Equivalence in english vietnamese translation of financial terms

This research aims at finding translation equivalence and procedure applied in the translation of financial terms the book “International Economics” (nineth edition) by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz in 2011 and which of them is the most popular. Besides, the strategies to deal with the case of non – equivalence are also discussed in this study. The data were 269 financial terminologies collected from the book “International Economics” and its translation version by National Political Publishing House. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this study. The researcher used qualitative method to analyze 269 financial terms to find out types of translation equivalence and procedure applied in their translation. Quantitative method was employed to find out the highest density of translation equivalence and procedure applied in the translation of financial terms in the book. On the completion of the research, three important findings were drawn. Firstly, seven translation equivalences were applied to translate financial term in the book, namely denotative, connotative, formal, pragmatic, dynamic, one – to – many and one – to – part – of – one equivalence. Among them, denotative equivalence was the most popular one applied in the translation of financial terms. Secondly, seven translation procedures were applied to translate financial terms in the book, namely through translation, shift, modulation, couplets, functional, cultural and descriptive equivalence. Among them, through translation is the highest density procedure applied in the translation of financial terms. Thirdly, four strategies to deal with non – equivalence terms were found out, namely descriptive equivalent or couplets, loan plus explanation, paraphrase and illustration.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

University of Languages and international Studies

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

Graduation paper

EQUIVALENCE IN ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF FINANCIAL TERMS

supervisor: Ass Prof nguyÔn xu©n th¬m, phd student: phUng thI hOng anh

year of enrolment: qh 2009

Ha Noi, May 2013

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

tÝnh t-¬ng ®-¬ng trong dÞch anh – viÖt

c¸c thuËt ng÷ tµi chÝnh

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Phung Thi Hong Anh, class QH2009.F.1.E25, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited

in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

On the completion this this thesis, first and foremost, I would like to express

my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ass Prof Nguyen Xuan Thom, PhD for his critical comments, useful suggestions in the first and second progress report as well

as his encouragement from the early stage of writing the research proposal to the final stage of finishing the thesis Without his right – oriented guidance, I find it so difficult to complete this thesis

I also wish to send my sincere thank to my friends generally and my friends

in class QH09E25 particularly for helping me find the translation version of the book “International Economics: Theory and Policy” that I used in this study Besides, I want to express how thankful I am to some of my friend at University of Economics and Business, VNU for supporting me in the data analysis process

I take this opportunity to extent my special thank to all lecturers of Faculty of English Language and Teacher Education at University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lessons during my B.A course

Last but not least, I also would like to thank my family and my roommates for their great support and encouragement in the accomplishment of my thesis

Hanoi April, 2013

Phùng Thị Hồng Anh

ABSTRACT

This research aims at finding translation equivalence and procedure applied

in the translation of financial terms the book “International Economics” (nineth edition) by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz in 2011 and which of them is the most popular Besides, the strategies to deal with the case of non – equivalence are also discussed in this study

The data were 269 financial terminologies collected from the book

“International Economics” and its translation version by National Political Publishing House Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this study The researcher used qualitative method to analyze 269 financial terms to find out types of translation equivalence and procedure applied in their translation Quantitative method was employed to find out the highest density of translation equivalence and procedure applied in the translation of financial terms in the book

On the completion of the research, three important findings were drawn Firstly, seven translation equivalences were applied to translate financial term in the book, namely denotative, connotative, formal, pragmatic, dynamic, one – to – many and one – to – part – of – one equivalence Among them, denotative equivalence was the most popular one applied in the translation of financial terms Secondly, seven translation procedures were applied to translate financial terms in the book, namely through translation, shift, modulation, couplets, functional, cultural and descriptive equivalence Among them, through translation is the highest density procedure applied in the translation of financial terms Thirdly, four strategies to deal with non – equivalence terms were found out, namely descriptive equivalent or couplets, loan plus explanation, paraphrase and illustration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .i

ABSTRACTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

ABBREVIATIONS………vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 The structure of the study 2

3 The objectives of the study 2

4 The significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Key concepts 5

1.1 The characteristics of financial terminologies 5

1.2 The definition of translation .8

1.3 Equivalence and its classifications 11

1.3.1 Quantitative approach 12

1.3.2 Qualitative approach 12

1.4 Translation procedures 15

2 Related studies 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

1 Research subjects 18

2 Data collection method 19

3 Data collection procedures 19

4 Data analysis method 19

5 Data analysis procedures 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 22

1 Findings 23

1.2 Types of equivalence applied in translation of financial term 23

1.2 Types of translation procedure applied in the translation of financial terms 33

2 Discussions 37

2.1 Strategies in translating financial terminologies 37

2.2 Strategies to deal with non – equivalence terminologies 38

PART III: CONCLUSION 40

1 A summary and conclusion of the study 40

2 Limitations of the study 41

3 Suggestions for further study 42

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1.1………26 Pie chart of equivalence applied in translation of financial term

Table 1.1……….26 Frequency of equivalence applied in translation of financial terms

Figure 1.2………29 Types of translation procedure for connotative equivalence

Figure 1.3………31 Types of translation procedure for denotative equivalence

Figure 1.4………33 Types of translation procedure for formal equivalence (Nida)

Table 2………35 Frequency of translation procedure applied in the translation of financial term Figure 2……… 36 Pie chart of translation procedures used in translation of financial terms

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Since Vietnam‟s accession to WTO in 2007, it has ever – increasingly integrated into the world economy Cross – border enterprises, corporations go into business with one another through international transactions or contracts Therefore, the necessity of inter-language understanding is highly appreciated because without

it business partners can not communicate with one another in terms of both spoken and written form This is the reason for translation to come into being In particular,

in financial field, the strong process of economic globalization brings the chance of more development for Vietnamese enterprises and financial corporations, simultaneously pushes them into fierce global competition Current companies are

in the need of updated financial information in many languages, especially English because it is the most widely – used one in the world These pieces of financial information are very diverse and plentiful from annual financial statement to information on investment economics, from announcements to analysis on financial market and even financial news websites, all of which contains a big number of financial terms In order to understand these documents, the translation of financial terms plays a vital role In addition, more and more Vietnamese students enroll in major of finance and banking Therefore, deep understanding of financial terms facilitates them in their study They will fully understand English textbooks or reference books if they have a broad knowledge of financial term in both English and Vietnamese As one attempt to partly tackle the above issues, the researcher has

decided to conduct a study on equivalence in English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms

2 The structure of the study

This study consists of three main parts, each part would be divided into some chapters

3 The objectives of the study

Firstly, this research aims at collecting and analyzing financial terms from the book “International Economics” by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz (more specific information about this book would be mentioned in methodology chapter of part two) , then classifying them into specific type of English – Vietnamese equivalence The most common type of equivalence as well as translating procedure in translation of financial terms will be also figured out in this study

Besides, the researcher hopes to take a comprehensive investigation into the way of translating financial terms used in the book “International Economics” by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz Therefore, it facilitates students of translation and interpretation involving finance field when they read and analyze financial documents in the future career

Last but not least, the purpose of this study is to find out and give strategies

to overcome difficulties related to different types of equivalence and non – equivalence in the translation of financial terms After the completion of this study, both the most frequent type of equivalence and strategies to deal with problems

related to different types of equivalence and non – equivalence in translation of financial terms from chosen economic news would be given out

Research questions

To achieve goal, the current research tries to answer the following questions:

1 What are the different types of equivalence which are applied in English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms?

2 What are the translation procedures for each type of equivalence in English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms?

3 What are strategies to deal with non – equivalent financial terms in English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms?

4 The significance of the study

This study is expected to be a perfect complementation to previous research

on translation of wider terms than financial ones like economic ones Therefore, it provides learners a comprehensive and understandable overview of English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms, particularly equivalence in its English – Vietnamese translation

In addition, this study deeply exploits economic or financial news at word or phrase level Thanks to it, the success of this research will be the basis of investigation at higher level like sentence and discourse

Last but not least, basing on the frequently – used equivalence or translation method in English – Vietnamese translation of collected financial terms, learners themselves can translate new financial terms they possibly face in their study to catch the most appropriate ideas

5 Scope of the study

This study only involves in analyzing financial English terms collected from the book “International Economics” (nineth edition) by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz (more specific information about this book would be mentioned in methodology

chapter of part 2) The translated terms are collected from the translation version of this book published by National Political Publishing House

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Key concepts

1.1 The characteristics of financial terminologies

Financial terms are technical terms used in the field of finance They share the same characteristics with other types of economic terms: short and succinct In the paper named “Using Common Financial Proverbs to Teach Finance to Students from Vietnam” by Christina My-Tuyen Thi Truong from Texas A&M University, there are nine categories of financial terms: capital budgeting, derivative securities, financial planning and forecasting, personal investing, portfolio management, risk and return, stock market behavior, technical analysis and time value of money To some extent, classifying financial terms like this will facilitate understanding them

in the best way

In the study about financial, accounting, and banking English, Nguyen (2011) discusses 10 morphological characteristics and 3 semantic characteristics of financial, accounting, and banking English In terms of morphological characteristics, financial terms (or accounting, banking ones) may be simple words such as “asset - tài sản có”, “bear –người đầu cơ giá xuống”, “capital” - “vốn”,

“debit - bên có”, “earnings - thu nhập”, “fraud - lừa đảo”; compound words such as

„buy-back‟ (mua lại), „buy-in‟ (thôn tính), „take out‟ (rút vốn ra), „take-over‟ (tiếp quản/thôn tính), „write-back‟ (bút toán lại/vào sổ lại), „write-down‟ (bút toán giảm),

„write-off‟ (bút toán xóa bỏ), „write-up‟ (bút toán tăng) According to Longman Business English Dictionary [10,vi], compound nouns make up a large part of the vocabulary of business English Newmark (6,145) states that new collocations (noun compounds or adjective plus nouns) are particularly common in the social sciences and computer language In Greenbaum‟s view (2,441), compounding (or

composition) is one of the four main processes that results in the formation of new words Nguyen and Ton (2010) point out that collocations (noun plus nouns and adjective plus nouns) are one of the most characteristic features of financial, accounting, and banking English Besides, they are also phrasal words such as

„above-par – trên mệnh giá‟, „below-par – dưới mệnh giá‟, „below-the-line - chi phí quảng cáo không phải bằng phương tiện truyền thông đại chúng‟ and so on; phrasal verbs such as “to buy out - mua thôn tính”, “to bring /carry forward - mang sang”,

“to carry down - mang xuống”, “to take out - rút (vốn) ra”, “to take over - tiếp quản /mua thôn tính”, “to write back - bút toán lại”, “to write down - bút toán giảm” and

so on Another fairly common characteristic in financial terminology is long premodified and postmodified noun phrases The long premodified noun phrases are “public sector borrowing requirement - nhu cầu vay cho khu vực nhà nước”,

“public sector lending requirement - nhu cầu cho vay của khu vực nhà nước”, in-kind debenture - giấy vay nợ được trả lãi bằng hiện vật”, “acid test ratio - tỷ số thử nghiệm khả năng thanh toán”, “accelerated cost recovery system - chế độ thu hồi nhanh chi phí” Besides them, there are some long postmodified noun phrases such as “lender of last resort - người cho vay cuối cùng phải cần đến”, “law of diminishing returns - định luật mức thu lợi giảm dần”, “return on capital employed - thu lời trên vốn sử dụng”, “balance brought down - số dư mang xuống”, “amounts falling due after one year - số tiền đến hạn phải trả sau một năm” Financial terms

“pay-are abbreviations, the most common of which is the acronyms derived from the

initials of several words as in „C.O.D‟ (cash on delivery), „S.W.I.F.T‟ (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) or the letters represent elements in a compound or just parts of a word as in „GHQ‟ (General Headquarters), „LBO‟ (leveraged buyout), „deb‟ (debenture) The next characteristic

is culture in the terminology of finance, accounting, and banking, which means

“culture – bound terms” Harvey (3,2) defines culture-bound terms as the terms which „refer to concepts, institutions and personnel which are specific to the source language culture Any readers, learners, and translators for a financial text must have had some problems with a range of culture-bound terms as in „bulldog

market‟, „bear‟, „bull‟, „bull market‟, „shark‟, „cats and dogs‟, „white knight‟, „black knight‟, „red herring‟, „wildcat‟ and so on The difference between British English

and American English in the area of finance is a most significant characteristic

because the difference between them sometimes faces learners, for example , the British use „debtors‟ (the amounts of the money that are owed to a company which are recorded as assets on its balance sheet) when Americans use „accounts receivable‟ Another characteristic is the strong oppositions or contrasts in financial English as in „assets‟ / „liabilities‟, „credit‟ / „debit‟, „income‟ /

„expenditure‟, „output‟ / „input‟, „supply‟ / „demand‟, „bear market‟ / „bull market‟,

„premium‟ / „discount‟, etc The lexical productivity in financial English also plays

an important role in understanding the English financial terms Co (2011) claims that lexical productivity is clearly shown in subjects/ topics as in „accounting‟,

„finance‟, „banking‟, „marketing‟, „ law‟, „insurance‟, etc., and is arranged in clear divisions and subdivisions It can be clearly seen in the arrangement of the subjects/ topics and divisions and subdivisions in the book on the vocabularies and knowledge of finance written by MacKenzie (2008)

Subject/ topic : Banking

Division : Personal Banking

Subdivision : A Current Accounts

B Banking Products and Services

C E-Banking

In terms of semantic characteristics, firstly, financial terms are general English words with specialised English senses such as “asset - vốn quý (general) / tài sản có (specialised)”, “balance - sự cân bằng / số dư”, “capital - thủ đô / vốn”,

“dishonor - làm mất danh dự (ai) / từ chối trả tiền mặt (một tấm séc)”, “earnings - tiền kiếm được/thu nhập”, “facilities - những tiện nghi/thể thức cho vay”, “gain - lợi lộc/lợi nhuận”, “honour - kính trọng (ai)/chấp nhận trả tiền (một tấm séc, hóa đơn, hối phiếu)” Secondly, they are polysemous words with a specialised English sense

such as “turn” and “interest” The word “return” has 10 senses, one of which refers

to “financial subject”/ “topic” (the amount of profit or income that you get from a particular investment) The word „interest‟ has 8 senses, two of which refer to

“financial area” (1 the extra money you pay back when you borrow money or that you receive when you invest money, 2 a share in business or company and its profits) Thirdly, they are polysemous words with many specialised senses The phenomenon of polysemous words is also one of the fairly common features in the terminology of finance, accouting, and banking In Oxford Business English Dictionary, the word “credit” has 8 senses, four of which refer to specialised senses

1 (Commerce): an arrangement that you make with a bank, shop/store, etc., to be able to buy things now and pay for them later

2 (Finance): money that financial institutions lend to business, governments and people

3 (Accounting): an amount that is written in a company‟s financial account to show

an increase in money that the company owes or a decrease in the value of the assets

4 (Accounting): an amount of money that is paid back or owed to you, because you paid too much

1.2 The definition of translation

Throughout the time, there are many scholarships studying the translation and each of them gave a definition of the translation Translation is the expression

in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences (Dubois, 1973) Hartman and Stork (1972) claim that translation is the replacement of representation

of a text in a second language This means that translation is the process of conveying one language by another language Unlike previous definition of translation, Larson (1984) gives a very detailed one “Translation consists of studying the source language text (lexicon, grammatical structures, communication situation and cultural context), analyzing it in order to determine its meaning, then

reconstructing this same meaning using the lexicon and grammatical structure which appropriate in the receptor language and its cultural context” Nida and Taber (1974) state “Translating consists of reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style” From these above definitions of translation, it can

be concluded that translation deals with two different languages: source language (SL) and target language (TL) The translation is the process of transferring from one language to another language with the same meaning This means that the form

of language is changed but the meaning is maintained

According to Roman Jakobson (1959), translation is divided into three types: intralingual translation, interlingual translation and intersemiotic translation Intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs of the same language Interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems

The next point mentioned in this part is about translation method which is a general approach to a text Unlike translation procedures which are applied for sentences and smaller units of language, translation methods are applied for the whole text Newmark (1988) points out 8 types of translation methods such as word-for-word translation literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation, adaptation, free translation, idiomatic translation and communicative translation

Word-for-word translation

This is often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with The TL immediately below the SL words The SL word-order is preserved and the words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context Cultural words are translated literally The main use of word-for-word translation is either to

understand the mechanics of the source language or [o construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process

Literal translation

The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context As a pre-translation process, this indicates the problems to be solved

Faithful translation

A faithful Translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning

of the original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures It 'transfers' cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical 'abnormality' (deviation from SL norms) in the translation It attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text-realisation of the SL writer

Semantic translation

Semantic translation differs from 'faithful translation' only in as far as it must take more account of the aesthetic value (that is, the beautiful and natural sounds of the SL text, compromising on 'meaning' where appropriate so that no assonance, word-play or repetition jars in the finished version Further, it may translate less important cultural words by culturally neutral third or functional terms but not by

cultural equivalents - une nonne repassant un corporal may become 'a nun ironing

a corporal cloth' - and it may make other small concessions to the readership The distinction between 'faithful' and „semantic' translation is that the first is uncompromising and dogmatic, while the second is more flexible, admits the creative exception to 100% fidelity and allows for the translator's intuitive empathy with the original

Adaptation

This is the 'freest' form of translation It is used mainly for plays (comediesl and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture

converted to theTL culture and the text rewritten The deplorable practice of having

a play or poem literally translated and then rewritten by an established dramatist or poet has produced many poor adaptations, but other adaptations have 'rescued‟ period plays

Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original, a so-called 'intralingual translation, often prolix and pretentious, and not translation at all

Idiomatic translation

Idiomatic translation reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original- (Authorities as diverse as Seteskovitch and Stuart Gilbert tend to this form of lively, 'natural' translation.)

Communicative translation

Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning

of the original in such a wav that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

1.3 Equivalence and its classifications

Equivalence is the relationship between a source text and a target text that allows the target text to be considered as a translation of the source text It is a relationship between two texts in two languages, rather than between the languages themselves In addition, Patrick (1979) defines equivalence as the state of being

“equal or interchangeable in value, quantity, significance, etc.” or “having the same

or a similar effect or meaning” Translation defined by many scholars from different notions of view Some of translation scholars defined their theories a source -oriented theory, others regarded the target-oriented theories There are also theorists

who chose a place in between; however, all translation theories are related to the notion of equivalence in one way or another Hence, equivalence plays a crucial role

in translation In fact, both source and target languages include ranges of equivalents from the least meaningful level of a language, namely, morpheme to the big levels like sentence There are many different types of equivalence classified by different scholars or linguisticians who base on qualitative and quantitative

approach for classification

1.3.1 Quantitative approach

The typical scholarships of this approach, Kade (1968) and Hann (1992), regarding lexical equivalence, divides equivalence into 4 types The first type is one – to – one equivalence when a single expression in TL is equivalent to a single expression in SL One – to – many equivalence happens when more than one TL expressions are equivalent to a single SL expression The third one is one – to – part – of – one equivalence when a TL expression covers part of a concept designed by a single SL expression Lastly, nil equivalence happens when no TL expression is equivalent to a single SL expression

1.3.2 Qualitative approach

The researcher takes investigation into three scholars who follow the qualitative approach Each scholars gives a different theory about equivalence: function – based equivalence (Eugene A.Nida), meaning – based equivalence (Werner Koller) and form – based equivalence (Baker) This part focuses on each theory above

Function – based equivalence

Nida (1964) argued that there are two different types of equivalence: formal equivalence which is referred as formal correspondence in the second edition by Nida and dynamic equivalence Formal correspondence focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content, unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon the principle of equivalent effect Dynamic equivalence is a translation

principle in which a translator translates the meaning of the original text; producing the same impact on the original wording did upon the ST audience

Form – based equivalence

Baker (1992) defined four kinds of equivalents such as equivalence at word level and above word level, grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence and pragmatic equivalence Baker defines the term “word” and notes that word sometimes has different meanings in different languages, and relates meaning of words with morpheme He also mentions some problems related to equivalence at word level and above word level and gives strategies to deal with them Grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages She affirms that grammatical rules across languages may differ, which lead to some problems in finding a direct correspondence in the TL Textual equivalence refers to the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text regarding information and cohesion Finally, pragmatic equivalence refers to implication of the TL text The duty of a translator is recognizing the implied meaning of SL text, and then reproducing it in a way that readers of the TL can comprehend clearly without any misunderstanding culturally

Meaning – based equivalence

Werner Koller (1977) proposed five levels of equivalence such as denotative, connotative, text-normative, pragmatic and formal equivalence Denotative equivalence is one in which the SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the real world This is the referential identity between SL and TL units This is equivalence

of the extra linguistic content of a text, otherwise called “content invariance” (rabbit – con thỏ) With connotative equivalence, SL and TL words should produce the same communicative values in the mind of native speakers of the two languages In other words, connotative equivalence is the equivalence transmitted by specific choices between synonymous expressions with respect to level of style, the social and geographical dimension, frequency, etc Connotative equivalence is divided into 9 smaller types such as connotative of speech level, connotative of socially

determined usage, connotative of geographical relation or origin, connotative of medium, connotative of stylistic effect, connotative of frequency, connotative of register, connotative of evaluation and connotative of emotion In text – normative equivalence, the SL and TL words using the same or similar text types in their respective languages (Faithfully yours – Kính thư) In pragmatic equivalence, the

SL and TL words have the same effect on the reader of mainly aiming at the receiver, to whom the translation is directed, also called “communication equivalence” (It‟s cold in here – Làm ơn đóng hộ cửa sổ/bật điều hòa) Formal equivalence, known as expressive equivalence, is particular used in translation of poems, songs, etc Formal equivalence happens in some categories such as rhyme, verse form, rhythm, special stylistic forms of expression in syntax and lexis, word play, metaphor and so on

It is noteworthy that Koller‟s formal equivalence is different from Nida‟s As cited in Munday (2001, p 47), Koller distinguishes five types of equivalence as follow: 'denotative equivalence' refers to the case where the ST and the TT have the same denotations, that is conveying the same extra linguistic facts; 'connotative equivalence', also referred to as 'stylistic equivalence', is related t o the lexical choices between near synonyms; 'text normative' refers to text types, i.e., the description and analysis of a variety of texts behaving differently; 'pragmatic equivalence', also called 'communicative equivalence', is oriented towards the receptor of the text, as he should receive the same effect that the original text produces on its readers; 'formal equivalence', may also be referred to as 'expressive equivalence', is related to the word-for-word rendition of forms, aesthetic and stylistic features of the ST

1.4 Translation procedures

Newmark (1988) divides translation procedures into 8 types such as transference, naturalization, through translation, transpositions (shift), modulation, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent and description equivalent

Transference

A SL word is directly taken into TL text with no translation Transference is often used to deal with names of newspapers, geographical names, street names and new technical terms that do not have equivalences in the source language (Hollywood, blog, web, internet, MC)

Naturalization

A transferred word is adapted to the TL in terms of both pronunciation and morphology (cement – xi măng, meeting – mít ting, soup – súp,…)

Through translation (calque/loan translation)

A word or normally an expression is translated literally into the target language Through translation should be used for already recognized terms such as names of organizations and common collocations (AIDS – Hội chứng suy giảm miễn dịch mắc phải, UNDAF – Khuôn khổ hỗ trợ phát triển Liên Hợp Quốc)

Couplets

Couplets mean that two or more translation procedures are combined for dealing with a single problem It is particular common for cultural words where transference may be combined with a functional or cultural equivalent

2 Related studies

Financial language field is not a new topic for research Many researchers attempted to explore the issues related to finance A typical study was conducted by Christina My-Tuyen Thi Truong from Texas A&M University with the title “Using Common Financial Proverbs to Teach Finance to Students from Vietnam” This study investigated the understanding of financial proverbs, including both language characteristics and their popularity The investigation of financial proverbs helped Vietnamese students in the study of finance subject Another study with the title

“Sentiment of Financial News: A Natural Language Processing Approach” was also implemented by groups of researchers named Leandro Alvim, Paula Vilela, Eduardo Motta, Ruy Luiz Milidiú from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil This study investigated the use of natural language pre -processing techniques in a way to improve the sentiment classification accuracy of a classical bag of words approach with the scope of financial news Unlike these above previous research, the researcher would like to exploit financial terms on the other aspects (equivalence) and apply for the language of English and Vietnamese Therefore, the success of this study will bring a new way to understand financial terms

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1 Research subjects

This study was conducted on 269 financial terms collected from the book

“International Economics” (nineth edition) by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz in 2011 Each of economic news has two versions in the form of Vietnamese and English Vietnamese equivalences of these terms are collected from the translation of this book published by National Political Publishing House This book includes two main parts covering 22 chapters The first 12 chapters discuss issues related to international trade and payment The rest discuss issues related to international finance This study focuses on the second part of this book and its translation in Vietnamese, including

Chapter 13: National Income Accounting and the Balance of Payments

Chapter 14: Exchange rates and the Foreign Exchange Market: An asset Approach

Chapter 15: Money, Interest rates and Exchange rates

Chapter 16: Price Levels and the Exchange Rate in the Long Run

Chapter 17: Output and the Exchange rate in the short run

Chapter 18: Fixed exchange rates and foreign exchange intervention

Chapter 19: International monetary systems: An historical overview

Chapter 20: Optimum currency areas and the European Experience

Chapter 21: Financial Globalization: Opportunity and Crisis

Chapter 22: Developing countries: Growth, Crisis, and Reform

2 Data collection method

The data collection method used in the study was the observation of the document In particular, the researcher collects key terms in both English and Vietnamese at the end of each chapter in translation version of the book mentioned

in the previous part

Also, the researcher read the book and its translation version carefully in order to find more financial terms as much as possible Therefore, the results of the study would have high reliability

3 Data collection procedures

The data collection procedure consists of two steps, including:

Step 1: Studying the document in both languages (English and Vietnamese) to select out financial

Step 2: Arranging them in a table in the alphabet order

4 Data analysis method

Both qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative method (statistical analysis) was used in data analysis of this study Qualitative method was used to analyze and evaluate which type of equivalence and translation procedure each financial term belongs to The researcher based on the theory about equivalence of Kade and Hann (quantitative equivalence), Nida (function – based equivalence), Koller (meaning – based equivalence) and Baker (form – based equivalence) in literature review chapter to analyze terms In statistical analysis (quantitative method), there are two key types of measures: central tendency and dispersion The former provides some indication of the size of average or typical scores The latter indicates the extent to which the scores cluster around the average or are spread out This study focused on the central tendency, which meant that quantitative method

was used to figure out the most frequently – used equivalence in the English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms

5 Data analysis procedures

The data analysis procedure consisted of four steps, including:

Step 1: Basing on equivalence of Kade and Hann (quantitative equivalence), Nida (function – based equivalence), Koller (meaning – based equivalence) and Baker (form – based equivalence) to analyze financial terms and find out the type of equivalence used to translate each financial term

Step 2: Calculating how many percent of financial terms is translated by each type

of equivalence to find out the most frequently – used equivalence in English – Vietnamese translation of financial terms The formula for this statistic is as follows:

Step 4: Calculating how many percent of financial terms is translated by each type

of translation procedure to find out the most frequently – used procedure in English

– Vietnamese translation of financial terms The formula for this statistic is as follows:

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter gave answers to three research questions which were mentioned

in the chapter of literature review as well as shows the results of this study On the approach of qualitative analysis, types of equivalence and translation procedure were found out The researcher based on equivalence theory of Kade and Hann (quantitative equivalence), Nida (function – based equivalence), Koller (meaning – based equivalence), Baker (form – based equivalence) and translation procedure theory of Peter Newmark to analyze financial terms On the approach of quantitative analysis, the types of equivalence and translation procedure which were used in translation of 269 financial terms with the highest frequency were found out This statistic was presented in the form of table A and pie chart B below

Types of equivalence/translation

procedure

Number of financial terms

Table A: Frequency of equivalence/translation procedure

1 Findings

1.2 Types of equivalence applied in translation of financial term

Figure 1.1: Pie chart of equivalence applied in translation of financial term

Type of equivalence Frequency

Table 1.1: Frequency of equivalence applied in translation of financial terms

Basing on equivalence theory of Kade and Hann (quantitative equivalence), Nida (function – based equivalence), Koller (meaning – based equivalence), Baker (form – based equivalence) and translation procedure theory of Peter Newmark, the researcher found out 7 types of equivalence which were applied in translation of

269 financial terms form the book “International Economics” (nineth edition) by Krugman Obstfeld Melitz in 2011, namely denotative equivalence, c onnotative equivalence, formal equivalence (Nida), pragmatic equivalence, dynamic equivalence, one – to – many equivalence and one – to – part – of – one equivalence Four of 269 financial terms had no equivalence In other words, various types of equivalence were applied in translation of financial terms As can

be seen from the pie chart above, the most popular equivalence in translation of financial terms was denotative equivalence which was applied to translate 43% of financial terms Besides, another two types of equivalence which were applied to translate a high percentage of financial terms were formal equivalence (19% of financial terms) and connotative equivalence (28% of financial terms) The least popular equivalence in translation of financial terms is one – to – part – of – one equivalence which was applied to translate one of 269 financial terms in the book Basing on specific type of equivalence applied in translation of financial terms, the

researcher arranged them into 8 groups for analysis The following section focused

on only 5 groups which were frequently applied in the translation of financial terms

Group 1: Connotative equivalence

According to the researcher‟s investigation, among 269 financial terms in the book, 74 terms were translated on the basis of connotative equivalence After denotative equivalence, connotative one is the second – most frequently – used type

of equivalence in translation of financial terms, which results from one of financial term‟s semantic characteristics As the researcher mentions in the chapter of literature review, financial terms are general English words with specialized English senses Therefore, when translating some financial terms, translator should pay much attention to their under surface meanings in stead of surface ones Except for its general meaning, a word can have another meaning related to the field of finance Among nine types of connotative equivalence which were mentioned in the chapter of literature review (including connotative of speech level, connotative of socially determined usage, connotative of geographical relation or origin, connotative of medium, connotative of stylistic effect, connotative of frequency, connotative of register, connotative of evaluation and connotative of emotion), connotative of register and geographical relation or origin are applied to translate financial terms in the book The former focuses on the specialized meaning of words in specific fields such as medicine, technology, science, finance and etc The latter focuses on the appropriateness with the target language (Vietnamse), which means that the translation version should be close and understandable to Vietnamese readers

For example, the words “capital flight” and “capital depreciation” are translated as “thất thoát vốn” and “khấu hao vốn” Normally, “capital” here means

“thủ đô”; however, in the field of finance, it has another meaning called “vốn” When it is combined with the words “flight” that has no specialized meaning in the field of finance and “depreciation”, these above compound words have specified meaning related to two phenomena of finance named “thất thoát vốn” and “khấu

hao vốn” “Domestic absorption – sự hấp thụ trong nước” is also a typical example

of connotative equivalence According to Oxford Advance Leaner‟s Dictionary (2011), in general sense, the word “absorption” means the process of a liquid, gas or other substance being taken in However, it has a specified meaning that is the process of a smaller group, country, etc becoming part of a larger group or country

In the field of finance, “Domestic absorption” refers to domestic consumptions together with the domestic investment made in the economy (Research on Poverty Alleviation, 2013) It is opposite to domestic income that means the aggregate of the value added produced from different sectors of the economy Another example

is “dirty/clean float” – “thả nổi hoàn toàn/không hoàn toàn” In general sense,

“dirty” and “clean” are two adjectives which refer to hygiene state of thing or human beings However, in a specialized meaning, they refer characteristics of exchange rate

Figure 1.2: Type of translation procedure for connotative equivalence

In translation of financial terms belonging to group of connotative equivalence, there were 6 types of procedures to be applied, namely modulation, through translation, shift, cultural equivalent, descriptive equivalent and functional

equivalent Three most frequently – used type of procedure in translation of connotative – equivalent financial terminologies were respectively through translation (39 terms), modulation (18 terms) and cultural equivalent (8 terms)

Group 2: Denotative equivalence

Among seven types of equivalence applied in translation of financial terms, denotative one was the most frequently – used Nearly 50% of financial terms were translated into Vietnamese on the basis of denotative equivalence As can be seen from the appendix of financial terms belonging to group of denotative equivalence

at the end of this study, most of these financial terms are simple, compound or even phrasal words which mentions things or phenomena in the real world Also, they are three first morphological characteristics of financial terms which the researcher discussed in the chapter of literature review Due to these characteristics, denotative equivalence is the most appropriate method to translate financial terms, which is the reason why denotative is the most frequently – used equivalence Besides, there is another objective reason about the similarities and differences between Western financial market (particularly US financial market) and Eastern financial market (particularly Vietnamese financial market) Western countries like America are pioneers in the field of economy generally and finance particularly Eastern countries are the followers; therefore their financial field shares some certain characteristics with Western countries Due to this fact, a large number of English financial terms and Vietnamese ones mention the same thing or phenomenon in the real world Hence, denotative equivalence is frequently applied in translation of financial terms from English to Vietnamese

For a clear explanation of applying denotative equivalence in translation of financial terms, the researcher would like to give some examples for illustration The first one is about some terms mentioning real financial activities in every country such as “national income accounting – hạch toán thu nhập quốc dân”,

“national saving – tiết kiệm quốc gia” and “private saving – tiết kiệm tư nhân” A number of financial terms related to BOP (balance of payments) is also in the case

of denotative equivalence such as “current account – tài khoản vãng lai”, “capital account – tài khoản vốn”, “unilateral transfer – chuyển khoản đơn phương”,

“official settlements balance – cán cân quyết toán chính thức”, etc All of these terms mention real elements in BOP that every country including Vietnam have to consider when they identify balance of payments Another examples are “treasury bill – tín phiếu kho bạc”, “capital outflow/inflow – luồng vốn chuyển vào/ra”,

“foreign exchange market – thị trường ngoại hối”, “commercial bank – ngân hàng thương mại”, “multinational corporation – công ty đa quốc gia” Treasury bill refers

to a government zero coupon bond with a short term (less than one year) It has presence in every countries and is controlled by the government so “treasury bill” and “tín phiếu kho bạc” refers the same thing in the real world “Capital outflow/inflow” refers two – way phenomenon in both Vietnam‟s financial market and US financial market in which the home investment is called capital inflow and the abroad investment is called capital outflow “Foreign exchange market” refers a online or offline market in which the purchase of foreign exchange or many types of foreign currencies occurs “Commercial bank” and “ngân hàng thương mại” refer the same organization in the real world: type of bank operates for profit and is not allowed to print money In Vietnam, there are some commercial banks such as Sacombank, Vietin Bank, Vietcombank, etc “Multinational corporation” and “công

ty đa quốc gia” refers to the same organization which has its headquarters in one country and other braches in overseas countries

Figure 1.3: Types of translation procedure for denotative equivalence

As can be seen from figure 1.2, most of financial terms belonging to gro up of denotative equivalence were translated on the basis of through translation (nearly 90% of this group) To some extent, denotative equivalence is the surface meaning

of the word; therefore through translation in which words or phrases are literally translated is the most appropriate

Group 3: Dynamic equivalence

Dynamic equivalence was applied to translate only 3% of financial terms in the book, equal to only seven of 269 financial terms In the book, translator only focused on the message of these seven terms He/she didn‟t translate them literally

Group 4: Formal equivalence

After denotative and connotative equivalence, formal equivalence (Nida‟s theory) was the third most frequently – used type of equivalence applied in translation of financial terms Fifty one financial terms were translated on the basis

of formal equivalence The reason why formal equivalence was applied to translate financial terms came from one of one of financial term‟s morphological

characteristics: they are long premodified and postmodified noun phrases The meaning of these phrases is the combination of single word‟s meaning; therefore the method of literal translation like formal equivalence is suitable Another reason came from the fact that some English financial terms are new concepts with Vietnam, so when translating them, translators should focus on literal meaning firstly in order to get the surface meaning of financial terms in the book

For a clear explanation about the application of formal equivalence in translation of financial terms, the researcher would like to analyze some examples for illustration The first one is about short premodified noun phrases such as

“official international reserves – dự trữ quốc tế chính thức”, “official foreign exchange intervention – sự can thiệp chính thức vào thị trường ngoại hối”, “long – term nominal contracts – hợp đồng danh nghĩa dài hạn”, “international market segmentation – sự phân cắt thị trường quốc tế”, “downward wage – price spiral – đường xoắn ốc lương giá đi xuống”, “retaliatory trade restrictions – sự hạn chế thương mại có tính chất trả đũa”, etc All these terms are translated literally and grammatically from right to left Their meanings preserve each word‟s meaning With “international – quốc tế”, “market – thị trường” and “segmentation – sự phân cắt”, the phrase “international market segmentation” is translated as “sự phân cắt thị trường quốc tế” It is a new term in Vietnam‟s economy generally and financial field particularly with the meaning that the financial market is divided into smaller ones, each of which focuses on potential customers

Figure 1.4: Types of translation procedure for formal equivalence (Nida)

As can be seen from figure 1.3, there were three types of translation procedures applied in translation of financial terms belonging to the group of formal equivalence such as through translation, modulation and shift The most frequent ly – used type of translation procedure was through translation which was applied to translate forty five of fifty one financial terms in this group

Group 5: Pragmatic equivalence

Only 5% of financial terms (13 of 261 financial terms) in the book were translated on the basis of pragmatic equivalence In this type of equivalence, the meaning of a word depends much on the context in which the word is used, which

is different from other types of equivalence In order to fully understand the word translated on the basis of pragmatic equivalence, the reader need have a broad command of background knowledge about the context in which the word is used Similarly, in order to understand financial terms in this group, the readers must have background knowledge about finance However, 261 financial terms were collected from students‟ book so translator limits applying pragmatic equivalence to translate them into Vietnamese in order to avoid making readers feel difficult to understand