Equivalence in english vietnamese translation of financial terms

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 nguyễn xuân thơm, 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 S PHM TING ANH

KHO LUN TT NGHIP

tính t-ơng đ-ơng trong dịch anh việt
các thuật ngữ tài chính

Giỏo viờn hng dẫn: PGS. TS Nguyễn Xuân Thơm
Sinh viên: Phùng Thị Hồng Anh
Khoá: QH 2009

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

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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

ii


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.

iii


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

iv


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

v


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

vi


ABBREVIATIONS

ST

Source text

SL

Source language

TL

Target language

WTO

World Trade Organization

vii


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.

1


2. The structure of the study
This study consists of three main parts, each part would be divided into some
chapters
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Development
Chapter 1: Literature review
Chapter 2: Methodology
Chapter 3: Findings of the study
Part 3: Conclusion
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

2


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

3


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

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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‟ (thơn tính), „take out‟ (rút vốn ra), „take-over‟ (tiếp
quản/thơn tính), „write-back‟ (bút tốn lại/vào sổ lại), „write-down‟ (bút tốn giảm),
„write-off‟ (bút tốn xóa bỏ), „write-up‟ (bút tốn 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

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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 khơng phải bằng phương tiện truyền thơng đại chúng‟ and so on; phrasal
verbs such as “to buy out - mua thơn tính”, “to bring /carry forward - mang sang”,
“to carry down - mang xuống”, “to take out - rút (vốn) ra”, “to take over - tiếp quản
/mua thơn tính”, “to write back - bút tốn 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”, “payin-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
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

6


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

7


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

8


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

9


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

10


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 sourceoriented theory, others regarded the target-oriented theories. There are also theorists

11


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

12


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
13


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 to 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.

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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).
Transposition
Shift or transposition involves a change in the grammar/part of speech from SL to
TL.
Modulation
Modulation means that a variation in the message when it is translated into a target
language due to a change in the point of view such as one part – another, passive –
active, positive – double negative (South China Sea – Biển Đông, undoubtedly –
chắc chắn, did not deny – thừa nhận)

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Cultural equivalence
A SL culture word/expression is translated by a TL culture word considered
equivalent to it (He graduated after obtaining a degree with high distinction – Anh
ta tốt nghiệp loại giỏi/xuất sắc).
Functional equivalent
It is the using of a culture – free word/expression in a translation for a culture
word/expression in the source text (Pentagon – lầu năm góc)
Descriptive equivalent
With descriptive equivalent, the meaning of the original word is explained in
several words. It is often used with transference to translate a culture
word/expression.

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

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