MASCULINITY VIA TRANSITIVITY IN VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH TRANSLATION “DẾ MÈN PHIÊU LƯU KÝ” FROM PERSPECTIVE OF SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59266/houjs.2026.1135Keywords:
masculinity, transitivity, Vietnamese-English translation, verb phraseAbstract
Masculinity is understood as a set of behavioral, cultural, and social norms traditionally associated with boys and men, including traits such as strength, independence, competition, and emotional stoicism. This article examines masculinity expressed via verb phrases in the Vietnamese source text “Dế mèn phiêu liêu ký” by To Hoai and how they are transferred to the English target text “Diary of a Cricket”. The study findings reveal that masculinity, with the biggest percentage, belongs to the material process, followed by the mental and behavioral process, describing an over-confident and over-proud nature, strong and fast movement, arrogant and aggressive behaviors, violent actions, and injured and bloody scenes. Also, masculinity is seen in high self-assessment of physical strength, superior ability, and looking down on weaker competitors. In the translation, some cases of verb phrases are not transferred, the shifts between processes occur, and the move to noun phrases also more or less makes the meaning of some verbs seemingly “weaker”, masculinity, thus, is partly “lighter” than that in the original.
References
Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept. Gender & Society, 19, 829-859. http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/0891243205278639.
Esina, E., Wells, L., Claussen, C., & Mallay, N. (2018). The perceptions of gender norms amongst sub-groups of men and boys in Canada and abroad. Status of Women Canada.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Hoang, V. V. (2006). Translation: Theory and Practice. A Textbook for senior students of English. Education Publishing House.
Matthews, D. D., Hammond, W. P., Nuru- Jeter, A., Cole-Lewis, Y., & Melvin, T. (2013). Racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among African- American men: The mediating and moderating roles of masculine self reliance and John Henryism. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 14(1), 35-46. doi: 10.1037/a0028436.
Newmark, P. (1988). A textbook of translation.
New York : Prentice-Hall International.
Rimal, R. N., & Lapinski, M. K. (2015). A re- explication of social norms: Ten years later. Communication Theory, 25(4), 393-409.
Thompson, E. H., Jr., & Pleck, J. H. (1986). The structure of male norms. American Behavioral Scientist, 29, 531-543. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000276486029005003.
Thompson, E. H., Jr., & Pleck, J. H. (1995). Masculinity ideologies: A review of research instrumentation on men and masculinities. In R. F. Levant & W. S. Pollack (Eds.) A new psychology of men (pp. 129-163). New York: Basic Books.
Thompson, E. H., Jr., Grisanti, C., & Pleck, J. H. (1985). Attitudes toward the male role and their correlates. Sex Roles, 13, 413-427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/ BF00287952.
To, H. (1942, 2023). Dế Mèn phiêu lưu ký (Diary of a cricket by Dang The Binh). Bilingual book. Kim Dong Publishing House.
Uy, P. J., Massoth, N. A., & Gottdiener, W. H. (2014). Rethinking male drinking: Traditional masculine ideologies, gender-role conflict, and drinking motives. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 15(2), 121-128. doi: 10.1037/a0032239.
