Lexical problems of economic text translation.

CONCLUSION
The process of writing this research paper helps to achieve the goal pointed at the introduction. Lexical problems of economic text translation were investigated, different approaches to economic text translation were revealed. In consequence of this analysis advices for translators were formulated.
For achieving the above-mentioned goal the following tasks were completed:
- a definition to the concept of “text” is analyzed;
- the particularities of economic texts are specified and described;
- peculiarities of translating lexis in economic text are revealed;
- methods of translating lexis in economic texts are analyzed;
- lexical aspect in economic texts’ translation are investigated;
- translation of economic texts is analyzed in practice.
Conclusions that were done in the re ...

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
PART 1. DEFINITION AND PECULIARITIES OF ECONOMIC TEXTS 6
1.1 What is text: definition of the concept 6
1.2 Peculiarities of economic texts 9
PART II. SPECIAL ASPECTS OF ECONOMIC TEXT’ TRANSLATION 16
2.1 Specifics of translating lexis in economic text 16
2.2 Methods of translating lexis in economic texts 24
PART III. PRACTICAL TRANSLATION OF ECONOMIC TEXTS: PROBLEMS AND PROBABLE SOLUTIONS 27
CONCLUSION 48
APPENDIX 51
BIBLIOGRAPHY 57

INTRODUCTION
The subject of the research is especially acute because of the rapid development and improvement of international economic relations. Economic text translation is required in various situations. For instance, there are letters of intent, agreements, commercial offers and other documents of organizations dealing in the sphere of international trade. There are also economic reviews in business editions and these reviews are usually published in English. In addition, official and legal texts on economic issues deserve a special mention. They must be translated in a strong accordance with the rules of linguistic equivalence and adequacy, because misunderstanding of the rules can cause misunderstanding of key issues of economic cooperation. Lexical problems of economic text transla tion are interesting because economic and business terminology is rather different in different languages and business cultures. Nowadays there are attempts to unify business terminology.
There are two basic ways to unify business terminology. The first one is improvement of international communication in business sphere. People from different countries deciding to communicate on business purpose use English. So, business community has elaborated so called “business English” to understand each other better. The second way to unify business terminology is connected with official commercial texts that are in English. There are bilateral and multilateral treaties, unifications of commercial rules or lex mercatoria and other international binding documents on different questions in the field of economics.
The object of the research is economic text in English and in Russian.
The subject of the research is economic text translation from Russian into English and from English into Russian. There are particularities of economic text translations and there are problems connected with lexical items.
The methodology of the research is determined by the combination of philosophical methods (for instance, an analysis, a synthesis and a comparative method) and special methods of linguistics. Some specialized methods deserve special mentioning. Comparative method is necessary to show the difference in economic vocabulary in Russian and in English. The method of text analysis or discourse analysis is necessary because the third part of the research paper is devoted to practice. Text and translation are categories of different sciences, such as comparative linguistics, translation studies, semiotics, psycholinguistics and other related sciences. All these sciences have their own methods that can be used in the present research paper.
The goal of the present research paper is to investigate lexical problems in economic text translation, to reveal different approaches to economic text translation and to elaborate advices for translators on the investigated subject.
For achieving the above-mentioned goal one should tackle the following tasks:
- to create a definition to the concept of “text”;
- to specify the particularities of economic texts;
- to analyze specifics of translating lexis in economic text
- to analyze methods of translating lexis in economic texts ;
- to investigate lexical aspect in economic texts’ translation;
- to check theoretical conclusions in practice.
The problem of specialized text translation (including economic text translation) was researched by many linguists in Russian and abroad. There are also different scientific articles written by economists, because economists are used to deal with economic texts in origin and in translation. Economic texts also can be different: there are financial texts, marketing texts, banking texts, business texts and other texts describing special area, field of economics. These texts also can be scientific or popular.
There are some scientific works on the subject of the present paper deserving a special mention. They are written by Andrea Rosalia Olteanu, O.V. Babenko, Frank Boers, A. Dvorak and V. Novak, Jianjun Wang and Yize Fan, Jonathan Charteris-Black, Mihaela Vasiloaia, N.L. Nikulshina and N.A. Gunina, Pinfan Zhu.
The academic novelty of the present research paper is that there is no complex analysis of lexical problems in the sphere of economic translation nowadays. There are special researches of translation studies and there are special researches of economic terminology in native languages of the authors of such researches. The present research paper is an attempt to combine linguistic and economic knowledge and to describe the ways to solve lexical problems of economic text translation.
The theoretical significance of the review is extremely high because the research can be helpful for postgraduate students writing their thesis or research papers and for students of the departments of translation studies. It worth mentioning that there are different textbooks on business English, but in spite of this fact there is no contemporary fundamental works on the problems of theory of translation of specialized texts in the field of economics. So, the research paper might be useful for junior scientist planning to study linguistics. As the subject of the present research is connected with lexical aspects, methods of lexicology might be the most appropriate.
The practical significance is determined by providing translators and economists working in international corporations with new information in their professional field. Therefore they can use new information in their daily work. This research paper helps them to achieve equivalent and adequate translation in complicated cases.
The structure of the present review is defined by the introduction, three parts and the conclusion. The first part is about theoretical background. It includes a paragraph about the concept of text and a paragraph about essence of specialized texts’ translation. The second part is connected with the methods and lexical aspects of economic texts’ translation. The third part contains analysis of economic texts’ translation from English into Russian.
Practical part consists of translation examples’ analysis.
There are 70 sentences that are examples in this research paper. There are examples from official texts, from contracts on economic matters, from classic scientific works on economics and from business press. All the examples are provided by the comments.
The sources are the following:
- Convention on the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development;
- Templates of agreements;
- Webmoney agreements;
- FATF official documents;
- Kenneth Arrow “Social choice and individual values”;
- Michael Porter “Competitive Strategy”;
- Euronews (section “Business”).
As one can see, all the examples in the practical part of the present research paper are connected with economics, but these examples from different sources are various. They have different style, different purpose of communication and different audience. There are scientific texts (Kenneth Arrow “Social choice and individual values” and Michael Porter “Competitive Strategy”), official texts (Convention on the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, FATF official documents) and popular texts, business press news (Euronews – section “Business”). There are classic economic texts (Kenneth Arrow “Social choice and individual values”) and modern texts (Webmoney agreements). So, this variety will help to reveal all the peculiarities of economic text translation and study methods of translating professional lexis.

For example, the field of change in economic English has more subdivisions including verbs showing an upward trend (bounce back; climb; escalate; go up; grow; improve; increase; leap; jump; pick up; rally; recover; rise; rocket; shoot up; soar; surge; take off), verbs showing a downward trend (come down; crash; decline; decrease; dip; drop; fall; fall off; go down; plummet; plunge; shrink; slide; slump), verbs showing no change (flatten out; hold steady; level off; level out; settle down; stabilize; stagnate; stand around; stick at around; stay steady) and verbs showing fluctuation (change; fluctuate; oscillate). A variety of general or more specific verbs are used to express the idea of change and they range from the informal to the formal register asking for similar counterparts when translated into Russian. The problem is that the more detailed a semantic field is in a given language, the more different it is likely to be from related semantic fields in other languages. There generally tends to be more agreement among languages on the larger headings of semantic fields and less agreement as the sub-fields become more finely differentiated.The (technical) translation of economic texts is a demanding process, requiring accuracy  –  and even exactitude. Therefore, consistency is a prerequisite, as the uniform use of terminology eliminates misunderstanding, but there is also scope for creativity and flexibility in the process of ‘building’ the target text. Finding or creating the proper equivalences, employing the appropriate syntactic or grammatical structures, and collaborating with an expert that has knowledge of the field can lead to a professionally written and edited text in the target language that ideally would not ‘reveal’  its identity as a translated text from the source language. Given the vast heterogeneity in the field of ‘economic translation’, translators cannot pretend to be the know-it-all experts, in the same way that experts cannot become linguists, translators and language engineers. The former possess the art and craft (the skills and ‘tools’, in other words), while the latter can provide perspective and help with difficult ‘spots’  at the paradigmatic level, mainly. Although translation is often a ‘misinterpreted’  science (or/and art), it is vain to defend against a potential usurpation of its field by non-professional practitioners who possess a sound knowledge of terminology (or even the ‘special’ language of economics)  –  but who, nevertheless, cannot guarantee that they will be able to integrate it in a seamless way with the ‘general’ language that is the greatest part of even technical texts. The special language cannot exist without the normal, everyday language, which is the vehicle that can convey meaning by forming comprehensible sentences. As a relay team can run 400 meters faster than an individual athlete, we need to think as teams, too, and learn to ask for feedback, find out pragmatic elements that are essential in attributing the correct meaning to a term or an utterance, and collaborate both during translating (or, simply, ‘re-writing’ in the target language) and  during the phase of post-editing(especially if machine translation has been used) in order to be able to achieve the best possible results and create a target text of ‘publishable’ quality. As Robinson puts it, an experienced translator ‘has a better sense of when it is all right to admit ignorance’; and doing so ‘is not only acceptable without loss of face, but a sign of professionalism. Finally, both translating and paraphrasing require the scientific analysis that sets limits even to a professional translator’s ‘galloping craftsmanship’ in a concrete and universally acceptable way. That knowledge, paired with skill and experience, is and will remain irreplaceable, because it is not the product of a momentary fascination with the source text and subsequent inspiration; it is the outcome of a long and serious process of ‘toil’, coupled with sensitivity and accountability.As it is underlined by Nikulshina N.L. and Gunina N.A., the vocabulary of professional communication in economic context is far from being uniform. It consists of three layers: 1) general (neutral) vocabulary; 2) terminology; 3) professionalisms.Translation of lexis belonging to different layers complies with different rules.1. General (neutral) vocabulary.General vocabulary includes the most common words used regardless of the style of speech. It can be found in all types of oral and written utterances. It includes most of the nouns (conflict, resource, world, life, progress), adjectives (right, general, potential, present), verbs (make, mean, read), all numerals and pronouns, most adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. These words in economic texts should be translated in the same way as they are translated in general texts. One should take into account cases when the word exists in general text and in economic text, but its definition is not the same. For instance, it is a term for economics, but it also has another meaning and its second meaning is known for average people. In this case, of course, the word should be regarded as a special term, it is not an item of general (neutral) vocabulary.2. Terminology. Terminological vocabulary includes words or phrases that nominate special concepts in different spheres of science and manufacture. Any term is based on the definition of the reality designated by it, therefore a term is an accurate and at the same time concise description of an object or phenomenon. Every branch of knowledge operates its own terms, which make up the terminological system of this science. Terminological vocabulary is in its turn subdivided into several layers: a) first of all, these are general scientific terms that are used in various fields of knowledge and belong to scientific style of speech in general, e.g.: analyze, function, identify, significant. These terms form a common conceptual basis which various sciences share and have the highest frequency of use; b) specialized terms that are assigned to specific scientific disciplines, sectors of manufacture and technology, for example in the economics: equilibrium price, quantity demanded, frictional unemployment, entity. These terms form the essence of every science. Terms that are used in various fields of knowledge are translated in a general way if target language has no special term for this particular meaning.Terms that are specific for particular science or field, can have analogous terms in target language or to be a lexical lacuna. If a term has an equivalent in a target language, there is no problem of translation. If a term is lacuna, it can be translated by descriptive phrase.3. Professionalisms.Professionalisms are words and expressions peculiar to the speech of a professional group. Unlike terms, they do not form a system, since a professional name is often either conditional or built on a metaphor. In contrast to a professionalism, a term (a scientific notion) tends to reveal the essence of the concept. Economic vocabulary includes names of phenomena and concepts of socioeconomic and political spheres. As such, it is an actual part of the lexical system of any language. Developing and changing alongside with society, economic terms reflect the history of economic forms and ideas. The economic system of the country is closely linked to its social and political life. As a consequence, socio-political terms tend to penetrate into economic terminology, e.g.: strike, full employment, privatization, price denationalization, public ownership, redistribution of income. On the other hand, economic terms, in their turn, are included in the field of social and political terminology. Among economic terms one can find both the terms that are not familiar to a wide range of speakers, e.g.: futures, warrant, dispatch, factoring, and the terms that are well known to the vast majority of the speakers, e.g.: market, demand, employment, tax, interest rate, debt.Professionalisms are frequently international. For instance, such terms as market, consignment, franchising, license, inflation, and devaluation present in every European language. These terms have Latin origin. O.B. Babebko notes that the main task in translation of terminology consists in building a terminological data base containing relevant terms. Special languages are subsets of the set of language as a whole. Among these subsets is also general language. Every single language for special purposes can be said to "intersect with general language, with which it not only shares features but also maintains a constant exchange of units and conventions." Further, special languages also intersect with each other. Special languages differ from general language particularly in their specialized vocabulary, or terminology; further in the structural characteristics of sentences. Language for special purposes is understood as a language which "is produced by a specific society and used by the group of people sharing the same profession or subject." When talking about special languages one has to be conscious of the fact that among these subsets of language there are fields which have very little in common with each other, not only concerning the knowledge required but also as regards linguistic features. Sager, Dungworth and McDonald distinguish three fields of investigation of language: the field of pragmatics, of semantics, and of syntax. These fields are the basis for the description of language for special purposes and for a classification of special language according to models.Languages for special purposes 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”.Language for special purposes is a language which is produced by a specific society and used by the group of people sharing the same profession or subject. The differences discovered during comparison of some terms in two different languages on the semantic level are presented by three aspects: - the divergence in morphological and syntactical structure; - the divergence grammatical structure; - the divergence in lexical structure; - the divergence in lexico-grammatical structure. Table 2 illustrates different types of the above-mentioned differences in English and Russian languages.EnglishRussiandivergence in morphological and syntactical structureconsumer demandпотребительский спросcredit ratingкредитный рейтингinterest incomeпроцентный доходparent companyматеринская компания (общество)divergence grammatical structurerisk figureпоказатель рынкаcapital marketрынок капиталаincome taxналог на прибыльorder inflowпоступление заказовshare turnoverоборот акцийdivergence in lexical structureaccounting conventionметод бухгалтерского учетаbuilding of competenciesповышение квалификацииutilization of lossesпогашение убытковdivergence in lexico-grammatical structureinventoryтоварно-материальные запасыmaintenanceтехническое обслуживаниеnomineeноминальный акционерinequivalent terms (lexical lacunas)custodianпопечитель (банк или другая организация, которая принимает на хранение финансовые активы или иные ценности)temporary differenceвременная разница1. Разница между величиной прибыли по данным бухгалтерского учета и налогооблагаемой прибылью, возникающая за счет признания доходов и расходов в бухгалтерском и налоговом учете в разных периодах.2. Отклонение балансовой стоимости статьи актива или обязательства от их налоговой базы.termination income benefitДенежное пособие, выплачиваемое по истечении срока действия договораmortgage backed liabilityОбязательства, обеспеченные залогом недвижимостиvaluation allowanceРазрыв по переоценке (на переоценку), оценочный резерв, резерв под изменение стоимости активов.So, as one can see from the table represented above divergence is usual for economic texts. Moreover, there are lexical lacunas that can be translated by another language only by explanation, not by a word or phrase.L. L. Nelubin has analyzed a massive of English economic texts and has made a conclusion about frequency of cases of divergence. So, if the number of lacunas (lexical, cultural and lacunas of other types) are 100%, percentage for each type of divergence is the following:- 29% for divergence in grammatical structure;- 27% for inequivalent terms (lexical lacunas);- 16% for divergence in lexical structure;- 14% for divergence in morphological and syntactical structure;- 14% for divergence in lexico-grammatical structure.So, one can see that the sum for inequivalent terms (lexical lacunas) and divergence in lexical structure is 43%.Ioanna Claudia Horea thinks that when dealing with borrowing, or international words, there is no particular need for sophisticated explanations except mentioning this particular nature of the word – when the aforementioned word’s equivalent in English is required, which is, generally, in the case of translations. Words like economy, international, management, marketing, finance, bank, piracy etc. are normally known or felt as familiar and, more often than not, when a text in the mother tongue is given for translation into English, such notions are ‘back-translated’ without difficulty. Compound words in the field of Business English are a category that can offer incentive devices. Besides being a very large category, as quite many notions in business language are formed from more basic terms to get a suggestive structure, they are interesting to work with, from first considering both the separate meanings of the composing words and the resulting one, of the new structure, to the actual way of dealing with them, as various interactive activities can be used to introduce these compounds.Juliane House wrote that English is a lingua franca for business and economics, so every year more and more English economic terms turn into international lexis.Juliane House is interested in applied and computer linguistics. Her program has confirmed her statement. This trend as well as the above findings of our qualitative analyses with respect to a takeover of Anglo-American text conventions in German translations and an orientation to Anglo-American text patterns in German monolingual texts were also confirmed by our interviews with representatives of translation firms, authors of guides to annual report writing in different business contexts and authors of a scientific studies on the communicative quality of letters to shareholders. The ensuing comparative analyses of English letters to shareholders and their German translations showed that the German translations underwent in the same time frame changes similar to those in the German monolingual (comparable) German texts. This variation was found to be due to the norms of the English original texts. Taken together, the analyses of English original, German translated and comparable non-translated German letters to shareholders revealed that with regard to mood, modality and narrative sequences an adaptation to Anglo-American conventions was noticeable, with the variation observed in the translations being generally more marked than those occurring in the monolingual German comparable texts.So, in the case of lexical lacunas Juliane House advices translators to save English terminology in target language and to explain the meaning of special term or professionalism. The term can be transferred by transcription or transliteration.Analysis of specifics of translating lexis in economic texts has culminated in the following conclusions:Firstly, the differences are discovered during comparison of some terms in Russian and English languages by different aspects. So, one can see divergence in morphological and syntactical structure, divergence in grammatical structure, divergence in lexical structure and divergence in lexico-grammatical structure. There also so-called lexical lacunas. It is possible to find equivalents in target language to translate them. The subject or phenomena comprising the meaning of lexical lacunas is absent in the target language. Such lacunas can be translated only by a wide explanation. A translator also can choose transliteration or transcription, but nevertheless he or she should explain this subject or phenomenon that is unknown for recipients.Secondly, the main task in translation of terminology consists in building a terminological data base containing relevant terms. Special languages are subsets of the set of language as a whole. Among these subsets is also general language. Every single language for special purposes can be said to "intersect with general language, with which it not only shares features but also maintains a constant exchange of units and conventions." The vocabulary of professional communication in economic context is far from being uniform. It consists of three layers: general (neutral) vocabulary; terminology; and professionalisms. words in economic texts should be translated in the same way as they are translated in general texts. Terminological vocabulary includes words or phrases that nominate special concepts in different spheres of science and manufacture. Terms that are used in various fields of knowledge are translated in a general way if target language has no special term for this particular meaning. Terms that are specific for particular science or field, can have analogous terms in target language or to be a lexical lacuna. If a term has an equivalent in a target language, there is no problem of translation. If a term is lacuna, it can be translated by descriptive phrase. Professionalisms are frequently international. For instance, such terms as market, consignment, franchising, license, inflation, and devaluation present in many language. The reason is that English is a lingua franca in international business and the USA is the leading country in the world’s economy.2.2 Methods of translating lexis in economic textsFirstly, it is necessary to research methods of translating lexical lacunas, because as it was revealed in the previous paragraph economic texts have many lexical lacunas.Ways to translate inequivalent terms are the following: - selection of term or current word (or word combination) with close meaning in the target language;- transcribing;- transliteration; - descriptive (explanatory) translation.The first way of translation (selection of term or current word (or word combination) with close meaning in the target language) is the worst way among the above-mentioned ways. There a lot of inequivalent economic terms meaning something that is absent in business culture of recipients whose mother-tongue is the target language. The main purpose of communication is to achieve understanding between the addressor of the message and the recipient of the message. In this case understanding is absolutely impossible.Transcribing and transliterating is a successful method of translation when recipients are acquainted with similar words or words with the same morphological root. For instance, it is appropriate way to translate terms with Latin origin. Descriptive (explanatory) translation is the best way to show to the recipients the meaning and the sense of the term, its denotatum. Terms usually don’t have connotative meaning.Pinfan Zhu confirmed that in the case of specializes texts’ translation the most important task is to reach pragmatic (not semantic or syntactic equivalence). The reason is that specialized language is always a language of purpose. The criterion of aesthetical equivalence is not of great value, for economic information is more about facts, statistics, procedures, and truth.