Mirroring Meaning: Reduplication in Vietnamese Literary Prose and Its English Translation- A Contrastive Perspective

In Vietnam, the increasing use of translated texts reflects the growing effort to introduce Vietnamese literature to a global audience. This study examines the use of both partial and full reduplication in the Vietnamese version of Cánh đồng bất tận and its English translation, exploring how each type is employed in both languages and analyzing the similarities and differences in their usage. Based on the novella Cánh đồng bất tận and its English translation, the research examined 96 Vietnamese sentences and 105 English sentences to explore the phenomenon. The sentences were purposively selected from the novella to focus on examples of reduplication, and the contrastive analysis was conducted using a linguistic framework that compares morphological and phonological features across the two languages. The findings revealed that (1) Both English and Vietnamese employed similar methods for using reduplication in the novella, utilizing repetition of sounds or words to create emphasis, express intensity, and add a rhythmic or playful quality to the language, (2) Although reduplication is not a fundamental morphological process in English, it occurs more frequently than in Vietnamese in this text, primarily as a stylistic or emphatic device rather than a grammatical one, and (3) The rules governing letter- and word-groupings, such as the use of reduplication in both Vietnamese and English, contribute to making the text more engaging for readers by adding rhythm, emphasis, and expressiveness. Additionally, the findings also revealed that pairs of tonal patterns combined with descriptive words using the suffix -ish, create a unique and interesting linguistic feature in English. This study uncovers how reduplication functions differently in Vietnamese and English within a bilingual novella, revealing nuanced strategies translators can use to preserve stylistic emphasis and cultural meaning, thereby improving the fidelity and expressive quality of translations for diverse audiences.