Dr. Carlos F. Márquez Linares Dr. Enrique F. Quero Gervilla Doctoral Programme in Languages, Texts and Contexts Faculty of Translation and Interpreting university of granada

Term Formation as an Interlingual Activity

Term creation as an interlingual activity or the “generation of terms with resources of another language”, i.e. borrowing (Muñoz, 2010, p. 16) has a number of characteristic features: first of all English is largely an “exporting language” (Muñoz, 2010, p. 16); the requirement for linguistic correctness determines term forms in a target language; moreover, preference for the native language requirement is violated if Direct Loans and Calque produce relevant forms in a target language; and finally the creation of terms is mostly focused on a term form; however, term content determines term formation if a term form cannot be exported from a source language.

Borrowing can be subdivided into four groups:

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  Direct Loan (loan word), i.e. borrowing of a form and a content (ISO, 1999; Cabré, 1999, Muñoz, 2010);
  
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  Loan translation, or Calque, i.e. borrowing of a meaning and reproducing the form literally by means of target language resources (ISO, 1999; Cabré, 1999; Muñoz, 2010);
  
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  Semantic Loan Translation or Semantic Calque (Muñoz, 2010), i.e. the search of translation equivalents in a target language using existing forms; and
  
• 
  Descriptive Translation, i.e. making semantic components of a term explicit.
  

1. Direct Loan

Direct Loan implies borrowing a meaning and a corresponding form from a source language. The term form in the target language is transformed by means of transliteration or transcription. Transliteration is a formal graphic representation which reproduces a term form, e.g. the term benchmarking was borrowed into Russian using graphic adaptation (transliteration):

бенчмаркинг (Lingvo). The following Corporate Management terms were created with the help of transliteration: мониторинг – monitoring; дивиденд – dividend (IFC), гендер – gender (UN- 1).

Transcription is the phonetic reproduction of a term form, or “phonetic imitation of the initial word” (Kazakova, 2008, p. 63)e,.g. the Corporate Management term due diligence coincides in pronunciation with the Russian term дью дилидженс (IFC). The Russian term гринмейл, corresponding to the English one greenmail (Lingvo), illustrates the case of transcription. The following cases illustrate the transcription method: “harmonizer – гармонайзер”, “promoter – промоутер” (Voskresenskaja & Rybina, 2007), “clearing – клиринг” (Tabanakova, 2006, p. 8). The use of transcription and transliteration leads to the loss of essential information about the meaning of a special concept.

Both transliteration and transcription are widely used in term creation because the two methods result in concise terms, which in most cases are internationally recognized. Direct Loan is considered to be an undesirable term creation process because it violates term transparency. A term borrowed by means of transliteration and transcription is neither motivated nor transparent. The term content cannot be inferred from the term form reproduced phonetically or graphically.

2. Loan Translation or Calque

Loan translation consists in reproducing a term form by means of the literal translation of its elements. The following Corporate Governance terms were borrowed from English into Russian with the help of Calque: мёртвая рука (mjortvaja ruka) – dead hand (Academic); гендерный бюджет (gendernyj bjudzhet) – gender budget (JUNIFEM); анти-разводнение (anti- razvodnenie) – anti-dilution (Lingvo); sales manager – менеджер по продажам (menedzher po prodazham) standard seeker – разработчик стандарта (razrabotchik standarta) (Voskresenskaja & Rybina, 2007).

It is possible to apply loan translation if the formal structure of a term can be reproduced in the target language. Moreover, the meanings of term elements should at least partially coincide. For example, loan translation is hardly ever applied when an English term with an attributive is

borrowed into Russian. An attributive component in English makes it possible to form a concise term conveying a certain semantic meaning. In Russian semantic elements implicitly expressed by an elliptical structure should be retrieved and reproduced by means of DT: “floor transaction

– операция в зале биржи” (Anisimova, 2009, p. 2) (operaciya v zale birzhi; L.t.: an operation in a stock exchange). However, both a descriptive form and a form created by means of calque can coexist, which can be explained by the preference for a concise form: “net transaction – netto- sdelka; сделка с ценными бумагами, при которой продавец и покупатель не платят комиссионное вознаграждение” (Anisimova, 2009, p. 2) (netto-sdelka; sdelka s cennimi bumagami, pri kotoroy prodavec i pocumatel’ ne platyat komissionnoye voznagrazhdenie; L.t.: net transaction; a transaction (an agreement) with securities, when a seller and a buyer do not pay a commission charge).

Loan Translation generates a huge number of terms and can be considered as a “terminology fertilizer” (Palacios & Vicente, 2011, p. 21) because of several factors: it gives priority to development and innovation; it produces international terms; it creates concise term forms and it results in transparent terms in contrast to transliteration and transcription.

According to Muñoz (2010), semantic loan translation consists in extending the meaning of an existing word in a target language by borrowing a new meaning from a source language (p. 18). The Russian term поглощение (pogloshhenie) which corresponds to the English one takeover (IFC) illustrates Semantic Calque. Takeover in LGP stands for “the act of seizing or assuming power, control, etc.” (Collins), the form of a word has been used in the corporate sense since 1958 (Online Etymology Dictionary) in order to describe the act of a company taking control over another. In Russian a word form corresponding to the LGP unit in English was used to designate an emergent concept.

Although Semantic Calque is often considered as a separate term creation method, it can be included in the Calque category. The boundaries of the two groups are not always clear-cut and well-defined. It especially concerns Management terms, which sometimes use a word which was previously borrowed into Russian to denote a new concept. The Corporate Governance term consolidation, meaning “the unification of two or more corporations by dissolution of existing ones and creation of a single new corporation” (Merriam-Webster) is based on an LGP unit and

has homonyms in the special fields of Physics, Geology, and Psychology etc. The Russian equivalent of the term – консолидация (konsolidacija) (IFC) had existed in Russian in LGP and different subject fields before the corporate sense was assigned to a word form: consolidation,

i.e. unification, of companies. Accordingly, the term консолидация can be considered as the Calque of the meaning of the term, attributed to the term form, which was previously adopted into the language.

In new management fields, like Corporate Governance, Calque can be confused with Direct Loan. For example, the simple term bankrupt came into English from Latin ("in the state of one unable to pay just debts or meet obligations," 1560s, from Italian banca rotta, literally "a broken bench <..> (Online Etymology Dictionary)). Similarly the term was borrowed into Russian from Latin: банкрот (bankrot). Both terms were created by means of Direct Loan. Later the term bankruptcy appeared: "the breaking up of a business due to its inability to pay obligations," from bankrupt, "probably on the analogy of insolvency, but with -t erroneously retained in spelling, instead of being merged in the suffix " (Oxford English Dictionary cited in Online Etymology

Dictionary). The Russian term банкротство (bankrotstvo) with the same meaning was borrowed from the English Language by means of Direct Loan and assimilation. Over the last few decades, the special field of Management has used the terms bankrupt, and bankruptcy to coin terms, e.g. intentional bankruptcy. The term received the following form in the Russian language: умышленное банкротство (IFC) (umishlennoje bankrotstvo; L.t.: intentional bankruptcy). The Russian term was retrieved by means of Pure Calque, although its second component had been previously borrowed using Direct loan (the first component represents the DT equivalent of the English word).

Accordingly, it is essential to trace back the etymology and the meaning of a source term to identify the term creation method of the target term.

3. Descriptive Translation

The search for term equivalents in a target language can be complicated if term components in both languages do not coincide. If an equivalent conveying a similar meaning in a target

language exists, Semantic Calque as described by Muñoz (2010) can be applicable. However, in some cases the meaning of a term cannot be easily reproduced in a target language. For this reason, translators often resort to DT, i.e. the disclosure of the meaning of a term using description, i.e. explanation. For example, the term management override (“overruling or circumventing prescribed policies or procedures for illegitimate purposes – such as personal gain or an enhanced presentation of a department’s financial condition or compliance status” (Vermont)) can have the following equivalent in Ruscorpora: