CHAPTER I. THE PECCULIARITUES OF ECONOMICAL DISCOURSE

1.1. Special translation’s theory

How you can know, translation theory has some main sections: general translation theory, Private translation theory, Special translation theory, history of translation and other, we will see one of the main theories - Special translation theory. [15;105]

Special translation theories open the peculiarities of the translation process of texts different types and genres, and also its influence on the character of this process of speech forms and conditions of its existence. It studies linguistic aspects of translation from one language to another.

General translation theory is a part of linguistic translation theory, which studies most common linguistic ways of translation independent of some peculiarities of certain pare of language, ways of translation and individual characteristics of a certain translation. [9;36]

Special translation theory studies the peculiarities of translation process of different kinds of texts and the influence of forms and conditions of speech on the translation process. There are some texts: military, legal, economical, medical, technical and other texts. [9;37]

Texts that are used for translation are different in a genre, style and function. That’s why the translator needs to know the peculiarities of translated him text. Type of the text defines approach and the requirement to translation, has influence on the choice ways of translation and definitions of degree of equivalence of translation to the original. Purposes and tasks are different depending on that he translates. Texts, relating to a certain discourse or a genre within a certain discourse, demand special approaches in the course of translation. [5;48]

V.N. Komissarov [6;103] notes, first of all, in itself accessory to the original to the person to a discourse can have impact on nature of translational process and demand from the translator of application of special methods and receptions.

Secondly, focusing on the similar original can predetermine stylistic characteristics of target text, and consequently also need of choice of such language means which characterize a similar discourse already in translation’s language and at last as a result of interaction of these two factors actually translational features connected with common features and distinctions between language’s signs of similar discourses in source language and with special conditions and problems of translation process of this type.

In other words, Special translation theory studies the peculiarities of translation process of different kinds of texts and the influence of forms and conditions of speech on the translation process. [1;74]

The choice of language means can depend on situation of communication and roles in which participants of communication act also. In different situations people speak differently, and speech of the speaker at meeting isn't similar to its conversation with the stranger on the street or with the close friend. [2;49]

Economical translation, we can refer to independent type of special translation. However, indisputability of existence of an economic discourse sets us thinking on need of allocation of the special theory of translation of economic texts. Because translation of economical texts bears the specifics, it is necessary to investigate in more detail channelized.

As a subdivision of technical texts, the translation of economic texts is highly demanded at

banks, companies, professional accountants, and multinational corporations and so on; it covers financial, accounting, marketing, and management matters. Therefore, a qualitative translation requires specialists with a certain background and expertise in the field. The person in charge with the translation of such specialized texts should be familiar with economic terms at the same time being capable of understanding their meanings,and be aware of many facets of the economic field. It has often been underlined that the main obstacle to fully understanding

Technical texts is not technical vocabulary itself as one may expect (highly specialized words usually used only by specialists), but an intermediate lexical category between the general and the fully technical one, constituting the largest proportion of scientific and technological textsand

known as sub-technical, semi-technical or nontechnical vocabulary. This consists of items of

vocabulary from normal English operating within a science context. Another problem is that translators have a hard time to transfer the same meaning to the other languages, especially when it is about new concepts or technical terms that have no Romanian equivalents. For example, Liviu Ornea admits that during his lectures he uses a lot of English technical wordslike‘produs warped’ or simply ‘warped product’ as the Romanian version ‘produs rsucit’ is less scientific; or, another sample is ‘twistor’ the notion introduced by Roger Penrose, which would be ‘rsucitur’, or ‘încolcitur’ in Romanian. So, the only solution is to keep the English version until there is going to bea common corpus of terminology scientists could rely on. Regarding this problem, Delisle (1981) illustrates what a subtle form of torture translation is: ‘

Translation is an arduous job that mortifies you, puts you in a state of despair at

times, but also an enriching and indispensable work, that demands honesty and modesty.’

Economics is a field of knowledge in accelerated scientific and technological development that each year incorporates a large number of new terms into the specialized vocabulary. As there is a permanent and ever increasing need to quickly update their knowledge, economists read and

learn directly in the original language of the publication and stick to it in daily usage, including conferences, scientific events and articles written in Romanian. There are many ways through which business terms have entered the Romanian vocabulary: contacts between business people, specialised business journals and newspapers, and books, as well as TV programmes on business. The number of specialized terms borrowed from English into Romanian in the field of Economics is extremely high, and their necessity cannot be contested, although many of them are present only in the jargon of specialists. Nevertheless, a great number of these loan words will not last in the Romanian language, and for those that will stay, it will take some time before they are really adopted and adapted to the Romanian language. It is only later on that the first attempts to translate these terms start to appear timidly, and this leads to further problems such as finding the suitable corresponding Romanian term. This process is often carried out by people who have no translating experience. They can also be carried out by professional translators who are not familiar with the associated vocabulary or economic practice, resulting in seriously distorted meanings. Amateur translators seldom perform

very thorough in-depth proofread research into terms that have already been translated in economic literature, which results in highly heterogeneous translations from one publication to another. Training translators becomes vital not only in the acquisition and command of languages and translation strategies and procedures, but also in specific knowledge areas and, in professional ethics as well.

Inadequate translations can not only lead to minor confusions, but it can sometimes prove to be a matter of life and death if we think about cases of serious inadequacy in knowledge areas such as science, medicine, legal matters, or technology. A good option, in certain cases, would be to keep the original English term in brackets to increase the reader’s comprehension.

Extensive bibliographical research must always be undertaken to search for terms that have

already been published in earlier publications, making an effort to stick with the choice made by

the first translator. In Holland, for instance, there was a group linguists who gathered and worked out a minimal economics lexicon agreed throughout the country and intensively used by

specialists and widely understood by everyone. This could be a useful hint for our country as well as we lack such generally agreed and unitary corpus of special business terms.

Last but not least, the economic translation is a poorly paid field, which is inevitably reflected in

the quality. We have to admit that poorly paid work leads to rush jobs, consequently lowering the quality of the final result. All these difficulties could explain the economists’ reluctance to adopt translated terms. Perhaps some of the above mentioned measures could really help improve the quality of economic text translations. Besides researching properly the markets, finding distribution channels, and dealing with legal issues, a successful business person should not neglect the language aspects, be it spoken or translated. There are numerous instances when companies get themselves into trouble with translations that are inaccurate or culturally inappropriate.

These are the main reasons why we consider that our students as future graduates should be well-equipped with some of the skills necessary when reading and translating technical texts, be it for personal progress and development or for the job requirements. Here are some examples of translation problems encountered during our regular English classes taught to students at the Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea. English classes are held weekly; students have an intermediate/ upper intermediate level of English knowledge (they have been tested prior to establishing the English groups); we work

from a book conceived especially for second year students that approaches different fields of business so as to let students get used to the specialized vocabulary. Besides reading, writing and solving a great amount of vocabulary exercises, we have tried our hand at translating some short texts from English into Romanian. Certainly, in order to produce an acceptable translation, you must find acceptable words in the other language. Even though everything seems a piece of cake at a first glance, there appeared a number of difficulties when actually producing a correct and coherent Romanian translation. Here we will make a very important distinction between two kinds of language: general language and specialized terminology. In general language, it is undesirable to repeat the same word over and over unnecessarily. Variety is highly valued. However, in specialized terminology, consistency (which would be called monotony in the case of general language) is highly valued. Indeed, it is essential to repeat the same term over and over whenever it refers to the same object. It is frustrating and sometimes even dangerous to change terms for the same object when describing how to maintain or repair a complex machine such as a commercial airplane. After reading the text (reading comprehension is actually the first preparatory step), students are advised to practice the following basic reading comprehension skills: scanning, skimming, reading for gist and main ideas, reading for details, identify the meaning of new words and expressions paying attention to structural aspects (prefixes, suffixes, roots, word order), identify the meaning of new words and expressions by finding synonyms, antonyms, identify cultural references in the choice of words in the text. When coming across unknown words, students are encouraged to use dictionaries as ‘the most commonly heard advice to translators is 'if you don't know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.'’ Students use both bilingual dictionaries for looking up meanings of new words and monolingual dictionaries to check the usage of the new words in the source language and in the target language; they are also advised to refer to specialized magazines and journals to follow the use of the particular word. The next level of translation refers to the accuracy and sound aspect of the translation and for that students are supported to pay special attention to aspects like: the correct word order in the target language, the ideas of the text should be conveyed in clear sentences in the target language, sometimes they are invited to rephrase certain sentences or even make changes to the text so as to render the overall meaning translated.

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 2060