Филологические науки/6. Актуальные проблемы перевода

к.ф.н. Тунникова В.А.

Левкович К.Я.

Ростовский государственный экономический университет, Россия

The problem of using economic terms in English during business negotiations

Summary: The problem of using the economic terms in English in business negotiations is reviewed in this article. Characteristic features of terms translation are analysed. The reasons of the exact and correct using of terms in case of communication with foreign partners are established and proved. For clearer understanding of timeliness of the declared subject, specific examples are given.

Key words: translation, business communication, economy, term, company, foreign partner, negotiations.

The development of economy isn’t at a stop. Nowadays for the successful functioning of the firm in the market, it needs to come to the international level, and communication with foreign companies of course, is in English. And there is one of the most important problems like the use of economic terms in communication. English is the intermediate language in the international communication. One of the important aspects of using English terms in business correspondence of the companies is correctness and accuracy of their translation.

Communication is so important that business organizations want and need people with good communication skills. Several surveys have indicated that communication is important to business. Unfortunately the need for employees with good communication skills is often not fulfilled in the business world. A recent study also indicates that there is a correlation between communication and income.

The exigencies required by the efficient business communication have increased in the past few decades because of rising international trade, increased migration, globalization, the recognition of linguistic minorities, and the expansion of the mass media and technology. All these led us to approach the topic of translation which is actually a job that requires skills, stages of research necessary for disclosure of transfer characteristic into the target language, training, experience and a good sense of languages.

Economic discourse is a complex of speech acts in the sphere of economics, oral and written texts or their fragments created by professionals, amateurs and journalists that display realities of the economics world. The purpose of an economic discourse consists in:

1) Covering the events in economic life of the society

2) Informing about the state of the economics

3) Forming a certain attitude to various changes and motivating to undertake certain actions

4) Creating economic theories

5) Researching the directions of economics development and people’s standards of living [1].

In the modern world a considerable part of interaction on information space is performed in English. Business English becomes a vital mean of closer cooperation between businessmen, specialists and staff of the international companies. Just the ability to correspond and communicate competently determines image and a professional level of business partners or a joint cooperation.

Economic terminology is characterized by dynamic development, thus it is in close contact with the life and development of society, responsive to language situation change, conveys scientific information. Modern scientific translation studies are aimed at studying the factors that influence the choice of translation variant and their connection with the target language specifications. The economy constantly develops it means that business terminology is exposed to big changes. This fact influences the occurrence of complications in the process of translation.

Any industry or area of interaction of people united by a common goal, a task and a type of activity has its specific designations, terms and names. Business words in each sphere are individual. The main difficulty of the translation is their ambiguity. By the same term in different industries absolutely different concepts can be designated. There are two stages in transfer process in case of business communication: the first is identification of a word meaning in a context, and the second is the translation of value into the native language, interaction of the term with a context is the determining feature in correct translation.

To know only word`s translation is insufficient to communicate competently with foreign partners. It is necessary to understand where and when to use the term correctly. Not to allow the misstatement of concepts, it is worth learning business English directly at work or during the study concerning focused specialization of the specialist.

As the Russian equivalent is economic-legal term, the form of which is connected with the form of the English economic and legal terms. There are so-called international terms which also known as loanwords. In linguistics, an internationalism or international word is a loanword that occurs in several languages with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology. These words exist in several different languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from the ultimate source. Pronunciation and orthography are similar so that the word is understandable between the different languages. Translating from English into Russian there can be such features as change of a case form of a noun. For example, capital market. The emergence of a pretext is also one of the features of using terms in English. For example, income tax. Except cases change and emergence of the pretext, the number can also be changed. For example, order inflow-receipt of orders [2].

There is a large number of words which are similar among themselves. Without possessing enough knowledge, it is easy to get confused in their translation as a result the negotiations will be broken. For example, it is possible to mix words "personal" and "personnel"[3]. Two words, which have absolutely different translation, are similar to each other. However there are also words equivalents, an equivalent - the word which coincides with value of the foreign term of the word. They serve as reference points in the text help to define values of other words. For example, management, balance, dividends, investor.

The most common lexical method of economic terms’ translation is descriptive translation to render the meaning of a term-sign. This method is used in the translation of economic notions that have been known for a long time. The translation of such terms is possible only after an explanation of contents of the related new terminological sections. Sometimes in Russian it is necessary to substitute a word or a word combination, which has a wide range of meanings in the English language, with an equivalent, which specifies the meaning according to the context. This kind of substitution presupposes the search of a synonymic equivalent in the target language. The synonymic replacement of an English economic term with a wider concrete content to specify its meaning in the target language is also used in the translation practice and is justified at micro context level only when the meaning of the sentence is quite clear. In business communication with foreign partners it is also possible to use such acceptance of the translation as generalization. It is necessary to use this method only when you are sure of correctness understanding the partner. During the translation of the English economic terms people usually use one or another way of the translation, which is based on contents of the text in which terms are used. Sometimes they unite all methods to translate a lexical meaning most precisely.

By the business correspondence the letters containing long compound sentences which bear a lot of important information can be received. To miss their translation, or to make the wrong translation will mean the omission of an important part of information, any mistake can lead to fatal consequences.

The correct use of terminology in English, and also by translating from English into Russian, is one of the constituting successful negotiations with foreign partners. While constituting agreements and letters competently, it is necessary to consider nuances of the use of the English terms in business communication. It is necessary to determine the exact meaning of each word, not to forget about the change of cases and that the number can also be changed. All this will allow not to make mistakes in communication with a foreign partner and gradually solve the problem of using English economic terms.

Economists read and learn directly in the original language of the publication and stick to it in daily usage, including conferences, scientific events and articles, there is a permanent and ever increasing need to quickly update their knowledge. Besides researching properly the markets, finding distribution channels, and dealing with legal issues, a successful business person should not neglect the language aspects, be it spoken or translated.

Nowadays English language is one of the most important languages of global communications. A large number of economic reviews and articles are written in English. The study of semantics and terminology translation of specifics economic and legal spheres from English into Russian language deserves special attention in the perspective comparison of languages for specific purposes.

The correct translation of terms in any area of activity, including the area of economics and law, is quite challenging. Translating economic and legal issues requires special knowledge in these areas and should consider the language and style of presentation, and also differences in the legal systems of different countries.

Literature

1. Kosinskaya E. V. Territory of science №6, 2014

2. Study-English.info.Electronic resource: http://azenglish.ru/angliyskiy-dlya-ekonomistov-financial-english/

3. Financial English. Electronic resource: http://study-english.info/economic_vocabulary.php