Cách dịch các thuật ngữ tàI chính ngân hàng từ tiếng anh sang tiếng việt trong cuốn tiếng anhtàI chính ngân hàng của pgs.Ts nguyễn xuân thơm Cách dịch các thuật ngữ tàI chính ngân hàng từ tiếng anh sang tiếng việt trong cuốn tiếng anhtàI chính ngân hàng của pgs.Ts nguyễn xuân thơm luận văn tốt nghiệp thạc sĩ
Trang 1VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION
GRADUATION PAPER
THE ENGLISH - VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF FINANCIAL AND BANKING TERMINOLOGIES IN THE BOOK “ENGLISH FOR FINANCE AND BANKING” BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR NGUYỄN
Trang 2ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ TÀI CHÍNH – NGÂN HÀNG TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT TRONG CUỐN “TIẾNG ANH TÀI CHÍNH NGÂN HÀNG” CỦA
PGS.TS NGUYỄN XUÂN THƠM
Giáo viên hướng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Sinh viên: Vũ Văn Duy
Khóa: 2008
HÀ NỘI - 2012 STATEMENT OF ACCEPTANCE
Trang 3I hereby state that I: Vũ Văn Duy, class 08.1.E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College 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
May 2nd, 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Trang 4First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm, who has provided me with unconditional invaluable guidance, encouragement, support and constructive comments from the initial to the final step of completing this graduation paper
Secondly, my sincere thanks would go to respectable lecturers of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education in University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their helpful lessons during my four academic years at this university Their devotion to the lectures and kind-heartedness has inspired and motivated me during writing this paper
Besides, it is my pleasure to thank the gracious librarians at the Library and Information Center in Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their supportive instructions on my searching for materials serving this research
Lastly, I owe my profound gratitude to my family, relatives and friends who have given me constant spiritual support as well as useful advice throughout my completion of this paper
Vũ Văn Duy
Trang 5ABSTRACT
This paper investigated the English – Vietnamese translation of financial and
banking terminologies provided in the book “English for Finance and Banking”
written by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm in 1999 The study was conducted
to find out the translation procedures and the most dominant one that were employed
in translating financial and banking terminologies in the above-mentioned book To achieve this aim, qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized Through data collection and analysis, the research revealed the translation procedures and the most dominant one being applied to translate terminologies in the book
Overall, five translation procedures of calque, literal translation, equivalence, transposition and borrowing, among which calque was the most dominant, were found
in the English – Vietnamese translation of terminologies in the book However, there are still limitations that leave room for improvements in the study Finally, some suggestions for further studies were offered
Trang 6TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2
1.3 Significance of the study 2
1.4 Scope of the study 3
1.5 Organization of the study 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Trang 72.3.2 Characteristics of terminology 14
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
Trang 8LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: Analysis of cases of borrowing procedure being applied in
chapter I of the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate
Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
20
Table 2: Analysis of cases of literal translation procedure being applied
in chapter I of the book “English for Finance and Banking” by
Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
21
Table 3: Analysis of cases of calque being applied in chapter I of the
book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor
Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
26
Table 4: Analysis of cases of transposition being applied in chapter I of
the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor
Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
30
Table 5: Analysis of cases of literal translation procedure being applied
in chapter I of the book “English for Finance and Banking” by
Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
33
FIGURES
Figure: The percentage of translation procedures applied in English -
Vietnamese translation of financial and banking terminologies in the
book "English for Finance and Banking" by Associate Professor
Nguyen Xuan Thom
45
Trang 10CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In this part, the statement of the problem, rationale for the study, aims and objectives of the study together with significance, scope and organization of the study are demonstrated
1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study
Vietnam is visibly enjoying a dynamic economy with significant paces of development thanks to the international economic integration in various sectors such
as industry, agriculture, services, and so on Along with this, a great number of fields and jobs, among which is finance and banking, are demonstrating stronger public attraction than ever before With a modern and dynamic working environment, high income, high competitiveness and ample opportunities for promotion, finance and banking has increasingly sparked the interest of people worldwide in general and nationwide in particular
In the meanwhile, greater importance has also been attached to English as a principal tool of communication in the world trade and commerce However, if learning communicative English is challenging enough, learning technical English is even much tougher During the course of English for Finance and Banking at University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University, Hanoi, the researcher, as a fourth-year fast-track student in the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, has encountered some difficulty in understanding as well as learning financial and banking terminologies, which results from the fact that finance and banking is not the researcher‟s major Nonetheless, instead of discouraging the researcher in the course, the challenges have generated his motivation
to spend more time and efforts acquiring more knowledge about those terminologies
As a student whose major is English translation and interpretation and particularly has
a genuine passion for English translation, the researcher expresses passionate interest
in the translation of the terminologies provided in the course book the title of which is
Trang 11“English for Finance and Banking” written by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân
Thơm in 1999 Consequently, the researcher has made a decision to take further investigations into this issue by gathering relevant materials
As a student whose major is neither banking nor finance, the researcher is fully aware of the significant challenges when carrying out this study Nevertheless, with a strong determination to figure out the procedures utilized to translate provided English financial and banking terms, the researcher sincerely hopes that the study will contribute to finding out appropriate procedures to apply and thus facilitating the translation of terminologies in finance and banking for translators in this appealing field
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
This paper aims at investigating the English – Vietnamese translation of
financial and banking terminologies provided in the book “English for Finance and Banking” written by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm and published by Thế
Giới Publishers in 1999
Specifically, this paper focuses on answering the following questions:
- What translation procedures are used to translate the English financial and banking terminologies in the book?
- What is the most dominant translation procedure that is applied in the book?
1.3 Significance of the study
This paper is expected to provide an overview on the English - Vietnamese
translation of financial and banking terminologies used in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Theoretically, this
paper can be used by readers, especially students of English major, to expand their
Trang 12knowledge about translation as well as finance and banking Practically, this paper can
be used as a reference for translators in practicing the translation of financial and banking terminologies
1.4 Scope of the study
This paper centers around the English – Vietnamese translation of financial and
banking terminologies provided in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by
Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm in 1999 The main concern of the paper is about procedures applied to translate provided terms in the book
1.5 Organization of the study
The paper consists of five chapters as follows:
Chapter 1 - Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, the
significance, and the scope of the study
Chapter 2 – Literature review supplies theoretical backgrounds for the paper
To be specific, key terms related to the context of the study, i.e translation and terminologies would be explained in various aspects and related studies will be discussed
Chapter 3 – Methodology introduces the methods such as qualitative and
quantitative methods that are utilized in the study
Chapter 4 – Results and discussion analyzes the collected data in order to
answer the research questions
Chapter 5 – Conclusion summarizes the issues discussed in the study, the
limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further studies
Trang 13CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, overviews of translation and terminology are presented
2.1 An overview of translation
2.1.1 Definition of translation
Translation can be perceived as either a process or a product In the Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, translation is defined as “the process of changing something that is written or spoken into another language” and “a text or work has been changed from one language into another”
According to Eugene Nida (1964, p 83), translation consists in “reproducing the receptor language the natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and second in terms of style”
In the viewpoint of Catford (1965, p 20), translation lies in “the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)”
Peter Newmark (1981, p 7) considers translation as “a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another language”
Besides, Crystal (1991, p 346) defines translation as a process in which “the meaning and expression in one language (source) is tuned with the meaning of another (target) whether the medium is spoken, written or signed”
As perceived by Bassnett (2002), translation involves
…the rendering of a source language (SL) text into the target language (TL) so as to ensure that (1) the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and (2)
Trang 14the structures of the SL will be preserved as closely as possible but not so closely that the TL structures will be seriously distorted (Bassnett, 2002, p 13)
2.1.2 Process of translation
Newmark (1995, pp 23-24) argues that there are four levels “more or less consciously” in the mind of the translator during translating summarized as follows:
(1) The textual level: at this level, the translator may make certain
„conversions‟ by permuting the SL grammar into their „ready‟ TL equivalents and translating lexical units into the sense that appears immediately in the context of the sentence This is considered the base level
(2) The referential level: this is the level of objects and events, whether real
or imaginary, that the translator progressively has to visualize and build up This level accompanies the textual level and is an essential part, first of the compr ehension, then
of the reproduction process
(3) The cohesive level: this level links the first and the second level, following both the structure and the moods of the text It traces the train of thought, the feeling tone (positive or negative) and the various presuppositions of the SL text This level encompasses both comprehension and reproduction: it presents an overall picture, to which the translator may have to adjust the language level (the lengths of paragraphs and sentences; the formulation of the title; the tone of the conclusion) to secure coherence and adjust emphasis
(4) The level of naturalness: at this level, the appropriateness of language in
a certain situation is to be checked This level of naturalness is concerned only with reproduction This level cannot be acquired by instinct but only by the translator‟s working towards it by small progressive stages, working from the most common to the less common features There is no universal naturalness because naturalness depends
on the relationship between the writer and the readership and the topic or situation
Trang 15What is natural in one situation may be unnatural in another One way to check the naturalness is to read representative texts and talk with representative TL speakers, or maybe representative TV and radio and then get corrections
Those four above-mentioned levels constitute a complete translation process suggested by Newmark Those four levels are said to be kept in paralle l because they differ but constantly affect and may be in conflict with each other
2.1.3 Translation procedures
Due to the fact that studies on translation procedures are too varied and the number of translation procedures suggested by worldwide scholars is too large, it is beyond the researcher‟s ability to review the literature of all of them in the scope of this study Moreover, it can be observed that those provided procedures may either partially overlap or just differ in terms of names Hence, only seven most commonly recognized translation procedures, which were put forward by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995), have been selected for literature review in order to avoid complexity and confusion for the author himself and the readers as well
2.1.3.1 Borrowing
It is undeniable that changes are unavoidable in the lexis of any language as a result of the influence of the ceaseless development of society because lexis must constantly be responsive to new ideas, concepts, objects and inventions of extra-linguistic reality Hardly any words can be developed without closely connect ing to the extra-linguistic reality On the contrary, many new words are coined and shaped by other languages and cultures that they are in contact with For that reason, it is not unfamiliar to see a great many words being used the same worldwide like Internet,
Trang 16blog, web and so on They are called loan words In terms of translation, this is a product resulting from borrowing procedure
In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, borrowing is defined as “a word, a phrase or an idea that somebody has taken from another person‟s work or from another language and used in their own”
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p 31) consider borrowing to be the simplest of all translation procedures and used to bridge a gap, usually a metalinguistic one like a new technical process or unknown concept It is sometimes used to produce a stylistic effect to introduce the flavor of the SL culture into translation by means of foreign terms
Newmark (1995, p 81) calls this procedure as “transference” and defines it as
“the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text” He emphasizes that this procedure is advisable for translating
…names of all living [ ] and most dead people; geographical and topographical names including newly independent countries [ ] unless they already have recognized translations; names of periodicals and newspapers; titles of as yet untranslated literary works, plays, films; names of private companies and institutions; names of public or nationalized institutions, unless they have recognized translations; street names, address, etc (Newmark, 1995, p 82)
In addition, he affirms that:
…in regional novels and essays (and advertisements, e.g., gites), cultural words are often transferred to give local colour, to attract the reader, to give a sense of intimacy between the text and the reader – sometimes the sound or the evoked image appears attractive (Newmark, 1995, p 82)
Trang 17Besides, Vetuni (2000, p 85) claims that there are some long-standing borrowings that are no longer regarded as such since they have integrated into their respective TL lexicon (for example: English words such as “menu”, “déjà vu”, “enfant terrible”, etc are no longer considered as borrowings) However, in any language, some new borrowings are much more appealing from a translator‟s point of view
Regarding the use of this procedure, Abu-Ssaydeh (1993, p 14) says that it can
be used when “the content of the term is typical for the area in which the source language is spoken and is therefore difficult to translate” Rey (1995, p 105) adds that although being the most obvious and “laziest” solution, it is still “the internationally most efficient one” because it “partially neutralizes interlingual differences and thus respects the original concept” and can easily be applied
However, this procedure is still a controversy It is denied as a translation procedure by some people who say that the translator‟s job is to translate and explain However, some argue in favor of it that it shows respect for the SL country‟s culture Regarding this matter, Newmark (1995, p 81) claims “no other term is appropriate if a translator decides to use a SL word for his text”
2.1.3.2 Literal translation
According to Wikipedia, literal translation, or directed translation, is “the rendering of text from one language to another “word-for-word” rather than conveying the sense of the original”
Newmark (1998, p 75) regards literal translation as “a coincidental procedure, used when the SL term is transparent or semantically motivated and is in standardized language” He holds a belief that this procedure is a basic one and translation initiates from this procedure His two noticeable affirmations for such belief include:
Trang 18A good translator abandons a literal version only when it is plainly inexact, or, in the case of a vocative or informative text, badly written A bad translator will always do his best to avoid translating word-for-word (Newmark, 1995, p 76)
In the wider sense, all translation must be as „literal‟, i.e as close to the original as possible In the narrower, „word-for-word‟ sense, literal translation is only useful as a preliminary techinique for discovering an acceptable translation (Newmark, 1998, p 138)
However, he claims, at a higher level than the word level, literal translation gets more and more difficult, and if there is any translation problem, this procedure is often (not all the time) impossible He stresses that literal translation above the word level can only be appropriate if:
…the SL and TL meaning correspond, or correspond more closely than any alternative; that means that the referent and the pragmatic effect are equivalent, i.e that the words not only refer to the same „thing‟ but have similar associations [ ] and appear to be equally frequent in this type of text; further, that the meaning of the SL unit is not affected by its context in such a way that the meaning of the TL does not correspond to it (Newmark, 1995, p 70)
Newmark (1995, p 76) also puts forward one useful piece of advice on dealing with this translation procedure is that “it is sometimes advisable to retreat from literal translation when faced with SL general words for which there are no „satisfactory‟ one-to-one TL equivalents even though one is over-translating”
2.1.3.3 Calque
Trang 19The Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary also calls calque as “loan translation” and defines it as “a word or expression in a language that is a translation
of a word or expression in another language”
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p 32) categorize calque into lexical and structural calque The former respects the syntactic structure of the TL while introducing a new mode of expression whereas the latter introduces a new construction into the language The two scholars also encourage translators to coin new words, or neologize, rather than merely imitate SL ones
Newmark (1995, p 84) prefers to call this “through-translation” and defines it
as “the literal translation of common collocations, names of organizations, the components of compounds [ ] and perhaps phrases…” Names of international organizations consisting of „universal‟ words are referred by him as typical examples
of this procedure He also stresses that this procedure should only be applied for recognized terms
2.1.3.4 Transposition
Newmark (1995) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) share the same viewpoint that transposition involves a change of the grammatical category in the TL in comparison with that in the SL Newmark (1995, pp 85-87) suggests four types: the first type is required is when “the change from singular to plural [ ]; or in the position
of the adjective is automatic and offers the translator no choice”; the second one is used when “a SL grammatical structure does not exist in the TL”; the third is “where literal translation is grammatically possible but may not accord with the natural usage
in the TL”; and the fourth one is “the replacement of a virtual lexical gap by a grammatical structure” He also claims that transposition demonstrates “a frequent tension between grammar and stress” and “is the only translation procedure concerned with grammar, and most translators make transpositions intuitively”
Trang 20In addition, according to Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p 35), transposition is comprised of not only change of parts of speech but also syntactic transformations They classify transpositions into obligatory and optional and seemingly try to focus on practical translation without analyzing the circumstances and motivations of the transposition
2.1.3.5 Modulation
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p 36) define this procedure as “a variation through
a change of viewpoint, of perspective and very often of category of thought” They argue that this procedure should be applied when a literal or transposed translation results in a grammatical sentence but still somewhat unsuitable, unidiomatic or awkward in the TL
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, pp 89-90) postulate eleven categories based on the substitutions as follows: (a) abstract and concrete; (b) cause and effect; (c) means and result; (d) the part for the whole: (e) the whole for a part: (f) reversal of the point of view; (g) intervals and limits (or duration and date; distance and destination); (h) sense modulation; (i) form, aspect, usage; (j) geographical modulation; (k) change of comparison or symbol
Moreover, they distinguish between obligatory (or fixed) and optional (or free) modulations The former ones are caused by an objectively dissimilar structure and usage of two languages The latter ones represent single instances not yet fixed and sanctioned by usage and hence must be performed again each time Free modulations can become „unique‟ translation and necessary rather than optional if readers of a translation where these modulations are utilized immediately feels the naturalness of expression In this case, free modulations may become fixed ones
As regards the difference between transposition and modulation, Salkie argues that:
Trang 21Whereas with transposition the translator‟s primary concern is the grammatical resources available in the TT, with modulation the principal consideration is the events
or states of affairs that the words refer to In the case of transposition, the guiding question is „how would the target language naturally express it?‟; with modulation the question is „how would a speaker of target language naturally conceive of it? (Salkie, cited in Thelen 2001, p 437)
Salkie (cited in Thelen 2001, p 439) also suggests that a reader of a text often establishes a mental representation after the interpretative process Therefore, modulation can be perceived as a relation between two texts and it produces the same mental representation but through a different interpretation process
2.1.3.6 Equivalence
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p 37) employ this term to refer to circumstances where language describing the same situation by different stylistic and structural means Equivalence is said to be often used by translators who want to create a completely different structure with a different meaning from that of the SL text providing it is regarded appropriate in the communicative situational equivalent to that
Functional equivalent is employed for cultural words and “requires the use of a culture-free word, sometimes with a new specific term; it therefore neutralizes or
Trang 22generalizes the SL word…” In addition, this procedure is claimed to take up “the middle, sometimes the universal, area between the source language or culture and the target language or culture” and be “the most accurate way of translating i.e deculturalising a cultural word” Newmark also suggests combining this procedure with transference during translating cultural words, which he refers as a “couplet” procedure
As regards descriptive equivalent, this procedure is used to describe a SL expression and sometimes may affect the function of that expression Newmark‟s argument in favor of this procedure is that: “In translation, description sometimes has
to be weighed against function [ ] Description and function are essential elements in explanation and therefore in translation…”
2.1.3.7 Adaptation
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p.39) ranks adaptation as an oblique translation procedure that is used “in those cases where the type of situation referred to by the SL message is unknown in the TL culture” Such cases necessitate re-creating a new situation that can be considered equivalent Therefore, Vinay and Darbelnet regard adaptation as a special type of equivalence, which is called a situational equivalence, between the ST and TT and claim that it is natural for the receiver It can also be seen that in the view of these two French scholars, bridging a cultural gap between two languages is a primary issue in adaptation
Newmark (1995, p 91) has the same opinion that adaptation rests on “the use of
a recognized equivalent between two situations” and considers it “a matter of cultural equivalence” However, he claims that adaptation as well as equivalence are not
“usable” procedures and recommends other ones to translators
2.2 An overview of terminology
Trang 23The items which are characterized by special reference within a discipline are the
„terms‟ of that discipline, and collectively they form its „terminology‟; those which function in general reference over a variety of sublanguages are simply called „words‟, and their totality the „vocabulary‟ (Sager 1990, p 19)
Besides, terminology is also defined as the study of terms Sager (cited in Baker
1998, p 259) perceives it as “a discipline which straddles both theoretical and applied linguistics and uses texts only as one of a range of source materials i n one of its many applications” However, in the scope of this study, it is terminology as “the set of technical words or expressions used in a particular subject” rather than the study of terms that is the researcher‟s focus
2.2.2 Characteristics of terminology
Sager (cited in Baker 1998, p 261) holds an opinion that terms “refer deliberately to specific concepts within particular subject fields and therefore constitute a sub-system of knowledge.” Each term presents a specific concept in a particular subject field and that concept is systematically related to other concepts that construct the knowledge structure of the text or discourse in question The basic function of terms is claimed to express more clearly intended meanings identified as
Trang 24necessary within a particular domain by the complexity and number of concepts that have to be clearly distinguished He also claims that there are also cases in which a term has no parallel variant in a TL of translation
Sager (1990, p 3) views terminology from two perspectives:
From an etymological point of view, “terminology is a polysemous misnomer, i.e a word with several senses, none of which correspond precisely to the analysis of traditional meaning of its constituent meaning.”
From a historical point of view, terminology is referred a technical vocabulary, i.e a collection of terms, which is somewhat coherent because it belongs to a single subject area It is now also used somewhat more narrowly to refer to an internally consistent and coherent set of terms belonging to a single subject field, as identified by the result of a particular terminological activity, e.g the compilation of systematic glossaries
According to Cabré, characteristics of terminologies are as follows:
“Terms are the set of linguistic signs which constitute a subset within the lexicon of the speaker‟s grammar Terms are units of the lexicon of grammar and they pertain to the ideal speaker-hearer‟s competence This competence can be general (common to all speakers) and specialized (related only to certain groups of speakers) Special terminology (and not the trivialized and fundamental one that constitutes the common stem of technical and scientific subject fields) would be part of the specialized
competence For linguistics, terms are a way of knowing how.” (Cabré, cited in Sager
& Somers 1996, p 17)
2.2.3 Categories of terminology
According to Sofer (1999, pp 99-101), there are three categories of terminology, namely main subject area, organizational language, and acronyms and initialisms
Trang 25In main subject area, it is claimed that each field of human knowledge and activity has its own terminology The same word used in one field may have a different meaning in another field
Organizational language refers to major corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies, all of whom develop their own terminology, which is highly important in doing translation work Large organizations often produce their own glossaries, word lists, lists of acronyms, and so on An important aspect of organizational language is “preferential usage” and “corporate style” This is not a matter of right or wrong terminology, but of the choice of words and the style of writing of a particular organization The best way to master a specific corporate style
is to read a few documents generated by that organization prior to embarking on a translation assignment
As regards acronyms and initialisms, they appear quite frequently in documents today Some are universally known, and are used daily in the media like UN, NATO, UNESCO, etc Some are known to translators working in a specific area, for example:
a translator of computer literature is bound to know the meaning of CD-ROM, RAM, etc A great many, however, are either too „esoteric‟, or only used by one particular organization, or are too recent to be widely known Therefore, it is important to make lists of acronyms and abbreviations and organizing them in a systematic and accessible manner
Paepcke (cited in Newmark 1995, p 153) distinguishes four varieties of technical language:
+ Scientific
+ Workshop level
+ Everyday usage level
+ Publicity/sales
Trang 26However, Newmark (1995, p 153) regards this scale “valid only for one or two terms in a few fields” Based on medical lexicon, he divides terminology into the following levels:
+ Academic: which includes transferred words associated with academic papers, e.g: “phlegmasia alba dolens”
+ Professional: formal terms used by experts, e.g: “epidemic parotitis”,
“varicella”, “scarlatina”, etc
+ Popular: layman vocabulary which may include familiar alternative terms, e.g: “mumps”, “chicken-pox”, “scarlet fever”, “stroke”, etc
Trang 27CHAPTER 3: METHODOLGY
In this chapter, methodology of the study is to be clarified
This paper concerns the English – Vietnamese translation of financial and
banking terminology in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate
Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm Therefore, books and studies related to finance and banking, translation and terminology are mostly the materials to be investigated In order to make this paper more comprehensible and persuasive, two methods, namely qualitative and quantitative, were employed to deal with those materials and answer the research questions
The very first phase was information collecting Related materials about finance and banking, translation and terminology were gathered from books, journals and websites
After that, processing data was carried out 391 terminologies picked out from the book “English for Finance and Banking” were utilized as data for processing It was at this stage that qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted Qualitative method was used to analyze the translation procedures which were found in the data Then, quantitative method was used to find out the percentage of the most dominant type of translation procedure by applying the following formula:
X
Y x 100% = N
In which:
X = number of data in specified type of translation procedure
Y = Total number of data
N = Percentage of each type of translation procedure found in the data
Lastly, summaries and conclusions were drawn out by the researcher
Trang 28To sum up, this study employed different methods and went through following phases:
Phase 1: Collecting related data
Phase 2: Processing data
Step 1: Qualitative method Step 2: Quantitative method
Phase 3: Summarizing and concluding
Trang 29CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter come data, analysis as well as findings and discussions of the study
4.1 Data and analysis
After reviewing the literature of translation procedures and identifying research methods to adopt for this study, the researcher started analyzing data which are
financial and banking terminologies provided in the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
Below is the researcher‟s analysis of translation procedures applied in translating financial and banking terminologies in the book Due to the limitation of the study, only terminologies in chapter I of the book are extracted and analyzed specifically Other terminologies of other chapters and the types of translation procedures applied for them can be found in the Appendix at the end of this paper
It is also noteworthy that most definitions presented in the following analysis are taken from Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Therefore, the name of this dictionary will be considered as the „default‟ one and not be repeated throughout the analysis Only names of other sources (if presented) are quoted for reference
4.1.1 Borrowing
This translation procedure is found being used only once in the whole book
Table 1: Analysis of cases of borrowing procedure being applied in chapter I of the
book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm:
No English terms Vietnamese
equivalents
Analysis
Trang 301 Traveller‟s
check
Séc du lịch The word “séc” in the provided
Vietnamese equivalent is phonetically borrowed or transferred from the word “check”
in the original term This is undoubtedly a sign of borrowing procedure
4.1.2 Literal translation
There are altogether 79 cases of literal translation procedure detected being applied in the book
Table 2: Analysis of cases of literal translation procedure being applied in chapter I of
the book “English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân
In the equivalent “sự đối lưu hàng hóa”, “đối lưu” is a Sino-Vietnamese phrase which means
“exchange” Comparing the given Vietnamese equivalent with its original English term, it can be concluded that literal translation is
Trang 31the procedure applied here
2 Barter
agreement
Hợp đồng đối lưu hàng hóa
Agreement in this case means “a contract” and “hợp đồng” is its Vietnamese equivalent It can be observed that both “barter” and
“agreement” are literally translated and put into a reverse order as a common way of English – Vietnamese translation Hence, this
is a result of literal translation procedure
3 Debit Khoản nợ, sổ ghi
nợ
Debit signifies “a written note in a bank account or other financial record of a sum of money owed or spent” Compared to that definition,
“khoản nợ, sổ ghi nợ” is undoubtedly a literal translation of
“debit”
4 Debit balance Số dư nợ Balance is “the amount that is left
after taking numbers or money away from a total” and its literal Vietnamese equivalent is “số dư” Consequently, “số dư nợ” is translated literally from the original term “debit balance”
5 Circulation of
currency
Sự lưu hành tiền tệ “Circulation” signifies “the
movement of something around an area or inside a system or machine”
Trang 32and is equivalent to “sự lưu hành”
in Vietnamese language whereas
“currency” is equivalent to “tiền tệ” Hence, “sự lưu hành tiền tệ” is a literal translation of the original term
6 Fluctuation of
currency
Sự biến động của tiền tệ
Fluctuation means changing
“frequently in size, amount, quality, etc, especially from one extreme to another” and is equivalent to “sự biến động” Hence, the given Vietnamese equivalent “sự biến động của tiền tệ” is exactly a literal translation of the original term
7 Stability of
currency
Sự ổn định tiền tệ Stability is “the quality or state of
being steady and not changing and not being disturbed in any way” and equivalent to “sự ổn định” in Vietnamese language Therefore,
“sự ổn định tiền tệ” is a literal translation of “stability of currency”
8 Commodity
money
equivalent, “hóa” is a Vietnamese word which is equivalent to “commodity” as “a product or a raw material that can
Sino-be bought or sold” and “tệ” to
Trang 33“money” Hence, the Vietnamese equivalent is literally translated from the original term with word order being reversed
9 Paper money Tiền giấy Paper is “the thin material that you
write and draw on and that is also used for wrapping and packing things”, which refers to “giấy” in Vietnamese language whereas
“money” is equivalent to “tiền” Therefore, “tiền giấy” is a literal translation of “paper money”
10 The functions
of money
Chức năng của tiền tệ
Function is “a special activity or purpose of a person or thing” and is equivalent to “chức năng” in Vietnamese language whereas
“money” is equivalent to “tiền tệ” Hence, the provided Vietnamese equivalent is merely a literal translation of the original term
Trang 34equivalent to “trao đổi” The Vietnamese equivalent “phương tiện trao đổi” is just a combination
of literal meanings of individual words of the initial term “medium
of exchange”
12 Measure of
value
Chức năng đo lường giá trị
Because the term “measure of value” is used to talk about the functions of money, the words
“chức năng” are put into the Vietnamese equivalent and do not affect much the meaning Measure
is “an instrument such as a stick, a long tape or a container that is marked with standard units and is used for measuring” and equivalent
to “thước đo” However, the word
“thước” is omitted by the author without impacting original meaning
of the word “measure” Value is
“how much something is worth in money or other goods for which it can be exchanged” and equivalent
to “giá trị” in Vietnamese language
In short, the provided Vietnamese equivalent is a literal translation of the original term with insignificant changes that do not affect the
Trang 35conveyed meaning
13 Reserve fund Quỹ dự trữ Reserve is “a supply of something
that is available to be used in the future or when it is needed” and equivalent to “nguồn dự trữ” whereas fund is “an amount of money that has been saved or has been made available for a particular purpose” and equivalent to “quỹ” in Vietnamese language Hence, it is obvious that “quỹ dự trữ” is merely the literal translation of “reserved fund” in a reverse word order
4.1.3 Calque
There are 192 cases of calque found being utilized in the book
Table 3: Analysis of cases of calque being applied in chapter I of the book “English
for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm:
No English terms Vietnamese
This is a borrowed concept in Vietnamese language and has been literally translated with
“convertible” signifying “that can
Trang 36be changed to a different form or use” being translated into “có thể chuyển đổi”
2 Foreign
currency
Ngoại tệ In the Vietnamese equivalent,
“ngoại” is a Sino-Vietnamese word equivalent to “foreign” and “tệ” to
“currency” “Ngoại tệ” is a borrowed concept and literally translated from “foreign currency”
3 Foreign
currency
account
Tài khoản ngoại tệ This concept is new in Vietnamese
language and has been literally translated into “tài khoản ngoại tệ” which is a Sino-Vietnamese phrase with “tài khoản”, “ngoại tệ” signifying “account” and “foreign currency”
4 Blocked
currency
Tiền bị phong tỏa This is a borrowed concept in
Vietnam “Tiền” is literally equivalent to “currency” and “bị phong tỏa” to “blocked”, which proves that calque is applied here
5 Devaluation of
currency
Sự phá giá tiền tệ Devaluation is defined as the
reduction of “the value of money
of one country when it is exchanged for the money of another country”, which is equivalent to “sự phá giá” “Sự phá giá tiền tệ” is a borrowed term in
Trang 37Vietnamese language and it has been literally translated from the English term “devaluation of currency”
6 Currency of
payment
Đồng tiền thanh toán
“Payment” is “the act of paying somebody/something or of being paid” and its Vietnamese equivalent is “sự thanh toán”
“Currency of payment” is a
„universal‟ term but just a loan word in Vietnamese language and literally translated by the author
7 Floating
currency
Đồng tiền thả nổi “Floating” generally means “not
fixed permanently in one particular position or place” In economics,
“if a country floats its country‟s money or allows it to float, iti allows its value to change freely according to the value of the money of other countries” Hence,
“floating currency” is a borrowed concept in Vietnamese language and literally translated as “đồng tiển thả nổi” by the author
8 Commercial
bank
Ngân hàng thương mại
“Ngân hàng thương mại” is a borrowed concept in Vietnamese culture and it is the literal translation of “commercial bank”
Trang 38with “ngân hàng” being equivalent
to “bank” and “thương mại” to
“commercial”
9 Federal reserve
system
Hệ thống dự trữ liên bang (Mỹ)
The original term is a concept from the U.S.A, so this concept is imported into Vietnamese culture rather than comes from Vietnam itself Moreover, the provided Vietnamese equivalent is exactly the literal translation of the original term with “hệ thống”, “dự trữ”, and
“liên bang” being equivalent to
“system”, “reserve” and “federal” respectively
10 Treasury
department
Bộ Ngân khố (Mỹ) The original term is of American
origin and has been literally translated into Vietnamese with
“bộ” being equivalent to
“department” (a section of a large organization such as a government, business, university, etc.) and
“ngân khố” being equivalent to
“treasury” (the government department that controls public money)
11 Automated
Telling Machine
Máy thủ quỹ tự động
This kind of machine is not of Vietnamese origin And as can be seen, the provided Vietnamese
Trang 39equivalent is literally translated from the original term with “máy”,
“thủ quỹ”, and “tự động” being equivalent to “machine”, “telling”, and “automated
4.1.4 Transposition
There are 28 cases of transposition procedure found being adopted in the book
Table 4: Analysis of cases of transposition being applied in chapter I of the book
“English for Finance and Banking” by Associate Professor Nguyễn Xuân Thơm:
No English terms Vietnamese
“sự sắp xếp, sắp đặt, thu xếp” as a noun However, in the translation
of the author, “thỏa thuận” is a verb being equivalent to “to make
an arrangement” By comparison with definition of transposition, this case undoubtedly belongs to transposition procedure
2 Debit entry Ghi vào bên nợ The original term “debit entry” is a
noun phrase with “entry” denoting
Trang 40“the act of recording information in
a computer, book, etc.” but has been turned into a verb phrase in its Vietnamese equivalent with
“ghi” being equivalent to “to record”
3 Foreign
currency
reserves
Dự trữ ngoại tệ “Dự trữ” is a verb signifying “to
reserve” whereas the original term
is a noun phrase with “reserve” being “a supply of something that
is available to be used in the future
or when it is needed” and equivalent to “nguồn dự trữ” in Vietnamese language
currency
Cung ứng tiền tệ “Supply” in this case is a noun
denoting “an amount of something that is provided or available to be used” or “the act of supplying something” and equivalent to
“nguồn cung ứng” or “sự cung ứng” However, in the provided Vietnamese equivalent, “cung ứng” is a verb denoting “to supply”
5 Currency
futures
Mua ngoại tệ giao sau
“Futures” is a noun which means
“goods or shares that are bought at agreed prices but will be delivered and paid at a later time” and