On the contrary, the Topic-Comment structure is the basic structure of Vietnamese sentences because contrastiveness is not the inhererent property of the Topic or the Range Topic of the Vietnamese sentences.

Topic-Comment Marker vs. Subtopic-minor Comment Marker
THÌ, LÀ and MÀ coordinate with each other to create layers of the Topic-Comment structure in a Vietnamese sentence and its embedded clause. THÌ helps to identify the Topic and the Comment, especially where the inherent properties of the Topic and/ or those of the Comment have not yet clarified their status by themselves. LÀ has a lot of functions in Vietnamese sentences, including the function of marking the boundary between the Topic and the Comment. MÀ also has a lot of functions in Vietnamese sentences; it especially marks the boundary between the subtopic and the minor comment of the embedded clause in a Vietnamese sentence, especially of the clausal Topic.
The distinction between THÌ, LÀ and MÀ have been described in detail [3: 25-38]; thanks to these descriptions, the author of this paper has done research on some notes for translating Vietnamese and English sentences.

Topic-Comment Structure vs. Subject-Predicate Structure
On the one hand, the Topic-Comment structure clearly corresponds to the structure of a proposition: the Topic và the Comment correspond respectively to the Subjectum và the Praedicatum; on the other hand, the Subject-Predicate structure separates from the structure of a proposition: the grammatical subject of an English sentence need not to express any sense, i.e. it does not need to play any semantic role, because it can be a grammtical means only. It is possible to consider the English sentences the Subject of which doubles as the Topic as the ones that have the Topic-Comment structure, and the English sentences the Subject of which does not double as the Topic as the ones that have the Subject-Predicate structure.

Ways to Translate Vietnamese Sentences with a Double Topic
There are two ways to translate the Vietnamese sentence with a double Topic (

Ways to Make an Emphasis in Vietnamese and in English
In Vietnamese sentences, "the emphasis has been done by using LÀ to mark the boundary between the Topic and the Comment, with or without the repetition of the Topic" [3: 32]. In their equivalent English sentences, such an emphasis has been done by either an adverb of degree like very in (19-20b), or the repetition of this adverb, resulting in very very in (21b); both cases being accompanied by the adverb indeed. It is interesting to identify the possible repetition of the Topic in Vietnamese and that of an adverb of degree, like very, in English. In other words, the means of emphasizing occurs in the Topic or right at the Topic-Comment boundary of the Vietnamese sentence in question; the emphasizing means occurs in the Predicate which doubles as the Comment of the equivalent English sentence:

The Distinction Between LÀ and THÌ
Although they both mark the Topic-Comment boundary in Vietnamese sentences, LÀ and THÌ convey different senses and thus have to be translated differently in English. The repetition of the Topic in (22a) with LÀ "aims at emphasizing the meaning of the whole sentence, actually highlighting the Comment more than the Topic, but not comparing or contrasting with any other idea or another Comment" [3: 32]. The repetition of the Topic in (23a) with THÌ "aims at marking the Topic of the sentence and including a comparing or contrasting implication" [5: 416]. The sentence (23a) means that 'other people may prefer other authors whereas I only like to read Nam Cao'. Such a distinction is also found out in (24a) and (25a). It is the property of being marked of the Range Topic that makes it quite satisfactory to be the first and foremost choice to translate (23a) và (25a):

The Co-referential Deletion in Vietnamese Sentences
If a succession of sentences all talk about one and the same person or thing, i.e these sentences have co-reference, then the co-referential deletion, which is preferred in the Vietnamese language with its typical Topic-Comment structure, allows to omit Bính -the Actor of a series of actions encoded by dậy trưa ('get up late'), đi học trễ ('go to school late'), tìm đường trốn tránh ('refuse to do the chores') and chỉ thích chơi bời ('only like to play') in (26a). On the contrary, the Subject-Predicate structure of the equivalent English sentences requires to encode the Actor of these actions in (26b), replacing the proper noun 'Bính' by the pronoun 'he':

The Co-referential Deletion in Vietnamese Folk Songs or Proverbs
In Vietnamese folk songs or proverbs -ways of expressions that are quite short and really condensed, the coreferential deletion acts even more strongly and thus allows to omit tôi ('I') -the Actor of the three actions encoded by ra đứng bờ ao ('come out to stand by the pond'), trông cá ('look down at the fish') và trông sao ('look up to the stars') in (27a). On the contrary, the Subject-Predicate structure of the so-called English sentences requires encode the Actor of these actions in (27b), resulting in the repetition of the pronoun 'I': (

The Required Occurrence of the English Verb Phrase Predicate
The Topic-Comment structure of Vietnamese sentences accepts only one word, which is not necessarily a verb, to be the Comment while the Subject-Predicate structure of their equivalent English sentences requires to encode the predicative constituent by a verb, even when this verb is relatively meaningless and just stands as a way of connecting the noun phrase Subject with the verb phrase Predicate:

The Required Occurrence of the English Noun Phrase Subject
The Subject-Predicate structure of English sentences requires to encode the Actors of chưa tỏ ('know nothing about it') và those of đã hay ('have already mastered it') to be the Subject which doubles as the Topic of the two clauses of the English sentence (29b); the equivalent Vietnamese sentence (29a) sees nobody to be the Actors of these acts, due to the Topic-Comment structure of Vietnamese sentences: (29a) Trong nhà (RangeT 1 of Space) ⊥ (C 1 ) ∅ chưa TỎ, ngoài ngõ (RangeT 2 of Space) ⊥ (C 2 ) ∅ đã HAY. the former require while the latter do not require the occurrence of THÌ or LÀ": when "the two immediate constituents of a Vietnamese sentence look almost alike, the relationship between the two immediate constituents is not clear enough without the occurrence of THÌ or LÀ as the marker of the boundary between the Topic and the Comment". The process of translating from Vietnamese to English requires the appropriate attention paid to the fact that the Range Topic of Time in (37a-b) has been translated into an adverbial, nominal or prepositional phrase while the Range Topic of Time, or of Condition, in (36a-b) has an English finite clause as its equivalent translated form:

The Distinction Between 'Bao giờ đi' and 'đi Bao giờ'
'Bao giờ (RangeT of Time) ⊥ (C) ĐI', which is the Topic-Comment structure in (39a), is distinguished from 'ĐI bao giờ', which is a phrase including the verb 'đi' and the adverbial 'bao giờ' in (39b) [5]: The past in the question (39b) and its reply results from "the givenness" of the state of affairs expressed by the Vietnamese verb 'đi' whereas "the adverbial 'bao giờ' states what is being asked about" [5: 411-412]. In this case, word order is conditioned by "communicative dynamism" [7]: the verb 'đi' the communicative dynamism of which is low, because it conveys the given information and thus occurs before the adverbial 'bao giờ', which conveys the new information and thus is definitely the focus of the reply.
The future in the question (39a) and its reply results from "the conditional meaning (as an assumption) of the Range Topic" và "the sense of being undone of the Comment" [5: 417] in the predicted reply. Mai (mốt) ('tomorrow'/ 'the day after tomorrow'), tám giờ ('at eight o'clock'), lát nữa ('in a short/ little while'), sang năm ('next year'), chiều (tối) ('in the evening/ at night') and "almost all of the adverbial of point of time at the beginning of the reply to the question 'bao giờ đi' cannot be shifted to the end of the reply", as proved by (40a'-e'): ( 'In a short/ little while I'M LEAVING.' "Communicative dynamism", i.e the contrast between the new and the given, determines the word order of the two Vietnamese questions named (41a-b) and their replies. This does not occur in their equivalent English sentences, where the deletion of the given, not the final position of the sentence, helps to highlight the new information. It has been proved that word order acts more strongly in the Vietnamese language than in the English language, and that, unlike Vietnamese, English uses deletion, not word order, to contrast the given information with the new information: (41a) Anh VỀ khi nào? − Tôi VỀ hôm qua. 'When DID you COME home?' − '(I CAME home) Yesterday.' (41b) Hôm qua anh ĐI đâu? − Hôm qua tôi VỀ nhà. 'Where DID you GO yesterday?' − 'I CAME home (yesterday).'

Conclusion
This paper aims at finding out ways of translating the Vietnamese sentences the basic structure of which is the Topic-Comment structure into the English sentences the basic structure of which is the Subject-Predicate structure. Considerable attention has been paid to the distinction between the Topic and the Range Topic in the Vietnamese sentences in question. Such a distinction is crucial not only to widely perceiving what is called "meaning" but also to producing well-formed translated versions, either from English into Vietnamese or vice versa. This contributes to drawing the attention of those who have practiced translating, and hopefully professional translators as well, to sophisticated issues in translation, both from and into the English language, which is part of the whole process of language learning.