Descriptive translation of terms from English into Russian in the field of corporate governance

Resumen

This study deals with the issue of Descriptive Translation within the field of Corporate Governance (English and Russian). It aims to provide a contribution for the internationalization of the topic and its consolidation. This piece of work gives priority to the innovative and modern nature of Terminology. Language for Special Purposes (LSP) gives priority to international and concise term forms. Correspondingly, Direct Loan and Calque are considered as preferable term creation methods. Nevertheless, in many cases a less desirable term creation method, like Descriptive Translation, is used. The English language is the lingua franca for Russian terms within the field of Corporate Governance. Non-transparent and unwieldy term forms often need to be explained and clarified. Descriptive Translation has proven to be one of the most effective methods for making term forms transparent, grammatically and semantically correct. Descriptive Translation is one of the most frequently used methods for term translation, although it is not given proper attention within Terminology studies. This study aims to show how English terms are integrated into the Russian LSP using Descriptive Translation; to identify the reasons for the use of Descriptive Translation; its purposes and characteristic features and to analyze whether it is necessary to harmonize the whole system of Management terms. This should lead to the fulfillment of the main objective: to carry out the classification of descriptive terms and justify their practical use. The material for the present study is based on Russian-English glossaries, compendiums and legislative guides of Corporate Governance and Finance, retrieved from reliable sources compiled by UN, IFC, OECD, UNCITRAL and ECOSOC (UN-1). All the Russian terms have been defined with the help of dictionaries, their variations have been retrieved and analyzed considering their use in comprehensive Russian National corpus “Ruscorpora”, available online, or on the Internet (if not present in Ruscorpora). The study shows how the content and the form of a source term influence a target term. An analysis of how the figuratively-motivated terms are translated has been carried out, i.e. how the conceptual patterns along with the traditions of the target language influence the terminology creation patterns. The research reveals the main patterns of the Descriptive Translation of terms (Pure Descriptive Translation, Descriptive Translation and Calque, Descriptive Translation and Direct Loan and Descriptive Translation with Additional or Irrelevant Components) in the sphere of Corporate Management and has discovered the most effective and competitive one: Calque and Descriptive Translation. The competitiveness of the terms has been described using a comparison with the basic term creation and translation patterns: Calque, Direct Loan and the search for a Direct Translation Equivalent. The study has been narrowed down to the special field of Corporate Governance, a dynamic and relatively new Management sphere. This ensures the innovative and modern nature of the research. The previous studies of Descriptive Translation of terms are limited, and the classification of Descriptive Translation patterns has never been a focus in scientific research. This contributes to the practical value of the study. Descriptive Translation classification groups have no precedent in terminological studies. The study compares the theory of Terminology with its practice and finds the reasons for violation or fulfillment of the strict terminology requirements within the field of Corporate Governance. The “Theoretical Background” section is based on the theory of Terminology in general, and Corporate Governance in particular, and the implications of Descriptive Translation use and its function within LSP. The “Case Study” section reveals the patterns of the Descriptive Translation of terms in Russian, its dependence on English term forms and content, and the analysis of figurative terms, the competitiveness of Descriptive Translation methods and the recommended translation for each term. The harmonization of language signs is urgently needed within the field of Corporate Governance. The analysis of Descriptive Translation patterns is important for stating a universal formula for eliminating deficient term forms within terminology. This study highlights the need for restructuring the whole system of Management terms. The study is crystallized around the idea that Descriptive Translation is essential when it comes to the translation of Corporate Governance terms into Russian, but it needs organization. The research justifies that Descriptive Translation can be considered as a full-fledged term formation method and translation technique into Russian. This contributes to the creation of accurate, well-defined and convenient to use Descriptive term forms within the field of Corporate Governance and to the further elaboration of Corporate Governance terminology and the field of Management in general.