The translation of health insuracne terms of non-equivalence group

DECLARATION
This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any
other degree or diploma in any university or tertiary institution, and to the best of my
knowledge and belief, neither does it contain material previously published or written
by another person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text.
Signature
Vũ Thị Thanh Yến
1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
On the completion of this thesis, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến who gave me benefit of his wisdom and
his expert knowledge in translation as well as his constant encouragement from the
beginning stage of working out the research proposal to the final stage of writing up
the thesis. Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this study could
not have been completed.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Mrs. Rosemary Nguyen who helped shape
the idea for my thesis, giving me her practical guidance, assisting me with data
collection and sharing with me her long and varied experience in the translation of
health insurance terms in the US health plans.
I take this opportunity to express my sincere thank to all lecturers in
Postgraduate Department at College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi for their useful lectures during my M.A course.
Finally, I would also like to thank my parents who have been a constant source
of encouragement, support, love and care during the course of my writing.
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ABSTRACT
The need for the translation of US health plans into Vietnamese is a matter-of-
fact since there are already a number of American insurer carriers operating in
Vietnam, and many more are expected to enter such a potential market of more than
80 million people. However, it is not an easy task at all due to sharp differences in the
sub-culture of health insurance between the US and Vietnam.

This thesis titled “A study on the equivalence between English and Vietnamese
translation of insurance terms in US health insurance”, therefore, is an attempt to
find out the differences and similarities between English HI terms and their
Vietnamese equivalents, and to draw out the strategies/procedures/methods that are
appropriate to the translation of HI terms in the US health plans into Vietnamese.
Hopefully, the research may make a contribution to the translation of HI terms and
will be of some help to insurance circle, especially translators with little experience of
doing the translation in the field.
To this end, the paper identifies the equivalence relationships and classifies
terms according to their structural patterns. More importantly, the research paper
focuses on working out strategies/procedures/methods that can be best applied to the
translation of terms of equivalence and non-equivalence groups. Suggestions for
translation strategies/procedures/methods are also made so that translators may have
an idea of what strategies/procedures/methods can be used to deal with certain groups
of terms.
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ABBREVIATIONS
1. BH: Bảo hiểm
2. BHYT: Bảo hiểm y tế
3. BHSK: Bảo hiểm sức khoẻ
4. HI: Health insurance
5. SL: Source language
6. TL: Target language
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Scope of the study 2
3. Aims of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 2

5. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
I. 1.Terminology 4
I.1.1. Definition 4
I.1.2. General features of terminology 4
I.1.3. Term creation 6
I.2. English single words and compounds in comparison
with the Vietnamese ones 7
I.3. Translation theory 7
I.3.1. Definition of translation 7
I.3.2. Translation equivalence 8
I.3.3. Translation methods, strategies and procedures 10
I.3.4. Technical translation 11
I.4. Translation of terminology 11
I.5. Chapter conclusion 13
CHAPTER II: THE TRANSLATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE
TERMS OF EQUIVALENCE GROUP 14
II.1. An overview of equivalence relationships in the translation of health
insurance terms 14
II.2. Classification of health insurance terms in the US health
insurance plans according to their structural patterns 17 II.2.1.
Single terms 17
II.2.2. Compound terms 19
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II.3. The common strategies and procedures used in the translation
of health insurance terms of non-equivalence group 19
II.3.1. The translation of single terms – Old words with new senses 23
II.3.2. The translation of compound terms by rank shift or transposition 24
II.3.3. The translation strategy which involves the deletion of “OF” 26

II.4. Concluding remark 26
CHAPTER III: THE TRANSLATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE TERMS
OF NON-EQUIVALENCE GROUP 28
III.1. The source of non-equivalence problem in the translation
of health insurance terms in the US health plans 28
III.2. The strategies, procedures and methods used in dealing
with non-equivalence problem in the translation of health insurance
terms in the US health plans 29
III.2.1. The translation of terms by transference procedure
(the use of loan words) 30
III.2.2. The translation of terms by paraphrase 32
III.2.3. The translation of terms with communicative method 34
III.2.4. Literal translation 37
III.3. Concluding remarks 38
PART C: CONCLUSION 39
1. The terms of equivalence group 39
2. The terms of non-equivalence group 39
3. Suggestion for the methods, procedures and strategies 40
4. Suggestion for further studies 42
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Since Viet Nam has successfully gained its accession to WTO, and the Bush
administration has granted Vietnam with Permanent Normal Trading Status (PNTR), a wide
range of actors, including US enterprises, is expected to be here. It is also envisaged that US
HI providers will do business in our country, hence a demand for the translation work in the
field will be inevitable. The problem lies in the fact that sharp differences in the US HI and
the Vietnamese one result in several diffrent HI plans between the two countries.

Undoubtedly, this will pose a great obstacle to translators due to their insufficient knowledge
about the two different sub-cultures of health insurance. They may have to squeeze their
brain to convey the true essence of each kind of health plans from English in Vietnamese.
In the USA, quite a few Vietnamese-American are full time employees in American
companies and factories, hence eligible to HI coverage offered by their employers. Annually,
the companies and factories have the so-called enrollment for their employees to enroll for
health benefits or to choose the health plan that best benefits them. To guarantee that their
employees do not end up in wrong decisions, which goes in counter with their benefits due
to the failure to understand HI plans written in English, they have them translated by
Vietnamese and native American translators.
In Vietnam, though translators do not have to translate such HI plans for clients, they still
have to translate a number of presumably popular HI terms, including many in the US HI
plans for at least insurance-majored students or for training courses held by some insurance
carriers.
Having studied and compared the original and the translated versions by different
translators, I have come up with an idea of making an investigation into how HI terms in the
US HI plans are currently dealt with. Hopefully, the study, titled “A study on the
equivalence between English and Vietnamese translation of insurance terms in US HI
plans”, may be of some use to those who have been and will do translation in the field.
2. Scope of the study
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Within limited time, resources, conditions, and the length of the thesis, the researcher
focuses only on HI terms collected from HI plans. Disability income insurance which is also
a sub-type of the US HI is excluded from the study.
Such is the boundary set for my thesis so as to achieve a thorough investigation.
Specifically, the study takes into consideration such major aspects as follows:
• classification of equivalence relationships
• structural patterns of HI terms in English
• their translations
3. Aims of the study

• To work out the similarities and differences between English terms and their
Vietnamese equivalents
• To draw out the strategies/procedures/methods that may apply to the translation
of HI terms, especially to the translation of non-equivalence terms in the US HI
plans into Vietnamese
4. Methods of the study
4.1. Research questions
a. What are the similarities and differences between English terms and their Vietnamese
equivalents?
b. What are strategies/procedures/methods that are appropriate to the translation of HI
terms in the US insurance plans?
4.2. Research methods
On the completion of the thesis, the researcher went through the following steps:
 Building up a theoretical background by reviewing translation and terminology
 Collecting and grouping English insurance terms in the US insurance plans and their
Vietnamese equivalents for description, analysis and induction
 Drawing out strategies, procedures and methods in the translation of HI terms
The main method is contrastive analysis.
4.3. Data collection
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The English HIterms studied are taken from the US insurance health plans and their
equivalents are picked out from the translations by native American and Vietnamese-
American translators living in the US and those in charge of translation work in Bảo Việt,
Pjico, Prudential, and Aoncare which are big insurer carriers in Vietnam.
5. Design of the study
The study consists of three main parts, references and appendices as follows:
 Part A: Introduction
The rationale for the study, scope, aims, methods and design of the study are orderly
presented in this part.
 Part B: Development

There are three chapters in this part:
Chapter I: Theoretical background
The theory of translation and terminology will be dealt with in this chapter.
Chapter II: The translation of HI terms of equivalence group
This chapter features an investigation into the equivalence between English and
Vietnamese translation of HI terms in the US health plans. Accordingly, how HI
terms in the US health plans are currently translated and what strategies/procedures/
methods are employed are the focus of the research.
Chapter III: The translation of HI terms of non-equivalence group
This chapter examines how non-equivalence problem in the translation of HI terms in
the US health plans is solved by available translation strategies, procedures and
methods.
 Part C: Conclusion
The conclusion summaries the strategies, procedures and methods of translation as
well as makes relevant suggestions.
The appendixes give more examples of different groups of HI terms.
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
I. 1.Terminology
I.1.1. Definition
Terminology has been defined variously by many different linguists, either native or
Vietnamese. Chau, D.H (1981) claims “Terms are specialists words used within a specific
field, a profession or any technological field”. To identify technical term, he states
“Scientific and technical terminology consists of lexical units used to denote phenomenal
objects, activities …in industrial technologies and natural or social sciences”. Sharing some
common features in content with the one by Chau, though put differently, the definition
proposed by Giap, N.T (1998) seems to be more informative: “Terminology, understood as a
special linguistic unit of language, consists of word and fixed phrase that provides precise
definition and objectives that belong to particular scientific area.”

Such definitions can serve as a foundation on which we can base our distinction
between terms and words. In fact, Baker (1998:261) puts that “Terms differ from words in
that they are endowed with a special forms of reference, namely that they refer to discrete
conceptual entities, properties, activities or relations which constitute the knowledge space
of a particular subject field”. Accordingly, further important differences between terms and
words are as follows:
1. Terms have special reference within a particular discipline whereas words
function in general reference over a variety of subject fields.
2. Terms keep their lives and meanings only for as long as they serve the system of
knowledge they gave rise to them.
In other words, terms together with words and proper names constitute the general
class of lexical items. Names refer individually to objects and people; words refer arbitrary
boundary between terms and words is not a clear-cut, i.e. many terms become ordinary
words when they are used in specialized field.
I.1.2. General features of terminology
Since terminology is not allowed to carry the speaker’ attitude, figurative sense,
compliment or criticism, it should possess the following qualities: accurateness,
10
systematicism, internationalism, popularity and nationality as claimed by Giap, N.T (1998)
and Lang, L.V (1977). They will be briefly presented in the next part.
I.1.2.1. Accurateness
A term needs to be accurate and clear because basically it reflects an exact concept of
a science. If a term is of absolute accuracy, people never mistake one concept for another.
Once a word has become a term, it no longer has connotational, emotional meaning; it also
loses its polysemousness, synonymousness and antonymousness. In short, terminology
necessarily works on the principle that “one concept has only one term for it, and one term
indicates only one concept”. This relationship is called the one-to-one equivalent between a
concept and a term.
I.1.2.2. Systematicism
Any field of sciences has its own limited system of concepts, which are named by a

system of terms. Therefore, each item has its own position in the system of concepts and
belongs to a terminological system. As a result, a term loses its value when isolated from
system. In short, a term has to be a dependent member of its system.
I.1.2.3. Internationalism
Terms are used internationally because they are special words expressing common
scientific concepts to people of different languages. Therefore, it is useful to agree on terms
to be used among languages in order to push up the development of science. The
international links in science result in a number of terms presented in many different
languages. For example, video, radio, telephone…are found in French, German, English and
Vietnamese…with little difference in form.
I.1.2.4. Popularity
Terms need to be popular in the sense that they should be close to the language of the
masses, which is to say easy-to-remember, easy-to-understand and easy-to-remember, since
they will help bring knowledge to and benefit men of all walks of life.
I.1.2.5. Nationality
Though belonging to a particular subject field, terms are still a part of a language
system of a nation. They, therefore, possess all the characteristics and colors of a nation
language. Put differently, they should be made from the materials of the national language in
terms of lexicology, forms and grammar.
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I.1.3. Term creation
Since terms are to name concepts, so whenever a concept appears, is made in a
culture, or translated to a new culture, it involves the creation of a new term to name it.
I.1.3.1 .Primary and secondary term creation
Primary and secondary terms formation are governed by different influences:
• Primary term formation occurs when a newly created concept has to be
named wile secondary term formation occurs as a result of either (1) the
monolingual revision of given terminology, for example, the purpose of
producing a standard document, or (2) a transfer of technology to an other
linguistic community-a process which requires the creation of new term in

the target language.
• Anther fundamental differences between the two formation methods lies in
the fact that in primary term formation, there is no linguistic precedent
although there are rules for forming appropriate terms. On the contrary, in
secondary term formation, there is always the precedent of an already
existing term in another language with its own motivation.
• Secondary term formation is more often subject to guidelines than primary
term formation which are on the basis of patterns terms and words formation
already prevalent in the subject field and natural language in question.
(Baker, M: 1998)
I.1.3.2 .Guidance on the creation of terms
• Terms should consistently reflect some key features of the concepts they are
liked to in order to facilitate precise reference. At the same time, they should
be as economical as possible without giving rise to homonymy.
• Terms should be lexically systematic and should conform to the phonological
and morphological rules of the language.
• Terms must conform to the general rules of word-formation of the language
or they should allow composition and derivation where appropriate.
• The meaning of the term should be recognizable independently of any
specific context.
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Those are advices from International Organization for Standard (ISO 1995) (cited in
Bac, N.T, 2003)
I.2.English single words and compounds in comparison with the Vietnamese
ones
Single and compound words in Vietnamese have been defined by many established
linguists. Châu, Đ.H (1981:40) defines single words as one-morpheme words. He also claims
that the majority of Vietnamized single words are monosyllabic. The number of polysyllabic
simple words such as bù nhìn (scarecrow), ếch ương (frog), mồ hôi (sweat) is relatively
small. According to Cẩn, N.T. (1999: 51), a Vietnamese syllable, in most cases, corresponds

to a word, whereas compounds are comprised of at least two words that normally can exist
independently and seperately from each other.
Nguyen Hiet Chi and Le Thuoc (1935) defined that ‘Compound words are words
with at least two roots; namely, words in their structures, have at least two morphemes which
are not affixationals but root morphemes’.
Unlike a Vietnamese single word that is formed by only one morpheme in most
normal cases, a single word in English contains at east one morpheme. In fact, a single word
in English is defined as a sound or a combination of sounds that symbolizes and
communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of
morphemes. (TheFreeDictionary at: www.thefreedictionary.com/ - 74k - Jul 13, 2007). For
example, the single word ‘need’ has only one morpheme, but ‘inconceivable’ written as a
single word has three morphemes: in, meaning ‘not’, conceive meaning ‘think or imagine’,
and able meaning ‘able to be, fit to be’. One important feature of morpheme is that some just
have grammatical functions such as making plurality (limitations), and tense (insured).
Compound words in English share certain common features with the Vietnamese
ones. Take now a definition of compounds as illustration. Jackson and Amvela (2000:70)
stated that compounds may be defined as stems consisting of more than one roots. (cited in
Hien, T.T.T, 2005).
I.3. Translation theory
I.3.1. Definition of translation
Kelly, L.G-a prominent figure in linguistic circle stated “Without translation, there is
no history of the world”. How can it that be? What has he based on to make such a claim?
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And what is translation that is of great importance as implied by Kelly? In an attempt to find
the answer to the last question, I have find myself thrown into confusion by quite a few
definitions proposed by different linguists. Follows are some of them:
According to Cartford (1965), translation is “the replacement of a text in one
language (SL) by an equivalent text in another language (TL)”. In Bell, R.T (1991:5), the
author collected and edited the following definition: “Translation is the expression in
another language (or TL) of what has been expressed in another, SL, preserving semantic

and stylistic equivalences.” Hatim & Mason (1990:3), however, focus more on the
communicative purpose of translation rather than the semantic and stylistic features:
“Translation is a communicative process which takes place within a social context”.
Newmark (1995:5) simply defines translation as the rendering of a written text into another
language in the way the author intended in the text.”
Though put different, these definitions share one common thing, which is to find
equivalents that best or appropriately preserve features of the original in terms of semantics,
grammatical structures, lexis, cultural context as well as communication situation among
other things to be considered.
I.3.2. Translation equivalence
Equivalence has been put in the heart of almost all the theories about translation.
Hence, it is understandable that a great attempt has been made by several linguists in
defining equivalence or translation in terms of equivalence as Pym (1992, cited in Baker,
1998) who has pointed to its circularity: equivalence is supposed to define translation, in
turn, defines equivalence. A close look at different approaches to the question of equivalence
will help further illustrate the point:
Newmark (1995: 48) states: “The overriding purpose of any translation should be to
achieve ‘equivalent effect, i.e. to produce the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the
readership of translation as was obtained on the readership of the original”. According to
him, equivalence effect is regarded as the desirable result rather than the aim of any
translation except for two cases: (a) If the purpose of the SL text is to affect and the TL
translation is to inform or vice versa; (b) If there is a pronounced cultural gap between the
SL and the TL text.
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In the view of Koller (1979), there are five types of equivalence:
• Denotative equivalence: the SL and the TL words refer to the same thing in
the real world.
• Connotative equivalence: this type of equivalence provides additional values
besides denotative value and is achieved by the translator’s choice of
synonymous words or expressions.

• Text-normative equivalence: The SL and the TL words are used in the same
or similar context in their respective languages.
• Pragmatic equivalence: With readership orientation, the SL and TL words
have the same effect on their respective readers.
• Formal equivalence: This type of equivalence produces an analogy of form
in the translation by their exploiting formal possibilities of TL, or creating
new forms in TL.
Kade (1968) and other writers on lexical equivalence, in particular in the area of
terminology, categorizes equivalence relationships as follows:
• One-to-one: There is a single expression in the TL for a single expression in
the SL.
• One-to-many: There is more than one expression in the TL for a single SL
one.
• Many-to-one: There is more than one expression in the SL, but there is only a
single expression in the TL that is equivalent to them.
• Many-to-many: There is more than one expression in the SL and they are
equivalent to more than one in TL.
• Whole-to-part/Part-to-whole: A TL expression is only equivalent to part of
the concept designated by a single expression in the SL, or the equivalent in
the TL has a broader meaning than the concept in the SL.
• One-to-zero: There is no expression in the TL for a single expression in the
SL
The one-to-zero or nil equivalence problem has always been a big obstacle to even
experienced translators in every field.
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I.3.3. Translation methods, strategies and procedures
Due to time constraint and within the framework of the thesis, we will present only
translation methods, procedures and strategies that match the content of the study, or can
serve as a firm foundation for the research.
I.3.3.1. Literal translation

It would be useful to study word-for-word translation before having a look at what
literal translation is. Word-for-word translation, according to Newmark (1995:69), transfers
SL grammar and word order, as well as the primary meanings of all the SL words into the
translation.” This translation is supposed to be effective only for brief simple neutral
sentence. Literal translation ranges from one word to one word (hall-salle) through group
to group (a beautiful garden-un beau jardin), collocation to collocation (make a speech-
faire un discour), clause to clause (when that was done-quand cela fut fait) to sentence to
sentence (The man is in the street-L’homme e’tait dans la rue).
I.3.3.2. Communicative translation
Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the
original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and
comprehensible to the readership. Newmark (1995: 42) claims that in communicative
translation, the translator has the right to correct or improve the logic; to replace clumsy with
elegant, or at least functional, syntactic structure; to remove obscurities; to eliminate
repetition and tautology; to exclude the less likely; to exclude the less likely interpretation of
an ambiguity; to modify and clarify jargon, and to normalize bizarreries of idiolect, i.e.
wayward uses of language. Further, one has the right to correct mistakes of fact and slips,
normally stating what one has done in a footnote.
I.3.3.3. Transference
Transference is the process of transferring a SL word to a TL text, which include
loan words, transcriptions. When it comes to the role of a translator with respect to this
translation procedure, h/she has to decide whether or not to transfer a word unfamiliar in the
TL. Generally, only cultural objects or concept should be transferred to show respect for the
SL’s culture. Words and expressions that are normally transferred are: names of all living
and most dead people: geographical and topographical names including newly independent
countries except for those which already have recognized translation; Name of periodicals
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and newspapers, titles of untranslated literary works, plays, films, names of private
companies and institutions, public or nationalized institutions; street names, addresses, etc.
I.3.3.4. Shifts or transpositions

A ‘shift’ (Catford’s term) or ‘transposition’ (Vinay and Darbelnet) is a translation
procedure involving a change in the grammar from SL to TL. Newmark (1995:85) mentions
four sub-types of shifts: (1) the change from singular to plural or in the position of the
adjective; (2) the change when a SL grammatical structure does not exist in the TL. (3) the
change where literal translation is grammatically possible but may not accord with natural
usage in the TL; (4) the replacement of a virtual lexical gap by a grammatical structure.
I.3.3.5. Paraphrase
This is an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of the text.
According to Baker (1992; 40), the main advantage of the paraphrase is that it achieves a
high level of precision in specifying propositional meaning.
I.3.4. Technical translation
Newmark (1995:151), in an attempt to distinguish technical translation from
institutional translation, claims that technical translation is one part of specialized
translation, potentially non-cultural, therefore, universal.
According to Sofer (1991, cited in Mai, N, 2003), the translation of a text may be
called technical when it requires specialized terms in a particular field.
A close look at the two definitions can help identify that though put differently,
technical translation is viewed as specialized translation by both two linguists. Newmark
(1995: 152) go even further, suggesting that there are three varieties or levels of technical
language: (1) academic style associated with academic papers, (2) professional style which
refers to formal terms used by experts and (3) the popular one including familiar alternative
terms.
I.4. Translation of terminology
I. 4.1. Definition of neologisms
In the view of Newmark (1995:140), neologisms can be defined as newly coined
lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire a new sense. Neologisms are perhaps the
non-literary and the professional translator’s biggest problem. According to him, since they
usually arise first in a response to a particular need, a majority of them have a single
17
meaning and can therefore be translated out of context, but many of them soon acquire new

meanings in the target language.
Newmark (1995:141) proposes twelve types of neologism (Old words with new
senses; New coinages; Derived words; Abbreviations; Collocations; Eponyms; Phrasal
words; Trasferred words; Acronyms; Pseudo-neologisms; and The creation of neologisms)
and the way to deal with each but only the ones relevant to the study are presented below:
I. 4.2. The translation of neologisms
I. 4.2.1. Old words with new senses
Old words with new senses, as claimed by Newmark (1995: 141), do not normally
refer to new objects and processes, hence non-cultural and non-technical. They are usually
translated either by a word that already exists in the TL, or by a brief functional or
descriptive terms, say, “HI plans-chương trình BHYT” or “premium-phí BH”.
Existing collocations with new senses may be cultural or non-cultural; if the concept
or object exists in the TL, there is usually a recognized translation or through translation. If
the concept does not exist or the TL speakers are not aware of it, an economical descriptive
equivalent has to be given. ‘Reimbursement account’ proves itself a good an example.
I. 4.2.2. Collocations
Newmark (1995:145-146) claims that new collocations (noun compounds or
adjectives plus nouns) are particularly common in social sciences. Collocations or terms in
insurance such as ‘co-pay plan’, ‘Medical spending account’, or ‘Deductible plan’ can
serve as a good example. These terms represent problems as some of them like ‘Consumer
PPO plan’ do not exist in TL. And in such cases, what a translator is expected to do is to
transfer them and then add a functional-descriptive term. Otherwise, we might create our
own neologisms, but it is not as easy as it sounds.
I. 4.2.3. Acronyms
Acronyms are an increasingly common feature of all non-literary texts and an
acronym is defined by Newmark (1995: 200) as “the initial letters of words that form a
group of words used (vertiginously) for denoting an object, institution or procedure”.
Sometimes, the acronym can be specially coined for the text and can be found there, so it
would be a waste of time if one tries to look for it in the numerous reference books. What’s
more, there are many cultural reasons why the acronym may or may not be worth

transferring (depending on the standard contextual factors as readership, translation
18
prospects…). In science the letters are occasionally joined up and become internationalisms
(‘laser’, ‘master’), requiring analysis only for less educated TL readership. In translation, the
importance of the acronyms decides on the way they are translated. It can be transferred if
they stand for institutions or names of companies. When a political or social organization
become important, it is common to transfer its acronym and translate its name. A standard
equivalent term, or a descriptive term if the standard does not yet exist.
I.5. Chapter conclusion
This part has fulfilled it task of gathering information about terminology, its general
features, and the translation of terminology. The translation theory, especially a variety of
relevant translation strategies and procedures have been reviewed so that it can shed light on
how HI terms in the US HI plans are currently translated.
CHAPTER II
THE TRANSLATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE TERMS
19
OF EQUIVALENCE GROUP
II.1. An overview of equivalence relationships in the translation of HI terms
From the collected data we can group equivalence relationships into four categories,
excluding the one-to-zero which will be studied in chapter III:
• one-to-one equivalence
• one-to-many equivalence
• many-to-many equivalence
• many-to-one equivalence
The four following tables present some typical examples of each type:
One-to-one equivalence
Utilization review đánh giá mức độ sử dụng
Utilization management quản lý sử dụng
Exclusion điều khoản loại trừ
Renewability tính tái tục

Dependent người phụ thuộc
One-to-many equivalence
Group health plan BHSK theo nhóm
Chương trình sức khỏe chung
Tổ hợp BHYT lớn
Preexisting Condition Bệnh tật sẵn có
Tình trạng sức khỏe trước khi mua BH
Deductible Mức miễn thường
Khoản khấu trừ
Underinsured Được BH (thiếu/dưới mức/mua với
mức thấp)
Many-to-one equivalence
Hospitalization Insurance
Hospital expense coverage
Hospital confinement indemnity
BH chi phí nằm viện
Coordination of benefits
Duplication of benefits
phối kết hợp quyền lợi
(Waiting/elimination/qualifying) period thời gian chờ đợi
Subscriber / Participant
Enrollee
người tham gia BH
Many-to-many equivalence
Qualified impairment health insurance
Special class health insurance
Substandard health insurance
BH những người tàn tật được công
nhận đủ tiêu chuẩn
BH tình trạng suy nhược được chấp

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nhận
BHSK dưới mức tiêu chuẩn
Impaired risk
Substandard risk
rủi ro dưới mức chuẩn
rủi ro xấu
The variety of equivalence realtionships can be attributed to the following factors:
i) There is, to a more a lesser extent, some overlapped area between the US and
Vietnamese insurance as a result of Vietnam’s insurance adapted from the US
one.
ii) The various sources from which the data was collected
1. BlueCross BlueShield at:
www.southcarolinablues.com/bcbs/blue_glossary.nsf/glossary
2. United Healthcare-Trung Tâm Tài Nguyên at:
www.uhcasian.com/Vietnamese/guests/G_4_4_6.htm
3. HIresource center at:
www.healthinsurance.org/insterms.lasso
4. SHIBA HelpLine English-Vietnamese Glossary at
www.insurance.wa.gov/publications/consumer/vietnamese/Vietnamese_SHIBA_
Glossary.pdf - Supplemental Result
5. improvement and better insurance at:
www.pjico.com.vn/webplus/attachments/22ecf7c0260e8cf54e27b3531fb86963-
Voca-I1.doc - Supplemental Result
6. Thuật ngữ BH nhân thọ I-Glosary I at:
www.baoviet.com.vn
7. Vietnam Insurance Training Center
8. Aon-care Vietnam Resource Center
9. Prudential Vietnam Resource Center
Thanks to the overlap mentioned above, happy marriages in terms of HI concepts can

be found in some situations, yielding such one-to-one equivalence relationship. What the
translator has to do is just an easy job. He finds terms referring to the same concepts that are
lexicalized in Vietnamese for the terms in English. It should be noted that such an easy job
may be a hard task for those who do not have a background knowledge of HI in the two
countries or who have never met the term. Take now the term ‘renewability’. If something is
claimed to have the feature of ‘renewability’, that means it can be restarted from the
beginning, or it can grow again or is replaced after it has been destroyed or lost, or the time
for which it is valid can be extended. Therefore, if it is rendered into Vietnamese as “tính
có thể làm mới” or ‘khả năng có thể làm mới’, it seems to be quite reasonable. However, it
is not an appropriate equivalent and sounds like an explanation rather than a translation,
hence less technical and succinct than ‘tính tái tục’.
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Another confusing problem arises when there exist two or more competing terms for
the same concept in the Vietnamese version. The one-to-many equivalence relationship
serves as a vivid illustration. The translator has to struggle for a smart choice among all the
Vietnamese equivalents available to gurantee the comprehensibility of the translated version
for a particular readership. Let’s take ‘deductible’-the amount of loss that the insured pays
before the insurance kicks in- as an example of the problem. It has two Vietnamese
equivalents as “mức miễn thường” and “khoản khấu trừ”. The former is a commonly used
term among insurance circle in Vietnam, whereas the latter is used in Vietnamese
community in the US. According to a native American experienced translator, if ‘mức miễn
thường’ were used in translated versions for the readership there, it would be almost
incomprehensible though it is accurate and sounds more professional. Clearly, the readership
plays a decisive role in the translator’s choice of equivalents since what is preferred by him
may not be understandable to the intended readers.
As far as ‘many-to-one’ equivalence relationship is concerned, it poses no problem to
translators in the sense that the context in which the term is used can give the translator a
hint to figure out its meaning. And it appears that among more than one terms referring to a
same concept in the SL, there must be one which is more widely used than others. The
likelihood of encountering a completely new term used to express a common concept,

therefore, may be minimized. For example, ‘participant’ (người tham gia BH) is more
universally used than ‘subscriber’ and ‘enrollee’, with the latter making sense only in the US
sub-culture of insurance.
‘Many-to-many’ equivalence relationship, as implied by its name, refers to the
situation in which there are more than one SL expressions which are equal to more than one
equivalent in the TL. Though the translator does not have to struggle as hard as he has to do
with non-equivalence problem, he still has to put some thoughts into choosing the most
comprehensible and appropriate equivalent to specific readership when it comes to a specific
situation. For example, ‘impaired risk and ‘substandard risk’ both refer to a situation of a
person whose physical condition is less than standard or who has a hazardous occupation or
hobby. Each has its own equivalent as ‘rủi ro xấu’ and ‘rủi ro dưới mức tiêu chuẩn’
respectively. The former is highly recommended in the US for Vietnamese-American whose
level of education in not high and the latter for the opposite group. In Vietnam, both are used
equally. Again, the importance of the readership to the choice of lexical word is undeniable,
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requiring the translator to firstly characterize the readership of the TL before working on the
text.
From scratch, the researcher assumed that there would be more than one equivalence
relationships since the data was collected from different sources in Vietnam and in the US
where both American-American and Vietnamese American translators work with insurance
documents. Expectedly, however, all the translators employ common translation strategies
and procedures when dealing with HI terms in the US health plans, which will be studied
after we have investigated the structural patterns of these terms.
II.2. Classification of HI terms in the US health insurance plans according to
their structural patterns
HI terms are divided into two sub-groups according to their structural features: single
terms and compound terms.
II.2.1. Single terms
II.2.1.1. Single terms in the form of a noun
The terms that are nouns (also including those deriving from verbs) can be divided

into subgroups as follows:
Sub-insurance terms
A fairly big number of HI terms collected for this study are ordinary words that lose
their normal sense and take on the specialist meaning, e.g., the normal sense of ‘policy’ is ‘a
set of ideas or plans that is used as basis for making decisions, especially in politics,
economics or business’ (chính sách). Its specialist meaning is a document which shows the
agreement that you have made with an insurance company (đơn BH). Right below are other
examples:
English terms Vietnamese terms
participant người tham gia/mua BH
exclusions điều khoản loại trừ
rider điều khoản riêng loaị trừ
representation lời khai của người được BH
limitations điều khoản hạn chế
subscriber người tham gia/mua BH
These terms can create difficulties for translators because words commonly met in
general English take on a specialized meaning within, say, insurance context. Although the
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user already knows the general meaning, he may be thrown into confusion when coming
across it in a context with a totally different meaning he has never experienced before.
High-insurance terms
It is commonly known that every subject has its set of highly technical terms, which
is an intrinsic part of the learning of the discipline itself. Without background knowledge of
the field, it would be hard for the user to understand these terms.
Followings are good examples of high-insurance terms:
coinsurance BH phụ/đồng BH
underwriting việc xét nhận rủi ro y tế
co-payment đồng trả/cùng trả tiền
formulary thuốc khuyến cáo
reimbursement sự bồi hoàn

If equipped with little knowledge of both English language and HI in Vietnam and
the US, the user will definitely find these terms really hard-to-crack.
II.2.1.2. Single terms in the form of an adjective
Unlike technical terms in the form of a verb, almost all the terms in the form of an
adjective do not have their nouns to be used as alternatives
eligible hội đủ điều kiện
usual thông thường
reasonable vừa phải
guaranteed được đảm bảo
underinsured
uninsured
BH dưới mức
không được BH
One important feature of these adjectives is that all of them usually collate with one
or two certain nouns to form collocations:
eligible employees/dependents ( người phụ thuộc/nhân viên hội đủ điều kiện)
usual/customary/reasonable fees (phí thông thường/thông dụng/vừa phải )
guaranteed issue (quyền lợi được BH)
uninsured employees (nhân viên không được BH)
We have examined single HI terms that account for significant proportion of the total
collected terms.
II.2.2. Compound terms
These are terms which are composed of two words or more; these words, which are
of different part of speech, combine and create terms that have the form of nominal group
(Halliday’s term).
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II.2.2.1. The nominal group
It would be insufficient not to study the experiential structure of the nominal group,
so the following section will focus on such a brief investigation.
According to Halliday (1985: 180), the nominal group structure comprises the Thing,

commonly called head noun, preceded by various items including Deictic, Numerative,
Epithet, Classifier, and followed by Qualifier. The following table will exactly illustrate the
structure:
Deictic Numerative Epithet Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier
Those two splendid old electric trains with pantographs
All the items functioning as pre-modifier and post-modifier will be briefly presented
in the following table:
Item Function Example
Deictic The Deictic element indicates whether or not
some specific subset of the Thing is intended.
It is either (i) specific or (ii) non-specific
(i) This, these, my…
(ii) A, each, every…
Numerative The Numerative element indicates some
numerical feature of the subset : either (i)
quantity or (ii) order, either exact or inexact
(i) one, two
(ii) first, second, few,
little, many
Epithet This item, usually in the form of an adjective,
indicates some quality of the subset. This can
be (i) an objective property of the thing itself;
or (ii) it may be an expression of the
speaker’s subjective attitude towards it.
(i) old, short, heavy
(ii) wonderful,
splendid, silly
Classifier The Classifier indicates a particular subclass
of the thing in question. It can be (i) an
adjective or (ii) a noun.

(i) medical insurance
(ii) health insurance,
drug coverage
Thing The Thing is the semantic core of the nominal
group, which may be common noun, proper
noun, or personal noun.
Qualifier The Qualifier element follows the Thing and
characterizes it. It can be a relative clause or a
prepositional phrase.
The money which is
reimbursed to the insured
person
As far as Classifier is concerned, it needs more detailed discussion since apart from
adjectives and nouns which serve as classifiers; verbs also enter into the nominal group,
functioning as Epithet or Classifier in one of the two forms:
(i) present (active) participle, V-ing, e.g. participating, as in participating physician
(ii) past (passive, or intransitive active) participle, V-en, e.g. insured, as in insured
employee or covered in covered expense.
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