Economic terminology: analysis of translation peculiarities

Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professors

Kharkiv

Annotation

semantic translation economic terminology

The article is devoted to the study of the translation of economic terminology from the English language into Ukrainian. The structural and semantic potential of lexical units for the designation of phenomena and concepts of this field is described in the aspect of its interpretation through the recipient language. The relevance of this vocabulary translation study is due both to the influence of economic behavior, values and processes on the non-economic factors of modern society development, as well as the use of English as a language of business and international communication for narrow industry needs. In the course of the analysis of the language sampling, a certain list with the terminological nomination of thematic groups was selected, such as the names of private and state structures, types of commercial activity, economic processes and forms of ownership, securities and currencies, names of participants in the economic system. Since the degree of semantic closeness between terminological units in the original language and the target language reveals the professional competence of the translator and taking into account the categorical principles of informative capacity and the high level of the system accuracy, the most productive ways of the term derivation are distinguished and described. It is revealed that transcoding is a common way of translation of internationalisms and two-component (or analytical) forms in the English economic nomination prevail quantitatively over one-component (or synthetic) ones. They are given preference because of their ability to convey the necessary differential features of phenomena and realities, to refine and concretize certain common concepts, translating them into the plane of narrow industry meaning. Based on the analysis, it is proved that in the list of morphological and syntactic means the most productive are two-component structural models, with the quantitative predominance of Adjective - Noun, Noun - Noun models, which is related to particular requirements for translation of economic terminology, such as adequacy and accuracy.

Key words: terminological system, Economics, translation adequacy, terminological nomination, method of translation, transcoding, semantic derivation.

Анотація

Тетяна АГІБАЛОВА, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри ділової іноземної мови та перекладу Національного технічного університету «Харківський політехнічний інститут» (Харків, Україна)

Вікторія МІРОШНИЧЕНКО, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри ділової іноземної мови та перекладу Національного технічного університету «Харківський політехнічний інститут» (Харків, Україна)

Наталія ПЛОТНІКОВА, кандидат філологічних наук, доцент кафедри ділової іноземної мови та перекладу Національного технічного університету «Харківський політехнічний інститут» (Харків, Україна)

ЕКОНОМІЧНА ТЕРМІНОЛОГІЯ: АНАЛІЗ ОСОБЛИВОСТЕЙ ПЕРЕКЛАДУ

Статтю присвячено дослідженню специфіки перекладу економічної галузевої термінології з англійської мови на українську. Структурно-семантичний потенціал лексичних одиниць на позначення явищ і понять даної сфери описано в аспекті їхньої інтерпретації засобами мови-реципієнта. Актуальність перекладознавчого дослідження цього шару лексики зумовлена як впливом економічної поведінки, цінностей і процесів на неекономічні фактори розвитку сучасного суспільства, так і використанням англійської як мови бізнесу й міжнародного спілкування для вузькогалузевих потреб. У ході аналізу лексичної вибірки виокремлено певний перелік тематичних груп, в яких поширена термінна номінація, як-от: назви приватних і державних структур, найменування видів комерційної діяльності, економічних процесів і форм власності, цінних паперів і валют, назви осіб економічної діяльності. Оскільки ступінь значеннєвої близькості між собою термінологічних одиниць у мові оригіналу й у цільовій мові лежить у основі фахової компетенції перекладача й з огляду на категоріальні принципи інформативної ємності й високого рівня точності терміносистеми, було виявлено й схарактеризовано найбільш продуктивні способи перекладу семантичних дериватів із загальновживаної лексики, що сприяє поповненню професійного словника. З'ясовано, що під час перекладу інтернаціональної лексики найпоширенішим є спосіб транскодування і його різновиди, а двокомпонентні складені (або аналітичні) терміни в англомовній економічній номінації кількісно переважають над однокомпонентними (або синтетичними). Їм віддають перевагу через здатність передавати необхідні диференційні ознаки явищ і реалій, уточнювати й конкретизувати певні загальновживані поняття, надаючи терміносполукам вузькогалузевого значення. На підставі аналізу дібраних одиниць доведено, що в переліку морфолого-синтаксичних засобів найпродуктивнішими є двокомпонентні структурні моделі, серед яких кількісно переважають Прикметник - Іменник, Іменник - Іменник, що пов'язано з такими вимогами до перекладу економічної термінології, як-от: адекватність, влучність, стислість, неускладненість.

Ключові слова: термінологічна система, економіка, адекватність перекладу, термінна номінація, способи перекладу, транскодування, семантична деривація.

Introduction

Since the scientific community focuses its attention on techniques and methods that should be operative in the search for new knowledge for the needs of developing rapidly digital society, the main criterion for the value of the results obtained is their relevance. There are many tools for processing information, but the degree of correctness and, therefore, an adequate response depends on the ability of translators as first recipients to interpret the concept of foreign-reality notions, symbols, cultural and science phenomena conveying the structure and content of the original message. It implies that transparent and short terms, allowing for derivation, are preferred. This question deserves a proper focus when it comes to languages for professional purposes, as the fullness, productivity, the informative resource of professional communication may be achieved through the appropriate use of both narrowand inter-industry terms. The sense of applying those units should be explained due to the following fact: since English is considered the prioritized language of economization as the spread of economic behavior and values in non-economic spheres of society, the adequate translation of relevant contexts is of particular importance precisely because of its topicality. Due to the high frequency of the mentioned units, the process of the English language intellectualization reflects the supremacy of microand macroeconomics in the contemporary world view of society. This progress in language embodies an idea of the current state of humankind's theoretical and cognitive activity.

Problem Setting

Economics is a field of knowledge in accelerated scientific and technological development. Whereas the last twenty years have appended a growing number of fundamental and applied research studies on this field of social sciences, the economic translation remains fragmented and largely underresearched. Globalisation results in the “increased mobility of people and objects and very close contact between different linguistic communities, mainly through translation” (Schaffner & Dimitriu, 2012: 262). Also, “the globalisation of markets, the digital revolution, the advent of the information economy, and the globalisation of production have transformed translation into a fully-fledged industrial sector” (Dunne, 212: 153). At the present stage of development of translation studies in our country, there is a significant increase in the need for qualified translation of economic sources (financial statements, contracts, technical documentation, conference support, presentations, scientific research support, narrowly specialized literature, etc.) since the switching of Ukrainian companies to international financial accounting templates IFRS (“International Financial Reporting Standards” - accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)) and GAAP (“Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures” - generally accepted accounting principles), as well as the active cooperation of Ukraine with the other countries in economic growth, establish the need to set requirements for the translation of terminological units according to the specific purposes of the economic discourse. It determines the relevance of this article due to an urgent demand for specification ways and means of its adequate decoding by the Ukrainian language and identification of major difficulties in the translation process.

Object and Subject of Research

The object of the presented research is the English-language economic terminology, the subject is the lexical and syntactical transformations of the mentioned units in the process of translation from English into Ukrainian. The purpose of the article is to identify and comprehensively analyze the peculiarities of translation of the English-language economic terminology into Ukrainian.

Basic research and literature analysis

With the aim to produce the closest natural equivalent to the target text and due to the exponentially accelerating pace of science and knowledge development, scientific articles devoted to different directions and aspects of translation consider various approaches and ways of working with the original text in the field of economic terminology. They explore metaphors, rhetorical figures, idioms, and error correction in business language, meticulously consider finding equivalents in translations of different genres of economic texts such as press releases, textbooks, newspaper articles, commercial correspondence (P. V. Anderson, E. Biel, H. Buzelin, M. Dufault, C. Foglia, P A. Fuertes Olivera, J. House, Th. Kaniklidou, P. Kelandrias, S. Nielsen, A.-M. Pop, C. Resche, M.-A. Sim, R. Stolze, P. Tagkas, J. Wang). Investigations on the specifics of the economic term system is also under analysis in Slavic translation study, as it contributes to the needs of several applied fields, as well as accelerates the exchange of information in the sector of economics between specialists and scientists from the world-leading countries, and thus, switches over a new social dimension (O. O. Aheieva, L. F. Borsuk, O. I. Hutyriak, К. V. Kynchyna, O. M. Lotka, Zh. H. Matsak, A. D. Oliinyk, O. S. Petryna, S. V. Sakhnevych). Methodology of research. Descriptive and comparative methods, induction and deduction made it possible to obtain sound results when translating and comparing the English and Ukrainian language units of the economic term system.

Outline of the main findings and discussion

The terminological system as a means of representation of special knowledge in the scientific and professional sphere of life is not an artificial category, although it arises and is replenished under the conscious need of society. Words or phrases that indicate clearly and unambiguously defined concepts within a specific field are distinguished from the sphere of literary language based on term nomination through specialization in the general vocabulary, borrowings, and metaphorization of language. The vocabulary potential of the economic terminological system of the English language is determined by the predominant use of linguistic means that contribute to meeting the needs of this field of communication. As a large number of countries with the most developed, innovative, powerful economics, that have contributed to the processes of globalization of social life, belong to the Western civilization, it is the specific English terms that have filled the professional vocabularies of other countries. Terms expressing professional concepts, ideas and notions with graphic symbols sometimes pose a significant problem for the translator not only because of the lack of direct words but also because the main criterion in working with professional languages is the correct and accurate interpretation of the target texts, semantic capacity, lack of expressive or evaluative connotation. To perform this functional task, the translators must be familiar with a system of terms in a particular field and a sub-branch of the industry in foreign and native languages, and sometimes with scientific theories and concepts.

To outline the field of detailed research, the structural-semantic analysis of the lexical sampling was carried out, which made it possible to identify and analyze the distinctive features of the English language economic term system. They include: 1) adaptation of the commonly used vocabulary due to its semantic derivation to a new/branch meaning; 2) coexistence of non-economic terminology from related fields; 3) enriching the economic vocabulary to the case of international words; 4) applying of acronyms and abbreviations; 5) prevalence of compound (analytic) terms over simple (synthetic) ones; 6) morphological derivation; 7) conversion; 8) contextuality as a reason for the selection of a certain word/phrase option in translation. In the framework of current research, we analyze and describe the first five detected features while the rest of the items will be observed in further study.

Common vocabulary for specific purposes. The economic terminology corpus of the English language includes a considerable amount of units belonging to common vocabulary. This is one of the main ways of the vocabulary enrichment when common words are rethought and new meanings are developed. This process of terminologization occurs due to the specialization or generalization of symbolized through language concepts, which results in the complication of the word structure. The analyzed material allows us to conclude that the descriptive method prevails when the word in the language of translation is replaced by a unit (or multicomponent/compound structure) that adequately conveys its meaning. For instance, average n - індекс курсів цінних паперів; average v - скуповувати або продавати акції в залежності від зміни їхнього курсу, аби отримати вигіднішу середню ціну; appreciation n - визначення вартості, підвищення ціни; golds n, pl - акції та облігації золотопромислових підприємств; hedge n - компенсаційна угода; bull n - маклер, який грає на підвищення; bonds n, pl - облігації.

In the economic sphere, there is a constant need for new terms to identify the complexity of economic processes and realities. It can be in particular conditions implemented in the language in two ways: as a result of borrowing along with new concepts and as a result of the semantic derivation of earlier borrowings that have long been gained by the recipient language and are not perceived by an average native speaker as unfamiliar signs so that it completely satisfies the needs of economic industry. The implementation of the nomination demand of society, caused by non-linguistic factors, takes into account the qualitatively pragmatic tasks of naming. This is the reason for the emergence of new codified meanings of verbal signs under the needs of the term nomination of existing objects of reality.

Non-economic terminology from related science fields. The active interaction of the economy with related branches of science and technology is a distinctive feature of today's society. Analysis of the specificity of the vocabulary units of this group showed that the leading method of translation is the direct translation (transcoding, loan translation (calque)). In this layer of vocabulary, we discover mathematics-related terminology: derivative n - похідна; constant n - постійна величина; ratio n - відношення; matrix n - матриця; biology-related words: contagion n - поширення, шкідливий вплив; survive v - виживати; mature adj - зрілий, високорозвинутий; hybrid adj - гібридний, той, що включає різні елементи; politics and law-related units: crisis n - криза; law n - закон; legal adj - юридичний; intervention n - інтервенція; corruption n - корупція; collusion n - таємна змова між клієнтами. Distinctive features of the economic vocabulary in terms of its functional capacity are the variability of its borders in the modern world, its abundance, and receptivity. That is why in the terminology corpus of this industry, along with highly specialized terms, quite a lot of inter-scientific units are found.

Internationalisms. In the corpus of the Ukrainian literary language, the words of professional, scientific, interdisciplinary areas, where possible, are replaced by their Ukrainian equivalents. The investigation of the selected material proves that among the remaining terms that have not undergone such form transformations, prevail, as mentioned above, units that are widely used in other social and scientific fields. For example, index - індекс, trust - траст, investor - інвестор, service - сервіс, limit - ліміт, broker - брокер, theory - теорія, criterion - критерій, balance - баланс, license - ліцензія, export - експорт, import - імпорт, integration - інтеграція, rent - рента, etc. If it comes to the countries of origin of this lexical layer, the largest groups of borrowings come from Latin or French. Among others: 1) borrowed from Latin vocabulary: capital n - капітал; consortium n - консорціум; consumer n - споживач, клієнт; monopoly n - монополія, виключне право; crisis n - криза; invest v - інвестувати, вкладати кошти; import n - імпорт, ввезення; etc.; 2) borrowed from French: accountant n - бухгалтер; adjournment n - відстрочка; bureaucracy n - бюрократія; discount n - зниження ціни, облік векселів; escrow n - умовне депонування; invoice n - рахунок-фактура; check n - чек; finance n - фінансові (грошові) відносини. It is worth mentioning that even in the group of words that were borrowed by English from the French language the percentage of units initially originated from Latin is very high. According to the data obtained through analysis of terminology samples, the share of such a strategy of the English economic vocabulary enrichment is almost fifty percent in particular sub-branches, and the most frequent way of translating within this group is the direct translation (transcoding).

Acronyms and abbreviations. The wide use and increase in the number of multicomponent terms led to the spread of such language phenomena as acronyms and abbreviations to shorten the complex nominations of new concepts. Applying of acronyms and abbreviations is one of the main features of professional texts. The complexity of the translation of terminological units in such texts is the requirement to understand and comprehend the essence of actualized foreign-language realities and concepts for transmission by the Ukrainian language. V. D. Borshchovetska distinguishes classification of shortenings in economic terminology of English (Борщовецька, 2008: 128):

a) letter abbreviations: ltd - limited - з обмеженою відповідальністю; NGO - non-government organisation - громадська організація; GDP - Gross Domestic Product - Внутрішній валовий продукт; PPC - a production possibilities curve - крива виробничого потенціалу; PPP - purchasing power parity - паритет купівельної спроможності; b) syllabic and partial, consisting of a letter or a syllable and a whole word: Incoterms - International Commercial Terms - прийняті в міжнародній практиці визначення комерційних термінів, які найчастіше зустрічаються в зовнішньоторгових контрактах; Repo - repurchase agreement - угода про придбання цінних паперів з подальшим викупом за обумовленою ціною; c) mixed, consisting of letters or syllables, symbols and numbers: C$ - Canadian dollar - Канадський доллар; US$ - United States dollar - долар США; d) truncated words: Gilts - gilt-edged securities - гарантовані цінні папери; eco-efficiency - economic efficiency - економічна ефективність; Ins - insurance - страхування; sales rep - sales representative - торговий представник. In the course of the research, it was determined that the main ways of translating economic acronyms and abbreviations in quantitative terms are transliteration, transcription, and loan translation.

Compound (analytical) terms. In the English-language economic nomination, compound (or analytical) terms ( twoand multi-component syntax structures) is an integral part of each sub-sector. What is more, they are precisely such units that quantitatively exceed one-component (or synthetic) terms. In professional discourses, they are favored because they can reflect the necessary differential features of phenomena and realities, to clarify and concretize certain common concepts, giving them narrow-sectoral meaning. Contemporary translation studies pay considerable attention to the investigation of the systematic organization of analytical terms within the expression, because it influences the semantic and syntactic structure of the communicative unit and, accordingly, the method of translation. The sampling analysis identified the following structural models of compound terms, which quantify over other terminological models in the economic field (N - Nouns, A - Adjectives, P - Participles, Pr - Prepositions, Cn -Conjunction): a) 2-component asyndetic terminological units: A - N: current account - рахунок поточних операцій; capital investment - основна інвестиція; external debt - зовнішній борг; N - N: depreciation charges - амортизаційні відрахування; invoice cost - фактурна вартість; cash order - наказ про сплату готівкою; P II - N: retained profit - збережений прибуток; limited liability - обмежена відповідальність; negotiated bid - узгоджена пропозиція; P I - N: revolving fund - поновлений фонд; carrying value - балансова вартість; circulating assets - оборотні кошти; b) 3-component asyndetic and syndetic terminological word combinations: N - Pr - N: accountant in charge - головний бухгалтер; setback in business - зниження ділової активності; N - N - N: bank money order - банківський грошовий переказ; subject payment order - дане платіжне доручення; human development index - індекс людського розвитку; A - N - N: net investment income - чистий інвестиційний прибуток; net profit ratio - коефіцієнт рентабельності; flexible exchange rate - гнучкий валютний курс; A - A - N: Net national product - чистий національний продукт; European Central Bank - Європейський центральний банк; c) 4-, 5-, and 6-component economic terms: A - A - A - N: Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation - Азійсько-Тихоокеанське економічне співробітництво; A - A - A - N - N: North American Free Trade Agreement - Північноамериканська згода про вільну торгівлю; N - N - A - A - N: Stock Exchange Daily Official List - щоденний офіційний бюлетень цін фондової біржі; A - N - Pr - N - Cn - N: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - Генеральна угода про тарифи та торгівлю; N - Pr - A - N - Cn - N: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - Організація економічного співробітництва та розвитку.

The conducted analysis has shown that the 2-component compound terms, with the prevalence of the asyndetic patterns A - N, N - N, are the most productive ones, that is primarily related to the terminology distinctive features such as accuracy and capacity. The productivity of the analytical way of term formation is explained by the fact that this method allows creating terminological units, which can express more precise concepts (in comparison with synthetic approach) since a greater number of determinant components allow specifying the original concept and, besides, excluding polysemy in terminology.

Conclusions

The terminological nomination is the most productive way of nominating concepts in the English economic sector. The translation of this terminology is based on the principles of the informative capacity and high level of accuracy. As the conducted analysis proved, the method of semantic derivation is a productive approach in the enrichment of economic vocabulary when it comes to the transmission of common language units to the category of sectorial use, and at the expense of internationalisms the up-to-date concepts to denote world processes and phenomena are becoming relevant. For these needs, the transcoding method and its variants, calque, and descriptive method are most often involved in translation; analytical terms prevail over synthetic ones and the 2-component structures are the most productive, with the quantitative predominance of A - N, N - N models, which is related to particular requirements for translation of economic terminology, such as adequacy and accuracy, and the need for international recognition. It is worth mentioning, focusing on problems of morphological derivation and conversion as sources of Economic terminology, that have not yet been addressed in a sufficiently interconnected form in both languages, translation studies introduce new ideas that help to clarify the increasingly significant role of economics for translators as the prospect for further research.

Bibliography

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References

1. Borshchovets'ka, V. D. (2008). Metodychni rekomendatsiyi shchodo orhanizatsiyi navchannya studentiv ekonomichnykh spetsial'nostey anhliys'koyi fakhovoyi leksyky [Methodical recommendations on the organization of teaching the English professional vocabulary for students of economic specialties]. Science Bulletin of the UNESCO Department of Kyiv National Linguistic University. Ser.: Philology. Pedagogy. Psychology. Kyyiv. №16. pp. 127-130 [in Ukrainian].

2. Business Insider. Accessed through: https://www.businessinsider.com/.

3. Dunne, K. J. (2012). The industrialization of translation: Causes, consequences and challenges. Translation Spaces, 1, pp. 143-168. doi:10.1075/ts.1.07dun.

4. Entrepreneur. Accessed through: http://www.entrepreneur.com/.

5. Financial Times. Accessed through: https://www.ft.com/.

6. Schaffner, Ch., & Dimitriu, R. (2012). Translational encounters in a globalized world. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 20(3), pp. 261-268. doi:/abs/10.1080/0907676X.2012.702396.

7. The Economist. Accessed through: https://www.economist.com/.

8. Wang, J. (2014). Characteristics of Economic Literature and Its Translation. In: Wang, J.& Fan, Y. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. Vol. 4, pp. 786-791.

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