Tiểu luận Dịch Anh - Việt thuật ngữ về thẻ tín dụng

Tiểu luận Dịch các thuật ngữ về thẻ tín dụng từ tiếng Anh sang tiếng Việt

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

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

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

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

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:

• 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

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

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

terminology of various fields, however, they do not degrade the accuracy of terminology itself

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

In sum, systematicality makes terms the insiders of a particular field and helps us understand concepts that terms express

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:

The similarities in form of terms are due to various causes including geography, tradition, history, or language habits To put it more clearly,

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,

in the first place should be scientific, accurate, systematic, then popular, applicable, and of native language in accordance with characteristics of Vietnamese Meanwhile, according to L.V Thới, a noun that is used in particular subject must belong to such field linguistically and practically, and as concise and simple as possible Therefore, he said, the noun must be monosemy (has one meaning) and a concept should be expressed by one noun

In the final analysis, the conference on terminology held in Ha Noi, 1967

by the State Committee of Science came to a unanimous conclusion that the Vietnamese terminology is to be:

In terms of the origin of Vietnamese terminology, Vietnamese terminology is made up of four components namely Pure-Vietnamese words, Sino-Vietnamese words and Indo-European words

• Pure-Vietnamese words are generally original Vietnamese ones and they express the fundamental, popular objects, phenomena in informal manner For example: cha, mẹ, cây, củ, quả,

• Indo-European words are borrowed from Indo-European family When integrating into Vietnamese, some are changed in terms of pronunciation, some are not For instance, Internet, hydro, xà phòng, bít tết, oxy, violon, etc.,

• Sino-Vietnamese words are Vietnamese words of Chinese derivation During a thousand years under the domination of China, Vietnamese language absorbed a great number of Mandarin lexical items Gradually, Vietnamese language was assimilated, and it received Mandarin lexicon through both communication and education Sino-Vietnamese words account for a great proportion of Vietnamese vocabulary and has been used widely in daily life For example: xạ thủ, hoàng thượng, lãi suất tối thiểu, thấu chi, etc

Above features of Vietnamese terminology has helped translator a lot in deciding most suitable methods of translation when it comes to handling difficult terms in 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 Vietnamese in the translation of terminology, especially credit card terminology

Sino-is considered in details

2.1.4 The importance of study of terminology translation

Although terminology, according to Peter Newmark, accounts for only 10% of words in a written or oral text, I think, the mastery of such tiny percentage terminology will determine the success of the translating work Only two following reason can possibly illustrate such idea

5-First, studying terminology of one specific area means to learn the general knowledge about this field and most of its concerned issues In a sense, acquiring a language is not simply implicit that we are learning the language itself In fact, what is more important is to acquire a language together with things behind it like rich information it conveys This is well proved in the process I study terminology on credit card Although credit card is among many products and services of banks, I have to get to know how a bank operates, why banks come into being, by what way a bank get profits on money, etc., many things that I have never encountered before Simply if I have no understanding about banks, I can hardly get any terms on credit card into my mind

Second, the mastery of terminology in a particular subject and the common way to convert them into Vietnamese is very helpful in using terms accurately, precisely and with expertise This helps translators avoid embarrassing situations where they are confused with new, strange, and difficult terms

Besides, through studying terms of one profession, we will get familiar with abbreviations that are well known to people working in this field but quite unfamiliar with outsiders I myself 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

battery However, in fact, it stands for Personal Identification Number As an English student, I felt somewhat a shame when I discovered the truth Honestly speaking, when a term has become popular in daily life, getting to know it is not only the job of translators

Evidently, the study of terminology in a specific field will enrich our vocabulary, helps us to use them in an accurate, concise, flexible manner and finally results in professional and effective translation Therefore, translators should be skilled in dealing with terminology to smooth their work Anyway, 5-10% is just statistical figures on average In fact, the frequency of terminology appearance in some areas is much higher or lower than others Thus, the study of terminology is of great importance, especially when translators are about to undertake jobs in a brand new field

2.2 The translation of terminology

2.2.1 The technical translation

The translation style dealing with terminology in specific fields such as politics, economics, banking and finance, law and so on is called technical

translation According to Peter Newmark (1995), "technical translation is

primarily distinguished from other forms of translation by terminology Its characteristics, its grammatical features merge with other varieties of language Its characteristics format is technical report, but it also includes instructions, manuals, notices, publicity, 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

• Academic

This includes transferred Latin and Greek words associated with academic papers such as scientific writing or university students' textbooks

For example: In medicine

Pediatrics : Khoa nhi

Geriatrics : Khoa nội tiết

Cardiovascular disease : Bệnh tim mạch

Formal terms used by experts However, they may be understandable to others For example: In jurisprudence

Criminal court : tòa hình sự

Civil court : tòa dân sự

Court of Appeal : tòa phúc thẩm

Layman vocabulary, which may include familiar alternative terms

For example: In construction

Tile : ngói, đá lát

Mortar and plaster : hồ, vữa

Mobile cranes : cần cẩu di động

These are general categories to which 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

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 translation

There has been controversy since at least the first century B.C over whether to translate literally or freely Many favour free translation, something like the spirit not the letter; the sense not the words; the message rather than the form; the matter not the manner However, when the study of cultural anthropology suggested that the linguistic barriers are insurmountable, the view that translation must be as literal as possible gains approval

Though controversy remains, eight methods of translation proposed by Peter Newmark (1995: 45-47) have long known to translators They are:

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation Semantic translation Communicative translation

• Word-for-word translation: an interlinear translation, with the target language immediately follows the source language words For this mode, word order is preserved; words are singly translated by their most common meanings out of the context

• 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

• Faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the target language's grammatical structures It "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 is rewritten and the source language is converted to the target language culture

• Free translation: reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content without the form of the original

• Idiomatic translation reproduces the "message" of the original but tends to distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original

• Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

These methods of translation will be flexibly adopted in different 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?

As defined, terminology includes all lexical items used in connection with

a particular scientific field and by professionals of this field Due to the characteristics of terminology (accuracy, systematicality) as well as norms for it

in target language, the translation is appropriately based on the literal

translation, that is 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

For example:

Cash letter of credit : thư tín dụng tiền mặt

Annual fee : phí thường niên

Digital signature : chữ ký kỹ thuật số

Normally, terminology is considered an invariant element in translation However, in the context of a specific field's language, a term may have several variants Therefore, in some cases, it is hard for translators to employ literal translation Instead, they should transpose terms in a precisely explanatory but

intelligible manner The communicative method that attempts to render the

exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible to the readership

seems to be of great use in this circumstance

In addition to literal and communicative translation, the use of equivalences namely paraphrase; transference; connotative and denotative equivalence; implicit 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

CHAPTER THREE: TRANSLATION OF TERMINOLOGY ON

CREDIT CARD

Section A: An overview of credit card and credit card terminology

1 An overview of credit card

1.1 The definition of credit card and its operation

• What is credit card?

Credit card is small card, usually made of plastics, containing a means of identification, such as a signature or picture, that authorizes the person named on

it to charge goods or services to his account, on which he is billed periodically

• How does it work?

A user is issued a credit card after an account has been approved by the credit provider (often a general bank, but sometimes a captive bank created to issue a particular brand of credit card, such as American Express Centurion Bank), with which they will be able to make purchases from merchants (cơ sở chấp nhận thẻ) accepting that credit card up to a pre-established credit limit (hạn mức tín dụng)

When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer Originally the user would indicate his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid, but many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the internet

Electronic verification systems allow merchants (using a strip of magnetized material on the card holding information in a similar manner to magnetic tape or a floppy disk) to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase Other variations of verification systems are used by ecommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge

Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, and the total amount owed The cardholder must then pay a minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, and may choose

to pay the entire amount owed or more The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt) Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's accounts

Credit card issuers usually waive interest charges if the balance is paid in full each month, but typically will charge full interest on the entire outstanding balance from the date of each purchase if the total balance is not paid

1.2 The birth and development of credit card

• The birth of credit card

The concept of paying merchants using a card was invented in 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank X McNamara in order to consolidate multiple cards The Diners Club produced the first "general purpose" charge card, which is similar but required the entire bill to be paid with each statement In 1950, the first Diners Club cards were given out to 200 associates of McNamara, mostly salesmen who often needed to dine with clients At that time, Diners Club had

signed up 14 restaurants in New York City Membership grew quickly as both new customers applied for the card and more restaurants signed on By the end

of 1950, Diners Club had 20,000 customers and was accepted at over 1000 restaurants

• The development of credit card

The new way of payment quickly appealed to people and increasingly improved and developed Diners Club cards were followed shortly thereafter by American Express, Western Union, Trip Charge, Golden Key, Gourmet Club, Esquire Club, etc At this time, most of cards were intended for business circle, however, issuers soon got to know that individual from middle class should be targeted Then came the introduction of the biggest credit card issuers nowadays: Visa and Master Card Bank of America created the BankAmericard

in 1958, a product which eventually evolved into the Visa system ("Chargex" also became Visa) MasterCard came to being in 1966 when a group of credit-issuing banks established MasterCharge

There are now countless variations on the basic concept of revolving credit for individuals (as issued by banks and honored by a network of financial institutions), including organization-branded credit cards, corporate-user credit cards, store cards and so on

1.3 Types of credit cards

Credit cards are diversified in type Credit card can be classified into five major types according to its production technology, issuer, payment characteristics, geographical distribution, and cardholders

• In terms of production technology, there are three main type:

- Embossing card (thẻ khắc chữ nổi): credit cards in it early days were produced by this method However, such technology that was easy to imitate has become quickly obsolete

- Magnetic stripe (thẻ băng từ): is employed with two magnetic stripes on the back of the card and has been in use for the past 20 years However, the technology has revealed quite a few weaknesses

- Smart card (thẻ vi mạch): is the latest advance of credit card having the same characteristics with a complete computer

• With regard to the issuer of credit cards, we have two types:

- Credit cards issued by Banks (Visa Card, Master Card)

- Credit cards issued by non-bank institutions (cards of giant businesses, economic groups like Diner’s Club card)

• Considering payment characteristics, there are 3 types:

- Credit cards: the most popular one that allows users to purchase goods, services within a credit limit granted by the issuer In other words, users spend without paying in advance

- Debit cards: cardholders must have a bank account to secure their spending In fact, they are an alternative for cash There are online and offline debit cards

- Cash cards: are cards used to withdraw money at ATMs or at banks Users are required to deposit money at banks or have overdraft account

• Based on geographical distribution, there are two types:

- Domestic credit card: issued and used within one country only Transaction currency is the local money

- International credit card: is accepted worldwide and transactions are carried out by hard currencies

• On the basis of cardholder classification:

- Individual cards: are cards for individual cardholder and use

- Corporate cards: Its cardholders are companies, organizations

2 Credit card industry of Vietnam

Credit card, a payment measure free of cash has been popular and favoured all over the world, accounting for 15-22% profits of banks in developed and industrialized countries However, in Vietnam, such product remains new and the use of credit card is confined to some groups of people only

Since the Doi Moi (Renewal) policy was initiated in Vietnam, the banking system has been renovated rapidly with new banking products and services developed in line with the economic growth of the country In 1990, for the first time, Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) became the settlement banks for VisaCard In 1991, under the agreement between Vietcombank and Malaysia Banking and Finance Institution, Mastercard was officially accepted

in Vietnam Later, JCB, a Japan-originated credit card, Amex credit card of American Express also presented in the country

The Vietnam’s credit card market really grew vigorous and boisterous in

1995 In addition to Vietcombank, another nine banks also went in the credit card

business, namely ACB, First Vina, Sacombank, ANZ, Eximbank, Hongkong bank, etc In 1996, Vietcombank became the member of VISACARD and MASTERCARD, and acted as the issuing bank of the two world-leading credit card organizations Currently some other banks are also chosen to issue and settle international cards like ACB and VIBank Besides, almost all commercial banks in Vietnam offer their customers domestic cards that are in use within Vietnam territory to purchase goods and services or withdraw cash

Thanks to the national economic stable growth, the wave of tourism, foreign investment to Vietnam, Vietnam’s credit card industry will surely grow considerably in years to come

3 Credit card terminology overview

Credit card is a banking product; however, its terminology is not purely related to the scope of banking and finance In fact, terms on credit card have a close relation with Information and Telecommunication Technology, or technologies facilitating the issuing and usage of credit card itself It is the reason why credit card term translation is quite different from that of terms on Banking and Finance in general

In terms of lexical construction, the credit card terminology indexed in last pages of the Paper is comprised by:

1 single words

2 shortenings

3 word groups or phrases:

• phrases contain derived words

• phrases contain shortenings

Comparison between English and Vietnamese version of credit terminology has revealed that Literal translation is favoured other than Communicative translation to render source-language terms into target language ones It is also found that non-equivalent terms are dealt with by methods including paraphrase, transference, connotative and denotative equivalence, and implicit and explicit components of lexical items Besides, the use of Sino-Vietnamese factor in the translation of listed credit card terms is employed widely and successfully Each translation method will be analyzed quite profoundly as follows

Section B: Translation of credit card terminology

It should be noted that the set of terms on credit card used in this Graduation Paper are selected from the English-Vietnamese dictionary of economics and business by Nguyễn Đức Dy and Hồ Ngọc Bích and English-Vietnamese dictionary on Commerce, Finance and Banking by Nguyễn Thi Ái Nguyệt and Nguyễn Tùng Lâm Besides, some terms are retrieved from the Internet, collected from reference books, publications of banks, professional Journals by the Paper’s writer and then edited by bankers who are from Card Department of different banks namely Vietcombank, Banknet, Agribank and BIDV These terms are widely accepted among bankers and cardholders as well

as their readers The comparison between the source language and translated version of credit card terminology will reveal the methods applied to produce the final and accurate Vietnamese equivalents, which will be presented hereby

1 The application of Literal and Communicative translation

It is easily recognized that Literal translation dominates the translation of credit card terminology According to Peter Newmark, Literal translation ranges from one word to one word, group to group, collocation to collocation, clause to clause, to sentence to sentence, and that it ensures an one-to-one relationship between originals and translated versions Therefore, most translators rely on this method to bring about the most satisfactory equivalents

Examples:

Account Number : Số tài khoản

Complaint Fee : Phí khiếu nại

Customer Code : Mã khách hàng

Data Protection Method : Phương pháp bảo vệ dữ liệu

Credit Limit : Hạn mức tín dụng

Credit insurance : Bảo hiểm tín dụng

Digital Signature : Chữ ký kỹ thuật số

Expired Card : Thẻ hết hạn

Lost Card Fee : Phí thất lạc thẻ

Virtual Account : Tài khoản ảo

Settlement Date : Ngày thanh toán

All Vietnamese equivalents terms transposed by this method are intelligible and accordingly logical to the relevant background knowledge Furthermore, they are up to the norm of accuracy required by terminology in general One word in the source language corresponds semantically, e.g Digital Wallet=Ví điện tử People who may work or be interested in the field of credit card can easily accept that the Vietnamese equivalents are of great simplicity and understandability

The method of Literal translation is preferred in the translation of credit card terminology in this case due to the following reason:

• Normally, terms are considered context-free and within one specialized field, one term keeps its own meaning in whichever contexts it stands In fact, the more specific or technical a word is, the less it is likely to be affected by the context

• Terms bear no characteristics of the synonym and polysemy Nevertheless, this rule only applies in the case of one specialized field because there still exist polysemy terms in fields of different professions

For instance, “clearing” in forestry is defined as an open space in a forest

where there are no trees Its Vietnamese word is “khoảng rừng trống” But

“clearing” in “Automated Clearing House Payment” in the field of credit card in Vietnamese means “thanh toán bù trừ tự động”

• Original terms and their counterparts are equivalent in terms of the referent and pragmatic effect

• Word alienisms and neologism are rarely found

Though Literal method proves to be useful in the translation of terminology, it is adopted when terms are translated singly, out of context or the source language term and its equivalents in the target language keeps a corresponding relation Often, terms are translated directly based on its nearest original meaning However, there are terms whose meaning could only be transposed based on the context they appear in and of the specialized knowledge that the translators possess

In face of these terms, Communicative translation can be taken as a good alternative for Literal translation Communicative translation is the method that attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensive to the readership

Examples:

Additional cardholder : Chủ thẻ phụ

Card-Absent Environment : Giao dịch không xuất trình thẻ Closed-end Credit : Tín dụng tín thác đầu tư

Credit Scoring System : Hệ thống đánh giá rủi ro tín dụng Fulfillment : Hoàn thành yêu cầu Copy

Installment Transaction :Giao dịch từng phần

On-us Transaction : Giao dịch chủ thẻ sở hữu

The application of Communicative here is excellent All Vietnamese terms are rendered out of the originals’ literal meaning while their main content

is still well-kept Moreover, the target language lexis is out of the source language lexical constraints Therefore, the readership finds the Vietnamese equivalents clear and intelligible

In brief, both Literal and Communicative translation are helpful and suitable in the translation of credit card terminology Nevertheless, the translators should be flexible in the choice of the two methods to churn out the most satisfactory equivalents

2 Analysis of the equivalence

Equivalence plays a very important role in translation, as it is a process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural barriers According to Newmark (1995: 48), the main purpose of any translation is to achieve

“equivalent effect”, to produce the same effect (or one as close as possible) on the readership of the translation as was obtained on the readership of the original

There are different levels of equivalence: equivalence in respect of context, of semantics, of grammar, of lexis For the reason that the paper aims at studying the translation of terminology on credit card, only lexical equivalence

is brought into focus and how it is applied in the translation of credit card terms

Lexical (or equivalence at word level) means that the target language has direct equivalents for word that occur in the source language

Examples:

Credit report : Báo cáo tín dụng

Average Daily Balance : Số dư trung bình ngày

Alternate Card Design : Mẫu thẻ thay thế

Online debit card : Thẻ ghi nợ trực tuyến

Password : Mật khẩu

Penalty rate : Lãi phạt

All the English terms exemplified above have one-to-one equivalents in Vietnamese

The level of lexical equivalence could be sub-divided into literal equivalence and non-literal equivalence As regard literal equivalence, the source language terms are translated literally and directly into the target language The above example could illustrate this point quite clearly Nevertheless, the lexicon of the two languages does not always match The target language may have no direct equivalents for terms that occur in the source language And this type of non-literal equivalence in the translation of credit card terminology enables translators to cope successfully with difficult-to-translate terms Following are some frequent strategies

2.1 Paraphrase

Paraphrase is on of many ways that facilitates translators to produce the adequate lexical equivalents It is stated by Baker.M (1932: 38) that this strategy tends to be used when the concept expressed by the source item, particularly the item in question is semantically complex

Paraphrase is an explanation of the meaning of the originals, using different words in order to make it easier to understand Here are some examples

of paraphrased terms:

Examples:

Appraisal Fee : Phí giám định tài sản thế chấp

Rebate card : Thẻ tích lũy điểm thưởng

Batch : Gói giao dịch ngày

Batch Close : Chuyển gói giao dịch ngày

Cardholder agreement : Hợp đồng phát hành và sử dụng thẻ

Copy of Billing Statement : Phí cấp bản sao Bảng thông báo giao dịch Credit qualification : Thẩm định chất lượng tín dụng

Refund : Hoàn lại tiền cho chủ thẻ

Bad credit : Quan hệ tín dụng xấu

Stored-value Card : Thẻ lưu trữ giá trị bằng tiền

From the example cited above, we can realize that the source language

terms are transposed by a different set of words For instance, “batch” can not

be translated literally as “mẻ, chuyến” This way of translating does not account

for its full meaning and even mistranslate the word, which must be unpacked for

better understanding lengthily as “Gói giao dịch ngày”

Generally, the non-literal equivalents treated by Paraphrase are clear and comprehensible And in order to produce an effective output by Paraphrase, it is necessary for a translator to gain a better understanding of the field he focuses

on to fully understand the concept of the term in the source language and find the right lexical equivalents

2.2 Transference

Transference is defined by Newmark as “the process of transferring a

source language word to a target language text as a translation procedure.”

Here are some examples of terms that are transferred:

Examples:

ATM Acceptance Mark : Biểu tượng chấp nhận máy ATM

ATM retrieval money : Việc ATM thu giữ tiền

Exception File : File ngoại lệ

Fleet Card : Thẻ fleet

Full-Chip Data : Dữ liệu Chip toàn diện

Interchange Fee : Phí interchange

Merchant Id : Số ID của đơn vị chấp nhận thẻ

These transferred terms keep only one sense of their foreign nationality They are the terms whose meaning is less dependent on their contexts Translators use transference method to treat these terms possibly because they assumed that the knowledge in the area has been popular among professionals and therefore, it is not necessary to translate Or perhaps in some cases, the meaning of these terms are too complicated and lengthy to explain and they deem it best to leave as they are

Examples:

Offline PIN Verification : Thẩm định mã định dạng cá nhân ngoại tuyến

(Thẩm định PIN ngoại tuyến)

POS Entry Mode : Phương thức truy nhập điểm chấp nhận thẻ

(Phương thức truy nhập vào POS) However, we still can decide whether to adopt transference approach or not depending on the readership If the readership is experts and they find no difficulty in understanding the terms, the transference method should be utilized

By contrast, descriptive equivalents have to be given for less sophisticated target language readerships

Transference is also used to tackle abbreviated terms such as:

ACH Payment : Thanh toán ACH

(Automated Clearing House Payment)

(Cardholder Information Security Program)

Fixed APR : Tỉ suất APR

(Fixed Annual Percentage Rate)

The shortenings remain the same in the target language equivalents Possibly, this is due to the wide and customary usage in the field of credit card, thus leading to these terms being internationalized

2.3 Connotative and Denotative equivalence

Lexical equivalence can be denotative or connotative The first refers to meaning which is referential, objective, and cognitive The second, in contrast, refers meaning that is not referential but associational and subjective

In the translation of credit card terminology, denotative equivalence often dominates because each term often refers to one concrete concept or technological procedure

Examples:

Annual Fee : Phí thường niên

Balance Transfer : Chuyển số dư

Card Reproduction :Tái sản xuất thẻ

Credit type : Loại tín dụng

Eligible Cardholder : Chủ thẻ hợp lệ

Fee Collection Transaction : Giao dịch thu phí

Foreign currency surcharge : Phụ phí ngoại tệ

From the above examples, we can see that denotative equivalence just require one-to-one relationship between the source term and the target term There is no synonymous equivalent for the same original ones

Nevertheless, in connotative equivalence, a single term can be expressed

by some synonymous words

Examples:

Approval Response : Trả lời giao dịch được chấp nhận

Giao dịch được cấp code

Authorization : Cấp phép

Chuẩn chi

Open-end : Tín dụng quay vòng

Tín dụng tuần hoàn

Authorization Request : Yêu cầu cấp phép chuẩn chi

Yêu cầu cấp phép ủy quyền

User Authentication : Chứng thực người sử dụng

Kiểm tra người sử dụng

Cash card : Thẻ tiền mặt

Ví ảo

Cosigner : Người cùng ký

Người cùng chịu trách nhiệm

Indexed rate : Tỷ suất theo chỉ số

In fact, it depends on the context where credit card terms are used and the readership they target For instance, in articles carried in specialized journals, terms on credit card should be denotative and precise, referring to one-to-one correspondence, because their readers are insiders who are quite familiar with these “difficult” terms However, in articles on other newspapers that target the public in general, terms should be connotative with shades of meanings (or connotative dimensions) that are easily understandable to readers outside the

world of banking and finance In final analysis, translators will gain success once deciding correctly connotative dimensions for terms occurring in the source language texts

2.4 Implicit and Explicit meaning components of lexical items

When analyzing the way to create lexical equivalents, it has become clear that the lexical items of the source language do not always match exactly the lexical terms of the source language In the transition process, some components

of meaning of the source terms are implicit and translators have to make them explicit in the target terms These following examples are to illustrate this point

English terms Vietnamese equivalents Additional/extracted

Buy-a-Card Transaction Giao dịch mua bán thẻ + bán

Authorization Only Giao dịch chuẩn chi sau + Giao dịch, sau

– Only