1. Introduction
Compared with general English, financial English is more specialized and has a special purpose, and is a kind of English for professional purposes. At the same time, it is also highly practical and intellectual. Compared with the languages of other fields, the professional vocabulary involved in financial English is more extensive and wide-ranging. [1] It mainly consists of three parts: financial terminology, words commonly used in financial work and other basic and non-basic words in the national common language, which together constitute its own vocabulary system. Therefore, in order to do a good job of translating financial texts and mastering the translation of financial terms, it is not enough to have certain translation abilities and use corresponding translation skills, but also requires the translator to understand the relevant professional background and knowledge in the field of finance, to be familiar with the structural form of the financial text, to master its linguistic characteristics, and then to follow the appropriate translation strategy to make the translation more professional and accurate.
2. Characteristics of Financial English Terminology
[2] The English translation of “finance” is “finance”, “banking” or a combination of “finance” and “banking” or a combination of “finance” and “banking”. This word first came from Japan in the Meiji period, China did not have this word in ancient times. “Finance” refers to all activities related to money circulation and banking credit. For example, deposit and loan business, currency issuance and foreign exchange business, and securities market-related business are all kinds of business carried out by banks, aiming at the effective use of funds through the use of certain financial instruments, such as stocks, bonds, etc., to transfer the unused funds of the society to the short-funded side. Financial translation is mainly concerned with money and credit. Based on the above analysis of the definition and scope of finance, it can be considered that financial translation means that the translation of the text involving banking, securities, insurance, financing and other businesses, as well as credit, the balance of payments and settlement and other fields is called financial translation. Financial terminology is an extremely important part of the whole financial language system, which is concise and rigorous, and can accurately reflect financial concepts. The characteristics of financial terminology are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
2.1. A lot of Terminology
A typical financial language is a clear, reliable and authoritative language that can be used to manage the financial community, regulate the market and resolve conflicts. It is a language compiled and interpreted by experts according to a fixed pattern. The terminology is extremely varied, as shown in the following aspects:
1) The large amount of vocabulary specific to financial English
[3] A number of words in general English have been given new meanings in financial English. For example “ask” (卖出价), “exchange” (交易所), “forward” (远期), “margin” (保证金), “position” (仓位), “quote” (报价)and so on.
2) A lot of specific terms
Specific terms are generally nouns or noun phrases, often used in the names of people, places and organizations. For example, “New York Exchange” (国内生产总值), “Gold Standard” (金本位), “GDP” (Gross Domestic Product国内生产总值), etc.
3) Plenty of Abbreviation
The extensive use of acronyms is also a feature of financial terminology. Abbreviations are concise and can express complex information and content with relatively few words, making them easier to use. For example: “CPI” (Consumer Price Index消费者物价指数), “FDI” (Foreign Direct Investment国际直接投资), “IPO” (Initial Public Offerings首次公开募股), and so on. However, it is worth noting that some of the abbreviations in different contexts to express the meaning is not the same, to grasp the context of specific analysis. For example, TB can stand for either Treasury Bills (短期国库券) or Treasury Bonds (国库债券).
2.2. The Singularity of Word Meanings
[4] The word to a single is the biggest feature of the financial terminology, that is, a word only represents a meaning, this type of terminology is limited to the scope of application of the financial field, and the financial business has a close connection. Specifically manifested as 1) a terminology only represents a fixed concept, in the financial terminology, each terminology in use can only represent a meaning, can not be replaced by other words. For example, credit standing (资信状况), a tax return (税务申报表), a profit and loss account (损益表), the balance sheet, mortgage (资产负债表), etc.; 2) In general English, there are multiple meanings of the terminology, in financial English has and only one meaning. English has one and only one meaning. For example, principal in general English means “最重要的；首要的”, which in financial English only means “本金” as well as listed company (上市公司), position (头寸), bearer (持票人), and so on.
2.3. Multiple Meanings of a Word
A word with multiple meanings is a word with multiple meanings, one of which can only be adapted to a fixed linguistic environment and context, and in financial terminology, the phenomenon of multiple meanings of a word is very common. There are a lot of words that often appear in different contexts, showing different meanings, but also with some words to form a fixed collocation, its use is very flexible. For example: charge, offer, account, etc. These words often appear in financial terminology or financial texts, showing different meanings.
For example, in the following sentences “account” has different meanings such as “花费”, “账户”, “账单” in the following examples:
I need to account for the treasure for my costs. 我需要就我的花费向公司财务报账
Please enter 300 US dollars in the account.请把这三百美元存入账户。
This is your account.这是你的账单。
Another example is the word “charge”, which in different contexts means “收费”, “记账”, and so on.
The bank charged 20$ commission to change my transfer cheque.兑现转账支票，银行收了我20美元手续费。
Charge the bill to the company’s account, please.请把账单记在公司的账户上。
2.4. Simple Wording
1) Frequent use of acronyms
Abbreviations express meaning and convey information in a minimum number of words, are easier to use, and are a feature of the simplicity of financial terminology. For example BOP (balance of payment收支差额), BO (book value票面价值), BPB (bank post bill银行汇票), IPO (initial public offering首次公开发行), and so on.
2) Use of hyphenated terms
The use of hyphens makes the terminology more concise and allows for a cleaner, more logical sentence structure.
Examples include debt-to-equity ratio (资产负债比率), off-balance sheet items (表外业务项目), non-intervention (不干涉主义), U.S.-controlled market (美国控制市场), and so on.
For example: In China, open-end funds have grown rapidly in recent years. 近年来，中国开放式基金获得了迅速的发展。
3) Noun combination
[5] In order to achieve simplicity of terminology and to prevent the use of too many prepositions, some financial terminology will put multiple terms together in a certain logical order to express new meanings. For example, Cash Management System (现金管理系统), rather than the System of Cash Management, Consumer Price Index (CPI) (消费物价指数), rather than Index of Consumer Price. All of these terms have been chosen to be expressed as nouns without prepositions, which is more concise and intuitive.
3. Translation Skills for Financial English Terminology
In 1999, Eugene Nida proposed translation equivalence theory, the core concept of which is “functional equivalence”. It means that translation does not seek a rigid correspondence on the surface of the text, but aims to achieve functional equivalence between the two languages. [6] The essence of financial text is to convey information, and the equivalence of content should be considered as the main factor. [7] Thus, in the translation of financial terms, it is necessary to translate financial terms accurately and embody the principle of translation equivalence, which requires the translator not only to have a wise knowledge of financial theory and practice but also to be meticulous in the translation. It also requires the translator to rely on the specific context, from the lexeme, semantics, style and other perspectives to make an all-round judgment.
3.1. Use of Direct Translation of Finance-Specific Terms
Many of the terms used in financial texts have a fixed meaning, with one word representing only one fixed concept, which is a reflection of their specialized nature. At the same time, the entire financial discourse is very formal, and this is also reflected mainly in financial terminology.
Arbitrage provides a mechanism to ensure that prices do not deviate substantially from fair value for long periods of time.
Test translation: 套利提供了一种机制，以确保价格在很长一段时间内不会大幅偏离公允价值。
Finance-specific terms have a definite meaning in their own right, and their Chinese equivalents can be found. Therefore, in translating such terms, a direct translation is adopted, but more importantly in the process of direct translation, when there is uncertainty about the translation, it is necessary to be diligent in checking and looking up more relevant information, so as to make the translation more accurate and professional.
3.2. Understand Background Knowledge to Avoid Mistakes
Financial terminology is very professional, learning financial knowledge, in the process of translation of the terminology translation is not sure must use the tools of multiple verification and then determine the translation.
The oil trading business-by which firms negotiate and purchase output from energy-producing nations, find buyers, arrange financing, and charter tankers to ship oil-didn’t exist in its current form until after the 1973 Israeli-Arab war.
Original translation: 石油经贸业务，即企业从能源生产国协商以及购买石油，寻找买家，规划资金以及安排特许邮轮运输石油。这种贸易模式自1973年以色列阿拉伯战争之后，便不复存在。
The word “fiancé” has a specific meaning in international trade, is a unique financial term, the correct Chinese expression should be “融资”, which refers to the means of monetary transactions to pay for the purchase of goods in excess of cash, or for the acquisition of assets to raise funds for the monetary means adopted. The correct Chinese expression should be “融资”. Therefore, a lack of knowledge of the financial context can easily lead to mistakes
Translation: 石油经贸业务，即企业从能源生产国协商以及购买石油，寻找买家，计划融资以及安排特许邮轮运输石油。自1973年以色列阿拉伯战争之后，这种贸易模式便不复存在。
3.3. Grasp the Context to Cope with Multiple Meanings of Words
It is common in financial English for a word to have multiple meanings. However, it depends on the specific context as to which meaning to choose when translating. Firstly, it can be translated according to the perspective of fixed collocation.
For example, the word “community” has multiple meanings, “社区；社会；社团，团体” and so on. But it has different meanings in different collocations. “international community” is translated as “国际社会”, but in contrast “world community” is translated as “世界大家庭”.
Apart from that, “margin” means something different in the following contexts
The permitted margin between the buying and selling rate could not exceed 0.5 per cent. 买入价和卖出价之间的差额不得超过0.5%。
Margin refers to the deposits used to account for various types of margin deposits deposited in banks and other financial institutions. 保证金是指用于核算存入银行等金融机构各种保证金性质的存款
It boosts consumers ‘real incomes and fattens firms’ profit margins. 这将提高消费者的实际收入，增加企业的利润空间。
In the above context, the word “margin” means “差额”, “保证金”, “幅度”, etc. Thus the translator in this context must understand the original text to translate more accurately.
[8] In the translation of financial terms, we should use different translation skills according to different situations, so as to better output the article and facilitate better understanding.
4. Conclusion
This paper briefly discusses the scope of the boundaries of financial translation in order to clarify the scope of the areas involved in financial translation. It also analyses and summarizes the characteristics of financial terms and elaborates their through examples. The large number and wide range of financial terms are the most prominent features of financial terminology. To do a good job in financial terminology translation, understanding and mastering a certain background knowledge of finance is the first thing, and the more financial-related knowledge you have, the more thorough your understanding of the original text will be. Financial terminology in the translation process should try to maintain a direct translation, the use of relevant tools and books to assist, to ensure the accuracy of the terminology and professionalism, a large number of long-term practices is also essential, hope that this paper can make some substantial reference to the financial terminology translation.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.