English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 1 - CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background to the study 1.1.1 Rationale It was a milestone in my life when I passed the hard entrance exam to the English class of my province's high school for gifted students. During my study there, I had a good chance to be exposed to the English language environment where I accumulated English a lot. My passionate love for the English language remains and just grows more strongly day by day during my time spent at the English Department, Hanoi University of Foreign Studies. In the last three university terms namely term 6, 7 and 8, English students of the academic year 2002 including me have been trained in Translation and Interpretation course, and I immediately took special pleasure in translating, especially from English into Vietnamese. Within three terms only, we have been introduced to a wide range of fields that we may encounter in our future jobs such as diplomacy, politics, economic issues, finance and banking, environment, social development, etc. We all find these thoroughly selected topics are of great application to us due to their frequent use in the current affairs locally and globally. Truly speaking, when practicing translation at class, we have the feeling that the deeper scopes of life we touch on, the greater challenge we are confronted with. In fact, the problem may not lie in the language itself but in the background knowledge containing in the source language text required to produce a comprehensible and professional translated version. Thus, in the very initial stage of translation learning, I myself find it extremely hard to deal successfully with terminologies arising in the English version. In reality, all professions have their own system of "jargons" and translators normally have no English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 2 - desire to equip themselves with all such technical terms. However, it requires a translator to master terminology of the area he/she specializes in to facilitate his/her translation job. During my university, I am especially interested in the field of banking and finance that is, as for me, implicit tremendous challenges, and difficulties in terms of language. I always look forward to having a chance to go inside the world of banking and finance language, discover and resolve translation obstacles set by banking and finance terminology. However, Banking and Finance is a huge topic that holds thousands of concepts and has a range of thousands of terms. Therefore, I come up with a smaller topic and expect to deal with it in details within my Graduation Paper, which is "A study on English- Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card." Credit card has been in use for years in the world, however, in Vietnam it is relatively a newly developed banking product. Hopefully, my small research may be of little use to students of English in our department or anyone concerned about banking and finance, especially credit card. 1.1.2. Aims and scope of the study I strive to do my research with the aims of: - Giving the general overview of terminology and methods applied in the translation of terminology - Helping readers have more understanding of credit card in general terminology on credit card in particular - Analyzing the translation of credit card terminology Credit card is one small aspect among various bank products and services nowadays. However, it is not an easy job to understand clearly and profoundly how it works and benefits individuals and the economies to render correctly and English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 3 - understandably all terms related to such industry into Vietnamese. Due to my limited knowledge and the rapid development of credit card in the dynamic financial market today, shortcomings and mistakes in credit card terminology are inevitable. Thus, any comment, correction, and constructive ideas by my fellow students, teachers and readers to further complete my research are deeply appreciated. 1.1.3. Methods In a bid to write a good Graduation Paper, it is vital to start on the right track and carefully outline a sound and effective method of doing a research. The research has been conducted on the ground of studies on terminology by many foreign and Vietnamese linguists and scientists. The theoretical background is built on the basis of their scientific reports, statements and books on terminology and the translation of terminology. In addition, online and offline dictionaries and encyclopedia are also consulted to build a complete glossary on credit card. I obtain much knowledge of Credit card and collect additional terms from Reference books, Journals, Publications by quite a few banks in Vietnam. Especially, I have tried hard to contact and have unofficial interviews with bankers of some commercial banks in Vietnam to obtain hands-on understanding of credit card and get to know more about credit card terminology. 1.2. Organization This Graduation Paper is divided into four Chapters. Chapter I introduces the background and organization of the study. Chapter II makes an overview of related literature concerning theory on terminology, the translation English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 4 - of terminology. Chapter III presents firstly an overall look on credit card and credit card terminology, then the translation of credit card terminology that concerns Literal and Communicative translation , and the analysis of the equivalence. Chapter IV will wrap up the study with the conclusion. English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 5 - CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 2.1. An overview of terminology 2.1.1. Definition of terminology Since the topic of the graduation paper reads "A study of English- Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card”, apparently the word "terminology" should appeal to any reader who happens to rest his eyes on the cover of the research as the core point of the work. A question will then be raised thereby "what is terminology?" or "Do the word “term” and “terminology” mean the same thing?" It is necessary to bring these questions to light within the limited scope of the study. According to Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, term is "a word or phrase used as the name of something especially one connected with a particular type of language." Also this dictionary defines terminology as "a set of technical words or expressions used in a particular subject." As such, terminology is broader in meaning compared with term. While terms separately refer to discrete conceptual entities, properties that constitute the knowledge of a particular field, terminology refers to the system of all concepts and definitions concerning a specific technical area. As defined in this way, credit card terminology must be a set of terms relating to credit card, a banking product that has facilitated payments worldwide. Quite a few senior Vietnamese linguists have also proposed other definition of terminology as follows: English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 6 - • Terminology is a word or a word-group used in science, technology, politics, diplomacy, art, etc., which exactly indicates a concept or a title of a particular. (Nguyen Van Tu, 1960: 176) • Terminology is a part of special words of language. It consists of certain words and phrases that are the exact names of a variety of concepts and objects, which belongs to the professional field. (Nguyen Thien Giap, 1986: 223) In brief, unlike ordinary words, terminology or a set of terms are regarded as scientific words and each term denotes a concept in a particular field such as economics, biology, chemistry, and so on. Ordinary words often convey more than their literal meanings and evoke further images, emotions, and reactions on the part of listeners or readers, whereas terms are largely free from such distorting associations. 2.1.2. Features of terminology It is of common knowledge that most of the layers of vocabularies have their own features and are used in certain situation by particular groups of people. That is also applied to terminology. Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) in his book Từ vựng tiếng Việt hiện đại or Modern Vietnamese Vocabulary has defined three main characteristics of terminology including Accuracy, Systematicality and Internationality. • Accuracy A concept represented a term must be clear and exact. In addition, an accurate term should not make the reader misunderstand the concept it expresses with another. Actually the accuracy of terminology is well recognized in both its form and meaning. English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 7 - With respect to the lexical meaning of words, normal word often bear the characteristics of polysemy and synonym, whereas terminology must keep away from this. The semantics of ordinary words may change in different usage and contexts while that of terminology is fixed in specialized fields it is employed in. For example, a normal and simple noun like "school" in general language has up to eight shades of meanings when used in different circumstances. However, the term "pneumonia" in medicine is taken for one single meaning "a serious illness affecting one or both lungs that makes breathing difficult." As regards the accuracy of terminology in terms of form, terminology has no other form or outer cover other than its original one. We can hardly add any factors like prefix, suffix, etc, to a term to refer to the plural form, antonyms, or any change in word meaning. For example, the above-mentioned word "pneumonia" does not allow any transformation to its form. However, considering systematicality (that will be further discussed in the next part), the form of a term could be changed, but in a special way. In fact, the accuracy of terminology has, to some extent, changed along periods of history. For instance, the term "consult" in Roman time means "quan chấp chính", however, it is understood in recent modern time as "tổng đài" and in modern time as "lãnh sự". Besides, the accuracy of terminology does not require one-to-one relationship in translation. This means a term in source language (English) may be equivalent in two (or more) terms in the target language (Vietnamese). For instance, the term "tongue" in English could be translated as "lưỡi" or "tiếng" in Vietnamese. Thus, it is important for translators to be cautious about the accuracy of terms when doing translating or interpreting job. They should closely observe the principle "each term represents one concept and vice versa." Undeniably, homophones and synonyms may exist in the English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 8 - terminology of various fields, however, they do not degrade the accuracy of terminology itself. • Systematicality As defined above, terminology is "a set of technical words or expressions used in a particular subject." This means terminology of a specific profession should include terms that are closely related to each other and reflect a system of concepts of the profession. The relation between them can be based on contrast in meaning: "negative and positive", "male and female", "final sounds and initial sounds"; similarities in meaning: "securities, stocks, bond, debenture, share"; dominant and secondary meaning: "lexis" and "noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, conjunction, preposition, adverb", etc. A system of terms not only meets general requirements but also satisfy particular ones posed by certain specialized it reflects. As a matter of facts, each field of science has it own systems of solid and finite concepts, expressed by it own terms. The semantic value of a term is determined by its relation to others in the same field. Therefore, once isolated, the term may have no or ambiguous meaning. However, there exist homophones and synonyms among term systems of different fields. For example, "floor" in architecture means "sàn nhà", while in banking is defined as "tối thiểu". The systematicality also requires a term itself to be systematic in its own meaning. To this end, terms are usually short in form. For instance, "chứng lang thang trong tình trạng mê ngủ" is named "mộng du", "người lái máy bay" is called "phi công", or terms like "affix, prefix, infix, suffix" represent bound morphemes that are added to different positions within a word. English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 9 - In sum, systematicality makes terms the insiders of a particular field and helps us understand concepts that terms express. • Internationality The internationality is recognized in both form and meaning of terminology. With respect to such characteristics of terminology in term of meaning, terminology denotes common scientific concepts shared and equally understood by speakers of different cultures. This feature is an important property that helps distinguish terminology from other layers of vocabulary such as slang, dialect, etc. Terms denote universal concepts of a certain subject, whereas normal lexical items are confined to various limits of expression, context, and culture differences. The internationality is also seen in the form of terms. It is interesting to know that many terms used by different countries have similar phonetic form. For example: Terminology English German French Amip amoeba amode amibe Nhôm aluminium aluminium aluminium Vi khuẩn bacteria bakterie bactérie Vitamin vitamin vitamin vitamine The similarities in form of terms are due to various causes including geography, tradition, history, or language habits. To put it more clearly, English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 10 - terminology in scientific subjects is often originated from Latin and Greek languages. In contrast, Vietnamese and Eastern Asian countries have terms based on Chinese-rooted words, which can be explained by their close relation with China in both geography and culture. Acronyms also contribute to the internationality of terms. They are widely used and easy to remember to people in all countries they reach. For instance: Khí CFC, CFC stands for chloflouro carbon Hệ thống thanh toán ACH, ACH stands for Automated Clearing House Máy ATM, ATM stands for automatic telling machine Finally, the internationality could make terms quickly shift into normal words and become non-standardized language. The internationality of terms helps promote and accelerate the irreversible trend of global integration today in term of language as well as other fields. Because language is actually the bridge linking people of nations in the world and the popularity of a common language through terms contributes to the transfer of science and technology worldwide. Terminology on credit cards bears all these common features of terminology. It is above-mentioned specific characteristics of terminology in source language (English) that determine suitable translation methods applied to produce exact Vietnamese terms. 2.1.3. Norms of Vietnamese terminology Controversy has risen upon which standards Vietnamese terminology should follow. L.K Kế in his book “Tiếng Việt và dạy học bằng tiếng Việt” (Vietnamese and teaching in Vietnamese) puts it that Vietnamese terminology, [...]... components namely Pure-Vietnamese words, Sino-Vietnamese words and Indo-European words - 11 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card • Pure-Vietnamese words are generally original Vietnamese ones and they express the fundamental, popular objects, phenomena in informal manner For example: cha, m , cây, c , qu , • Indo-European words are borrowed from Indo-European family When integrating... Though controversy remains, eight methods of translation proposed by Peter Newmark (1995: 4 5-4 7) have long known to translators They are: word-for-word translation Adaptation Literal translation Free translation Faithful translation Idiomatic translation Semantic translation • Communicative translation Word-for-word translation: an interlinear translation, with the target language immediately follows... general and terms on credit card in particular Notably, the use of Sino-Vietnamese word has been especially exploited in their translation work Within limited scope of this Graduation Paper, only the use of SinoVietnamese in the translation of terminology, especially credit card terminology is considered in details - 12 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card 2.1.4 The importance... which put more emphasis on forms of address and use of the second person." He divides technical translation into three levels that he finds of great application: Academic, Professional, and Popular - 14 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card • Academic This includes transferred Latin and Greek words associated with academic papers such as scientific writing or university students'... the translation of terms is often classified Thus, whether translators would like to take such classification seriously or just take it for reference only, these categories will certainly offer - 15 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card them an easy and systematic access to new terms in the source language and those in the target language as well 2.2.2 Method of terminology... also had a "bad" experience about this When I received my ATM card with a set of usage instruction from the bank that issued it, I caught the word "PIN" I thought the word was something related to - 13 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card battery However, in fact, it stands for Personal Identification Number As an English student, I felt somewhat a shame when I discovered the... Literal translation: The source language's grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest target language equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly out of context - 16 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card • Faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the target language's... contexts A context could be handled by different methods to successfully render the source language text The question is what methods of translation are applied to the translation of terminology? - 17 - English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card As defined, terminology includes all lexical items used in connection with a particular scientific field and by professionals of this field... and explicit components of lexical meaning is exploited in translating terminology in general As for the translation of terminology on credit card, the factor of Sino-Vietnamese is taken into consideration apart from above equivalents - 18 - ... "transfers" cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical "abnormality" (deviation from source language norms) in the translation It ties to be completely faithful to the intention and text-realization of the source language writer • Adaptation: this is the "freest" form of translation It is used mainly for plays and poetry While the theme, characters, plots are usually preserved, the text . namely Pure-Vietnamese words, Sino-Vietnamese words and Indo-European words. English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 12 - • Pure-Vietnamese. terminology as follows: English-Vietnamese translation of terminology on credit card - 6 - • Terminology is a word or a word-group used in science, technology,