VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON TRANSLATION OF ACCOUNTING TERMS FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student: HA THI THU HUONG Student code: 621206 Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor: TRAN THI TUYET MAI, M.A Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON TRANSLATION OF ACCOUNTING TERMS FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC THUẬT NGỮ CHUYÊN NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG TIẾNG VIỆT Student: HA THI THU HUONG Student code: 621206 Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor: TRAN THI TUYET MAI, M.A Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on translation of accounting terms from English into Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2021 Ha Thi Thu Huong Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing my graduation paper, I have received a great deal of help and encouragement from teachers, family, and friends I would first and foremost like to express my thanks to my supervisor, M.A Tran Thi Tuyet Mai, who helps, supports, and makes many comments to me, which help me overcome this challenging process I would also like to thank the teachers of the Faculty of Education and Foreign languages They gave me a chance to make a graduation paper Thanks for the knowledge they taught me during four years to help me have the background knowledge to this thesis ii ABSTRACT In this thesis, I will point out basic knowledge of translation and common terms in Accounting filed Firstly, I will introduce some previous studies related to translation knowledge in accounting terms Next, there are definitions of translation I collected and their techniques applied in translating terms This can help students have more knowledge about it Finally, I will give some information about Accounting terms and give some examples This thesis aims to learn about the structures of accounting terms to help students have a clearer view of the terms and demonstrate translation procedures used in the field of accounting Hopefully, the results of the research will help students in the process of studying and translating iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES viii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significant of the study Design of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Review of previous studies 1.1.1 Research by Dang Thi Le Quyen 1.1.2 Research by Luong Thi Dao 1.1.3 Research by Pedro A.Fuertes-Olivera 1.2 Review of theoretical background 1.2.1 Translation theory 1.2.1.1 Definitions 1.2.1.2 Translation equivalence 1.2.1.3 Translation procedures 11 1.2.1.4 Translation strategies 18 1.2.2 Translation of ESP 23 1.2.2.1 Definition of ESP 23 iv 1.2.2.2 Types of ESP 25 1.2.3 Terminology 26 1.2.3.1 Definition of terminology 26 1.2.3.2 Characteristic of terminology 28 1.2.4 Overview of Accounting 30 1.2.4.1 Definition of Accounting 30 1.2.4.2 Accounting terms 31 1.3 Summary 34 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 35 2.1 Research governing principles 35 2.1.1 Research question(s) 35 2.1.2 Research types 35 2.1.3 Research approaches 35 2.1.4 Data analysis framework 36 2.2 Research methods 36 2.3 Summary 37 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 3.1 Some accounting terms and their construction 38 3.2 Useful techniques for translating of accounting terms 41 3.2.1 Shift or transposition translation 41 3.2.2 Translation by using loan word 44 3.2.3 Translation by omission 46 3.2.4 Literal translation 48 3.2.5 Translation by paraphrase 49 3.3 Problems in translation of accounting terms 52 3.4 Summary 54 PART 3: CONCLUSION 56 v Recapitulation 56 Concluding remarks 57 Limitation of the study 57 Suggestions for further study 58 REFERENCES 59 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SL Source language TL Target language ESP English for language purpose VNUA Vietnam National University of Agriculture V Verb N Noun Adj Adjective vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.2.4 Some single accounting terms 32 Table 1.2.4 Some auditing terms 32 Table 1.2.4 Compound terms in accounting 33 Table 1.2.4 Compound auditing terms 33 Table 1.2.4 Acronyms in accounting terms 34 Table 3.1.1 Single terms 38 Table 3.1.2 Some compound terms 39 Table 3.1.3 Some acronyms terms 40 Table 3.2 Terms using automatic translation 42 Table 3.2 Terms using rank-shift translation 43 Table 3.2 Acronym terms 44 Table 3.2 Terms using omission translation 47 Table 3.2 Terms using literal translation 48 Table 3.2 Terms using translation by paraphrase using related word 50 Table 3.2 Terms using translation by paraphrase using unrelated word 51 viii Acronym Full form Vietnamese VAT Value added tax VAT (Thuế giá trị gia tăng) AGI Annual gross income AGI (Tổng thu nhập hàng năm) ASB Accounting standards board ASB (Ủy ban chuẩn mực kế toán) AAR Average accounting return AAR (Tỷ lệ lợi nhuận ghi sổ) CPA Certified public accountant CPA (Kế tốn viên cơng chứng) DIT Depreciation, interest, taxes DIT (Khấu hao,lợi tức, thuế) PBT Profit before taxes PBT (Lợi nhuận trước thuế) HIFO Highest in first out GAAP IAS IFRS IASC IASB HIFO (Phương pháp hàng có giá trị cao xuất trước) Generally Accepted GAAP (các nguyên tắc tính cước Accounting Principles chấp nhận chung) International Accounting Standards IAS (Tiêu chuẩn kế toán quốc tế) International Financial Chuẩn mực báo cáo tài quốc tế Reporting Standards (IFRS) International Accounting Ủy ban Chuẩn mực Kế toán Quốc tế Standards Committee (IASC) International Accounting Tổ chức tiêu chuẩn kế toán quốc tế Standards Board (IASB) FIFO First In First Out LIFO Last In First Out FIFO (Phương pháp nhập trước xuất trước) LIFO (Phương pháp nhập sau xuất trước từ) If these acronyms appear for the first time or appear only once, they will usually have both full English and Vietnamese forms associated with it And if it 45 is repeated later, the forms will be retracted Currently, in the world, many languages use loan words from other languages Similarly, in Vietnamese people use borrowed language a lot in areas such as borrowing Chinese, English, or Latin The use of this loan word has brought many benefits to readers and users, but besides that, it also has disadvantages when used regularly In terms of advantages, it brings a lot of efficiency in solving the equivalence because the term or concept has not been lexicalized in Vietnamese The second advantage is that it shows vividly one of the main characteristics of the term when it appears in different languages, which is cosmopolitanism Next is that it allows the translator to easily give a concise, accurate translation without going into the meaning of the term to avoid mistranslation In addition, this strategy helps to enrich the vocabulary of the borrowed language by adding new terms and new concepts On the downside, the first disadvantage is that if the loan words are used frequently, it will be difficult to maintain the purity of the Vietnamese language and the national character of the term The second disadvantage is the reading and writing of the borrowed terms for the reader because not everyone can understand and remember these words, especially for non-specialists about this field 3.2.3 Translation by omission This translation strategy is applied in translating terms in the form of a nominal group which usually takes prepositional phrase using of as the Qualifier element If, when rendering these terms into Vietnamese, we translate the preposition “of” as “của”, the Vietnamese version will not sound natural as the way it should normally be Put differently, it definitely fails to accord with the natural usage in Vietnamese In Accounting terms, these strategies could be applied when translating words or phrases that would require lengthy explanations, awkward paraphrases 46 under the form as “Noun + of Noun” For example, the word "book of account" in Vietnamese "book" means "sổ sách" and "of account" has the equivalent meaning: "của kế toán" Thus, if translated into Vietnamese, the whole phrase will have the meaning "sổ sách kế toán" If such translation is seen in the light of literal translation, it is grammatically acceptable However, a translation is not simply the converting of grammatical elements from SL into TL The translator, among many other things to take into consideration when doing his job, has to decide when and what to add or omit to make the translated version readable and natural Therefore, when translated into Vietnamese, "book of account" will be understood in abbreviated form as "sổ sách kế toán" For this translation, it is worth noting that the meaning of the preposition "of" in English is omitted so that the translation is more natural and easier to read in Vietnamese Here are some examples: Table 3.2 Terms using omission translation English Vietnamese Balance sheet of bank account Bảng cân đối tài khoản ngân hàng Currency of payment Đồng tiền toán Depreciation of fixed asset Hao mòn tài sản cố định Depreciation of fixed assets Hao mịn luỹ kế tài sản cố định hữu hình Depreciation of leased fixed assets Hao mòn luỹ kế tài sản cố định thuê tài Cost of goods sold Giá thành hàng bán Backlog of order Đơn hàng tồn đọng Book of double entry Sổ kế toán kép Book of estimate Sổ ước tính Deferral of taxes Hỗn thuế Head of account Đề mục tài khoản Chart of account Biểu đồ kế toán 47 In short, translators need to omit the translation of some words to avoid distracting the reader with lengthy explanations However, this strategy should only be used when the value of producing a smooth translation outweighs the value of accurately expressing a certain meaning in a given context 3.2.4 Literal translation Most of translations of Accounting terms are translated literally, which is translation according to the meaning of the source language According to Peter Newmark, literal translation ranges to one word to one word, through group to group, sentence to sentence, and that it ensures a one-on-one relationship between originals and translated version By this method, the terms become easier to understand and involve background knowledge Literal translation is considered the basic translation step, both in communication and semantic translation To clarify this strategy, I will give an example to illustrate it: “tax” in SL is a noun, as well as a term; when translated into TL it is also a noun meaning "thuế" Through this example we can clearly see that the TL is grammatically correct and the translator does not need to change any words when translating In addition, the translation also does not contain any new information and no explanations are added In this way, the translation will not change much from English to Vietnamese because the terms are converted directly Table 3.2 Terms using literal translation English Vietnamese Asset Tài sản Arrears Tiền nợ Capital Nguồn vốn Cash Tiền mặt 48 Debt Khoản nợ Entry Bút toán Journal Nhật ký chung Income Thu nhập Interest Tiền lãi Invoice Hóa đơn Inventory Hàng tồn kho Loan Khoản vay Loss Lỗ Material Nguyên vật liệu Profit Lãi Revenue Doanh thu 3.2.5 Translation by paraphrase This translation procedure applies to the translation of semantically complex terms In fact, it is a dramatic rank-shift that applies when the concept represented by the term SL has not been lexicalized in the TL To unpack the meaning of the SL term, the translator needs to interpret it using related or unrelated words to determine its propositional meaning in the TL In other words, an SL term is translated by a phrase, clause, TL sentence or several sentences  Translation by paraphrase using related word When the concept presented by the source item is lexicalized in the target language but in a different form and the form is used more frequently in the source text than in the text, this strategy is used For example, when translating “non-cash charge” from SL to TL, it means “chi phí ngồi tiền mặt” Thus, we can see that the word "ngoài" in TL is equivalent to the word "out" in SL, but in the terminology, we not use the word "out" instead, the word "non-" The use 49 of this prefix in a term creates a new word because it has a negative connotation In accounting, the use of a combination of prefixes, suffixes and terms is very commonly used to create different meanings in the TL text Therefore, when translating, translators need to pay attention to the meaning of prefixes and suffixes in SL to get a perfect TL product Here are some examples illustrating this strategy: Table 3.2 Terms using translation by paraphrase using related word English  Vietnamese Non-business expenditure source Nguồn kinh phí nghiệp Non-business expenditures Chi nghiệp Non-current asset Tài khoản không lưu động Non-cash asset Tài sản tiền mặt Non- cash input Đầu vào phi tiền mặt Non-trade debt Nợ phi mậu dịch Non-trade reciept Thu nhập phi mậu dịch Non-production cost Chi phí ngồi sản xuất Indirect cost Chi phí gián tiếp Debtor Người nợ Creditor Chủ nợ Intangible asset Tài sản vơ hình Prepaid expenses Chi phí trả trước Undistributed profit Lợi nhuận chưa phân phối Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word This strategy is applied in the translation of accounting terms that are not lexicalized at all in Vietnamese If a concept represented by the source item is not lexicalized in the target language, it can be interpreted using in some 50 contexts based on modifying the word or unpacking the meaning of the source item, especially complex semantic questions An example given to illustrate this strategy is the phrase “dead loan”, in which we can see that the word “dead” means “chết” and the word “loan” means “khoản vay” " Thus, if word by word translation, in TL this phrase will mean "khoản vay chết" However, in order to have a good and accurate translation product, this phrase will be translated with another meaning as "khoản vay không trả được" It can be seen that when translating, this term is translated through the use of unrelated words based on unpacking the meaning of the source item It is clear that if the translator translates in the usual way, it is very difficult to translate properly and suitable for a particular field Therefore, the use of unrelated words can achieve a high degree of accuracy in determining the propositional meaning Table 3.2 Terms using translation by paraphrase using unrelated word English Vietnamese Bad debt Nợ khê Call deposit Tiền gửi không kỳ hạn Call loan Khoản vay không kỳ hạn Clearing account Tài khoản bù trừ Dead stock Hàng tồn kho khó bán Dead loan Khoản vay khơng trả Doubtful debt Món nợ khó địi Hard cash Tiền mặt Liquidity Tính khoản Matching fund Vốn tương đáp Paraphrasing is applied in translating semantically complex terms 51 Accordingly, SL can be translated by a TL phrase, clause, sentence, or several sentences Paraphrase translation has two uses: using related or unrelated words to determine the meaning of its proposition in the SL When using this method, the translator needs to pay attention to the meaning of the prefix and suffix of the word in the SL or the modification of the word or its meaning when converting to the TL However, using this strategy has two disadvantages The first disadvantage is that it does not transfer any expressive or associative meanings in the TL because of the stateless interpretation of a stable lexical item The second disadvantage is that when the term SL is replaced by a lengthy explanation in the TL, it becomes cumbersome and difficult to handle Therefore, when using translators should be considered because there is a tradeoff between the lengthy explanation and the economics of the translation This can prevent this strategy from being abused 3.3 Problems in translation of accounting terms a Difficulties in translation Translation is never an easy task, it is a job that requires learners and researchers to have highly specialized fields, study and make efforts to improve knowledge about all areas of life For the accounting field, it is also difficult and complicated to translate specialized terms The first is the linguistic problem, which becomes difficult for today's students, including English linguistic students or accounting’s students, because they lack translation experience Therefore, in the process of translating, they will face a lot of difficulties in finding the equivalent because their vocabulary is limited The lexical capacity is limited so there is no lexical or grammatical substitution of the source language in the target language This is a very important foundation for effective translation, yet few students are interested in improving their native language knowledge That explains why many students 52 studying translation think that it is easier to translate from Vietnamese to English The second problem is the issue of culture, cultural differences are also an issue that translators need to pay attention to in the translation process because they are responsible for transmitting information from one language to another Especially for students, because they have not knowledge about other cultures, they are easy to encounter difficulties in the translation process and may lead to incorrect translation due to lack of contact or unfamiliarity with the culture of the target language In the field of accounting, this is not common because it does not contain many proverbs but students when translating in this field should also pay attention to it Another difficulty is that the translator does not have a deep understanding of the accounting field Not only language learners at VNUA, but also all translation learners, without a clear understanding of the accounting field, the translation of these terms will not be accurate in other contexts For example, for students at VNUA, English language learners will find it difficult to translate an accounting document accurately because they have not studied and learned about this field In contrast, for students studying accounting, although they understand the field of accounting but have not studied translation, it is difficult to translate correctly b Suggestion to deal with difficulties in translation In terms of linguistic problem, this problem will be solved if translators and translation students work hard to accumulate vocabulary of both English and Vietnamese To be able to translate English in this field, students need to spend a lot of time to improve their mother tongue in the field of accounting through reading Vietnamese books and reference materials related to accounting This helps them to collect a lot of accounting terms in Vietnamese, understand more about accounting and how to use it, and understand more about accounting in 53 Vietnam and around the world Besides, students also need to update more words to avoid misunderstanding when translating and can use words flexibly to avoid mechanical translation on the English - Vietnamese dictionary In terms of culture, in order to avoid cases of unnaturalness or inaccuracy on cultural issues, translators should pay attention to word substitutions that are appropriate for each culture This gives more value than translating an exact text but loses the culture of the target language For example, when translating an idiom or proverb, for Vietnamese culture, things that are close to the daily life of Vietnamese people will be substituted for things that are unfamiliar to Vietnamese culture However, in the field of accounting, the use of idioms is not much, so students can avoid difficulties when translating in this respect On the professional side, language students should spend some time joining existing accounting clubs or searching accounting websites Through learning and exchanging knowledge, they can have an overview and deeper understanding of the field Besides, they can learn new accounting terms by studying on the dictionary to improve their vocabulary For students studying accounting, they also need to learn new terms and new knowledge about their major, and learn more about how to translate terms to be able to translate documents related to professional terms 3.4 Summary This study is an attempt to study English accounting terms and translations It was done to find out answers to two research questions Concepts in chapter form the basis for the research question In addition, translation procedures and strategies are very important because they are used a lot, thereby clarifying many aspects of the problem raised in the research process Concepts of accounting terminology are introduced to form the basis for the research analysis In the remaining chapter, the study outlines the procedures and strategies commonly used in translating accounting terms for the study In this 54 chapter, I have summarized some of the findings of the thesis during the research Transposition, using loan words or paraphrasing are all commonly used methods while translating However, it also has advantages and disadvantages in its use Those advantages, disadvantages and some suggestions to deal with difficulties I have mentioned in each of the above sections, hopefully, can help students in the process of using them, avoiding overusing them during the translation process 55 PART 3: CONCLUSION Recapitulation This study is an attempt to study the translation of accounting terms in English Concepts in the translation are introduced in chapter one to form the basis for the research Especially translation strategies and procedures play an important role because they are used a lot, thereby clarifying issues in the research process Concepts and terms are mentioned to create the basis for research analysis As the economy grows, so does the emergence of new concepts, which explain the emergence of both single-word and multi-word terms Although there are many books on translation today, very few of them discuss the issue of English-Vietnamese translation specifically In this thesis, common translation strategies and procedures that are frequently used in the translation process are presented, and the procedures for translating accounting terminology are also discussed along with their examples From the terminology I have gathered from the five textbooks mentioned above and based on the methods of previous researchers such as Newmark, Catford, and reference to a number of other authors, I have come up with the following methods: Appropriate methods when translating accounting terms such as Literal translation, using loan word, omission, paraphrasing The above translation methods all have benefits for translators in the process of translating specialized documents However, besides those benefits, it also has certain disadvantages Therefore, in order to avoid disadvantages, translators need to avoid abusing them during use, so the translation will be highly effective In addition to the disadvantages of translation methods, there are also difficulties in the translation process for female translators, including language, cultural and especially specialized problems For the above problems, I also offer some solutions to help students solve these problems 56 I hope that this study can help language learners to translate documents related to accounting more easily At the same time, it can help accounting students face less difficulty when using specialized documents Concluding remarks In this section, I will summarize the conclusions about the objectives set forth at the beginning of the thesis  Question 1: what are the linguistic features of accounting terms? The objective of this section is to collect basic English accounting terms and give their Vietnamese equivalents In this thesis, I have collected many accounting terms through the accounting textbooks of accounting students at VNUA, specifically accounting and auditing terms From there, divide those terms into groups based on their structure The division of these groups of terms will help the process of choosing the right translation methods in the translation process  Question 2: what techniques used in translating accounting terms? The second objective is to present the technical method used in translating accounting terms This study will provide an analysis of the translation strategy as well as the techniques used in translating English to Vietnamese terms For this purpose, I have also understood and given the translation methods and procedures commonly used in the translation process The translation strategy procedures applied to the translation of accounting terminology are also provided with accompanying analytical examples However, due to the limitation of time and knowledge, the introduction of procedures and translation methods are incomplete and there are errors in the research process Limitation of the study This study also has limitations Firstly, the thesis only studies the basic terms commonly encountered in accounting textbooks of VNUA students today, and some popular strategies applied in translating accounting terms, terms in this 57 thesis did not particularly analyze Secondly, due to my limited knowledge, it is difficult to avoid errors in the research process Finally, in terms of accounting terminology, because we have not updated the terms, it may affect the quality of the research paper Suggestions for further study In the coming time, Vietnam's economy is developing more and more, so businesses need to have a good accounting system The cooperation between countries around the world requires high quality translation Therefore, the study of accounting matters becomes necessary to make the translation of documents easier Due to the scope of the thesis, this thesis only studies the translations of basic accounting terms Later studies need to delve into different aspects such as digging deeper into other accounting terms or translating clauses and sentences in accounting documents Above all, translations must have a strong impact on the readers because they are the ultimate judge of the translation In summary, I hope that through this thesis, I can contribute to the study of English - Vietnamese translations of students at VNUA Hopefully it can be a companion for students who want to improve their translation skills and can help their future work and study 58 REFERENCES Newmark, P (1988) A textbook of translation (Vol 66) New York: Prentice hall Quirk, R (2007) A university grammar of English Pearson Education India Thomson, A J., & Martinet, A V (1980) A practical English grammar Oxford University Press Gatehouse, K (2001) Key issues in English for specific purposes (ESP) curriculum development The internet TESL journal, 7(10), 1-10 Đỗ Hữu Vinh Từ điển thuật ngữ kế toán – kiểm toán quốc tế Anh Việt NXB Thanh Niên Ngơ Thế Chi Giáo trình kế tốn tài NXB tài Hà Nội 2010 UKEssays (November 2018) Definitions Of Esp By Different Scholars English Language Essay Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english- language/definitions-of-esp-by-different-scholars-english-language-essay.php?vref=1 Youth4work (June 7th ) What are the Definition of accounting? Retrieved from https://www.youth4work.com/Talent/Accounting/Forum/136352-what-are-the-3definition-of-accounting-explain-your-answer?yFast=On Lotfollah Karimi (Volume 10, No 1, January 2006) Equivalence in Translation English Department Islamic Azad University Retrieved from https://translationjournal.net/journal/35equiv.htm 10 100 thuật ngữ tiếng anh chuyên ngành kế toán kiểm toán Aroma Retrieved from http://aroma.vn/100-thuat-ngu-tieng-anh-chuyen-nganh-ke-toan-kiem-toan/ 11 Nguyen Thi Van Anh (2011) The translation of environment terminology from English into Vietnamese M.A combined programme thesis, University of Foreign Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University 12 Zohre Owji, M.A (Volume 17, No.1, January 2013) Translation strategies: A review and comparison of theories Retrieved from https://translationjournal.net/journal/63theory.htm 13 Giáo trình English for Accounting and business management Học Viện Nông Nghiệp Việt Nam 59