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Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acronyms and abbreviations constitute another group of source terms, which represent a challenge for translators. First of all, such term forms are normally crystallized within LSP, are
easily recognizable by professionals and tend to create derivatives. For example, the term EBITDA, which stands for Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization, often appears in the form of the English abbreviation even in Russian:
“EBITDA (доход до уплаты налога на прибыль, процентов и амортизации) — 50,5 млн долл” («Sinterra» otchitalas' za WiMAX, 2007. Ruscorpora);
“«Северсталь» объявила, что за шесть месяцев 2011 года ее EBITDA (прибыль до вычета расходов по уплате налогов, процентов, и начисленной амортизации) составила
$2млрд.” (Gerasimova, 2011. Ruscorpora).
For this reason, the abbreviation of the source term with or without a comment can be considered as a preferred translation for the term.
In certain cases the terms are not shaped with the help of abbreviation, initialisms, clipping or acronyms. Calque and DT, based on the full form of a term, contribute to the clarity and transparency of the term. The term D&O insurance, standing for directors and officers liability insurance can be translated into Russian with the following form: cтрахование ответственности директоров и должностных лиц (strahovanie otvetstvennosti directorov i dolzhnostnyh lic; L.t.: insurance of directors and official persons’ liability).
Partial acronyms are an unusual form in Russian and are often translated descriptively. For example, the term T-bill (treasury bill) appears in the form of the Calque and DT in Russian: краткосрочные казначейские облигации (IFC) (kratkosrochnye kaznachejskie obligacii; L.t.: short-term treasurer’s securities): “В сентябре Китай купил долгосрочных и краткосрочных казначейских облигаций США на 43,6 млрд долл” (Pavlov, 2008. Ruscorpora) (L.t.: long- term and short-term treasurer’s USA securities). The term component “казначеские” (kaznachejskie) stands for the clipped word “treasury” (T), while the term component “краткосрочные” (kratkosrochnye, L.t.: short-term) was retrieved from the meaning of the source term: “a Treasury bill (T-Bill) is a short-term debt obligation backed by the U.S. government with a maturity of less than one year, sold in denominations of $1,000 up to a maximum purchase of $5 million. <…>” (Investopedia). The term component “short-term”
appears to be vital for the term meaning and integrated into its form, which distinguishes it from other types of treasury bills. The Russian term without this component cannot be equal to the term T-bill. For instance, the term казначейские (ценные) бумаги (Ruscorpora) (kaznachejskie (cennyje) bumagi; L.t.: treasurer’s securities), can convey a general meaning: “cейчас существует четыре вида казначейских ценных бумаг: краткосрочные векселя (bills), среднесрочные облигации (notes), долгосрочные (bonds) и облигации, защищенные от инфляции (TIPS)” (Bunin, 2009. Ruscorpora) (L.t.: Nowadays there are four types of the treasury securities: short-term bills (bills), medium-term securities (notes), long-term (bonds), and securities protected from the inflation (TIPS)).
Accordingly, the clipped word or acronym can have a crystallized meaning within a field of terminology, which cannot be translated using Calque or Direct Loan until the term is used with its own specific meaning in the target language.
Prepositional constructions
Constructions with prepositions also represent a challenge for translators. For instance, the term value at risk, meaning “statistical technique used to measure and quantify the level of financial risk within a firm or investment portfolio over a specific time frame” (Investopedia) can be translated descriptively with the help of a participial construction: cтоимость (сумма активов), подверженная риску (IFC) (stoimost’ (summa aktivov), podverzhennaja risku; L.t.: the cost (the sum of assets) exposed to risk). The term components “at risk” can be shaped in Russian as “exposed to risk”, which contributes to the clarity of the term and its concrete meaning.
When it comes to prepositional constructions, a descriptive form with Calque can correspond to a concise semantically dense term form in the source language. The grammatical patterns of both languages do not often coincide in terms of the use of certain prepositions and their compatibility.
Other term forms
Complex terms, compound terms, abbreviations, acronyms, phrasal verbs or phrasal verbs nominatives, and nouns in attributive positions do not have corresponding constructions in Russian and do not contain additional semantic components which should be retrieved.
Nevertheless, Calque and DT can be considered as the preferred translation method, even for terms with simple structures, i.e. a noun, a participle, or a verb (with or without accompanying components).
For instance, the following terms with a simple form are translated using DT and Calque:
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