ABSTRACT
In the era of globalization, translation of information especially in such a
volatile market as finance and banking, plays a vital role in the development of each
country. Nevertheless, there has been restricted number of researches focusing on
translation of this field. Hence, the research was carried out for the purpose of
revealing translation procedures, methods and strategies applied in translating finance
and banking news.
Fifteen pieces of news in English and their translated versions in Vietnamese
collected from prestigious sources of news served as samples. They were carefully
analyzed in the light of Newmark (1988)’s theory of translation procedures and
methods at three levels: word, sentence and text respectively. The findings show that
shift translation and through translation were among the most frequently used
procedures at word level. Translation strategies at sentence level involved passive to
active voice converting, shift translation and sentence splitting. Headlines, special parts
of articles were chiefly translated by communicative method. Likewise, text was
translated communicatively as a whole. It is suggested that translators should master
the translation procedures and methods and flexibly utilize them appropriately to the
readers. Moreover, regularly updating information about finance and banking news and
the global economy is also highly recommended for better translation.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT i
List of figures iv
List of abbreviations v
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale 1
1.2. Significance of the study 2
1.3. Aims of the study 2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1 Translation 4
2.1.1 Definition of translation 4

The central bank's centennial offers a valuable opportunity to rethink its mandate 56
By SETH LIPSKY 56
Sample 3 - Goldman Sachs Raises $1 Billion Selling Stake in ICBC 60
Shares Drop 61
Sample 4 - Rush to ATMs in Cyprus on EU bailout tax 62
iii
A planned tax on Cyprus bank depositors as part of a European Union bailout is sending people
rushing to ATMs to withdraw cash 62
Sample 5 - CORRECTED-Fitch says top 29 banks may need $566 bln 64
Thượng nghị sĩ Kevin Brady đang đề xuất bỏ bớt 1 chức năng của Fed đồng thời lập ra 1 ủy ban
giám sát hoạt động của cơ quan này. 65
Sample 2 - Các ngân hàng châu Âu đối mặt với gia tăng minh bạch 68
Các "ông lớn" ngân hàng đang phải đối mặt với mối đe dọa của việc công khai thuế và lợi nhuận tại
các nước trong Liên minh châu Âu 68
Sample 3 - Goldman Sachs muốn thoái vốn khỏi ngân hàng Trung Quốc 69
Đại gia tài chính Mỹ đang rao bán 1 tỷ USD cổ phiếu của Ngân hàng Công Thương Trung Quốc
(ICBC). Trước đó, Goldman Sachs cùng các quỹ đã bốn lần bán cổ phiếu ICBC và thu về tổng cộng
7,76 tỷ USD 69
Sample 4 - Dân Síp ồ ạt rút tiền khỏi ngân hàng 70
Kế hoạch đánh thuế tiền gửi 9,9% áp dụng từ ngày mai là lý do khiến người dân Cộng hòa Síp kéo
nhau tới ATM để rút tiền. 70
Sample 5 - Các ngân hàng cần 566 tỷ USD để đáp ứng Basel III 72
Theo Fitch, 29 nhà băng số 1 thế giới sẽ phải tăng tỷ lệ vốn lõi lên 9,5% 72
List of figures
Figure 1: Translation procedures for translating Finance and banking terminology 15
Figure 2: Translation procedures for translating proper names 19
Figure 3: Translation procedures for translating acronyms 22
Figure 4: Translation methods for translating news headlines 26
iv


appropriate strategies for translating financial and banking news. Moreover, on
1
carrying out this paper, the author also aspires to broaden background knowledge of
her major and have a chance to practice translation skills.
1.2. Significance of the study
For other students, the research was aimed at providing them with theoretical
background in translation and translating finance and banking news. Moreover, there
were some suggestions for further studies, which may be useful for them afterwards.
With regard to other readers, especially those who were interested in finance
and banking field, the researcher hoped to help them have an in-depth look into
methods and procedures of translating finance and banking news and strategies to cope
with difficult situations.
1.3. Aims of the study
The main aim of the study is to conduct an investigation into the English –
Vietnamese translation of financial and banking news on some of online newspapers in
Vietnam majoring in finance and banking in order to:
• Identify translation methods and procedures applied in translating
financial and banking news.
• Find out the most frequently used method and procedures.
• Give some suggestions for financial and banking news translation
strategies.
The above objectives were satisfied on seeking for the answers of following
questions:
• What are translation methods and translation procedures applied for
finance and banking news translation?
2
• Which methods and procedures are the most frequently used in finance
and banking news translation?
• What are translation strategies to deal with difficult situations in finance
and banking news translation?


Word-for-word translation
In this translation method, the SL word order is preserved and the words
translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context. Cultural words are
translated literally. The main use of word-for-word translation is either to understand
the mechanics of the source language or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation
process.
Literal translation
The characteristic of literal translation is that the SL grammatical constructions
are conveyed to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated
singly, out of context. As pre-translation process, this indicates the problem to be
solved.
Faithful translation
Faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of the
original within the constraints of the TL grammatical structure. It transfers the cultural
words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical “abnormality” (derivation
from the SL norms) in the translation. It attempts to be completely faithful to the
intentions and the text realization of the SL writer.
Semantic translation
5
Adaptation
Free translation
Idiomatic translation
Communicative translation
Semantic translation
Faithful translation
Literal translation
Word for word translation
This method differs from faithful translation only in as far as it must take more
account of the aesthetic value (that is, the beautiful and the natural sound) of the SL

the book “A Text Book of Translation”, he mentioned a number of translation
procedures. However, the main ones were transference, naturalization, through
translation, shift or transposition, modulation, cultural equivalent, functional
equivalent, and descriptive equivalent.
Transference
Transference or loan word or transcription is a procedure in which a SL word or
expression is directly taken into TL with no translation. This procedure is usually
applied for proper names or new technical terms that do not have equivalent in TL.
Naturalization
In this procedure, a transferred word is adapted to the TL in terms of both
pronunciation and morphology.
Through translation
Through translation (or calque, loan translation) is the literal translation of
common collocations, names of organizations, components of compounds and phrases.
This translation procedure should only be used with already recognized terms.
Shift or transposition
This procedure involves a change in the grammar or part of speech of a word or
expression from SL to TL.
Modulation
Modulation means a variation in the message when it is translated into TL due
to a change in point of view. Three main types of modulation are one part-another,
passive-active and positive-double negative.
Cultural equivalent
In cultural equivalent, a SL cultural word or expression is translated by a
cultural word considered equivalent to it
7
Functional equivalent
Functional equivalent is the using of cultural-free word or expression in a
translation for a cultural word or expression in the SL
Descriptive equivalent

In a word, to be considered news, a piece of information must not be previously
known, be delivered by mass media and have some effect on readers. Hence, in the
world of on-going changes, news as defined above has been playing increasingly
important part in people’s life.
2.2.2. Types of news
Bell (1991) devided press news into four categories namely hard news, feature
articles (a small case of soft news), special topics e.g sport, business or financial, etc.,
and headlines (crossheads subheadings, bylines, photo captions). However, according
to Handbook of Independent Journalism, published by U.S Department of State in
2006, news can be grouped into two main types which are hard news and soft news
with slight difference.
Hard news or spot news, breaking news refers to factual, timely stories of
important events of almost every aspect of life ranging from politics, economics to
society. For the purpose of helping readers to get the information as quickly as
possible, hard news is usually written in a distinctive style.
9
In contrast, soft news is not time-bound to immediacy and appears in longer
articles to provide readers with background information of human-interest topics e.g
arts, entertainment and lifestyle. In terms of writing style, soft news writers usually
beat around the bush before getting to the central point and include their personal
opinions in the news.
2.2.3. Characteristics of news
Although researchers have not come to an agreement on the definition of the
term news, the features of news they have given seem to be in common. According to
The University of Vermont Journalism Blog, news has six main characteristics:
Timeliness, Impact, Proximity, Controversy (or Conflict), Prominence and Oddity.
Timeliness
This is one of the most important characteristics of news clearly reflected in its
definition. As a matter of fact, journalists always stress current information and try to
report it ahead their competitors. Nevertheless, timeliness of news depends on its types

easier to get access to business news via the mass media, especially by using the
Internet thanks to the development of technology.
2.3.2 Finance and banking news
Finance and banking is a special activity of the economy which has an
enormous influence on other activities and aspects of human life. As a result, finance
and banking news accounts for a considerable proportion of newspapers.
Translation of financial news, as translation of other field, relates to conveying
information and the author’s intention from the SLT to readers of the TL. Micheal
11
Donald, in “Financial news and press” (1999) regarded translation of financial news as
“rendering news or events in finance from a foreign language into another, keeping full
intention of author and informative capacity”. This kind of news-translation can be
classified into two major groups which are general economic translation and financial
translation. The formal often deals with the economy at macro and micro level while
the latter concerns daily news relating to the financial market (including commodities,
money, banking, stock, etc.)
12
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Sampling
The sample selecting process took place in two main stages which were
randomly picking up translated news from Vietnamese online newspapers and looking
for its source in English.
At the first stage, thirty articles of Vietnamese news on finance and banking
were collected from some of popular online newspapers majoring in economics in
general, finance and banking in particular. For example, some of the pieces of news
were from famous business newspapers such as vneconomy.com, tinkinhte.com,
tapchikinhtedubao.mpi.gov.vn, thesaigontimes.vn ( Thời báo Kinh Tế Sài Gòn Online),
stockbiz.vn, infotv.vn etc. With those websites, the writer had to find news in the
finance and banking or global category. On the other hand, with websites specializing
in finance and banking area such as taichinhdientu.vn, ebank.vnexpress.net, it was

communicative method (two major approaches in translation)
With regard to headline, because it often served the most important function in a
piece of news and had unusual structure, headline was considered a special unit in this
research and studies separately.
Secondly, after finding out procedures and methods employed in translating
different units of the text, quantitative method was used to make conclusion on the
frequency of those procedures and methods.
Thirdly, an overall conclusion was made as an answer for all research questions.
Besides, some application of the result was drawn out in translating finance and
banking news as well as in translating business news.
14
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter includes findings after all the news collected was carefully
examined at three levels: word level, sentence level and text level respectively. In
terms of word level, three following kind of words and phrases were picked up:
terminology, proper names and acronyms to study their translation procedures.
Headlines were exceptional case and separately studied due to its special features.
4.1. Translation procedures at word-level
4.1.1. Translation procedures for translating Finance and banking terminology
In Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, terminology has two fold meaning. On
the one hand, it is a set of technical words or expressions used in a particular subject.
On the other hand, it contains words used with particular meanings.
According to Sager (1990) (in Vu Van Duy, 2012), terminology “refers
deliberately to specific concepts within particular subject fields and therefore constitute
a sub-system of knowledge” such as medical terminology, scientific terminology etc.
Unlike general language word, terminology usually has one specific meaning in a
particular field and thus requires reader background knowledge to understand and
translate it correctly.
It can be said that a variety of translation procedures were employed to translate
terminology in collected finance and banking news samples. Among them, literal

other components which play a role of modifier such as adjective or another noun
stand in front of the head noun. For example, in the noun phrase “an extremely
beautiful vintage house”, the head noun is “house” whereas the adverb “extremely”,
adjective “beautiful” and noun “vintage” are modifiers for the main noun. This phrase
is translated into Vietnamese as “một ngôi nhà theo lối cổ điển tuyệt đẹp”. In this
phrase, the main noun is located at the beginning of the phrase and other modifiers
follow it.
In translating finance and banking terminology, for instance, “capital market”
and “government bond market” were translated as “thị trường vốn” and “thị trường
trái phiếu chính phủ”, respectively. As can be seen from those Vietnamese equivalents,
each word in English term was literally translated and then rearranged so that the
Vietnamese terms became suitable with Vietnamese word structure and understandable
to readers.
Shift translation
Shift translation or transposition is the only translation procedure to concern
with grammar. There are many types of transposition classified by Peter Newmark
ranging from changing from singular to plural to converting complex sentence in SL
into simple sentence in TL. In sample collected, the type of shift translation was the
one involving a change in the part of speech SL to TL. Words could be changed from
noun to verb or adjective and vice versa. For instance, the term “bankruptcy” which
was a noun referred to the state of a person who has been declared by the court that not
to be capable of paying his or her debts and whose affairs are put into hands of a
receiver (according to Dictionary of Banking and Finance), was considered equivalent
17
of the verb “vỡ nợ” in Vietnamese. A similar pattern was noticed when “devaluation”
was translated into “phá giá tiền tệ” and “bond rating” into “đánh giá tín dụng của trái
phiếu”. In those examples, the translators also added some information to make the
terms clearer and more understandable such as adding “tiền tệ” or “tín dụng”.
Other procedures
Naturalization was the main procedure employed to deal with terminology of

In collecting proper names from the samples to build up the database, the author
only paid attention to names of organizations, programs, countries. The reason why
proper name of people was not considered in the thesis was that all of them were
totally rendered with no translation.
Shift translation, through translation, and transference were three procedures
applied most in translating proper names. In contrast, there were few cases handled by
literal, modulation and descriptive equivalent. The rest were translated by other
procedures. Specific cases with illustrative examples were presented as follows.
19
Through translation was the main procedure to work with already recognized
terms such as name of international organizations, name of programs, and national
organizations. Followings are some examples of proper names handled by through
translation in terms of international institutions:
- ASEAN Free Trade Area - Khu vực Thương Mại Tự do ASEAN
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) - Ngân hàng Phát triển châu Á (ADB)
- European Commission - Ủy ban châu Âu
Or national organizations and programs as follow.
- Industrial Commercial Bank of China - Ngân hàng Công Thương Trung
Quốc (ICBC)
- China Banking Regulatory Commission - Ủy ban Điều tiết Ngân hàng
Trung Quốc
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership - Hiệp định Đối tác
Kinh tế Toàn diện Khu vực
- Trans Pacific Partnership - Hiệp định Đối tác Kinh tế xuyên Thái Bình
Dương
Similarly, titles containing name of organizations or institutions were also
rendered by transposition. For instance,
- Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee - Chủ tịch Ủy ban
Hỗn hợp Kinh tế
In this example, the position was literally converted first and preposition “of”