ABSTRACT
Since the last few decades, human beings are experiencing the era of
globalization and integration. In the current global settings, joining in “global play
ground” has been bringing new opportunities and challenges for Vietnam. It leads to
open Vietnam’s market and create favorable conditions for the entries of foreign
companies into the country, especially in Banking and Financial sector. Therefore, a
demand for translation work in this field is inevitable. Nevertheless, the difficulties in
translating English banking terminology are predictable, especially for new translators.
This thesis entitled “A Study on English- Vietnamese Translation of Banking
Terminology in the book “Commercial Bank Management” by Peter Rose” was
carried out in the hope of offering a theoretical background of specialized translation,
investigating methods and strategies used to deal with translation of technical terms in
general and banking in particular and furnishing would-be translators with a sufficient
knowledge of how to handle terms encountered in banking field. In detail, the study
used quantity and quality methods to measure the frequencies of translation procedures
and then acknowledged the translation as well as the advantages and disadvantages of
each procedure. Based on the findings and interviews with lecturers and translators, the
thesis suggested useful recommendations to have a good terminology translation.
Hopefully, the research may make a contribution to the translation of banking
terminology and specialized translation and will be of some help to translators who
have little experience of doing the translation in the field.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iii
LIST OF TABLES vi
LIST OF DIAGRAMS vi
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.2.2 Research questions 2
Chapter 2 Literature Review 5
2.1 Terminology 5

4.3.1.1 Translation of single terms in the form of nouns by Literal translation procedure 31
4.3.1.2 Translation of single terms in the form of nouns by Paraphrase 32
4.3.1.3 Translation of single terms in the form of nouns by Shift or Transposition Translation
procedure and Functional Equivalent 32
4.3.1.4 Translation of Abbreviation 33
4.3.2 Translation of complex terms 34
4.3.2.1 Translation of Nominal groups using Literal translation Procedure 34
4.3.2.2 Translation of Nominal Groups using Paraphrase 34
4.3.2.3 Translation of Nominal groups using Functional Equivalent 34
4.3.2.4 Translation of Eponym using Couplets translation procedure 35
4.4 Evaluation of terminology translation and translation procedures in the book “Commercial
Banks Management” 35
4.4.1 General evaluation of banking terminology translation 35
4.4.2 Evaluation of the translation procedures 37
4.4.2.1 Literal translation procedure 37
4.4.2.2 Shift or Transposition translation procedure 38
4.4.2.3 Through translation procedure 39
4.4.2.4 Functional Equivalent Translation Procedure 40
4.4.2.5 Paraphrase translation procedure 40
4.4.2.6 Couplets translation procedure 41
4.5 Suggestions and recommendations 41
4.5.1 Suggestions and recommendations based on the evaluation of translation procedures 41
4.5.1 Suggestions and recommendations based on interviews 42
Chapter 5 Conclusion 45
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5.1 Summary of the findings 45
5.2 Limitations of the study 46
5.3 Suggestions for further researches 47
REFERENCES 48
APPENDIX 50

Banking and Financial sector. Some global banks such as HSBC, ANZ, City Bank
have established their banking systems and competed against Vietnamese ones.
Therefore, a demand for translation work in this field is inevitable. The problem lies in
the fact that sharp differences in the global banking systems and Vietnamese one result
in several differences in banking documents. Obviously, this will pose a great obstacle
to translators if they do not obtain sufficient knowledge about this field. The mastery of
terminology in this specialized subject and the methods to convert them into
Vietnamese are very helpful in using terms accurately, precisely and with expertise.
This helps translators avoid embarrassing situations when they are confused with new,
strange and difficult terms.
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Yet despite the overwhelming demand for and the importance of terminology
translation in general and of banking sector in specific, surprisingly little is known
about it because there are no comprehensive studies on this topic. Recently, the book
“Commercial Banks Management” has become a popular course book for banking
students in many universities. The lack of studies on banking terminology translation
and my experience of having studied the translated version of this book lead me to an
idea of making an investigation into how banking terminology is translated. Hopefully,
this thesis entitled “A Study on English- Vietnamese Translation of Banking
Terminology in the book “Commercial Bank Management” by Peter Rose” may be
of some use to those who will do translation in the field.
1.2 Aims and research questions
1.2.1 Aims
In short, the main purpose of this paper is to study English – Vietnamese
translation of banking terminology as a specific and complex issue of language for
special purpose. In this way, focus will be on offering a theoretical background of this
issue, investigating methods and strategies used to deal with translation of technical
terms and furnishing would-be translators with a sufficient knowledge of how to
handle terms encountered in banking field.
1.2.2 Research questions

by Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang published in 2004. Specifically, the investigation of the
study takes into consideration such major aspects as follows:
• Classification of banking terminology
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• Structural patterns of English banking terms
• The translation procedures employed.
1.5 Design of the study
The study is divided into five chapters:
Chapter 1: “Introduction”. This is a section which outlines the rationale by
which the author decided to conduct this study as well as the limit within which the
study is conducted. This part also presents some methods for the accomplishment of
the study.
Chapter 2: "Literature Review”. It provides various linguistic concepts which
are necessary for and relevant to the scope of study such as terms, the typical features
of terminology, the definitions of translation, the strategies and procedures of
translation, etc.
Chapter 3 “Methodology” will present methods used in the study. This part
includes research instruments, research procedures, materials for the data collection
and the steps of data analysis.
Chapter 4: “Findings”. It deals with the most important issues of the study. This
chapter mainly focuses on the English- Vietnamese translation of typical banking terms
to draw out the common translation procedures and strategies employed in the
translation. This chapter also makes some suggestions to improve banking terminology
translations.
Chapter 5: “Conclusion” summarizes what is addressed as well as what is not in
the study, implications of the study to the translation of banking terminology from
English into Vietnamese.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Terminology

consists of lexical units used to denote phenomenal objects, activities…in industrial
technologies and natural or social sciences.” In Cabré’s study (1999), she emphasizes
on the usage of terminology as “a set of terms in a particular special subject”. In this
sense, terminology is the collection of words which one would normally associate with
a particular discipline. Terms can be any class of words, such as verbs, nouns,
adjectives or adverbs but they are considered to have a clearly defined meaning when
used in the particular field or context for which they have been defined.
The definitions above can be a ground to distinguish terms and words. In
addition, attention can be paid to study of Teresa Cabré (1999) which says: “for
terminology, terms are of interest on their own accounts as opposed to the usage of
words only in context and neither inflection […] nor syntax […] are of consequence.”
She adds another distinction between words and terms: “Pragmatics is the factor that
most significantly differentiates terms from words. Pragmatically, terms and words
differ with respect to their users, the situation in which they are used, the topics they
communicate and the type of discourse in which they usually occur.” A little bit earlier
than Cabré, in 1998, Backer states that: “Terms differ from words in that they are
endowed with special forms of references, namely that they refer to discrete conceptual
entities, properties, activities or relations which constitute the knowledge space of a
particular subject field.” From both points of view and definitions of terms by
scholars, we can see the strong relationship between terms and special fields as well as
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the roles of terms in these fields. The differences distinguishing terms from words can
be summarized into two features:
o Terms have special reference within a particular discipline while words
perform their functions in general reference over various fields.
o Terms obtain “defined meaning” and keep its meaning in a particular system
of knowledge. Each term denotes a concept in this particular system.
In brief, terms regarded as scientific words, unlike ordinary words which can be
used in every general field. However, the line between terms and words is not always
clear, because, in its specific field, a term is considered as a word.

the field and to each other. According to Chung, H.T (2005), terms “are subject
related, occurs in a special domain, and it is a part of a system of subject knowledge.”
The relationships among them reflect a system of the concepts in the field and also
contribute to build a strong and solid set of vocabulary. The relationships also
determine the semantic meaning of each term. The system of terms has not only to
meet the requirements of any general vocabulary basket but also to satisfy particular
demand of the field in which it functions. The solid and finite system of concepts of a
specialized field of science is built in that way. Due to such solid relationships among
terms and terms and between terms and set of terms, terms are away of ambiguous
meaning. As Chung, H.T (2005) says “the meanings of technical terms are closely
associated with a particular subject area.” Therefore, once isolated from its
specialized field, terms may be meaningless or obtain an ambiguous meaning. In
addition, the meanings of a term may be different in different fields of science. For
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example, term “floor” in banking means “tối thiểu” meanwhile, in architecture, it
denotes “sàn nhà”.
In short, systematicality makes terms the dependent insiders of a specialized field
also the builder of the field’s concepts.
Internationality
Like other features, the characteristic of internationality is recognized in both form
and meaning of terminology.
With respect to meaning, terms denote common scientific concepts and share
common meanings which are equally understood by speakers of different cultures. This
feature is very important and helpful to distinguish terminology from other layers of
vocabulary such as slang, dialect, etc. While normal or general lexical items are
confined to limits of expression, context, and difference in culture, terms present
universal concepts of a certain subject.
With regards to internationality in the form, terms keep their form in several
languages. For example, “vitamin” in English is also defined in a similar way in
Vietnamese, German and French. However, some terms such as radio and telephone

2.2.1 General Translation
2.2.1.1 Definition
The demand for communication between human beings is growing more and
more essential as the society becomes more developed. With the speedy development
of communication media, it has not stopped at a national scale but the international
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one. It is translation that brings one nation, one language, one culture to each other.
The concepts regarding theories of translation have been developed until present to
suggest a satisfactory definition of translation.
Many linguists have defined translation in their own words. According to
Cartford (1965), translation is “the replacement of a text in one language by an
equivalent text in another language.” The following definition: “Translation is the
expression in another language of what has been expressed in another, preserving
semantic and stylistic equivalences” was collected and edited by the author Bell, R.T
(1991:5).
Other authors, Hatim & Mason (1990:3), however, focus more on the
communicative purpose of translation rather than the semantic and stylistic features:
“Translation is a communicative process which takes place within a social context”.
Newmark, P. (1995:7) defines translation as “translation is a craft consisting in
the attempt to replace a written message and statement in one language by the same
message and/or statement in another language.”
Although the above definitions of translation are expressed in different ways,
they share the most common idea. Translation is the art of transferring a picture in one
language into another picture which brings the same message in another language.
2.2.1.2 Methods of translation
Controversy has risen since at least the first century B.C over the issue of
translating literally or freely. As 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

distort nuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where
these do not exist in the original.
o 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 make a good translation.
2.2.1.3 Procedures of translation
According to Peter Newmark, while translation methods are used to deal with
the whole text, translation procedures relate to sentences and smaller units of
languages. Since the terms are mostly simple terms, compound words, groups of words
or phrases, the translation procedures seem to be more applicable for terminology
translations than methods of translation do. Therefore, the study will pay more
attention to translation procedures. Regarding translation procedures, the researcher
also focuses only on those which are often employed in the translation of terminology.
They are:
Literal translation
This procedure distinguishes from word-for-word and one-to-one translations. It
ranges from one word to another word, through group to group, collocation to
collocation, clause to clause, to sentence to sentence. It concerns the most common
equivalence in target language but still keep flexibility of grammar. Being the basic
translation procedure, it is suitable for translating simple terms, however, above word
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level, literature translation becomes increasingly difficult. For instance, “credit card” is
literally translated as “thẻ tín dụng” in Vietnamese.
Transference
This procedure is usually known under several names as emprunt, loan word,
transcription or borrowing. It relates to the direct use of a source language word in a
target text with no translation. The normally transferred words are: names of people,
geographical and topographical names, names of periodicals and newspapers; title of

The translation which requires translators to deal with terminology in specific
fields such as politics, economics, banking, law etc. is called technical translation or
translation of specialized field. Newmark, P. (1995:151), in an attempt to distinguish
technical translation from institutional translation, claims that “technical translation is
one part of specialized translation, potentially non-cultural, therefore, universal. Its
characteristics, 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” According to Sofer (1991, cited in Mai, N, 2003), “the translation of a text
may be called technical when it requires specialized terms in a particular field.” A
close look at the two definitions can help identify that though put in different ways,
technical translation is viewed as specialized translation by both two linguists.
Newmark, P. (1995: 152) go even further, suggesting that there are three varieties or
levels of technical language: (1) academic style associated with academic papers, (2)
professional style which refers to formal terms used by experts and (3) the popular one
including familiar alternative terms.
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In terms of level, Newmark divides technical translation into three levels:
academic, professional and popular. 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 languages and those in the target language
as well.
2.2.2.2 Translation of terminology and its roles in technical translation
The development of all branches of science is constantly bringing new terms
into use, for example, terminology makes up approximately 5-10 percent of a text
(Newmark, P.1998:160). Concerning the fact that translation improves cultural
contacts, a number of terms appear in translation reviews. Consequently, translation of
terms becomes inevitable, for it represents the inter-linguistic communication among

translator’s biggest problem as it refers to the notion of obscurity.
The aims of following session are to looking at Banking terminology and
methods of translation in this field in order to find out which is the most effective
method to help translators overcome the above problem and do a good job of
translation.
2.2.2.4 Translation of Banking Terminology
The development of banking industry in Vietnam is very dramatic and has closely
linked with the national cause of revolution and construction.
Before the August Revolution in 1945, Vietnam was a feudal-colonial country
under the French colonialists’ rule. The banking and credit system was founded and
protected by the French colonialists through the Indo China bank. When the anti-
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French resistance war grew stronger, obtaining many triumphs in the battled field, and
expanding the liberalized region, the Vietnam National Bank – Bank of the first
people’s democratic state in Southeast Asia was established in 1951. Therefore, we can
see that, banking industry has existed in Vietnam for more than sixty years.
Vietnam’s banking system has been vastly restructured over the past two decades
and in view of entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, the authorities
committed to further liberalization. Foreign banks like ANZ, HSBC etc. actually
operated in Vietnam long before accession of Vietnam into WTO. After Vietnam has
been an official member of WTO, the entries of foreign banks even become stronger.
In this context, the demand for translation of banking is soaring. Therefore, the need of
understanding banking terminology also puts a higher pressure on translators. This
thesis is built in the hope of contributing to translators’ competence of dealing with
banking terminology.
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Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Overview
This chapter presents a brief description of the research methods and data
analysis procedures used in the study. Firstly, it introduces the research instruments