iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and scopes of the study Research questions and methodology Organization of the thesis PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Terminology and Financial Terminology 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 Properties 1.1.3 Translation of terminology 1.2 Previous research 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Participants 16 2.2 Instruments of data collection 16 2.3 Procedures of data collection 18 v 2.4 Procedure of data analysis 20 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 Results 21 3.1.1 Syntactic idiomaticity of English financial terms 21 3.1.2 Semantic idiomaticity of English financial terms 23 3.1.3 Difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 24 3.1.4 Solutions to deal with difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 30 3.2 Discussion 34 PART 3: CONCLUSION 35 Summary 35 Implications for Translation 35 Pedagogical implications 37 Limitations of the study 38 Suggestions for further research 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES .I Appendix I Appendix VII Appendix XIII vi ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ADJ Adjective ESP English for Specific Purposes FTU Foreign Trade University GPA Grade Point Average GDP Gross Domestic Product IELTS International English Language Testing System L2 Second language MA Master of Arts N Noun SL Source language TL Target language TOEIC Test of English for International Communication UEB University of Economics and Business UK The United Kingdom ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Types of equivalence relationship 11 Table 2: Newmark‟s V Diagram 13 Table 3: Types of English idiomatic financial terms in terms of syntax 21 Table 4: Number of English idiomatic financial compound types 22 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Percentage of idiomatic financial terms among English financial terms according to the FTU respondents 24 Figure 2: Percentage of idiomatic financial terms among English financial terms according to the ULIS respondents 25 Figure 3: Admission of many difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 25 Figure 4: Reasons to explain the difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 27 Figure 5: Measures to deal with the difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 31 Figure 6: Percentage of the most effective measure chosen by the FTU group to solve difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 33 Figure 7: Percentage of the most effective measure chosen by the ULIS group to solve difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms 33 PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Vietnam is a rapidly developing country with a dynamic and emerging market economy Located in South East Asia, the country has positioned itself as a focal point of trade and investment, boasting an average annual GDP growth rate of 6.8% over the last seven years Despite recent global economic challenges during the worldwide financial crisis, Vietnam has been and will be witnessing remarkable development of a wide range of fields in the economy Finance serves a vivid illustration of this situation when more and more foreign financial institutions have expanded their strong presence in Vietnam Against this background, the use of foreign financial terms, mainly English ones, has become genuinely popular Thus, there arise considerable demands for better understanding of these terms Yet, in some cases, it is not easy to comprehend their accurate meaning, particularly idiomatic ones What is more, in order to find exact Vietnamese equivalents for English idiomatic financial terms, students and novice translators need not only certain language proficiency but also background knowledge in both languages Evidently, the idiomaticity of English terminology in general and financial terms in particular has indeed caused them considerable difficulties To address such problems, quite a number of papers have been written on specialized terms However, there is still a research gap in dealing with the idiomaticity of English financial terminology On the other hand, for the same idiomatic financial terms, different authors/users may suggest different Vietnamese words/phrases, claiming them to be equivalent to the English Which among those options can be the most appropriate remains controversial To answer this question, it is necessary to have more investigations into the idiomaticity of the terms Driven by this necessity, I ventured into this investigation of “Idiomaticity of English Terminology in Finance and Solutions for Finding Vietnamese Equivalents” in the hope of shedding some light on idiomatic financial terms and suggesting possible solutions for me and other language users to find proper Vietnamese equivalents 2 Aims and scopes of the study Due to the time constraint and limited knowledge, this study merely focuses on financial terms in English, especially idiomatic ones They have been extracted from specialized books and dictionaries, namely Options, Futures and other Derivatives (Hull, 2009), Financial Markets and Institutions (Madura, 2006), English for Specific Purposes II compiled by the lecturers of Faculty of English for Specific Purposes at Foreign Trade University (2009), and Oxford Business English Dictionary For Learners of English (Parkinson, 2008) The study aims at:  Providing some theoretical background on terminology in general and financial ones in particular, and translation of terminology;  Analyzing main features of English idiomatic financial terminology in terms of syntax and semantics;  Identifying difficulties in finding Vietnamese equivalents for English idiomatic financial terms;  Suggesting some solutions to cope with these problems and discovering the most effective one(s) among the mentioned solutions Research questions and methodology Within the framework of a minor thesis, the study is conducted to address the three following research questions: What are the features of English idiomatic financial terms? What are difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms? What are solutions to deal with difficulties in translation of English idiomatic financial terms? So as to answer the three research questions, questionnaires and interviews were applied Given my circumstances, these questionnaires and interviews could only be administered with the participation of 86 people, 53 of whom are graduate students from Course 46 English of International Finance at Faculty of Finance and Banking, FTU and 33 of whom are senior ones of Interpreter and Translator Training Division of Faculty of English Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU After that, I picked up 06 among the 33 ULIS students to carry out a focused-group interview to clarify further information on subject matters in this study Then the statistics collected from these instruments were analyzed and compared so that solutions to the difficulties identified could be generated Besides, library research and personal experience were also used as strong support for the study, which ensured its validity and accuracy Organization of the thesis This paper is divided into three parts: Part One - Introduction outlines the rationale, scope and aims, research questions and methodology of the study, as well as organization of the thesis Part Two - Development is composed of three chapters Chapter One under the title “Theoretical Background” pinpoints different linguistic concepts relevant to the topic such as idiomaticity, financial terminology and equivalence, and a short review of what has been done so far in the study of terminology in general and financial terms in particular Then comes Chapter Two “Methodology” in which detailed description of participants, instruments, procedures of data collection, and procedure of data analysis are given Finally, Chapter Three presents results of the study, discussion, recommendations, and application Last but not least, Part Three - Conclusion wraps up the study with summary, implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Terminology and Financial Terminology 1.1.1 Definitions The notion “terminology” has been under many discussions by many linguists so far Its definition is looked at from different views To the author of Collins Cobuild Dictionary (Collins, 2006), terminology is simply “a set of special words and expressions used in connection with it” Meanwhile, according to Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary of Current English (Hornby, 2006), terminology is viewed as “a set of technical words or expressions used in a particular subject” Newmark (1988, p.131) states that “terminology is variously defined as an idiom peculiar to a trade or profession, an occupational register of language, or an esoteric unintelligible to the layman” In agreement with Newmark, Rey (1979, p.4) defines it as: “A set of special words belonging to a science, an art, an author or a social entity, as in: “the terminology of medicine”, “the terminology used by computer specialists.” There are also various definitions of terminology among Vietnamese linguists Nguyễn Văn Tu (1968, p.176) contributes that “terminology is a word or combination of words that is used in science, technology, politics, art,… and it has a specific meaning, denotes precise concepts and names of the above-mentioned scientific areas” Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2003, p.270) suggests that terminology is recognized as a special part of the language lexicon It consists of certain words and phrases that are the exact names of concepts and objects in the professional field In the light of Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981)‟s view, terms are “specialist words used within a scientific field, a profession or any technological field” Such definitions can serve as a foundation on which distinction between terms and words is discovered In fact, Baker (1998, p.261) puts that “terms differ from words in that they are endowed with a special forms of reference, namely that they refer to discrete conceptual entities, properties, activities or relations which constitute the knowledge space of a particular subject field” Accordingly, further important differences between terms and words are as follows: - Terms have special reference within a particular discipline whereas words function in general reference over a variety of subject fields - Terms keep their lives and meanings only as long as they serve the system of knowledge they gave rise to them In brief, although the definitions of terminology are made at different times and from different situations, they still share three similar aspects With respect to structure, terminology often manifests itself in word and phrasal form In terms of semantics, it is a special linguistic unit that denotes certain unique concept With reference to usage, terminology is utilized in a certain specialized field Seen in this way, financial terminology must be a set of special words and expressions (i.e terms) relating to finance What the author means by “finance” here is the study of money and how it is spent and budgeted (Farlex Financial Dictionary, 2009) One of the main subsets of finance is credit and banking, as this involves money, time, and risk all together Finance also touches on personal or corporate issues, such as how an individual or company acquires the money needed to perform a certain act On the basis of the analysis, it can be concluded that terminology in finance in this context is a system of exact and specific terms including monetary markets, currency movements, banks, etc These are the subjects of my research 1.1.2 Properties Most lexical units of language have their own properties, and terminology is not an exception Several properties of terminology have been identified Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) assumes three fundamental properties of terminology, namely accuracy, systematicity, and internationality In accordance with Lê Khả Kế (1967, pp.110-114), “scientific i.e accurate, systematical and concise, of native language […]; popular and applicable” are distinctive features of terminology Lưu Vân Lăng (1977, p.2) adds that terminology is to be “systematical, linguistically native, accurate, concise, and popular and of great utility” Based on those views, the author believes terminology should have the following properties: Accuracy, systematicity, internationality, nationality, popularity, monosemy, and idiomaticity With regard to accuracy, it can be considered the most basic property of terminology Terminology must express a clear and exact meaning in order to avoid misunderstanding of one concept for another Indeed, the accuracy of terminology is well preserved in both its form and meaning Concerning lexical meaning, while normal words basically put up with polysemy and synonymy, terminology does not The semantics of terminology is invariant in a particular area, as opposed to that of ordinary words which may alter depending on usage and contexts Regarding its form, terminology remains fixed Hardly can it be added with any other elements such as affix to change a term into the plural form or antonyms Nevertheless, terms parachuted under the criterion of systematicity could be varied in forms Next comes the second property of terminology which is systematicity As a matter of fact, each field of science has its own system of solid and finite concepts expressed by its own terms, and the terms have relationship with others in its system The semantic value of a term is determined by its relation to others in the same field Once separated from its system, it may be ambiguous, or even valueless To take an example, “call” in Communication is interpreted as “cuộc gọi”, and “quyền chọn bán” in Finance It can be inferred that it is impossible to isolate a term from its community Systematicity makes terms the insiders of a particular field and helps readers understand concepts with ease Another property of terminology is internationality which is shown in both form and meaning With regard to form, it is of great interest to discover that many terms are entirely borrowed from one language to another For example, despite very slight difference in the pronunciation, the term “vitamin” stays the same in almost all languages around the world, including Vietnamese, English, and German language In terms of meaning, terminology figures out common scientific concepts recognized and equally understood by speakers of different cultures For instance, it is common knowledge that ATM is an abbreviation of Automated Telling Machine in finance Obviously, internationality provides impetus towards the popularity of a common language Nationality is the fourth feature of terminology It is broadly conceived that terminology is not set apart from the language Nguyễn Lân (1995, p.16) avers that terms are specific ... idiomaticity of the terms Driven by this necessity, I ventured into this investigation of “Idiomaticity of English Terminology in Finance and Solutions for Finding Vietnamese Equivalents? ?? in the hope of. .. from Course 46 English of International Finance at Faculty of Finance and Banking, FTU and 33 of whom are senior ones of Interpreter and Translator Training Division of Faculty of English Teacher... looks at a special aspect of terminology in Finance, as the title indicates “Idiomaticity of English Terminology in Finance and Solutions for Finding Vietnamese Equivalents? ?? 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY