Three approaches in mastering the business phraseocon bank

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THREE APPROACHES IN MASTERING THE BUSINESS PHRASEOCON BANK

Smirnova K.R., Melnikova E.P., Fedulenkova T.N.

Vladimirskiy State University named after the Stoletov brothers

Vladimir, Russia

No doubt, while teaching ESP, a Foreign Language Teacher cannot do without phraseological units. That fact is evidently caused by two reasons. On the one hand 'the English language', as Daphne M. Gulland and David Hinds-Howell put it, 'is full of pitfalls for the foreign student - bizarre spelling, illogical rules of grammar - but the most common problem lies in understanding and using the vast array of idioms' (Gulland, Hinds-Howell 1994: 308). On the other hand Business English in itself is full of terms of phraseological, or idiomatic character, that is the meaning of the componential structure in those terms is quite different from the meaning of the whole terms, e.g.: haemorrhage red ink has nothing to do with the well-known disease and the coloured liquid used for writing; in fact the meaning of the term is 'to lose a lot of money' as in 'The state's long-term fiscal management has been sold, although the current budget threatens to haemorrhage red ink' (Longman 2007: 244). And the word combination carpet bomb has nothing to do either with a carpet or with a bomb; it is a term which is used in marketing in the meaning 'to send advertising material to as many people as possible, or to all the people in an area' as in 'Members carpet bomb voters in the area with propaganda publicizing their accomplishments' (Longman 2007: 75). Or the meaning of the set expression fallen angel is very far from the meanings of its components 'fallen' and 'angel', it is defined, being a term of finance, as 'a bond that is not performing well now, but which performed well in the past' as in 'Those bonds in recent months have turned into fallen angels, as rating agencies downgrade them' (Longman 2007: 200). idiom english business bank

All those terms are samples of phraseological units with full, or complete, transference of componential meaning, which hinders their comprehension, as in fast track, fat cat, salami slicing, halo effect, salary matrix, quota sample, scorched-earth tactics, gravy train, quid pro quo, etc., all of them representing current stock of business terms.

Many Business English idioms serve as specialised terms in specific domains (see also: Fedulenkova 2002: 247):

a) accounting: sales ledger - 'a book or a computer file in which the money owed or paid to a company for the goods it sells is recorded' (Tuck 2000: 371); above the line - 'relating to a figure included in a statement of a company's profits and losses before tax has been paid, not after tax' (Longman 2007: 1); net profit - 'the profit from a deal, or from business activity for a particular period of time, after all costs and taxes are taken away' (Longman 2007: 421);

b) advertising: prime time - 'the time of day when the greatest number of people listen to the radio or watch television and when advertising rates are highest' (Tuck 2000: 321); reply coupon - 'a printed form that can be detached from a magazine page, a leaflet, etc and used to ask for advertised goods' (Tuck 2000: 357);

c) banking: the rate of interest - 'the amount of money charged by the bank, or paid by the bank for the loan or use of money' (Seidl 1983: 203); refer to drawer - 'words written on a check that the bank will not pay, usually because there is not enough money in the account' (Tuck 2000: 350); Basle ratios - 'an international agreement on the amount of capital financial institutions must have in relation to the amount they lend out' (Longman 2007: 42); nostro account - 'an account which a bank holds with another bank usually overseas' (Tuck 2000: 282);

d) business: a sleeping partner - 'a person who provides a percentage of the capital of a business but who does not have a part in the management of a business' (Seidl 1983: 204); to shake hands on a bargain/ deal -'to express agreement that it is binding' (Adam 1993: 226); business continuity service - 'services provided to companies so that they continue operating if they are affected by a serious event such as a fine, computer failure (Longman 2007: 64);

e) commerce: halo effect - 'when people think that a company is good because it is owned by or connected with another company that is famous and important' (Longman 2007: 173); price ring - 'a group of sellers in the same industry who have agreed to fix a minimum price for a product' (Tuck 2000: 320);

f) economics: bilateral monopoly - 'a situation where there is only one buyer and one seller in a market' (Tuck 2000: 271); free market - 'a market where prices are allowed to rise and fall according to supply and demand, without prices being fixed by governments' (Tuck 2000: 178); essential industry - 'an industry that a country considers is very important to its economy and may support with government money, taxes or imports, etc.' (Longman 2007: 266); red goods - 'goods such as food that consumers use quickly after buying them and that produce a low profit' (Longman 2007: 236);

g) finance: above par - 'at a price that is above the original value when shares and bonds were first made available' (Longman 2007: 1); revolving fund - 'a source of money from which loans are made and repaid with interest so the fund is maintained and the money can continue to be lent' (Tuck 2000: 364); bare squeeze - 'when share prices rise because it is known that people have sold these shares without actually owning them, hoping to be able to obtain them more cheaply later, before they have to deliver them to the buyer' (Longman 2007: 42); green shoe - 'when the financial institution sells all the available shares in a company's share issue or secondary offering and then sells more, or the number of shares sold in this way' (Longman 2007: 239);

h) marketing: sales incentive - 'money or another reward that is offered to a salesperson if they sell a large number of a product' (Longman 2007: 260); leaflet drop - 'an occasion when copies of the same leaflet are sent or delivered to many addresses in order to advertise something' (Longman 2007: 297); market segmentation - 'the division of potential buyers according to age, sex, lifestyle etc with the aim of designing and promoting goods and services to meet their specific needs' (Tuck 2000: 257); line extension - 'when a company adds a new product to its range in a way that takes advantage of the popularity of its existing products (Longman 2007: 306);

i) stock exchange: government bonds - 'securities issued by a government in the form of debenture stocks with a fixed interest that is paid at regular intervals' (Tuck 2000: 186); hot money - 'money that is passed quickly from country to country to take advantage of differences in interest rates and exchange rates' (Tuck 2000: 194); bear market - 'a situation in a stock market or currency market where prices are falling because lots of shareholders are selling' (Tuck 2000: 52); bed and breakfasting - '(sl. selling shares just before the end of the financial year and buying them back at the beginning of the next to register a loss for tax purposes (Tuck 2000: 52); etc.

As a rule, such idiomatic terms represent a problem for ESP teaching as their meaning does not lie on the surface. Teaching practice shows that the best way to start with English Business phraseology is to turn first to analysing word clusters under such frequent and 'gathering' umbrella terms as bank, capital, goods, list, letter, market, order, property, insurance, money, price, profit, product, share, etc.

There will be several approaches in mastering the Phraseocon Bank:

Approach Number One consists in the study of the terms having the structure and meaning of collocations, which are patterned and their meaning is transparent: bank holiday, bank loan, bank manager; business meeting, business plan, business school; market price, market trend, market share; or profit center, profit motive, profit margin, etc.

Approach Number Two consists in the study of the terms having a kind of semantic transference with at least one component used in its direct/ original meaning: bad debt - an unpaid debt which is not likely to be paid in future, bear market - a financial market in which prices are falling, token charge - a small amount of money charged for goods or services, that is less than their full cost or value, etc. Approach Number Three consists in the study of the terms having complete transference of meaning, i.e. the terms with no components in their direct meaning: corner the market - to set prices (if a seller own or produce most of the goods on sale), bull position - a situation in which a dealer of securities or commodities keeps hold of a particular stock or share because he/ she expects a rise in price, dead cat bounce - an upward, but possibly misleading, movement in share prices after a significant fall, etc.

Thus the students are given the route to quickly develop a new code of information with the method.

References

1. Adam J.H. Longman Dictionary of Business English. - London: Longman Group Limited, 1993. - 492 p.

2. Fedulenkova T. Idioms in Business English: Ways to Cross-cultural Awareness // Domain-specific English: textual practices across communities and classrooms / G. Cortese & P. Riley (ed.). - Bern; Berlin; Bruxelles; Frankfurt am Mein; New York; Oxford; Wien: Lang, 2002. - P. 247-269.

3. Gulland D.M., Hinds-Howell D.G. The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1994. - 308 p.

4. Longman Business English Dictionary. - Harlow, 2007. - 596 p.

5. Seidl J., McMordie W. English Idioms and How to Use Them. - Oxford: OUP, 1978. - 268 p.

6. Tuck A. Oxford Dictionary of Business English. - Oxford: OUP, 2000. - 491 p.

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