Strategies in Translating Double Verb Construction

Abstract

            This research aimed to investigate the translation strategies employed by student samples when translating double verbs (Serial Verb Constructions or SVCs) from Thai to English. The samples were 20 third-year Business English Program students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University, enrolled in the first semester of the 2023 academic year. Before undertaking the main translation task, all groups received 6 hours of training on translating double verbs based on 8 distinct types of SVCs: moving, posturing, beginning with “take,” beginning with “use,” opening, beginning with “give,” beginning with “do/make,” and focusing on resulting. The primary research instrument was a 40-item subjective translation test focusing on SVCs. This instrument demonstrated high content validity and an Index of Item Objective Congruence (IOC) of 0.94, confirmed by three experts. Data analysis involved using percentages, mean scores, standard deviations, and dependent t-tests.

The research yielded two main findings: Training Achievement and translation strategies.

1. There was a statistically significant improvement in translation achievement after the training. The mean score increased from 6.1 before training to 12.85 after training (at a statistical significance level of 0.05).


2. A total of 15 different translation strategies were identified. The five most frequently used strategies were: omission (27.15%), most commonly applied to SVCs indicating movement (35 times), adding the preposition “to” to link verbs (24.55%), most frequently used with SVCs starting with "use" (40 times), literal Translation (14.97%), predominantly used with SVCs starting with "give" (32 times), adding the conjunction “and” to link verbs (7.98%), most observed with posturing SVCs (18 times), and adjusting sentence structures by modifying nouns or noun phrases (4.99%), most common with resulting SVCs (14 times). The least frequently used strategy was adjusting active voice sentences to passive voice, occurring only once (0.20%).