Contents
INTRODUCTION 3
CHAPTER I. ECONOMIC TEXTS IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION 5
1.1The concept of translation and a brief history of translation studies 5
1.2 Mistakes and difficulties in translating economic texts 9
1.3 Linguistic aspects of the economic term system 11
CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC TEXTS TRANSLATION 15
2.1 The difficulties of economic texts translation 15
CONCLUSION 22
BIBLIOGRAPHY 24
APPENDIX 25
CHAPTER I. ECONOMIC TEXTS IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION
1.1The concept of translation and a brief history of translation studies
This chapter sets out to examine what exactly is understood by translation, translation studies and theories, and briefly describes the history of the development and aims of translation studies as a discipline.
As a matter of fact, in the past the problem of translation was not a topic of discussions, as it was considered that language, especially its lexicon, is a simple inventory of words that has proper correspondents in other languages.
The translation itself begins with the determination of the work's genre, as the translator has to choose the vocabulary, has to reproduce different meanings of the words and for example when dealing with a literary translation, the rules are to know the language, the culture and the history of people, as well as their habits, described in the original work. So, one of the greatest accomplishments of a good translation is an excellent knowledge of the two languages and cultures [1;74].
Regarding the possibility of translation, there are two opinions that have always contrasted and that are still present nowadays:
On the other hand, the development of the activity of translation in Renaissance period, together with its interest in antiquity, renders evident the practical difficulties of translation. The tendency of preserving the local color and the necessity of transposing the reader in another country and in another era, bring the translator face to face with new problems that are difficult to solve out. From a theoretical point of view, these hardships generated the idea that a complete translation shall never be possible.
1.2 Mistakes and difficulties in translating economic texts
The translator confronts with great difficulties when he tries to translate an old 'monument' of language into a language without any literary traditions. The precise reproduction of the content and form of the original text is a complicated task because every language has its own individual way of reflecting the environmental reality, organizing differently the data of the experience.
Although, there are inadmissible those cases of bad translation, errors or the imprecision determined by the little knowledge of the language. In a way, it's about the non-compliance with the specific of the source language, meaning that the structures of the original language are copied and that not always is chosen that construction that from a stylistic point of view reproduces exactly the original.
Frequently, one does not take into account the specific of the source language using as equivalents in their translation words that are from a different stylistic register than that of the original text, thing that leads to the alteration of the text. Many translators, in general translators without experience, use the dictionary and choose at random the first equivalent of the word in the original. One of the basic problems, when dealing with translation is choosing the correct equivalent of the word. So, the responsibility of a translator is to find that equivalent and use it in the given context.
1.3 Linguistic aspects of the economic term system
The rapid progress in our society increases the need for communication among different language communities. This development requires quick translations of specialized texts. The growing demand for specialized translations brings about a large amount of special terminology. This represents a problem for a translator, who in most cases is not a subject specialist. To find the correct translation of special terms is a laborious task. A translator, though, has a major interest in reducing the amount of time spent on translations and cannot dedicate herself to time-consuming inquiries on term equivalents.
The rapid progress in our society increases the need for communication among different language communities. This development requires quick translations of specialized texts. The growing demand for specialized translations brings about a large amount of special terminology. This represents a problem for a translator, who in most cases is not a subject specialist. To find the correct translation of special terms is a laborious task. A translator, though, has a major interest in reducing the amount of time spent on translations and cannot dedicate herself to time-consuming inquiries on term equivalents.
CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC TEXTS TRANSLATION
2.1 The difficulties of economic texts translation
Text 1 - Primera absorbs Nissan's profit by Roland Gribben
Nissan Motor Manufacturers will struggle o stay in profit this year following the launch of the new Primera model. Ian Gibson, chief executive, said yesterday the company would be "hard put" to repeat last year's net profit of £10m.
Profits will be hit by the first tranche of the £340m costs of the new car. About £25Om of the total has been spent on retooling at the Sunderland factory to accommodate the Primera, the fourth model to be produced at the plant.
Local management are hailing the car as the "coming of age" for Nissan in Europe because it is the first of the Sunderland-built range designed at the company's engineering base in Cranfield, Bedfordshire.
It will be officially launched in Britain at he Birmingham motor show on October 16. Nissan is aiming to increase production to 120.000 next year, about half the ultimate total.
Overall output this year is expected to show little change on last year's figure of 217.000 because of the model changeover and difficulties in Continental markets. Demands for the Micra during the rest of the year will dictate whether Nissan stays in the black this year.
The company plans to export the Sunderland-built Primera to 58 countries, including Japan, and says 44 British-based suppliers have benefited from the development programme.
Step I. Preparation
The first step in performing a translation is to analyze the text comprehensively since this appears to be the only way of ensuring that the source text has been correctly understood.
Step II. Pragmatic analysis
The factors of communicative situation in which the source text is used are of decisive importance for text analysis because they determine its communicative function. This leads to extra textual dimensions that are: intention, receiver, medium, place, time, occasion and function. Thus in all texts the intention is to inform the reader about how Primera will absorb Nissan's profit, about Europe's qualification for a single currency; about Eurotunnel project receiving a second change; the receiveris that reader that might be interested in knowing more about these issues (e.g. the worldwide public). This receiver "completes" the communicative function by receiving the text in a certain function based on the receiver's own expectations and on his/her own knowledge of the situation; themediumhere is a newspaper(the Daily Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, The Times).
Other important aspects to be dealt with here are: the motive, the genre, and the subject matter. The motive is that these news reports have been written because something of importance has happened. The genre, which is related to the structural aspect of the text, is an informative newspaper. The subject matter is indicated in the title (Primera absorbs Nissan's profit, Will Europe's unemployed pay the price of a single currency? Banks throw Eurotunnel a £4.7bn lifeline) which here represents a thematic programme.
CONCLUSION
This paper aimed to be a theoretical and practical approach on translation of economic texts. Chapter I (A short introduction to the theory of translation) sets out to examine a critical survey of the most important trends and contributions to translation studies and it briefly describes the history of the development of the discipline.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine what exactly is understood by translation and how each theorist approaches this domain according to his viewpoint and field of research. Mistakes and difficulties in translating economic texts) presented issues as translation quality (pointing out the errors which are circumstantial evidence of quality), errors and difficulties in translating text and last but not least the consequences of errors in professional translation. This chapter combines both theoretical and practical approaches. Chapter II (Analysis of economic texts) is a strictly practical approach on the matter of difficulties and errors of translating economic texts and deals with an analysis of economic texts that have been reviewed from three points of view: pragmatically, lexically and morphologically.
Another important issue of this paper is that when a translator engages in performing an economic translation has to take into account several aspects: to produce a coherent and cohesive translation, meaning to avoid ambiguities in the produced document; to have a general knowledge of the field(economic), to know that specific terms contain nuances that must be accounted for and some words are impossible to translate outside their context; to comply with the specific of the source language, meaning to use words that are from the same stylistic register as the original text; to avoid altering the text, introducing improper elements in the translated text or performing a literal mechanical translation; to take into account the fact that a good translator does not reproduce only the content but also the form; to eliminate from the original text all those textual elements which do not belong to the potential reader.
