The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations

doi.org/10.35321/term31-09 The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Verslo terminijos svarba specializuotame vertime MARIA-CRINA HERȚEG 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba-Iulia, Romania ORCID id: https://oecid.org/0000-0002-3929-0055 A B S T R A C T This paper presents an analysis of the importance of business terminology in specialised translations with a focus on two different scenarios that were identified based on the corpora that were analysed, namely business contracts and business journalese, which require different approaches, instruments and strategies. The aspects that are analysed in this paper include the translation of collocations, the translation of figurative language and the translation of polysemous lexical units. The paper highlights the importance of empowering business translators by ensuring that they have the terminological research competence that will enable them to avoid and resolve ambiguities, to identify terminological equivalences and to enhance the quality of their translations. KEYWORDS: specialised translation, terminology, business, terminological skills. A N O T A C I J A Straipsnyje analizuojama verslo terminijos svarba specializuotame vertime. Demesys sutelkiamas į du skirtingus scenarijus, nustatytus remiantis nagrinėtais tekstynais: verslo sutartis ir verslo žurnalus. Šie du scenarijai reikalauja skirtingų požiūrių, priemonių, strategijų. Straipsnyje analizuojami šie aspektai: kolokacijų vertimas, perkeltinės kalbos vertimas, daugiareikšmių leksinių vienetų vertimas. Pabrėžiama, kaip svarbu verslo kalbos vertėjams įgyti terminologinių tyrimų kompetenciją, kuri leistų išvengti dviprasmybių ir jas pašalinti, nustatyti terminų atitikimą ir pagerinti vertimo kokybę. ESMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: specializuotas vertimas, terminologija, verslas, terminologiniai įgūdžiai. 168 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations 1. INTRODUCTION The research question that is addressed in this paper stems from the need to use specialised terminology accurately in specialised business translations. Accordingly, the paper addresses the importance of embedding specialised terminology in translations of business texts in the English-Romanian language pair. In this paper, we present a hands-on, practical guide to translation-oriented terminology and call for the integration of business terminology into specialised business translations. We also discuss the importance of empowering translation students by providing them with adequate terminological skills that will enable them to translate business texts and will enhance the quality of their translations. The research competence that is necessary in the translation of business texts is of the utmost importance in this paper. The rationale for the paper is a response to the internalisation and globalisation of business, which necessitates an increasing number of documents pertaining to business and economics being translated as international businesses set up subsidiaries abroad and franchisors sell their businesses to franchisees who operate in Romania. The result is a wide range of business, banking and financial documents, including franchise contracts, invoices and balance sheets, which need to be translated. In addition, the mobility of individuals across Europe entails drawing up and translating documents such as insurance contracts and lending and lease contracts, which creates a market for translators of business and economics documents; these translators must be committed to quality in order to meet their clients’ expectations and to fulfil their requirements. The problems that are investigated in this paper were drawn from a list of the difficulties that are encountered in the process of translating business texts. Due to the limited number of research papers that address the problem of business terminology in translations, the aims of this article are to fill the gap in the theory pertaining to the translation of business texts, to provide solutions and to identify strategies. One of the first aspects that needs to be considered is that specialised texts are written by specialists in a particular field and are addressed to other specialists in the same domain. The role of the translator is to mediate communication amongst these specialists. In order to attain this goal, the translator needs to render the text from the source language (henceforth SL) into the target language (henceforth TL) accurately. The quality Terminologija | 2024 | 31 169 of the translation depends on many factors, including the quality of the terminological work carried out by the translator, which entails of the accurate use of terminology, the graphical representation of the text, and the translator’s ability to integrate specialised software, term bases (henceforth TBs) and corpora into their work. All these factors impact on the quality of the translation, both as a product and as a process. Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012: 79) highlighted that specialised translators must bear the text sender, the text receiver and the purpose of the text in mind; in the translation of specialised business texts, translators must pay heed to the fact that both the text senders and the text receivers are familiar with business terminology. Consequently, the translators must use business terminology appropriately and accurately, and must be familiar with the layout of business and financial documents. In brief, the translation of specialised texts requires terminology management, the good use of translation resources and familiarity with the template of the text. The works that are cited in the literature review section point towards the importance of achieving ‘sameness’ between the SL and the TL. At the same time, all these works conform to the change from the general theory of terminology (GTT) to frame-based terminology (FBT), which entails a different perception of translation processes and products. FBT is close to cognitive linguistics in that the emphasis is on the importance of context in terminological research; it admits polysemy, synonymy and figurative language, acknowledges the multidimensionality of terms, and favours the use of corpora in the process of term extraction. GTT is more restrictive compared to the communicative theory of terminology (CTT), FBT and the socio-cognitive theory of terminology. The socio-cognitive theory of terminology is heavily influenced by insights derived from cognitive semantics and functional linguistics; it sheds new light on the role and function of language, acknowledges the figurative layer of language and considers the importance of context in capturing the meaning of a term. The new directions in terminology do not avoid the use of metaphors and figurative language; accordingly, metaphors have received more attention. Terminology is influenced by cognitive linguistics, which addresses the mental representations of linguistic structures. The reconstruction of frames in the translation of conceptual metaphors highlights the closeness between cognitive linguistics and terminology; this view was shared by 170 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Tercedor Sánchez et al. (2012), who acknowledged the existence of figurative language in Language for Specific Purposes (henceforth LSP). Terminology is also influenced by corpus linguistics, as terminologists must know how to compile corpora and how to analyse parallel corpora when searching for appropriate terminology. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Faber and López Rodríguez (2012) addressed the issue of the importance of terminology in translations and emphasised the roles that translators must play and the knowledge that they must have when they translate specialised texts. Thus, in the approach to terminological units, translators must pay attention to the relationships, structures and correspondences that are established amongst terminological units. As Faber and López Rodríguez (2012) observed, neither the knowledge of terminological correspondences nor linguistic knowledge is sufficient to produce an acceptable text in a specialised knowledge field. The authors considered terminology to be a discipline that has more in common with linguistics, particularly cognitive linguistics, and described the evolution and history of terminology from its inception to the present; they also discussed different theories of terminology and enumerated the theories with which terminology has been associated, such as the socio-cognitive theory of terminology proposed by Temmerman and FBT proposed by Faber (2011), which promotes the study of the behaviour of terminological units in texts rather than identifying the differences between words and terms. Faber and Cabezas-Garcia (2019) highlighted the importance of achieving sameness of meaning in translations, and observed that the quality of specialised translations depended on how well the correspondences between the TL and the SL were rendered, as well as on the translator’s ability to successfully construct a mental representation of the aspects of the specialised knowledge field. As the authors showed, the translator must identify the semantic relationships amongst the concepts that are encountered in the text and must establish the correspondences between the SL and TL. The authors adopted FBT and linked specialised knowledge representation to cognitive linguistics and cognitive semantics; they also referred to multi-word terms (henceforth MWTs) and identified the composition and components of MWTs in English. As the authors observed, the process of understanding terminological meaning begins with the concept Terminologija | 2024 | 31 171 designated by the term itself and is conceived of as a progressive expansion of contexts (Faber and Cabezas-Garcia 2019: 200). The authors divided frames into concept frames that are realised linguistically via nouns and noun groups, and predicative frames that are realised linguistically via verbs. The authors highlighted the idea that predicative frames were rarely considered to be terms; consequently, they were not included in specialised terminological resources. The authors provided the example of the EcoLexicon corpus in which only 10 verbs are identified as having a specialised meaning, despite the corpus containing 54 million words. L’Homme et al. (2018) analysed collocations in terminological resources, and provided an inventory of the terminological resources that contained collocations; the authors concluded that the collection and extraction of collocations from corpora was time consuming, and stated that the methods that have been developed to extract collocations need to be validated by lexicographers and terminologists. L’Homme et al. (2018) discussed the reasons that led to the imbalance of collocations, including the degree of polysemy in different languages, which might affect the corresponding collocations, the experience of the terminologists who extract collocations, and the content of the corpora from which the collocations are extracted. L’Homme et al. (2018) proposed a method that consisted of ten stages and that identified and validated equivalent collocations in a TL. The authors validated the method manually for the English-French language pair by selecting a list of keywords from a list of general English environmental terms and extracting all the lexical relationships that were encoded as collocations from the English version of the database, together with the lexical functions of each term in the list. L’Homme et al. (2018) concluded that the method produced a sufficient number of valid translations for their English collocations and could be used with some adaptations to complete other missing translations of collocations. In the introduction section, L’Homme (2023) drew attention to the issue of polysemy in specialised terminology and identified two approaches: One approach advocates ways of preventing polysemy, as it can lead to ambiguity in communication. According to L’Homme (2023), terminologists address polysemy in two situations, namely during the identification of terms and when the term is described in the resources. The author suggested methods that terminologists could adopt when they encountered polysemy in specialised resources. L’Homme also identified cases in which 172 Maria-Crina Herteg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations a lexical item could be considered to be situated in more than one lexical paradigm; she analysed two examples of polysemy pertaining to the specialised terminology used to discuss the environment, and identified the causes of polysemy in specialised terminology as being meaning extension, metaphorical extension, and change in meaning over time. L’Homme (2023) differentiated amongst three types of polysemy in specialised terminology, namely regular polysemy, alternations and microsenses. The author also discussed ways in which terminology has been approached during various periods by describing the different directions in terminology; she observed that many terms were coined on the basis of other established meanings, and that new meanings were added to the existing meaning of a lexical item, resulting in the creation of new terms. L’Homme noted that the subdivision of terminology into subdomains resulted in a reduction in the likelihood of polysemy and identified the factors that accounted for the reduced polysemy in terminological resources. L’Homme (2023) explained that terminologists compiled domain-specific corpora in which lexical items conveyed a reduced number of meanings, and observed that terminological resources have a tendency to include nouns and noun phrases to the detriment of other parts of speech. She provided the example of EcoLexicon, which does not contain verbs or verb phrases; verbs are treated as collocations, while adjectives appear in MWTs. Tercedor Sánchez et al. (2012) identified two ways in which cognitive linguistics, particularly conceptual metaphor theory (henceforth CMT), and terminology interact. Firstly, one domain is mapped onto another, and the same concept may simultaneously be part of different domains as a result; that is, concepts used in one domain may migrate to other domains. The role of metaphors is then to give coherence to conceptual structures. The second way in which cognitive linguistics and terminology interact is through metaphorical extension. The authors signalled the presence of metaphors and metonymies in specialised terminology, analysed previous research in the field of metaphors being considered as a means of conceptualising reality and observed that metonymy had been ignored. Tercedor Sánchez et al. (2012) shared the view that both metaphors and metonymies helped to structure the human conceptual system and differentiated the mechanisms on which metonymy and metaphor relied: metaphors exploit similarity, while metonymies exploit continuity. Tercedor Sánchez et al. (2012) analysed CMT and CBT, established the relationships that develop Terminologija | 2024 | 31 173 between these theories and terminology, and provided examples of etymological blending from the specialised domains of medicine, environmental science and sociology. Tercedor Sánchez et al. (2012) connected the idea of multidimensionality in terminology to the fact that a concept can belong to different domains simultaneously. The authors also showed that metaphors did not represent an isolated phenomenon, but were represented as a network of metaphorical patterns in specialised domains that give coherence to conceptual structure. The authors also considered the role of context, which mediates access to the linguistic use of a concept. Metaphors in specialised terminology occur because one domain is mapped onto another, which the authors exemplified via concepts from the field of medicine being used in economics and finance. The authors also analysed examples of metaphorical extensions from general to specialised language. The chapter authored by Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) addresses translation as a process and as a product from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. In the introduction to the chapter “Specialized language translation”, Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) highlighted the limited resources for specialised translators and observed that literary translations had attracted more interest from specialists compared to specialised translations. The authors identified points of contact between translation and cognitive linguistics and discussed a number of reasons for the strong relationship between them. These reasons were based on conceptual structures, as a language comprises the lexicalisation and activation of conceptual structures, while translation encompasses the translation of conceptual structures from the SL into the TL. The authors discussed the implications of the translation process, as well as the issues of correspondence or equivalence, which were seen as the translators’ objectives. According to the authors, the parameters that influence the evaluation of translations are pragmatic factors related to the context and cognitive factors related to the competence of the translator (Faber and Gómez-Moreno 2012: 76). Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) highlighted the differences between general translations and specialised translations, as well as the difficulties that arise in specialised translations. The differences refer to the methods and competences that a specialised translator must apply and acquire when translating a specialised text. Thus, a specialised translator must develop the capacity to acquire specialised terminology and to apply it in the 174 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations translation process. The authors also pointed out that the text receivers are different in the case of specialised translations. Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) raised the issue of the translator’s invisibility, reinforced the tenet that translation represents a process of mediation between languages and cultures, and highlighted the role of translators as interlinguistic and intertextual mediators. In their opinion, the invisibility of the translator contributed to the success of the mediation process. With regard to the complexity of the specialised translation process, the authors highlighted two important dimensions of specialised texts; that is, the linguistic and the specialised dimensions. The success of the specialised translation process depends on the harmonisation of the linguistic and the specialised knowledge. Translator training empowers translators with linguistic knowledge and ensures the linguistic dimension of the text. The quality of a specialised translation depends on the translator’s specialised knowledge and terminological management. In this regard, the authors explained that specialists in a field cannot produce a quality specialised translation because they do not manage to attain the linguistic dimension. Similarly, a translator can render the linguistic dimension of a text, but they must also acquire the necessary specialised knowledge. The authors emphasised the fact that knowledge of two languages and a command of the grammatical structures of the respective languages did not ensure the quality of a specialised translation. In brief, linguistic knowledge and specialised knowledge must be combined in order to ensure the high quality of a specialised translation. Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) also emphasised that working on a specialised translation involved carrying out terminological work. The authors mentioned the lack of terminological resources and databases as being amongst the difficulties that translators encounter. In order to resolve this difficulty, translators need to carry out ad hoc terminological work. However, in order to reconstruct the text from a terminological point of view, translators need to reconstruct the conceptual representations that represent the convergence point of the translation and the terminological work. Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) stated that translation requires a theory that focuses on meaning and context. Cognitive linguistics, mainly pragmatics and semantics, appears to be particularly relevant to specialised translation because the focus is on context and meaning. Furthermore, Terminologija | 2024 | 31 175 the authors considered translation to be a cognitive process; the linguistic discipline that meets this criterion is cognitive semantics. With regard to specialised translations, Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) discussed the multidimensionality of specialised texts. Translators must be equipped to manage linguistic phenomena such as conceptual metaphors and the metaphorical conceptualisations of phenomena in economics. The authors reiterated the idea that specialised translation mediates communication with receivers who are familiar with the constraints of the specialised texts and are familiar with the terminology that is used. In order to mediate communication amongst members of the same community, translators do not need to be experts in a subject or field, but translators of specialised texts must have linguistic training and must reconcile their linguistic training with terminology management. The paper by Fuertes-Oliv-era and Velasco Sacristan (2012) addresses the translatability of metaphors. The authors investigated a particular strand of business English genre, namely dictionary articles with a particular focus on the translation of metaphorical English accounting terms into Spanish. The authors analysed the metaphorical terms in a dictionary and explained the decisions that were taken during the process of translation. They restricted their analysis and comments to headwords without taking contexts, examples and definitions into consideration. Fuertes-Oliv-era and Velasco Sacristan’s theory is that translation equivalents in specialised dictionary articles are specific language expressions, the translations of which must render both the original concept and a similar metaphorical expression whenever possible. The methods that the authors adopted included the reproduction of the original conceptual scenario as accurately as possible with or without eliminating possible cultural filters. They advocated for the idea that the conceptual and aesthetic functions played a key role in bilingual terminology. To maintain these functions, the authors opted for the word-by-word translation of the source’s metaphorical terms from English as they believed that the word-by-word translation of the source’s metaphorical terms had the following advantages: 1. it retained the aesthetic and conceptual functions of the SL and rendered them in the TL; and 2. it introduced novel metaphors in the TL. This approach has also been criticised because it is considered to be an example of terminological colonialism. 176 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Fuertes-Olivera and Nielsen (2011) approached specialised terminology in a similar way. The authors observed that the dynamic character of accounting triggered the dynamic character of accounting terminology. Accounting has undergone many changes that are reflected in the specific terminology; new terms have been introduced and old terms have disappeared. Fuertes-Olivera and Nielsen addressed the translation of metaphorical terms pertaining to accounting in the chapter entitled “A Case Study: The Translation of English Metaphorical Terms into Spanish”. The authors believed that metaphors played an important role in many types of specialist discourse, and considered that lexicographers and terminologists should address the problems that metaphors may pose in general reference works. Fuertes-Olivera and Nielsen (2011) adopted a general strategy for the translation of metaphors, which emphasised that a basic characteristic of bilingual terminology was the use of conceptually similar terms in both the SL and the TL. The authors believed that this strategy would lead compilers of specialised bilingual dictionaries to find the same or very similar metaphorical terms in the TL, thereby accentuating the role of metaphors in specialised languages in which they are cognitive mechanisms that help users to grasp the abstract meanings that many terms tend to have in specialised discourse. Fuertes-Olivera and Nielsen (2011) proposed four solutions: 1. With regard to the translation of the metaphorical term in the SL, the authors selected a synonym as the equivalent of the lemma; although it was not a metaphorical term, it maintained the same conceptual scenario as in the SL. 2. The second solution consisted of the use of an equivalent, and was forced by the rules of the SL syntax. 3. The third solution consisted of the translation of the SL using a novel metaphor. For example, the authors retained the traditional Spanish accounting term as an equivalent and included a usage note that explained the difference between the two Spanish terms. Their solution allowed users to establish the metaphorical meaning of the SL by indicating that its literal rendering was nonsensical. This strategy may be necessary when the translation introduces a novel metaphor into the TL. 4. The fourth solution consisted of using a synonym in the SL that had the same metaphorical association between its literal translation and its mapping onto the abstract concept in the TL. Terminologija | 2024 | 31 177 3. DATA AND METHODS The evolution of the internet and technology is also echoed in terminology via the compilation of corpora and the creation of specific software to process the corpora. The analysis that was conducted for this paper relied on the use of corpora and was carried out using corpus linguistics tools. Two self-made corpora, one in English and one in Romanian, were used for the analysis of figurative language, metaphors and idioms, and were labelled Corpus 1 and Corpus 21. Corpus 1 consists of 600,000 words that were taken from newspaper articles published in the British broadsheets The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph from 2012 to 2016. Corpus 2 has similar content and consists of 600,000 words that were retrieved from the Romanian newspapers Ziarul financiar, Business Magazin, Cotidianul, and Adevărul financiar during the period 2012–2016. Two different self-made corpora that were compiled by the author, one in English and one in Romanian, were used for the analysis of the terminological correspondences, and were labelled Corpus 3 and Corpus 4. Corpus 3 consists of 12,800 words that were taken from business and financial documents that were retrieved from banks’ websites and databases. Corpus 4 consists of 12,400 words and contains Romanian business and financial documents. The four corpora have different compositions, and present different degrees of specialisation and difficulties in translations. Corpora 3 and 4 were aimed at professional translators and contain authentic documents that include terms in real-life contexts, including texts retrieved from the websites of banks and financial institutions. In addition to these four self-made corpora, ready-made corpora were used for the analysis of collocations and polysemous terms, such as the BNC XML edition powered by CQPweb and American English 2006 powered by CQPweb designed by Hardie (2012). Sample documents retrieved from the Romanian corpus consisting of business and financial documents were examined and translation solutions were proposed. The analysis of the corpora revealed that each register is characterised by different peculiarities. The peculiarities in the business documents pertain to grammar and include the use of specific linkers, the use of verbal and nominal binomials, the use of shall to express the future, the use of formal collocations instead of informal ones, and the use of prepositional 1 Corpus 1 and Corpus 2 were compiled as outputs of the UEFISCDI PN II-RU-TE 2014-4-2785 project. 178 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations phrases such as pursuant to, in consideration of/for and in the event of/that. Business journalese is imbued with figurative language, metaphors, metonymies and idioms, while financial documents are characterised by the accurate use of terminology. A business translator does not only translate business and economics terms, as they must also know how to transfer the knowledge represented by the terms. Therefore, the translation of business texts entails the acquisition of different competences that include translation competence, linguistic competence, terminological management competence, technical competence and research competence. Translation competence implies the ability to effect the transfer from the SL to the TL in order to achieve the sameness of the texts, while linguistic competence implies familiarity with the peculiarities of business and economics texts and the capacity to differentiate amongst the business genres. Research competence means the ability to search for terminological equivalents in reliable databases and corpora. The (inter)cultural competence is less necessary in the translation of economics and business texts, and the differences in the Romanian economic system and the economic system of the TL country are resolved at the terminological level. 4. INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS The translation of economics and business texts entails rendering the texts from the SL into the TL and achieving sameness between the two texts. The specific problems that arise in specialised business translations encompass the translation of MWTs, the use of collocations, the issue of polysemy, the translation of metaphors and figurative language, and the accurate use of business terminology. As discussed above, in order to deliver a quality translation, a business translator must have good research competence; otherwise, the translator’s lack of familiarity with specific business genres will result in the inaccurate use of terminology. Two different scenarios were identified based on the corpora that were analysed: 1. The case of business contracts. 2. The case of business journalese. These two scenarios call for different approaches, instruments and knowledge. The translation of business journalese entails establishing cultural correspondences and applying cultural filters between the SL and Terminologija | 2024 | 31 179 the TL, while the translation of business contracts entails establishing terminological correspondences. Similarly, the translation of business contracts relies on the appropriate use of terminology, while the translation of business journalese includes the translation of frames; the translator needs to identify figurative language such as metonymies, metaphors, idiomatic expressions and variants. The similarity of business contracts to legal translations brings the pragmatic role of verbs into play. These difficulties are analysed and hands-on solutions for the English-Romanian language pair are proposed. A highly reliable source that Romanian business translators must use on a daily basis is the English-Romanian Dictionary of Business Terminology authored by Popescu (2017) and divided into different business genres. The terminological entries keep pace with the changes in the field of business and economics; moreover, the entries are provided in contexts that were retrieved from corpora and other reliable sources, which increases the user-friendliness. 4.1. The translation of collocations The translation of collocations poses real difficulties for translators of business English texts who translate from Romanian into English. Eight verbal collocations were chosen for the quantitative analysis: a se obliga să [to undertake to], a demara o afacere [to start up/set up a business], a acorda un împrumut [to grant a loan], a lua cu împrumut [to borrow], a întocmi un plan de afaceri [to draw up a business plan], a încheia o poliță de asigurare [to take out an insurance policy], a încheia un contract [to conclude a contract] and a înainta procedura de faliment [to file the bankruptcy proceedings]. The sample texts in Romanian were retrieved from the corpus consisting of Romanian business and financial documents (Corpus 4). The first example is an excerpt that was retrieved from a Romanian mortgage agreement. (1) (RO) ‘Debitorul ipotecar se obligă să nu înstrăineze apartamentul a cărui ipotecă constituie obiectul prezentului contract, până la rambursarea integrală a obligațiilor contractuale ale locatorului.’ (Contract de ipotecă) English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘The mortgagor undertakes the obligation not to transfer the apartment/flat whose mortgage represents the object of the present contract until the full repayment of the [term not found in the bilingual dictionary]’s contractual obligations.’ (Mortgage agreement) 180 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘The mortgagor hereby undertakes the obligation/ makes commitments not to dispose of the apartment/ flat whose mortgage represents the object of the present contract, until the full repayment of the lessor’s contractual obligations.’ (Mortgage agreement) The version that was translated with the help of the bilingual dictionary was incomplete because the Romanian term locator (English “lessor”) was not included in the bilingual dictionary. The bilingual English–Romanian economic dictionary authored by Năstăsescu provides an explanation of the term “lessor” instead of the translation: proprietar care dă cu chirie sau în arendă (Năstăsescu 2015: 196). The English–Romanian Dictionary of Business Terminology supplies the terminological equivalent together with an explanation: locator, persoană care dă cu chirie (Popescu 2017: 24). (2) (RO) ‘Între BCR, înmatriculată la registrul comerțului sub nr.-------din------sucursala--------- cu sediul în--- strada--- nr.----denumită în continuare banca, reprezentată prin--- în calitate de director și prin---- în calitate de contabil-șef, și---- înmatriculată în registrul comerțului sub nr.----din--- cu sediul în localitatea--- strada ----nr. ----județul---- denumită împrumutat, reprezentată prin---- în calitate de------ a intervenit următorul contract de împrumut.’ (Contract de împrumut) English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘Between the Romanian Commercial Bank, enrolled/registered in the Trade Registry under number.... on....subsidiary.... with headquarters in... no......... ..... Street referred to as the bank, represented by ... as manager and by.... as chief-accountant and .... enrolled/registered in the Trade Registry under number.... on.... subsidiary.... with headquarters in... no......... ......Street referred to as borrower, represented by ... the following loan contract/lending contract was signed / clinched.’ (Loan contract) The translation of the text using the bilingual dictionary is inaccurate, for the collocation a interveni un contract între A și B, the bilingual dictionary lists to sign a contract, which is general and to clinch a contract which is inadequate. English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘By and between the Romanian Commercial Bank, incorporated in the Register of Commerce / Trade Register under number… on….subsidiary….. with Terminologjia | 2024 | 31 181 premises in......no..... Street, hereinafter referred to as the bank, represented by..... as manager and by...... as chief accountant and ....incorporated in the Register of Commerce under number..... on.....with premises in....no.....Street, ....county hereinafter referred to as borrower, represented by.... as.... the following loan contract was made and entered’ (Loan contract). The collocation to incorporate a company is more adequate than to enroll or to register, the latter is used in American English. Romanian business translators need to pay attention to the variety of English used, mainly when they need to translate the denomination of public institutions. Registrul Comerțului in the Romanian text has different terminological correspondences: Companies House (UK), New Zealand Companies Office (New Zealand) and (European) Business Register, National Trade Register Office (official translation on the Romanian website Oficiul Național al Registrului Comerțului). We opted for Register of Commerce / Trade Register, which can be used interchangeably and which are more appropriate and are encountered more frequently in similar sample texts that were translated by Romanian business translators. The translation that was conducted after consulting the English-Romanian Dictionary of Business Terminology, authored by Popescu (2017), online sources and samples from databases and corpora improved in quality. (3) (RO) ‘Banca acordă împrumutatului un credit pentru investiții în sumă de --- -pe un termen de--- ani.’ (Contract de împrumut) English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘The bank grants the borrower an investment loan/credit of.... for a period of.... years.’ (Loan contract) English (EN) translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘The bank grants the borrower an investment loan of ..... for a period of ....years’ (Loan contract). In example number three, there is no difference between the version that was translated with the help of the bilingual dictionary and the version that was translated after consulting the online resources due to the lack of the degree of difficulty. (4) (RO) ‘Acest contract a fost încheiat în număr de---- exemplare din care----- exemplare rămân la bancă și---- exemplare la împrumutat.’ (Contract de împrumut) 182 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘This contract was signed/clinched in a number of… copies out of which ..copies remain at the bank and …. copies go to the borrower.’ (Loan contract) English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘This contract was concluded in a number of … copies/counterparts out of which …. copies stay with the bank and ….copies go to the borrower’ (Loan contract). The quality of second version of the translation improved because it contained more appropriate and specialised terminology. (5) (RO) ‘Antreprenorii pot obține până la 200.000 lei pentru demararea unei afaceri în anul 2022.’ English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘The entrepreneurs can obtain up to 200,000 lei for commencing a business/ opening a business/ forming a business in 2022.’ English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘The entrepreneurs can obtain up to 200,000 lei in for starting up /setting up a business in 2022.’ The second version of the translation was more appropriate and more formal because it included specialised terminology. (6) (RO) ‘În procesul demarării unei firme este nevoie în primul rând de întocmirea unui plan de afaceri.’ English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘In the process of commencing a business/opening a business/ forming a business it is first necessary to draft a business plan.’ English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘In the process of setting up/starting up a firm it is first necessary to draw up a business plan.’ The collocation a întocmi un plan de afaceri yielded the following results: to develop a business plan (American English 2006), to create a business plan Terminologija | 2024 | 31 183 (BNC XML), to prepare a business plan (BNC XML) and to draw up a business plan. (7) (RO) ‘Cum poți încheia o poliță de asigurare de sănătate pe www.asigurari.ro.’ English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘How can you insure your health on www.asigurari.ro.’ English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘How can you take out a health insurance policy on www.asigurari.ro.’ (8) (RO) ‘Solicitarea de faliment poate fi înaintată fie chiar de către întreprindere, prin directorii sau acționarii săi, fie de către un creditor care are un interes în recuperarea datoriei sale.’ English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘The bankruptcy claim can be filed either by the enterprise, through its managers or shareholders, or by a creditor who is interested to recoup his/her debt.’ English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘The bankruptcy claim can be filed either by the enterprise, through its managers or shareholders, or by a creditor who is interested in the return of his/her debt.’ (9) (RO) ‘Conform dispozițiilor în vigoare, vă înștiințăm că, în evidențele noastre contabile, la data de.... unitatea dumneavoastră figurează cu următoarele debite:..... În termen de 5 zile de la primire urmează să ne restituiți acest extras confirmat pentru suma acceptată, iar în cazul constatării de diferențe să anexați nota explicativă cuprinzând obiecțiile dumneavoastră.’ (Extras de cont) English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘According to/In compliance with the regulations in force, we notify you that your entity/institution is found in our bookkeeping with the following debts..... Five days after receipt/ Within five days after receipt you are to return this statement of account confirmed for the accepted amount and in case you find any discrepancy, please attach the explanatory note which comprises your objections’ (Statement of account). 184 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations The collocation to find a/ any discrepancy, as identified in the bilingual dictionary, is more informal and general compared to to notice a/ any discrepancy, which is not listed in the bilingual dictionary. English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘Pursuant to the provisions in force/in exercise, we hereby notify you that in our accounting records your entity is listed/ you are listed with the following debts......’ Five days after receipt/ Within five days after receipt you are to return this statement of account confirmed for the accepted amount and in case you notice any discrepancy, please attach the guidance note which sets forth your objections.’ (Statement of account) Furthermore, the example cited above contains two examples of polysemy: Provisions is a polysemous term; in general business terminology, it means prevederi, dispoziții and the meaning is provizioane in accounting terminology. The second polysemous term is extras de cont that was translated into English as statement of account; the noun statement is part of other compound nouns pertaining to business and has a different meaning in general English. The choice of the preposition pursuant to is more appropriate than according to and it is often encountered in contracts. (10) (RO) ‘Ca urmare a prezentului CONTRACT și ca o garanție pentru rambursarea de către ÎMPRUMUTAT a tuturor sumelor datorate sau ce urmează a fi datorate în conformitate cu CONTRACTUL DE CREDIT IPOTECAR, GARANTUL IPOTECAR constituie în favoarea BĂNCII, prin prezentul CONTRACT, o ipotecă imobiliară de rangul I (‘IPOTECA IMOBILIARĂ’) asupra PROPRIETĂȚII.’ (Contract de ipotecă) English translation using the bilingual business dictionary: (EN) ‘As a result of this CONTRACT and as a guarantee for the repayment/ reimbursement by the BORROWER of all the amounts due or which are to be due in accordance with the MORTGAGE AGREEMENT, THE MORTGAGE GUARANTOR establishes in favour of the BANK, through this CONTRACT, a Tier 1 real estate mortgage (REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE) on the PROPERTY’ (Mortgage agreement). English translation using bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, and online resources: (EN) ‘By virtue of this CONTRACT and as a guarantee for the repayment by the BORROWER of all amounts due or which are to be due in compliance with Terminologija | 2024 | 31 185 the MORTGAGE AGREEMENT, THE MORTGAGE GUARANTOR sets up in favour of the BANK, through this CONTRACT, a Tier 1 real estate mortgage (REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE) on the PROPERTY (Mortgage agreement). In the examples that were analysed above, the first version consists of the translation without conducting terminological research, and the terminological units were retrieved from the bilingual business and economics dictionaries; some terminological units were not listed in the monolingual business dictionary. The second version consists of the translation after the research work had been conducted. The qualitative analysis was substantiated by the IATE database, and by online and monolingual and bilingual terminological dictionaries such as The English-Romanian Dictionary of Business Terminology by Popescu (2017) and the Dictionary of Business Collocations by Popescu and Toma (2009), https://hallo.ro/dictionar-englez-roman/ https://www.proz.com/search/. These sources are user-friendly, well-documented and reliable. The second version of the translation was more refined, more formal and more accurate; it included more appropriate terminology choices and more formal collocations. Faber and López Rodríguez (2012) stated that, in addition to designating specialised concepts, terms have syntactical and collocational patterns that differ from general language. This theory was exemplified in the examples that were selected for translation. Furthermore, according to L’Homme (2023), there is a greater likelihood of identifying collocations in specialised corpora instead of in general corpora. In other words, the more specialised the corpus, the greater the likelihood of identifying specialised collocations. This explains the informal and general collocations that were listed in the bilingual business dictionary. In the translation samples provided above, appropriate and more specialised collocational patterns were identified following the terminological research. The difficulties that were encountered during the translation process were limited resources in Romanian and unreliable resources such as Linguee, which recognises the names of institutions and stretches of texts, but does not differentiate between general and specialised business terminology. 186 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Stage 1 For the translation of the samples provided above, the bilingual Romanian-English economic dictionary yielded the following entries: A se obliga să (intransitive verb) = to undertake to A acorda un credit = to grant a credit A lua cu împrumut = to borrow A începe o afacere = to commence a business A încheia o asigurare = to insure [ to insure is more informal than to take out an insurance policy] A încheia un contract = to clinch/ to sign a contract [to clinch is more informal than to sign and it is not adequate] A întocmi un plan de afaceri = no equivalent for this collocation Stage 2 The same collocations were searched for in the Longman Business English Dictionary during this stage of analysis. The results were: A se obliga să (intransitive verb) =to undertake to do sth. A acorda un credit =to provide a loan A încheia un contract = to conclude an agreement/ treaty/deal A încheia o asigurare = to take out an insurance policy A începe o afacere = to set up a company/ an organisation A întocmi un plan de afaceri = to draw up a business plan Stage 3 Stage three consisted of consulting online corpora. Two ready-made corpora were chosen for this stage of the analysis, BNC XML powered by CQPweb, and American English 2006 powered by CQPweb designed by Hardie (2012). The findings are included in the table below: Table 1. Business collocations and their equivalents 1. THE BUSINESS COLLOCATION IN ROMANIAN3. ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS IN AMERICAN ENGLISH 2006 POWERED BY CQPWEB4. ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS IN BNC XML POWERED BY CQPWEBA începe o afacereBusiness – 304 matches in 145 textsto set up a business – 0 occurrencesto open a business – 1 occurrenceBusiness – 35,079 matches in 2,861 different textsto set up a business – 126 occurrencesto open a business – 21 occurrences Terminologija | 2024 | 31 187 to start a business – 2 occurrences to build a business – 1 occurrence to start a business – 69 occurrences to build a business – 36 occurrences to build up a business – 28 occurrences to start up a business – 27 occurrences to create a business – 5 occurrences to launch a business – 2 occurrences to establish a business – 16 occurrences to form a business – 4 occurrences to commence a business – 4 occurrences A încheia o asigurare 0 occurrence the headword insurance has 7,027 matches in 1,261 different texts. to take out an insurance policy – 40 occurrences to take an insurance policy – 1 occurrence to start an insurance policy – 1 occurrence to buy an insurance policy – 1 occurrence to sign an insurance document – 2 occurrences to buy an insurance – 2 occurrences A încheia un contract to make a deal – 1 occurrence to do a deal – 1 occurrence the headword contract has returned 11,880 matches in 1,578 different texts to sign a contract – 170 occurrences to enter into contract – 58 occurrences to enter a contract – 9 occurrences 188 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations to form a contract – 5 occurrences to start a contract – 3 occurrences to start up a contract – 1 occurrence to begin a contract – 1 occurrence to seal a contract – 1 occurrence A acorda un credit A lua cu împrumut 0 occurrence to take out a loan – 1 occurrence The headword loan returned 3,812 matches in 855 different texts. to offer a loan – 15 occurrences to give a loan – 14 occurrences to provide a loan – 5 occurrences to grant a loan – 15 occurrences to take out a loan – 42 occurrences to get a loan – 21 occurrences to sign a loan deal – 1 occurrence to take a loan – 3 occurrences to apply for a loan – 2 occurrences to demand a loan – 1 occurrence to ask for a loan – 4 occurrences to request a loan – 4 occurrences to receive a loan – 1 occurrence to obtain a loan – 15 occurrences Terminologija | 2024 | 31 189 The translation of collocations activated the research competence, as a number of linguistic resources were consulted in order to identify the best match between the source and target texts. The same Romanian collocations were looked up in different sources: Dicționar economic român-englez, authored by Năstăsescu (2015), American English 2006 Corpus powered by CQPweb, BNC powered by CQPweb designed by Hardie (2012), the Longman Business English Dictionary (2007), Constantinescu and Crocus (1998) and the Dictionary of Business Collocations authored by Popescu and Toma (2009). Due to the large number of occurrences, the search of the BNC XML mainly targeted collocations. Two methods were applied during the corpus search: 1. Searching for the headword in the collocation and extracting all the collocations that occurred with the headword. 2. Choosing the most appropriate collocation that suited the text. These methods have four drawbacks: 1. They are time consuming. 2. There is a limit on the number of collocations that can be identified following these methods. 3. The identification of informal collocations. 4. They generate ambiguity. There is a clear-cut difference between the use of formal and informal collocations: to open a business or to commence a business /versus/ to set up a business. The Romanian collocation a încheia un contract can generate ambiguity in translations because the dictionary contains three entries: to terminate a contract, to make and enter a contract and to conclude a contract. In such situations, the contexts in which the collocations occur can resolve the ambiguity. The quantitative analysis was refined via the qualitative analysis, which included the analysis of the context in which the collocation occurred, as well as the comparison of formal versus informal, general versus specialised options. Another problem that is linked to the accurate use of collocations is the use of binomials, which are characteristic of business texts: by and between, to make and enter, to keep and perform, terms and conditions, laws and regulations. The analysis that is presented in this section reinforces the tenet that the identification of appropriate collocations presents a real stumbling 190 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations block in the translation process. The advantage of corpora versus bilingual dictionaries is that corpora provide the headwords in context. Moreover, the in-depth exploration of specialised resources combined with comprehensive research improves the quality of translations. The higher the degree of specialisation, the greater the number of sources a translator needs to use. The stages that also contribute to achieving quality in translations include the pre-translation stage and the post-translation stage. The multiple roles that the translator has to play, such as that of editor, proof-reader, translator and terminologist, enhance the quality of the translation. In brief, specialised translators have to translate, edit, compile glossaries, use appropriate terminology, apply quality principles and find equivalents. 4.2. The translation of figurative language, metaphors and idioms I agree with Temmerman’s (1997) view, which brings the existence of figurative language in terminology into the discussion and shows that managing metaphors and figurative language in LSP highlights the cognitive dimension of terminology. Faber and López Rodríguez (2012) also favoured the cognitive dimension of terminology. After the corpora containing business journalese were scrutinised, the analysis revealed that conceptual metaphors pervaded the language used in economics. Business and economics acquire human and animal characteristics. The analysis of figurative language with a focus on translation can be divided into four major strands: conceptual categories that overlap in both corpora, conceptual categories that do not overlap in both corpora, proverbs and idioms. Due to space constraints and the large number of overlapping conceptual categories, the analysis of metaphors is limited to the conceptualisations of business and the economy. The conceptual categories pertaining to business and economy that occur in both corpora include: BUSINESS IS DISEASE, BUSINESS IS WEALTH, BUSINESS IS COMBAT, ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ARE WEATHER, ECONOMIC VITALITY IS THE VITALITY OF THE ORGANISM, THE STATE OF ECONOMY IS A STATE OF MENTAL HEALTH, THE ECONOMY IS AN ENGINE, SPEED OF PROGRESS IS SPEED OF MOTION TO A DESTINATION, THE ECONOMY IS A WAY OF MOVING IN THE WATER, THE ECONOMY IS AN ENTITY THAT MOVES UP, THE ECONOMY IS AN ENTITY THAT Terminologija | 2024 | 31 191 MOVES DOWN, THE ECONOMY IS A GAME, THE ECONOMY IS FOOD, THE ECONOMY IS A PLANT, THE ECONOMY IS AN ANIMAL, and THE ECONOMY IS A HUMAN BEING. The domains of health, food and motion are mapped onto business and economics, and the conceptual categories use similar lexis in their linguistic realisations. The extracts of samples that display similar lexis were collected from newspaper articles that were written in Romanian. The translation of the conceptual metaphors preserves the same lexis in order to maintain the conceptual scenario in the SL. In this case, context recedes into the background in the translation of conceptual metaphors. (11) (RO) ‘Economia se topește: Cât vom pierde din cauza secetei prelungite’ (AF, July 27, 2015) (EN) ‘The economy is melting: How much we will lose because of this long drought’ The idioms used in the Romanian corpus were identified with the help of LancsBox designed by Brezina et al. (2020). Table 2. Idiomatic expressions in the Romanian corpus and their English equivalents 1. IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS IN ROMANIAN 2. EQUIVALENT TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH a aduce bani de acasă to finance a business a scoate bani din buzunar to spend money from personal sources a pune bani la bătaie to come down with money/ to put money on the carpet/ to make money available (a fi) în goană după bani (to be) in a chase after money a pune bani deoparte to save money; to put money aside a se duce pe apa sâmbetei to go to the drains a avea noroc to be lucky/ to be in luck a ține de noroc to be a matter of luck a scoate din pâine to leave without job a fi în floare to blossom a cădea pradă to fall prey to a băga bețe în roate to put a spoke in smb’s wheel/ to throw difficulties/obstacles in smb’s way a face legea to make the law a face pași to take steps 192 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations a da țeapă to scam, to fool, to swindle a băga în groapă to lay somebody in the grave a fura căciula to cook one’s goose a pune lacătul la poartă to put a lock on the door a ajunge la liman to accomplish/hit one’s aim a ține pe linia de plutire to keep/maintain on the waterline a scoate de pe linia de plutire to remove from the waterline a pune frâna to put on the brake a reveni la cârma to steer one’s business Herțeg (2021) analysed and compared the use of conceptual metaphors in English and Romanian headlines. The author conducted a qualitative and a quantitative analysis and captured similarities and dissimilarities between the Romanian and English corpora. The Romanian journalists used proverbs in addition to conceptual metaphors and idioms. The proverbs encountered in the Romanian corpus encapsulated elements of Romanian culture that pose real challenges for translators. The proverbs encountered in the Romanian corpus were: (a strânge) bani albi pentru zile negre [to save up for a rainy day] [literal translation: “to save white money for dark days”]; dacă nu curge, picură [small venture, small gains] [literal translation: “if it does not pour it drops”]; a împușca mai mulți iepuri dintr-un foc [to kill two birds with one stone] [literal translation: “to shoot two rabbits with the same gun”] with two occurrences. They display cultural differences: (a strânge) bani albi pentru zile negre [to save up for a rainy day] [literal translation: “to save white money for dark days”] and a împușca mai mulți iepuri dintr-un foc [to kill two birds with one stone] [literal translation: “to shoot two rabbits with the same gun”]; the reconstruction of the original scenario is realised via lexis that embodies cultural aspects pertaining to the British culture. Levițchi (2005) provides the English translation of many idioms and proverbs encountered in Corpus 2. The translation of the figurative language identified in business journalese draws on the conceptual, semantic and pragmatic features of language. At the same time, it implies the reconstruction of the original scenario in the SL. Terminologija | 2024 | 31 193 Two cases were identified in the translation of conceptual metaphors and idioms: 1. Literal translation, which applies to idioms that do not include figurative language: (12) (RO) ‘Cei 50 care fac legea în construcții’ (ZF, November 27, 2013) (EN) ‘The 50 that make the law in constructions’ 2. The second case entails maintaining the same conceptual scenario in the SL, and can be divided into three subsequent cases: a. Maintaining the same conceptual scenario as in the SL and incorporating cultural elements that are characteristic of the TL. This strategy can be used in the case of idioms and proverbs that embody cultural aspects pertaining to the SL that are rendered using other idioms and proverbs that incorporate cultural traits of the TL: (13) (RO) ‘Dacă nu mai curge, picură: cum se vede piața locală a carburanților în 2015’ (AF, February 3, 2015) (EN) ‘If it doesn’t flow, it drips: A glimpse at the local fuel market in 2015’ (14) (RO) ‘„Bani albi pentru zile negre“, a fost motto-ul românilor în anii de criză.’ (Capital, December 20, 2015) (EN) ‘Money for a rainy day’, was the Romanians’ motto during the period of economic crisis.’ (15) (RO) ‘Sportul și alimentația sănătoasă sunt doi piloni de bază ai conceptului de wellness, iar adepții acestui curent împușcă mai mulți iepuri dintr-un foc.’ (BM, February 26, 2015) (EN) ‘The sport and healthy eating are the ground pillars the concept of wellness is built on, the followers of this trend kill several birds with the same stone.’ b. Maintaining the original conceptual scenario as in the SL by using similar lexis to that in the SL. This applies to conceptual categories that overlap in Romanian and in English: (16) (RO) ‘Semnal de alarmă. Recesiunea economică lovește în mediul de business. Se înființează mai puține afaceri decât în criză!’ (Capital, November 13, 2014) (EN) ‘Alarm signal. The economic recession hits the business arena. Fewer businesses set up than in a crisis period’ (17) (RO) ‘Statul bagă bețe fiscale în roatele economiei’ (Capital, February 13, 2013) 194 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations (EN) ‘The state puts fiscal spokes in the wheel of the economy’ (18) (RO) ‘Cea mai bună veste pentru uzina Ford de la Craiova. Decizia care va scoate compania de pe linia de plutire’ (BM, February 28, 2014) (EN) ‘The best news for Ford plant in Craiova. The decision that will remove the company from the waterline’ (19) (RO) ‘Românii din diaspora sunt așteptați să revină acasă la cârma propriilor afaceri’ (AF, April 21, 2015) (EN) ‘The Romanians from the diaspora are expected to come home and steer their own businesses’ (20) (RO) ‘BNR vrea să pună frână creditorilor pentru locuințe. E semnul unei noi explozii a prețurilor?’ (AF, September 23, 2015) (EN) ‘BNR wants to put on the brake to home loans. Is this the sign of a new price explosion?’ (21) (RO) ‘Coșmarul angajaților din România: Birourile open space sunt pentru productivitate ca frâna de mână pentru mașina în mers’ (BM, July 9, 2013) (EN) ‘The Romanian employees’ nightmare: The role of open space offices to attain productivity is similar to the role of the hand brake for a car in motion’ (22) (RO) ‘China Inc.: Partidul vs. elita. Vânătoarea de tigri în care cade pradă orice mișcă’ (ZF, December 20, 2015) (EN) ‘China Inc.: The party vs. the elite. The hunt for tigers to which any living beings fall prey’ c. Maintaining the same conceptual scenario as in the SL without using figurative language in the TL. (23) (RO) ‘Sectorul bancar nu a ajuns încă la liman’ (Capital, March 9, 2015) (EN) ‘The banking sector has not accomplished its aim yet’ 4.3. The translation of polysemous lexical units Polysemy can hinder a translator’s work, and there is a general consensus that polysemy causes difficulties in specialised translation. Polysemy is accepted by the new theories of terminology. For example, Temmerman (1997) considered polysemy to be the result of the extension of meaning due to new inventions and developments that add a new, specialised meaning to the core meaning of a word. Temmerman (1997) demonstrated Terminologija | 2024 | 31 195 that polysemy in language was functional and illustrated the functionality of polysemy with examples that were retrieved from medical language. L’Homme (2023) considered that polysemy occurred less often in specialised texts compared to general texts. As L’Homme (2023) highlighted, polysemy triggers related phenomena, such as ambiguity, variation and categorisation differences. She also observed that polysemy mainly affected nouns (and verbs, to a lesser degree). Polysemous words pose difficulties for beginner translators who are not familiar with business terminology. Polysemy means that the same lexical unit has different meanings in general contexts and in specialised contexts. The strategies that are applied in the translation of polysemous terms include: a. Paying attention to the context. (24) (RO) ‘GARANTUL IPOTECAR se obligă să depună la BANCĂ prezentul CONTRACT’. Contract de ipotecă imobiliară) (EN) ‘The MORTGAGE GUARANTOR hereby undertakes to lodge the present contract with the BANK’ (Real estate mortgage agreement). (25) (RO) ‘puteți depune banii datorați’ (AF, December 3, 2014) (EN) ‘You can pay in the amount due’. The ambiguity generated by the polysemous Romanian (RO) verb a depune [EN “to pay in an amount of money; to lodge a document”] is resolved by the surrounding context. b. Conducting terminological research to capture the different meanings of the same term. The polysemous terms that were identified in the corpora included terms that had one meaning in the general business genre and another meaning in a specialised business genre. For example, “provisions” has one meaning in business contracts, “general provisions” [RO prevederi generale], which is mainly encountered in contracts, and has another meaning in accounting documents: “provisions for risks and expenses” [RO provizioane pentru riscuri și cheltuieli]. (26) (RO) ‘Pentru deprecierea creanțelor banca a constituit provizioane de …. lei.’ (ZF, April 23, 2013) (EN) ‘In order to depreciate the debentures the bank set up provisions of …. lei.’ 196 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Other examples of polysemous terms that were encountered in the specialised business terminology included dobândă [EN “interest”], obligațiuni [EN “bonds”], active [EN “assets”], pasive [EN “liabilities”], extras de cont [EN “statement”] and sold [EN “balance”]. (27) (RO) ‘În România, peste 90% din active sunt controlate de capitalul străin.’ (ZF, October 23, 2013) (EN) ‘In Romania, over 90 % of the assets are controlled by foreign capital.’ (28) (RO) ‘Astfel, valoarea pasivelor interne ale băncilor a urcat’ (Capital, October 31, 2014) (EN) ‘Thus, the value of the bank’s internal liabilities has increased’ (29) (RO) ‘Teszari a apelat la emisiunea de obligațiuni, plătind o dobândă ridicată – 7,5% pe an.’ (AF, April 15, 2015) (EN) ‘Teszari resorted to the issue of bonds, paying a high interest – 7.5/ year.’ In order to resolve the problem of polysemy in specialised texts, translators must differentiate between the general term and the specialised one, and must be aware of the differences amongst business genres. In addition, translators must explore a large variety of sources. Following all these steps, applying all these strategies and conducting research using a large variety of sources enhances the quality of the translation as a product and as a process. In brief, translators of business journalese and business economics contracts must be equipped with the translation of frames. 5. CONCLUSION This research is situated within the area of FBT. Arguments for situating the study within FBT include the compilation and processing of corpora for the analysis of collocational patterning, figurative language and polysemous terms. The role of specialised translation is to mediate communication amongst members of a community of specialists who use specialised terminology to communicate professionally. Thus, the translator must know how to manage terminological variations, and must ensure accuracy in the translation of business and financial documents. It also highlights the role of the specialised translator, as well as the competences with which the specialised translator must be equipped. A number of factors, such as the appropriate use of terms, translation strategies and the command of Terminologija | 2024 | 31 197 competences impact positively or negatively on the quality of translations. The misuse of terminology, synonymy and polysemy results in changes in the meaning of the TL text. This paper is an attempt to raise translators’ awareness and to ensure that they do not simply translate terms from Romanian into English and vice versa, and describes the complexity of the translation process and the complex role of the translator who needs to manage terminology, mediate communication, conduct research, and edit and proofread the document. The translator must assess the available resources and select the best options. Furthermore, translators of business and economics texts should be able to differentiate amongst business genres. Although translators of business and economics texts do not need to be specialists in the field for which they translate, they must understand the text in the SL and transfer the meaning of the text to the TL. Two translation strategies are required depending on the type of text and the degree of specialisation: the reconstruction of the original conceptual scenario in the SL and the accurate use of terminology and collocational patterns in official business documents. In brief, business translators’ work consists of the appropriate use of terminology, the translation of the text, the proofreading and editing of the translated text, the compilation of glossaries, and TBs. The difficulties encountered in the translation of the sample texts retrieved from the four self-made corpora shed new light on the role of translators of business and economics texts. Romanian-English business translators do not benefit from the large range of terminological resources that are available for other language pairs. Faced with limited terminological resources, translators need to act as terminologists and to conduct terminological research and terminological management. As Faber and Gómez-Moreno (2012) showed, one of the difficulties that is characteristic of specialised translations is the use of terminology and terminological correspondences between the SL and the TL. REFERENCES Brezina Vaclav, Weill-Tessier Pierre, McEnery Anthony 2020: #LancsBox v. 5.1.2. Available at: http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/lancsbox. Cabré María Teresa 1993: La Terminología: Teoría, Metodología y Aplicaciones, Barcelona: Empúries. 198 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations Constantinescu Ileana, Crocus Angela 1998: Dicționar economic explicativ, București: Editura economică. 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Faber, Berlin: De Gruyter, 33–72. https://hallo.ro/dictionar-englez-roman/ https://www.proz.com/search/ LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CM – Conceptual metaphors CMT – Conceptual Metaphor Theory CTT – Conceptual Theory of Terminology FBT – Frame-based Terminology GTT – General Theory of Terminology LSP – Language for Specific Purposes MWTs – Multi-word terms SL – Source language TB – Term base TL – Target language VERSLO TERMINIJOS SVARBA SPECIALIZUOTAME VERTIME Santrauka Straipsnyje atkreipiamas dėmesys į verslo terminų vartojimo vertime svarbą ir pabrėžiama tyrimų kompetencijos, kurią turi turėti verslo kalbos vertėjai, reikšmė. Jame analizuojama verslo terminija, glaudžiai susijusi su specializuotu vertimu. Straipsnis įsivaizduotas kaip praktinis vadovas, orientuotas į vertėjų kompetencijas ir įgūdžius, reikalingus tolesniam sertifikuotų anglų–rumunų kalbų vertėjų rengimui. Verslo terminus vartoja verslo srityje dirbantys specialistai, ir tai palengvina jų bendravimą. Profesionalūs vertėjai tarpininkauja tarp specialistų ir plačiosios visuomenės, klientų. Straipsnyje taip pat pabrėžiami įvairūs verslo kalbos vertėjo vaidmenys – nuo terminologinių tyrimų ir specializuotos terminijos įtvirtinimo iki vertimo korektūros ir redagavimo. Vertimo kokybė priklauso nuo vertėjo gebėjimo atskirti formaliąją ir neformaliąją vartoseną, nuo gebėjimo išvengti terminologinių dviprasmybių ir jas pašalinti. Siekdami neatsilikti nuo terminologinių iššūkių ir verslo, ekonomikos bei finansų pokyčių, vertėjai turi nagrinėti internetinius šaltinius: specializuotų tekstų tekstynus ir duomenų bazes, kurios yra geras terminologinių tyrimų šaltinis, be to, jų privalumas – vartosenos kontekstas. Verčiant specializuotus tekstus atliekamas terminologinis darbas atskleidžia terminologinių išteklių sudarymo svarbą ir praktines užduotis, kurias reikia atlikti, kai vertėjo ištekliai yra riboti. Straipsnyje pateikiamos 200 Maria-Crina Herțeg The Importance of Business Terminology in Specialised Translations strategijos ir principai, taikytini verčiant specializuotus tekstus, ir pritariama požiūriui, kad šie principai, strategijos ir sprendimai prisideda prie vertimo kokybės. Kitaip tariant, vertėjai turi išnaudoti visas galimybes ir nuodugniai išnagrinėti turimus elektroninius išteklius. Susidūrę su ribotais ištekliais, jie turi kaupti savo išteklius. Verslo kalbos vertėjas turi suvokti regioninius ir geografinius skirtumus ir į juos atsižvelgti daugiausia remdamasis institucijomis ar aspektais, susijusiais su tam tikromis geografinėmis vietovėmis. Be to, verslo kalbos vertėjas turi mokėti nustatyti ir tvarkytis su terminologiniais ypatumais ir neatitikimais, susijusiais su verslo žanrais: bankininkyste, apskaita, finansais, rinkodara, ir užfiksuoti polisemiją, reikšmės perkėlimą ir išplėtimą įvairiuose žanruose ir rasti geriausią vertimo sprendimą. Straipsnyje taip pat skatinamas terminologinio darbo tarpalykiškumas, integruojantis tekstynų lingvistiką sudarant tekstynus ir kognityvinę lingvistiką verčiant idiomas, metaforas ir patarles. Analizė paremta tekstynais. Iš specializuotų tekstynų paimti pavyzdžiai pirmajame etape buvo išversti naudojantis dvikalbiais žodynais, o antrajame — specializuotais ištekliais: tekstynais, vienakalbiais specializuotais žodynais, dvikalbiais terminų žodynais. Yra daug mokslinių tyrimų, kuriuose sprendžiamas studentų, vertėjų raštu ir žodžiu terminologinių įgūdžių klausimas. Tuose straipsniuose aptariami įvairūs terminologinio darbo aspektai: terminų tvarkyba, terminų standartizacija, terminų išgavimas, duomenų bazių sudarymas, terminų bazių ir tekstynų vaidmuo, terminijos planavimas. Straipsnyje analizuojami du scenarijai: verslo sutarčių atvejis ir verslo žurnalų atvejis, taikytos vertimo strategijos ir atitikimo tipai: kultūrinis ir terminologinis atitikimas. Atsižvelgiant į teksto tipą ir specializacijos laipsnį, reikalingos dvi vertimo strategijos: originalaus konceptualiojo scenarijaus atkūrimas iš originalo kalbos ir tikslus terminų bei kolokacijos modelių vartojimas oficialiuose verslo dokumentuose. Vertimo procesas atskleidžia skirtingas ir panašias tų pačių reiškinių konceptualizacijas anglų ir rumunų kalbomis. Straipsnyje taip pat fiksuojami skirtumai ir panašumai, būdingi konceptualiosioms metaforoms rumunų ir anglų kalbose, ir pateikiami sprendimai verčiant kalbamąsias metaforas, pabrėžiant vertėjo kaip tarpininko tarp kalbų ir kultūrų vaidmenį. Verslo sutarčių vertimas atskleidžia sunkumus, su kuriais susiduria specializuoti verslo kalbos vertėjai, terminologinius tyrimus, kuriuos jie turi atlikti, kad galėtų kokybiškai išversti, Rumunijos specializuotų terminijos išteklių trūkumus. Straipsnyje taip pat kruopščiai nagrinėjami ištekliai, kuriais gali pasinaudoti verslo kalbos vertėjas. Gauta 2024-05-14 Maria-Crina Herțeg 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Faculty of History, Letters, Educational Sciences, Department of Letters 15–17 Unirii Street, Alba Iulia, Romania, 510009 E-mail [email protected], [email protected] Acknowledgements: This article was financially supported through research funds provided by 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania. Terminologija | 2024 | 31 201