Contrastive An alysis of Terminology in the Dom ain of Accounting in English and [607609]

1
MOLDOVA STATE UNIVERSITY
THE FACULTY OF FOR EIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION, I NTERPRETATION AND APPLIED
LINGUISTICS

BAVELSKAIA IANA

CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF TERMINOLOGY IN THE
DOMAIN OF ACCOUNTING I N ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN
LANGUAGES

223.1. APPLIED ENGLISH LANGUAG E AND APPLIED B LANGUAGE

DIPLOMA PAPER

Head of department: ______________ Grădinaru Angela

Scientific leader: _____________ Corcodel Svetlana, MA, University Le cturer

Author: ______________ Bavelskaia Ia na, student: [anonimizat]-2017

2
UNIVERSITATEA DE STAT DIN MOLDOVA
FACULTATEA DE LIMBI ȘI LITERATURI STRĂINE
DEPARTAMENT TRADUC ERE, INTERPRETAR E ȘI LINGVISTICĂ
APLICATĂ

BAVELSKAIA IANA

ANALIZA CONTRASTIVĂ A TERMINOLOGIEI DIN
DOMENIUL CONTABILITĂȚII ÎN LIMBILE ENGLEZĂ ȘI
ROMÂNĂ

223.1. LIMBA EBGLEZĂ APLIC ATĂ ȘI LIMBA B APLICATĂ
Teză de licență

Sef Catedră ______________ Grădinaru Angela
(semnătura)
Conducător științific: _____________ Corcodel, Svetlana, Lector universitar
(semnătura)
Autorul: ______________ Bavelskaia, Ian a, student
(semnătura)
 
CHIȘINĂU 2017

3
Table of Contents
Annotation…………………………………………………………………………………4
Adnotare……………………………………………………………………………………5 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….….6
Chapter One. Theoretical Appr oach to Accounting Terminology
1.1 The Definition of Term and Terminology…………………………………………….9
1.2 History of Accounting Terminology…………………………………………………..1 2
1.3 Characteristic Features of Accounting Terminology Translati on……………………14
1.4 Translation Methods and Techniques of Accounting Terminolog y………………….18
Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………….20
Chapter Two. Difficulties of A ccounting Terminology Translation from
English into Romanian
2.1 Linguistic Difficulties of Accounting Terminology Translati on from English into
Romanian…………………………………………………………………………………22 2.2 Translation Difficulties of A ccounting Terminology from Eng lish into Romanian….33
Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………….…39
General Conclusions and Recommendations…………………………………….…….…40 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………43
Glossary ……………………………………………………………………………….….45

4
ANNOTATION
This Diploma Paper deals with analysis of Terminology from the Accounting domain,
with the title: “Contrastive An alysis of Terminology in the Dom ain of Accounting in English and
Romanian Languages”. It is submitted by the student: [anonimizat], Bavelskaia Iana.
This Diploma Paper is composed of Two Chapters, the first Chapt er is theoretical and it
is called: “Theoretical Approach to Accounting Terminology” and the second Chapter, practical
called: “Difficulties of Accoun ting Terminology Translation fro m English into Romanian”.
In the first Chapter it is written about the theoretical aspect s of the Accounting
Terminology and its peculiarities, and it is composed of four s ubsections. These are the
following: “1.1 The Definition of Term and Terminology; 1.2 His tory of Accounting
Terminology; 1.3 Characteristic Features of Accounting Terminol ogy Translation; 1.4
Translation Methods and Techniques of Accounting Terminology”. In these small parts of the
research we have briefly brought information about the accounti ng and the most important parts
of it. We have detected what types of translation techniques ar e mostly used in the Accounting
domain and other basic informa tion on this topic, plus conclusi ons.
In the second, practical Chapter , it is described in particular a l l p e c u l i a r i t i e s o f
Accounting Terminology Translati on, and there are given concret e examples taken from
theoretical books about accounting. The second Chapter is compo sed of two subsections: “2.1
Linguistic Difficulties of Accounting Terminology Translation f rom English into Romanian; 2.2
Translation Difficulties of Accounting Terminology from English into Romanian”. In this
Chapter can be observed the most important aim of the research, and if the goal of the Diploma
Paper is achieved or not, plus conclusions.
A t the end of the D iplo m a P aper it is w r it ten a “C hapte r” of G e neral Conclusions and
Recommendations, where we are pondering over the work that we h ave done, and the
conclusions about the whole research.

5
ADNOTARE
Această pagină de adnotare conține informații privind Teza de Licență cu tema „Analiza
contrastivă a terminologiei din domeniul contabilității în limb ile Engleză și Română”, elaborată
de către studenta în anul trei la facultatea de Limbi și Litera turi Străine din cadrul Universității
de Stat din Moldova, Bavelskaia Iana.
Prezenta Teză de Licență este alcătuită din două Capitole major e. Primul capitol poartă
denumirea de „Theoretical Approa ch to Accounting Terminology” – Abordarea teoretică a
terminologiei contabile, și cap itolul practic cu denumirea “Di fficulties of Accounting
Terminology Translation from English into Romanian” –Dificultăț i de traducere a terminologiei
contabile din limba engleză în limba română.
În primul capitol se vorbește despre aspectele teoretice ale te rminologiei contabile și
particularitățile sale și ace st capitol este compus din patru s ubsecțiuni. Acestea sunt următoarele:
“1.1 The Definition of Term and Terminology” – Definiția termen ului și a terminologiei; “1.2
History of Accounting Terminology” – Istoria terminologiei cont abile; “1.3 Characteristic
Features of Accounting Terminol ogy Translation” – 1.3 Caracteri sticile traducerii terminologiei
contabile; “1.4 Translation Met hods and Techniques of Accountin g Terminology” – 1.4 Metode
de traducere și tehnici de terminologie contabilă. În aceste pă rți ale capitolului, am adus pe scurt
informații despre contabilitate și despre cele mai importante p ărți ale acesteia. Am cercetat cu
scopul de a observa ce tipuri de tehnici de traducere sunt util izate în domeniul contabilității și
alte informații de bază pe această temă, plus concluzii particu lare.
În cel de-al doilea capitol sunt descrise în speci al toate particularitățile traducerii
terminologiei contabile și sunt prezentate exemple concrete din cărțile teoretice despre
contabilitate. Al doilea capitol este alcătuit din două subsecț iuni: “2.1 Linguistic Difficulties of
Accounting Terminology Translation from English into Romanian” – Dificultăți lingvistice ale
traducerii terminologiei contabile din limba engleză în limba r omână; “2.2 Translation
Difficulties of Accounting Termi nology from English into Romani an” – Dificultăți de traducere a
terminologiei contabile din limba engleză în limba română. În a cest capitol se poate observa cel
mai important scop al cercetării care este analiza contrastivă a terminologiei din domeniul
contabilității și concluziile particulare a acestui capitol.
Ultimul pas al acestei cercetări este numit “Concluzii generale și recomandări”, unde este
descrisă părerea personală despre cercetarea efectuată și aspec tele practice aplicate în această
lucrare.

6
Introduction
In this Diploma Paper we are going to develop one of the most a ctual and contemporary
topics of today’s life. This top ic is about financial part of o ur everyday life, about accounting,
and it is called Contrastive Analysis of Te rminology in the Domain of Accounting in English and
Romanian Languages .
Contrastive analysis means the comparison of two languages, a c omparison of contrasts,
systematic divergences. The specialized translator should proce ss the material he has received
and reformulate it, becoming at the same time a true creator an d author. The comparison of two
languages mainly means to determine the differences or contrast s, which explains this new
branch of applied linguistics. In the contrastive analysis, we c a n o p e r a t e w i t h a t r i p l e
equivalence: the equivalence of sense, form and nomenclature. I n this diploma paper, which is
about accounting terminology, we will bring theoretical argumen ts on this subject, and in the
practical chapter we will work w ith concrete examples of docume nts, comparing their contents.
Due to the fact that we must pay money for something every day, we try to keep up with
some bases of financial aspect of our life, but, for us as futu re translators it is very important to
be acknowledged with the termi nology of the domain in what we a re acting.
The aim of this diploma paper is to prove the idea that translator’s j ob is, first of all, to
know the peculiarities of the domain where he works, and of cou rse its terminology, besides that
to analyze each term from the given examples.
However, when it comes to translating texts and documents in a specialized subject field,
an excellent knowledge of the s ource and the target languages a nd their cultures is not enough. In
such a case, translators must not only have an excellent knowle dge of the languages they are
working with, but they must also be familiar with the subject f ield in question and have the
ability to meet the requirements of the particular writing styl e in the Target Language.
The objectives for this topic that will help us to develop it, are the follow ing:
-to explain the meaning of Accounting; -to develop this definition to make it more accessible to
understand; -to consult sources and books bounded to this topic; -to bring concrete examples of
translation of accounting terminol ogy; -to analyze the examples of translation, and to comment
on them; -to understand the meaning and nature of a ccounting and the right tr anslation of it; -to
explain the importance of correct translation of accounting terminology; -to explain why is it so
important to render correctly the meaning of a term from a particular field; -to find the
equivalents for some popular terms of accounting; -to compare texts from the same domain but

7
written in opposite languages; -to give our pe rsonal conclusions and reccomendations on this
issue;
The topicality of this topic is a very important aspect in this Diploma Paper , and it
explains the following idea: We live in a very modernized socie ty which is continually
developing and it has it s requests and need s that should be acc omplished. Living an ordinary life,
we meet accounting issue almost every day, when we have to coun t our budget or money from
our pockets and income. It is a very important aspect in our li ves, and we need to be
acknowledged with it, or at leas t with its terms to know how to act in some situations.
We meet this issue every day in our life, we pass through it be cause there is always
someone who is a caretaker for money in our family budget. But let us try describe it more
serious. The topic of this Diploma Paper is called: “ Contrastive analysis of terminology in the
domain of accounting in E nglish and Romanian languages ”.
The theoretical value r e p r e s e n t s t h e i d e a t h a t i t i s n o t s o h a r d t o t r a n s l a t e t h e
terminology of a fixed science, but, it also may cause some pro blems for translators who are not
acknowledged with it. Accounting is a science and if we don’t t ake it serious in our job than we
are mistaken. We consider that this topic is very fresh and hel pful, and it should be developed to
prove its value, that is why in this Diploma Paper we will spea k about it.
The practical value makes sense of the idea that a good translator must give a goo d
work and he must process the “raw” document and to rebuild a ne w and more complex version
of reformulated in target language translation. That is why, a translator can be considered a
creator of a new product but with similar context.
This science brings in our lives more responsibility and makes us more conscious about
our budget and costs that we spen d in our everyday life. We thi nk that this topic will bring us
benefits and it will influence us to pay more attention while s pending money or to be more
attentive while translating accounting documents. Time passes, and day by day people become
more materialized, and they know that a good life depends on a good salary, a good salary
depends on a good job, and a good job can be found in the domai n of economy – that is why we
have so many economists and people specialized in this field.
We think that this topic is very helpful for the modern society and it can help future
translators to do their job more qualitative. According to the sources, Accounting is understood
as the Language of Business. H owever, a business may have a lot of aspects which may not be of
a financial nature. As such, a better way to understand account ing could be to call it The
Language of Financial Decisions. This means that the better we understand the meaning of this
language, the better is the management of our financial status. Also we should better understand

8
the words of this language, such as terms, because it is necess ary for our future translator’s
career. Besides explaining the importance of an accurate transl ation of accounting terminology,
we will also manage to explain briefly the importance of busine ss in our lives. The knowledge of
accounting is an added advantage in performing different roles. However, we shall limit our
scope of discussion to a busine ss organization and the various financial aspects of such an
organization.
The structural value of this diploma paper explains why is it so important to plan and
structure a paper work, and it begins with the theoretical part , mainly with an overview of the
role of terminology in translati on, and with an explanation on s t e p s o f t h e p e c u l i a r i t i e s o f
accounting as a science and its terminology, and also why is it important to render qualitatively
the meaning of technical documents. In the practical part we wi ll reach to exemplifying and
analyzing the translation of it, and also we will bring argumen ts for our analysis, and we will
compare similar texts or documents written in different languag es, and their contents.
The specialists in translation have already proved that the imp ortance of a good
translation is crucial in their career. Besides the fact that a translator must know the Source
Language, he must be creative in some problematic cases, and al so know the terminology if he
works in a particular subject f ield. The main conclusions will be seen in the diploma paper, in the
theoretical and practical Chapters.

9
CHAPTER ONE
THEORETICAL APPROACH TO ACCOUNTING TERMINOLOGY
1.1 The Definition of Term and Terminology
This chapter provides an overvie w of the role of the terminolog y in translation. The
notion of terminology and different concepts bounded to termino logy.
An Austrian entrepreneur and in novator, Gabriele Sauberer, in h er research about
terminology, once said that “There is no knowledge without term inology”, and this phrase
became very popular among translators and specialists in this f ield, because it reveals the truth
and essence. An excellent trans lator can do nothing without kno wing the terms and concepts
from the document where he/she is going to translate [26]. We c an say that we agree with this
statement, because the terminology is a dictionary with terms o f a particular language, and if we
do not have words we cannot speak.
The “Father” of Terminology is considered Eugen Wüster (1898-19 77), an Austrian
industrialist and businessman who dedicated his life to develop ing the theory of Terminology,
and who said that Terminology is a theory and scientific study of concepts and terms [23]. Due
to the fact that he discovered this science, now we can speak m ore profound about this domain,
and analyze the peculiarities of the topic of this Diploma Pape r based on his personal researches.
Wüster was the first person to e stablish a number of principles working with terms. He was the
person who introduced terminology as a science, and due to his work, now we can use this
science to make our job easier.
But for the beginning, let us see the general definition of terminology and term.
“Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the developm ent of such
terms and their interrelationships within a specialized domain. Terminology is a discipline that
systematically studies the "labe lling or designating of concept s" particular to one or more subject
fields or domains of human activity. Terminology can be limited to one or more languages (for
example, "multilingual terminology" and "bilingual terminology" ), or may have an
interdisciplinary focus on the us e of terms in different fields ” [23].
This means that this discipline is a part of different branches of activity and it helps both
translators and people who work in this domain.
Terms are words and compound words or multi-word expressions that in specific contexts
are given specific meanings—these may deviate from the meanings the same words have in
other contexts and in ev eryday language [23].

10
Also here we can add that a great importance in translator’s ac tivity has the elaborating of
the Term Sheet . “A term sheet is a nonbinding agreement settin g forth the basic terms and
conditions under which an investme nt will be made. A term sheet serves as a template to develop
more detailed legal documents. O nce the parties involved reach an agreement on the details laid
out in the term sheet, a binding agreement or contract that con forms to the term sheet details is
then drawn up” [22].
Term sheet , that is an additional sheet of paper with all the terms inclu ded in it to make
an investigation clearer a nd easier to understand. The Terminology Sheet is a dossier in which all
the information on a single term, treated within the limits of a single application field, is
gathered. Generally, if the file is created on computer, the so urce information is handled in a
document different from the one that constitutes the terminolog y. It usually includes any
important information for the treatment of the term, which cann ot be inserted into any other
category of data, only here, als o, technical information often appears here in the term sheet.
From our theoretical lessons, we have learned that terminology is a “vocabulary” of a so-
called “ SL/Special Language ” which can be spoken by only the people who act in a particula r
domain, some concrete specialists.
Terminology is the system of terms belonging or peculiar to a science, art, or specialized
subject. In our case – to business and accounting. Specific wor ds that have specific meaning, are
also independent out of the context, because they designate the ir own meanings. These types of
terms can be found in different sources, such as business dicti onaries and other types of
dictionaries (either online or in books). Analyzing the terminology of accounting we have found
that the domain of accounting is very rich in different terms w hich have complex definitions and
explanations, and which can be easily understood by professiona ls who work in this field and by
the persons connected to business field.
Also to make a better translation, a translator will consult a very useful source of
terminological dictionary. From our personal experience, a very pragmatic source is considered
to be the online dictionary “ iate.europa.eu ”, here we can find any term from any field we need,
and it will be very good described and will have the equivalent in the language needed.
Obtaining a necessary knowledge of a specific domain also inclu des managing the terminology
used in the given domain. Generally, when it comes to translati ng specialized texts, translators
are not experts in the subject matter of their translations, an d for that reason, they often need to
get acquainted with the relevant terminology and the way it is used before they start translating.
In order to do so, they often create their own glossaries. Term inology management has therefore
become an integral part of the work of translators of specializ ed texts.

11
The terminology itself, which is not necessarily linked to the translation act ivity, can be
done for research in order to sta ndardize or to establish termi nological data and can be done for a
single language or for several languages.
But, let us not forget about the name of our topic, where we wi ll speak about the
Accounting . So, let us see what is accounting in general as a term. Accounting is “a systematic
process of identifying, recording, measuring, classifying, veri fying, summarizing, interpreting
and communicating financial in formation. Accounting is strictly connected to economics, which
is a social science concerned with the factors that determine t he production, distribution, and
consumption of goods and services. Economic terminology can be translated in all possible
languages because it is spread all around the world, and the te rminology is available for
everybody who wants to study it. I t is very popular science tha t builds the world” [19].
This means that nowadays it is impossible to live without accou nting. It reveals the profit
or loss of money for a given pe riod, and the value and the natu re of a firm's assets, liabilities and
owners' equity. It deals with counting and measuring money and other goods, it is our daily
process of activity, because we meet it every day when we buy f ood or other things and we
spend money for it.
As we have already mentioned in the introduc tion, accounting is a very important aspect
in a modern society. Many companies from different fields are s eeking highly-qualified
specialists to do their job, and we can see that it is very res ponsible to be an accountant
nowadays. Also, it is very responsible job to translate these d ata mixed with different terms.
Translators must be very attentive when they begin to work in t his domain, they must study a lot
to get the necessary knowledge, and to be prepared for a hard w ork. Also, the translators must be
well trained to know all the possi ble and impossible equivalent s and variants of translation in this
field. From the pragmatic point of view, there must be a strong relationship between words and
terms in a translated document, this means that the translated text must be coherent, and it should
make sense to reader through the concepts, and ideas, and theor ies that are written in the text.
They also need to be able to meet the linguistic, textual and s tylistic requirements of the target
language when creating the translation.
The famous American comedian and actor, Bob Newhart once said: “I worked in
accounting for two and a half years, realized that wasn 't what I wanted to do with the rest of my
life, and decided I was just going to give comedy a try ” [27]. Bob Newhart understood on his
own experience that it is not an easy way to earn money, and he decided to try something more
easy, this shows us that we are taking a great responsibility o n ourselves when we begin to deal
with it, and only the experience will show what is really impor tant in translation of this field.

12
There are written lots of books a nd theoretical documents which are full of important
material for accountants. We ca n see that accounting is strongl y bounded with economics.
Accounting, as a particular la nguage, has its own vocabulary th a t i s f u l l o f t e r m s a n d
concepts that are hard to understand for people who are not imp lied in this domain. The
terminology has numerous peculiarities, and we will try to anal yze them.

1.2 History of Accounting Terminology
As the present diploma paper focuses on the terminology of accounting , it is important to
define this field of specialized knowledge. That is why to make this research more interesting,
we have decided to introduce some historical aspects about acco unting.
According to the poplar online-encyclopedia:
“Accounting is a very old concept, as old as our civilization. It was init iated in Babylonia
and Egypt around 4000 BC. Babylonia was known as the city of co mmerce. Egyptians used
accounting to count their gold and other goods, and treasures. Accounting was used for business
to uncover its losses” [23].
Dating back about 10,000 years, the first accounting system pro bably consisted of stones
used to represent wealth. It began as a simple system of clay t okens to keep track of goods and
animals, before developing compl ex transactions and other finan cial information.
The father of accounting is considered Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli {1445-151} .
India was also a place where the accounting started to develop, and the father of accounting in
India is considered Shri Kalyan Subramani Aiyar {1859-1940} . He was a pioneer of commercial
and accounting education in India.
History of accounting is old, of thousands of years old, and can be followed to anci ent
civilizations. The early development of accounting can be disco vered in ancient Mesopotamia,
and is related to developments in writing, counting money, ther e is also evidence for early forms
of bookkeeping in ancient Iran, and early auditing systems by t he ancient Egyptians and
Babylonians.Accounting records dating back more than 7,000 year s have been found in
Mesopotamia, and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists of expenditures, and goods
received and traded.
Accounting terminology is a branch that appeared only after the appearance of the sci ence
that is called Terminology , but, of course there were lots of words that might be conside red
technical and conceptual, whic h were used by the ancient people in their activity as terms.

13
Based on these facts we can see that even if the history of Acc ounting as a science is very
old, the accounting terminology appeared a lot more later, beca use the father of terminology,
Eugen Wüster, discovered the Terminology science only in the XX th century. With the
appearance of terminology, there were developed many other scie nces and their words and
concepts related to them.
Nowadays, Terminology is considered a practice that is used for communication in
special fields, among people who are involved in a certain doma in of activity. It is possible due
to the dictionaries and glossaries that were compiled for the u se of professionals , and translators
need these glossaries in their daily job, due to the fact that every day may appear many new
words and concepts that should be understood for the better tra nslation. Linguists use
terminology as a science because it helps them a lot to do thei r job more accurately. Terminology
is also important when several translators are working on the s ame project: It ensures that all the
key vocabulary is translated the same way by all the translator s. Terminology had a scientific
orientation while at the same time it was recognized as a socia lly important activ ity only in the
XXth century. Undoubtedly, terminology is not a completely new field of study, but rather it has
developed out of a basic human need, that of identifying and la belling or naming things. Being a
science, Terminology was created by some principles and theorie s. Some of them are used until
the present days but others were just criticized and disappeare d in time. It is very helpful for
translators, because it was developed for their use, not only f or their, but anyway. Terminology
helps through giving the perfect e quivalents in any language yo u need.
According to the research of Daria Protopopescu, in the 18th an d 19th centuries,
terminology was led by the scien tists. They were worried about the diversity of forms and the
relationships between forms and concepts. Neither the nature of concepts nor the foundations for
creating new terms were of concern to them [17].
In the 20th century, situation had changed and engineers and te chnicians became
involved. Rapid progress and the development of technology requ ired not only the naming of
new concepts but also agreement on the terms to be employed. As a r e s u l t o f p r a c t i c e ,
terminological work began to be or ganized in certain specialize d fields.
Terminology , as we understand it today, first began to take shape in the 1 930s. Eugen
Wüster was the person who developed it and brought it to the le vel of today’s modern concept.
The work of Wüster, an Austrian linguist considered to be a fat her of terminology, was very
important for the development of modern terminology. In his doc toral dissertation of 1930, he
presented arguments for systematizing working methods in termin ology, established a number of

14
principles for working with terms and outlined the main points of a methodology for processing
terminological data.
It is fair to say that all Wüster’s life was devoted to termino logy. With his work he
pursued a number of objectives, intended: a) to eliminate ambig uity from technical languages; b)
to convince all users of technica l languages of the benefits of standardized terminology; c) to
establish terminology as a disci pline for all practical purpose s and to give it the status of a
science.
And we can observe that his job was really important, and it br ought clearer and easier
meaning of what translators do today. His job was rewarded with the acknowledgement of
translators who now can w ork easier and better.
If speaking about the etymology of accounting, according to Har per Dictionary of
Contemporary Usage,
•Accounting (n.) "reckoning of numbers," late 14c., verbal noun from account (v.). From
1855 as "management of financial affairs." Phrase no accounting for tastes (1823) translates
Latin de gustibus non est disputa ndum, from account (v.) in the "give an explanation" sense.
•As a verb, “to account” assumed the form accounten in Middle E nglish which, in turn,
was introduced from Old French, aconter (in Modern French, cont er). Going further back in
time, we connect aconter to the Vulgar Latin word accomputare o r com-putare meaning to
reckon. In Medieval Latin computatorium referred to counting-ho use. There were also other
derivatives from computare. It is interesting to note here that the base of this Latin word, putare,
variously meant to purify, to correct an account, hence, to cou nt or calculate, as well as to think.
Aside from the meaning to count, aconter from Old French means to tell. In Modern French,
these two groups of meanings are differentiated— compter, to co unt and conter, to tell (a story).
The latter meaning is also ret ained in the English word.
•Both the words accounting and accountancy were in use in Great Britain by the mid-
1800s, and are derived from the words accompting and accountant ship used in the 18th century
[13].
We should also add here a little information about the people w ho work in this field, who
are called Accountants. We all may think that we know what they really do. They captur e
information about the transactions of an enterprise and summari ze the activity of this enterprise,
but of course we do not realize the complexity of accomplishing their work. Their job involves a
blending of technical knowledge a nd measurement artistry that c an only be appreciated via a
fully extensive study of this dom ain. Their job must be conside red valuable and precious, indeed.
Knowledge of accounting is very va luable to success in business field.

15
1.3 Characteristic Features of A ccounting Terminology Translati on
As we already stated in the previous small part of our research , Terminology is a science
which was discovered and developed in the early XX century by a n Austrian linguist Eugen
Wüster, and it has some character istic features and peculiariti es.
To define the characteristics of Accounting Terminology, we sha ll begin with the
comparison between a “ word ” and a “ term”. What is the difference between them? And what are
those characteristic features?
Based on our theoretical classes, we can state that terms do no t differ from words, when
we consider them from the formal point of view (phonological an d morphological structures),
but if we consider them as prag matic and communicative units – they do differ from words.
According to oxford dictionary, a word is “A single distinct meaningful element of
speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to for m a sentence and typically shown
with a space on either side when written or printed” [24]. This means that a word is a simple
element of speech which can be us ed with other elements to form a sentence.
While a term, according to the same dicitonary, a term is “a word or phrase used to describe a
thing or to express a concept, e specially in a particular kind of language or bran ch of study” [24].
A term is also considered a terminological unit, and it can be an expression, a symbol, a formula,
a scientific name in Latin, an acronym or an initialism or even a title of something.
So, the difference is obvious here, a term describes the concep t of something and a word
is just a simple unit of speech, from the lexical point of view . Also, here we can add that a word
can be found in any dictionaries whi le a term – only in special ized terminological dictionaries.
Words are used by the ordinary people in General Language/GL , while terms only by the
specialists or experts to comm unicate among each other in their Special Language/SL . Due to the
fact that terms have complex conc epts, and they can be understo od only by the experts, the
number of users is limited.
A concept is also an important detail to mention here. From our theoretic al classes, we
have learned that a concept is “a unit of knowledge comprising the system of common
characteristics that are identified within a majority of object s from a given class of individual
objects, and which are used as a method for mental ordering and consequently as a method for
communication.” This means that there is no knowledge of Termin ology without concepts.
Concepts are everywhere, they also designate meanings and other important information in a
translation process.
The characteristics of concepts are very interesting, so according to them concepts are: –
language independent; -all the c oncepts are abstr act; concepts are made of characteristics; –

16
concepts are related to other c oncepts. From these descriptions we can say that concepts a r e
strongly connected to terms . They are also an important part in Terminology .
If speaking about the characteris tic features of translation, w e can say that the process of
translation is very specific and responsible, because, besides the terms and concepts, a document
can contain many difficulties that can bother the translator an d he can make lots of mistakes. As
all of us know, translation is t he communication of the meaning o f a SL tex t b y m ean s of an
equivalent TL text. Translation is a type of investigation, because in the p rocess of translation,
the translator investigates all t he possible variants of equiva lents to find the best one that fits the
most to the context, and in the case of need applies the imagin ation to render the message more
interesting and musically.
The most important feature in the translation process is mainta ining the most relevant
conditions of translation – fidelity and transparency . These aspects are crucial in translation, and
they are evaluated very strictly after the translation. The tra nslator’s job is to render the message
correctly and precisely, and to obtain a good and meaningful tr anslation result. Especially, in the
field of accounting, it is a very important mission to use the right variant of equivalent, because
the consequences can be serious and they can lead to a stupid f inal version of translation, and
they can make a completely different meaning.
Many translators use some interesting and useful sources in the ir work, such as online-
dictionary for specialists like “ iate.europa.eu ”. IATE Dictionary contains about 9 million terms
and covers the 23 official languages of the EU. IATE is a very good container of terms and their
equivalents and explanations. It was discovered to help transla tors in their everyday practice.
During the university years we have consulted it many times, es pecially when we had to prepare
different reports on particular subjects, and it helped us a lo t. That is why we may consider that it
is a very good source of terms. But, let us return to our topic , and to the most important
conditions that a good translator must follow.
According to wikipedia: “Faithfulness is the extent to which a translation accurately renders the me aning of the
source text, wit hout distortion. Transparency is the extent to which a translation appears to a
native speaker of the target language to have originally been w ritten in that language, and
conforms to its grammar, s yntax and idiom” [23].
We may think that it is quite easy to maintain these criteria i n the accounting field if it is
used correct equivalent and if the domain is well-known by the translator, but, again, it depends
on the case and on the level of difficulty of the text. Account ing texts are usually technical and
the most important aspect is to use the right equivalent for th e terms. As all of us know,

17
accounting terms and concepts are very concrete and they design ate different meanings, and it is
necessary to differentiate them and first of all to understand them, in order to make a good
translation. The majority of them has the equivalents and there is no need to apply the
imagination to find the equivalent.
As we already stated, one of the best sources for “inspiration” in the translat ion process is
online dictionary “IATE”. “Inte r-Active Terminology for Europe” was launched as a project in
1999, the source [23] says, and it has the objective of creatin g a web-based interface for all EU
terminology resources so as to make the information more easily available and ensure its
standardization throughout the EU institutions. IATE is widely spread through the translators’
community, because it has the necessary information about any t erm from any field for any
translator. Terminology is the f undamental building block for t ranslators. A good specialist will
always manage to perform a better translation and to justify hi s skills. His job is as good as his
work experiences.
It should also be mentioned that the phenomenon of translation causes distortions, like
systematic differences that are related to the differences that exist at lexical, syntax and
morphological level, such as: -the difference between genres of nouns; -the difference between
the verbs diathesis; -the different order of the members of the Nominal Group; -Target language
problems (e.g., concordance of times, '' and '' conditionally, use of the subjunctive, the order of
the words in the sentence, the obligatory constituents of the s entence) and other grammatical
difficulties.
These distortions can appear especially in the domain of Accounting , due to the huge
number of terms in this domain. Faithfulness and Transparency i s very important part in the
process of translation in ma ny fields, not only in the domain o f accounting.
As all of us know, the accounting field is composed of terminol ogy and concepts which
have complex definitions and explanations. That is why, before a translator begins his job, he
firstly compiles a glossary, where he investigates all the diff iculties and problematic terms.
Beginning the translation with glossary is a tip to successful translation and the translator must
be acknowledged with this fact.

1.4 Translation Methods and Techniques of Accounting Terminolog y
As we all know, the Translation is rendering the message from t he Source Language/SL
into the Target Language/TL . But, perfect understanding of SL does not give the perfect re sult of
translation, it is also important to remark that a translator m ust know the culture of both

18
languages and to understand the document he is translating to m ake his work more appropriate.
Translation is not a copy of a ST into TT, it is a rewriting and refo rmulating of the message
maintaining the meaning with the help of different techniques a nd methods. Besides that, a good
translator must be acknowledged with all of these techniques an d methods of translation. In our
case, we will speak about Account ing terminology, which is cons idered to be a fixed science that
cannot cause any serious difficulties, but it only seems to be easy and we will show why do we
consider so.
During the university courses, we have learned that before the beginning of a translation
work, first of all, a translator should get acknowledged with t he text and its terms and to find the
difficulties, as fast as possible. The translator must possess at least basic general knowledge
about everything, not only about t he domain in which he is acti ng. Then he should divide the text
into units of sense, to make the translation process easier. In g e n e r a l , t h e t e r m s p l a y a v e r y
important role in any translati on, and translators must pay att ention to them firstly. Besides the
ambiguities of sense, a translator may find himself in the situ ation of choosing a wrong
equivalent, which can lead him to a wrong path, wrong equivalen ts such as Translator’s False
Friends , which are the words that have similar formal structure in bot h languages and they may
seem equivalent for a beginner.
From our experience of translatio n, we have observed that liter ary texts are little bit
harder to translate, because of their large number of different stylistic procedures and
ambiguities and haziness of sense. They need more improvisation and creativity, while technical
texts require more attention to terminology and important detai ls that must be rendered exactly.
It depends upon the translator , what is easier for him.
Searching for the answer on the question “How to translate term s?”, we have found many
solutions, as like compiling a glossary with all the terms and their translation and explanations to
understand them better. Of course, this step is necessary but i t does not give the final translation,
so we should be acknowledged with the techniques and methods of translation. There are
different well-known types of tra nslation techniques and differ ent methods of translation that
help us to translate a document, such as: borrowing, calque, literal tran slation, transposition,
modulation, equivalence, adaptation as well as omission, generalization, specification,
compensation, etc .
According to a linguist from Portugal, in his research with the title “7 TRANSLATION
TECHNIQUES TO FACILITATE YOUR WORK”, a translation method is applied to the entire
text to be translated, while the technique may vary within the same text according to each case
and depending on the specific verbal elements to be translated.

19
In business field, especially in translating terms or other terminological concepts th ere
are used several types of techniques . Among them, we have observed several most widely-spread
techniques that help to translat e terms. These techniques are v ery useful for translators and
people who deal with it.
When a translator uses a calque , he or she is creating or using a neologism in the TL by
adopting the structure of the SL. Calque is also called loan translation , because to “calque”
means to borrow, and borrowing is used when other methods are i mpossible. The translator
translates through borrowing from the SL of a concept that does not exist in TL. They may be
present in the cases of difficulties in finding the right conce pt, but it does not work in each
example.
Another peculiarity that we have observed is that in the specia l subject fields, translators
often use equivalence , due to the fact that terms usually have their equivalents in d ifferent
languages. But we will discover many other peculiarities in the practical part of this research,
and we will divide them in sev eral sections depending upon thei r structure and other
grammatical aspects. Translati ng accounting documents, in gener al, and accounting terminology,
in particular, is not a simple task, especially when the new te rms keep created in pace with
accounting developments.
Another type of technique is literal translation . Usually this is called a literal translation
or metaphrase . This means a word-for-word tran slation, achieving a text in t he target language
which is as correct as it is idiomatic. Causes of literal trans lation are also a very usual
phenomenon, it is used often i n translation of phrases and conc epts composed of several words.
In case that a term does not have the translation in the TL, th e translator can borrow the
term from SL, using this as a type of technique, and give the e xplanation for this term, but, the
fact is that in accounting area we have never met such cases. T h i s i s a s c i e n c e t h a t h a s t h e
equivalents for each term, and in the practical part we will tr y to analyze and investigate it more
detailed to establish the peculi arities and the difficulties in the translation process.
In our research about the accounting terminology we will see wh at types of techniques
and methods are the most popular, in the concrete examples, but as a small overview we can
state that the most popular among them are: transposition , because of the grammatical
differences between English and Romanian languages – e.g. “Acco unting Audit {en} – auditului
contabil {ro}”, Fixed assets {en} – mijloace fixe {ro} etc; literal translation , as in the cases like
accounting policies {en} – politici contabile {ro}, Fixed asset s {en} – mijloace fixe {ro}, etc;
modulation , like in the cases of “Accruals concept {en} – p rincipiul con tabilității {ro}and etc.

20
Accounting terminology can be foun d already translated on diffe rent online dictionaries,
and it is important not only to know the translation but also t o understand the meaning of each
term. But everything depends on a particular case. We can find many situations where terms are
translated through specification or generalization or other tec hniques. A translator’s aim is to
maintain the meaning in the Target Language and to show the bes t variant of translation. In the
second chapter we will analyze th e way the terms were translate d.

Conclusions
In this small conclusion we shall say that translation of termi nology is not an easy
process. It takes a lot of energy and concentration for the peo ple who work in this field. As well
as accounting process is a very serious and complicated. It is important to assume the
responsibilities and to know your abilities. A good translation depends upon the translator who
works with it.
From our previous chapter we have discovered that Terminology i s a science that
appeared in the early XXth century and it was developed by an A ustrian linguist Eugen Wuster.
In this domain, it is also relevant to cope with dictionaries a nd to have the ability to study
fast new words and concepts, because they are a lot. This is ex tremely important to follow the
important steps to achieve the best result, as we said to know the difficulties and to be prepared
for them, and it is important to use a term sheet if you work w ith terminology of a particular
field.
Accounting terminology is a concept that shows that every type of economic activity has
its own database of terms and conc epts. It is a huge dictionary that introduces the basic principles
and terms connected to accounting. Accounting terminology is fu ll of important pieces which
build the whole science. They us ually have equivalents in all t he languages, and their equivalents
are either translated or they have the same concepts but the te rms are different.
Translators are the persons who must bring the information from a source language into a
target language, and they must do it precisely without any mist akes, and it is a crucial condition.
We consider that this would be impossible without consulting a business dictionary or other type
of dictionary that gives such explanations for persons who are not connected to this particular
field. Accounting may be probably the most boring subject in th e world, and also it can be the
most confusing, but if you want t o be rich, it becomes the most important subject.

21
CHAPTER TWO
DIFFICULTIES OF ACCOUNTING TER MINOLOGY TRANSLATION FROM
ENGLISH INTO ROMANIAN
2.1 Linguistic Difficulties of A ccounting Terminology Translati on from English into
Romanian
In the chapter two, we are going to analyze and compare similar accounting texts written
in English and Romanian languages with the aim to observe the p eculiarities of accounting
terminology translation. For this purpose, we have consulted so me specialists in accounting, and
they gave us some good pieces of advice to search the texts fro m manuals for accounting and
other literature, mainly the Financial Reports in the shape of tables and other statistics which
include terms. The goal of the research is to find out what ter ms are most commonly used in the
specialized texts and to determine the way and technique which was used to translate them.
The first step in the process was the selection of the texts th at were going to be used for
the analysis. We had selected several manuals written by the En glish authors. Then we selected
articles from different sources w ritten in Romanian language. T he next step in the process
involved term extraction. Finall y, a glossary was created, usin g the English terms that were
identified in the source texts and compared to the parallel ter ms from Romanian documents.
1). To make the first comparison, we have selected an article f rom an online source about
accounting, which sounds in t he following way:
“What Is the Function of an Accounting Audit ?
An accounting audit performs a necessary function of assuring that a company not only is being
truthful in its financial reporting but also that the company's ope rations are working as intended .
Auditors may work either inside the company, conducting an internal audit , or for another
organization, conducting an external audit ” [28].
The Romanian analog that we have found, may be the following ex cerpt:
“Rolul auditului contabil reprezintă verificarea și certif icarea reflectării în contabil itate a
situațiilor financiare , imaginea lor fidelă, clară și completă pe întreg exercițiul financiar . Prin
audit se înțelege examinarea profesi onală efectuată de o persoană au torizată, independentă, în
vederea exprimării unei opinii motivate asupra imaginii fidele a situațiilor financiare anuale ”
[18].
In this case, we can see that the difference is obvious. In the Romanian excerpt some terms are
missing, while in the English version there is a huge abundance of terms. Let us take each term
to compare:

22
Accounting audit {en} – auditul contabil {ro}, in the translated process the grammatical
structure is kept the same, the only difference is that English variant has another topic of the
sentence and expression, the term s maintain the same grammatica l part of speech. The structure
of terms is identical, the both terms are combinations of two w ords. The semantic value is a very
important aspect in the translatio n process, in this case, the meaning of terms is clearly
understandable. Auditors {en} – audit {ro}, in this case we see that from the grammatical point of
view, the both terms are nouns that are equivalents, and they d o not cause any ambiguities, only
in the English text we see that the author used the plural form of the noun, while in Romanian it
was used singular form. The semantic difficulties are not prese nt here, because the meaning of
the terms is clear for the persons who act in this domain. Thes e terms are equivalents, and they
are perfectly matching in the contexts above. Financial reporting {en} – situa țiilor financiare
anuale {ro}, this case is different from the others, because the grammatical difference is obvious,
the English term is a combination of two words, but in the Roma nian version the term is
rendered in tree words. This difference may be caused by the co ntext of the sentence, but the
semantic value is kept and the term is rendered through a speci fication to make the meaning
clearer. Even if we have taken two texts with different content s we can easily observe that the
equivalence is obvious, due to the fact that here we have to de al with terminology.
2). For the second example we have chosen a section from a boo k about accounting that
is called “Financial Reporting”, in this example we took an exc erpt about accounting policies,
which is the following: “Accounting Policies are the specific accounting bases selected and consistently followed by a
business enterprise as being, in the opinion of the management, appropriate to its circumstances
and best suited to present fairly its results and financial position ” [2] p.228.
To compare with a Romanian artic le taken from the internet:
“Politicile contabile reprezintă principiile, bazele , convențiile, regulile și practicile specifice
aplicate de o entitate la întocmirea și prezentarea situațiilor financiare anuale ” [29].
The terms that we have disc overed here are the following:
Accounting Policies {en} – Politicile contabile {ro}, in this example the grammatical form is
identical, which is plural and composed of two words. These two terms are equivalents, because
they have identical meaning, from the semantical point of view. Accounting bases {en} – bazele
{ro}, in this case, the grammatical difference is very obvious, becau se in the English term we
have a combination of words, while in the Romanian term we have only one noun, which is more
general. The semantic aspect is also different because the Roma nian term is more general and its
meaning is more complex. Business enterprise {en} – entitate {ro}, here we have a total

23
grammatical difference, because English term is a combination o f two nouns, while in the
Romanian version the term is a noun. From the semantic point of view, the English term is more
concrete, it specifies the domain, while Romanian term is again more general, and it is
substituted by one noun. The semantic difference is caused by t he different structures of terms;
the Romanian meaning of the term is clear. Financial position {en} – situa țiilor financiare
anuale {ro}, in this example the grammatical difficulty is caused by the dif ference between the
languages. The English term is co mposed of a word-combination, and the Romanian as well, but,
i n t h e R o m a n i a n t e r m w e h a v e o n e m o r e w o r d w h i c h h a s t h e s e m a n t ic aim to specify the
meaning.
3). The third excerpt is ta ken from the English source:
““The elements of financial statements are: assets , liabilities etc.” [2] chap 4 p.235.
From Romanian source, we have selected: “Situațiile financiare descriu rezultatele financiare ale tranzacțiilor și ale altor evenimente,
grupându-le în clase cuprinzătoare conform caracteristicilor ec onomice. Aceste clase sunt numite
“structurile situațiilor financiare”. Acestea sunt: un activ, o datorie etc.” [30].
So, the comparison will be quite obvious between these terms:
Financial statements {en} – Situa țiile financiare {ro}, from the grammatical point of view, these
terms are equivalents, because they both have the same structur es, and they are perfectly
matching, because they have the same meanings, as to say from t he semantic point of view.
Assets {en} – un activ {ro}, the grammatical difference is the plural form of English term a nd the
singular form of Romanian term. T he term has its equivalent in the Romanian version. Liabilities
{en} – o datorie {ro}, in this case the grammatical difference is the same as in the p revious
example, the English term is written in the plural form while i n the Romanian is singular. The
semantic difficulties we have not found because the terms are e quivalents. Here we can see that
all the terms have their equivalents. In such cases, we can obs erve the perfect matching of terms,
without any difficulties.
4). The next comparison will be be tween the English text, which was taken from the same
book, according to them, accounting policies are: “1. Going concern . This is the assumption that the business will continue in operational
existence for the foreseeable future. 2. Accruals concept . Revenue and costs are recognized on an accruals basis and not a cash
basis , matched where possible, and dealt with in the profit and loss account of the period to
which they relate.

24
3. Consistency . Similar items are dealt with consistency both within each accounting period and
between accounting periods. 4. Prudence . Revenue and profits are not anticipated; provision is made fo r all known
liabilities .” [2], p.229-230.
The Romanian text is take n from the following source:
“1. Principiul continuit ății activității are ca fundament presupunerea că unitatea își va desfășura
activitatea în mod normal, fără a ajunge în imposibilitatea con tinuării activității sau fără
reducerea semnificativă a aceste ia. Astfel se presupune că enti tatea nu are intenția și nici nevoia
de a-și lichida sau de a-și re duce în mod semnificativ activita tea.
2. Principiul permanen ței (constan ței) metodelor . Contabilitatea oferă posibilitatea măsurării
performanțelor înregistrate de o entitate, însă cunoașterea rez ultatelor unui singur exercițiu nu
este semnificativă pentru că profitul sau pierderea poate să ai bă un caracter accidental și să nu
reflecte situația reală a unității.
3. Principiul pruden ței este considerat pilonul de bază al contabilității (mai ales în țările în care
aceasta îndeplinește un important rol juridic), deoarece aplica rea lui protejează entitatea, dar mai
ales terții, împotriva evaluărilor subiective și multiplelor ri scuri și incer titudini care pot apare în
viitor. 4. Principiul contabilit ății de angajamente se aplică în cor elație directă c u cel al contin uității.
Potrivit acestui principiu efectele tranzacțiilor și ale altor evenimente sunt recunoscute atunci
când tranzacțiile și evenimentele se produc (și nu pe măsură ce numerarul sau echivalentul său
este încasat sau plătit) și sunt î nregistrate în contabilitate și raportate în situațiile financiare ale
perioadelor aferente” [30]. Here, in this case, the t erms detected are:
Going concern {en} rendered as Principiul continuit ății activității {ro} seems to be totally
different from the grammatical point of view, because it is a t erm composed of two words –
continuous form of the verb “to go” and a noun “concern”, while Romanian term is a word
combination of 3 nouns. We can also observe that the structure is also different, due to the
grammatical difference between languages. The semantic difficul ty is caused by the ambiguous
expression of term in English la nguage and Romanian term is mor e concrete, because it gives the
meaning of the term in its name. Accruals concept {en} is found in Romanian version as
Principiul contabilit ății {ro} which is not so different from th e English version of the term, from
the grammatical point of view, because of its structure-it is a lso composed of a word
combination, mainly of two nouns in both cases. The structure o f both terms is also similar, due
to the same reason. The semantic difficulty can be caused by th e use of different concepts with

25
the same meaning, in the both cases are used synonyms, and if a reader does not know the
domain, he can be misled. The next term Consistency {en} is found in Romanian as Principiul
permanen ței (constan ței) metodelor {ro}, and the grammatical difficu lty is obvious, due to the
use of one noun in English and a combination of three words in Romanian. The structure of
English term is determined by a single noun, which has the mean ing within it, while the
Romanian term is more developed, composed of several nouns. The semantic difficulty may be
caused by the ambiguous name of term in English language, becau se the noun consistency is
flexible in different contexts and it is used in many other con texts not only in the domain of
accounting. The Romanian term, which is basically a word combin ation, makes a big difference,
due to the fact that it has the meaning in its developed struct ure. The term Prudence {en} is
rendered in Romanian language as Principiul pruden ței {ro}. Basically, these two terms, which
are from different languages have almost the same meaning, the English word “prudence” is
rendered directly into Romania n. From the grammatical point of view, we can state that the
author used its equivalent, and there are not any difficulties found. The Romanian term is a word
combination of two nouns, and English term is a single word, wh ich has a broader meaning. The
structure is different, because of the grammar of two completel y different languages. There were
not found any semantic difficultie s, due to the fact that the t erms are basically equivalents. The
terms are quite different one to the other, due to the fact tha t they are terms and they have to be
rendered correctly, because they have to be understood by the p eople working in this field.
5). The coming English example is taken from the book with the t i t l e “ C o m p a n y
Accounts. Analysis, Interpr etation and Understanding:
“Fixed assets must be subdivided into three groups: intangible assets ; tangible assets ;
investments ” [15] chap. 3 p.56.
The Romanian equivalent text is a document taken from the inter net source:
“Mijloacele fixe sunt obiectele tangibile dar si bunuri intangibile , care se afla in proprietatea
companiei, si care se utilizeaz a doar in scopul obtinerii de ve nituri, ce nu pot fi consumate sau
vandute intr-o perioada scurta de timp” [31]. In the example cited above, we ca n detect the terms, which are:
Fixed assets {en} is found in Romanian version as mijloacele fixe {ro}, the English term has its
perfect equivalent in Romanian, from the grammatical point of v iew. The English structure of a
word combination is rendered also as a word combination in Roma nian language. If we speak
about the meaning, mainly about semantic difficulty, we can say that the sense is kept in both
languages, and it is pretty clear for the reader. The word “ass ets” from the English term, is
translated in many cases as “active”, but in this case we can o bserve that the author chose to

26
replace it with its synonym, to make it more understandable, be cause the Romanian term
“active” can be understood only by specialists. The term intangible assets {en} can be found as
bunuri intangibile {ro}, in th is case w e h av e th e sam e th in g s as in th e p rev io u s e x am p le , the
term has its equivalent in Romanian version and it has a simila r structure as in the SL- English
language. The semantic difficulty is the same as in the previou s case, the English term “assets” is
rendered as “bunuri”, despite the fact that it has another equi valent in Romanian language, the
Romanian author decided to use its contextual synonym. The succ eeding term, which has been
found by us is English term tangible assets {en}, and its Romanian analogy obiectele tangibile
{ro}, in this case we can observe simila r situation as in the previou s examples. From the semantic
point of view, the only difference is the choose of equivalent by the author. The Romanian
author chose a synonym for the Romanian term “active”, which is equivalent of the term
“assets”. The grammar of the languages is different, that is wh y they may cause difficulties, but
in our case the grammatical structure is similar, the same cons truction of two words in both
languages. Also here, we can see that in English section there is one more term investments {en} ,
but it is absent in Romanian ve rsion of the s ame section.
6). The further example will be an excerpt that has been extra cted from the book
“Financial Reporting. Sixth Edition”: “Accounting Policies
Those principles, bases, conventions, rules and practices applied by an entity that specify how
the effects of transactions and other events are to be reflected in its financial statements
through: recognizing; selecting m easurement bases for; and pres enting;
Assets, liabilities, gains, losses and changes to shareholder’s funds . Accounting policies do not
include estimation techniques” [2], p.242-243. And let us see the Romanian versio n of this text, taken from an article from a Moldovan journal
for accountants: “Politici contabile – principii, baze, conven ții, reguli și practici specifice aplicate de o entitate
la ținerea contabilității și întocmirea situațiilor financiare ” [11].
I n t h e s e e x a m p l e s , t h e t e r m Accounting Policies {en} is found in the Romanian version as
Politici contabile {ro}, the terms are equivalents, they have similar structures, and th e same
meaning, we have already analyzed it in the previous pages of o ur research. The next term in the
excerpt is principles {en} in Romanian is found its equivalent principii {ro}, and we should say
that there is no grammatical of semantic difficulty found here, due to the fact that the term has its
equivalent in Romanian language. The same conclusion is in the following cases bases,
conventions, rules and practices {en} – baze, conven ții, reguli ș i practici {ro}. As well as an

27
entity {en} – o entitate {ro}. These cases are easy to analyze, because we have to deal here with
the phenomenon of equivalence, the technique that will be descr ibed in examples in the next
small chapter. The next term that has been found in the Englis h text is transactions {en}, but it
does not have the equivalent term in Romanian, because the auth or decided to use the concept
through a word combination “ținerea contabilității”, this expre ssion is kind of explanation of the
English term “transactions”, because according to the [19], “tr ansactions” are “2. Accounting:
Event that effects a change in the asset, liability, or net wor th account. Transactions are recorded
first in journal and then poste d to a ledger.”. Another account ing term found in this section is
financial statements {en}, which is rendered into Romanian as situațiilor financiare {ro}. The
grammatical difference is not so important, because the terms i n both languages have the same
structures, they both are word combinations. From the semantic point of view, the basic word
from the term, which is “statement” is rendered into Romanian a s “situatii”. In this case, the
author preferred not to use the equivalent, but to replace it w ith another word that is similar with
English term in that context, but it is not the equivalent. Her e, we deal with adapt ation technique,
and we will speak about it later. And the rest terms “ Assets, liabilities, gains, losses and changes
to shareholder’s funds ” {en} are missing in the Romanian version. This is due to the anothe r
context in the Romanian language. 7). The next will be about the depreciation, the example is extracted from the same
source: “Depreciation of tangible fixed assets increasing in value . Several companies , holding tangible
fixed assets that were increasi ng in value were not depreciatin g them…. Split depreciation .
Several companies were charging depreciation on the historical cost of the asset to the profit and
loss account and that part relating to any upward valuation of the asset to the reserves…” [2], p.
260. And the Romanian text is taken f rom an article of a business jo urnal:
“Indicii deprecierii
Un activ (grup de active) este depreciat atunci cînd valoarea sa contabilă depășește valoarea
justă minus costurile de vînzare . Entitatea trebuie să determine la fiecare dată de raportare dacă
există sau nu indici ai deprecierii unui activ (grup de active). Dacă există careva indici ai
deprecierii activelor , entitatea determină valoarea justă minus c osturile de vînzare a acestora.
Dacă nu există nici un indice al d eprecierii activelor, valoare a justă minus costuri le de vînzare nu
se determină, cu excepția activ elor indicate în pct. 12 din pre zentul standard” [12].
In this examples we can see that the English term Depreciation {en} h a s i t s e q u i v a l e n t i n
Romanian deprecierii {ro}. From the grammatical angle, we can say that we have not found any

28
difficulties, due to the fact that these words are equivalents, the only one difference is that they
are positioned in different cases of nouns, because they are se en in different languages. The
semantic difficulties are also absent, because these equivalent s have the same meaning, and it is
quite understandable for the spec ialists. The structure of the terms is similar, and we can say that
there are not found any difficulties in rendering into TT. The term tangible fixed assets {en} is
found in Romanian analogy as active {ro}, which means that the Romanian author generalized
the notion to make it simpler. T he grammatical structures are d ifferent one from another, because
the English term is a constructio n of three words, but the basi c word in this construction is
“assets”, and it is rendered into Romanian as “active” which is its equivalent. The semantic
difference is comprised in the f act that in English version, th e term is more concrete because it
has the explanation within it, while the Romanian is more gener al term. In the case of the
English term value {en}, which is found in Romanian analogy as valoarea {ro}, we can say that
the English term is substituted by an equivalent. The grammatic al difficulty is not present here,
because the term is a noun as well as in the Romanian text. The semantic difficulties are also not
found here, due to the fact that the terms are equivalents. The term companies {en} is found in
Romanian text as entitatea {ro}, the Romanian author used a synonym to the Romanian
equivalent instead of using it, which would be “companii”, also , the author used another
grammatical noun-number, this is all for the grammatical diffic ulties. If we are speaking about
the semantic difficulties, we can say that it was easy to under stand the term, because it is a noun
which is flexible in many contexts. The English term Split depreciation {en} cannot be found in
the Romanian text. The term cost of the asset {en} is found in Romanian version as costurile de
vînzare {ro}. In the Romanian version, the au thor preferred to avoid the use of the equivalent for
the word “asset”, but the general meaning is understandable. It may cause ambiguities from the
semantic point of view, but in general, it is quite easy to und erstand what is written in the texts.
The grammatical difference is that in English we have a word co mbination composed of a
possessive pronoun, and in the Romanian version it is also a po ssessive case. The terms profit
and loss account {en} are not found in the Romanian text.
8). The next excerpt would also be extracted from the same man ual, where it is written
about “Depreciation of land and buildings”: “The depreciation charge depends on the cost or valuation of the property , estimated residual
value and useful economic life. Thus t he depreciation charge is like ly to be immaterial where the
residual value estimate is fairly close to the cost or valuatio n of the property or the asset has a
long life. Subsequent expenditure on a tangible fixed asset that maintains or enhances the

29
previously assessed standard of performance of the asset does n ot negate the need to charge
depreciation” [2] p. 265. The Romanian text from the sam e source will sound in the follow ing way:
“Entitatea deține următoarele imobilizări corporale : două clădiri și un teren. În perioada de
gestiune a avut loc scăderea prețurilor pe piața bunurilor imobiliare .
În baza datelor din exemplu, scăderea prețurilor la bunurile imobiliare reprezintă un indice al
deprecierii pentru imobilizările corporale deținute de entitate și, ca ur mare, entitatea trebuie să
testeze aceste active pentru depreciere. În cazul stabilirii unui indice al deprecierii unui activ (grup de active), durata de utilizare rămasă,
metoda de amortizare sau valoarea rezidual ă a activului (grupului de active) trebuie revizuite și
ajustate în conformitate cu sta ndardul de contabilitate aplicab il activului, chiar dacă nu se
recunoaște nici o pierder e din depreciere” [12].
In this case the first couple of terms is: The depreciation charge {en} which is found in the
Romanian text as amortizare . For us as non-specialist, it is quite difficult to determine the
equivalent, because we have not enough knowledge of this field, but we have consulted a
terminological dictionary to fi nd out what is that equivalent. From the grammatical angle, we can
say that English term is more complex, because it is expressed through a word combination,
which has a meaningful sense, while the Romanian term is a sing le noun with an ambiguous
meaning. From the semantic point of view, we must admit that Ro manian term is quite
ambiguous because its name does not give any allusions to anyth ing. The English expression the
cost or valuation of the property {en} is found in Romanian text as prețurilor pe piața bunurilor
imobiliare {ro}, in this section we see the equiva lents – “cost” {en} and his pa rtner “preturi”
{ro}, and the term the property {en} is rendered as bunurilor imobiliare {ro}, the Romanian
author made the context clearer by reducing the difficulties, h e decided to specify the meaning in
the context. The term residual value {en} is translated as valoarea rezidual ă {ro}, we have to
deal here with the equivalence and in such cases there is no di fficulty of any type that can bother
the translator. The next term in English text is tangible fixed asset {en} which is a fixed term
with his equivalent term in Romanian imobilizările corporale {ro}. In this case, the difficulty that
may distract a translator is t he semantic difficulty, because i f a translator does not know the
terminology he may be misled. The structure of terms is complet ely different, be sides that, the
terms both are word-combinations , the difference is in the usag e of words for the terms.
9). The ninth example that we will analyze is taken from a boo k about the external audit:
“Auditing is a systematic process of objectively gathering and evaluatin g evidence relating to
assertions about economic actions and events in which the individual or organization making

30
the assertions has been engaged, to ascertain the degree of cor respondence between those
assertions and established crite ria, and communicating the resu lts to users of the reports in which
the assertions are made” [16] p.3. The Romanian text with similar context: “Prin audit financiar se înțelege examinarea efectuată de un profesionist contabil c ompetent și
independent asupra situațiilor financiare ale unei entități (sau asupra unor parti ale situatiilor
financiare) în vederea exprimării unei opinii motivate asupra i maginii fidele, clare și complete a
poziției și situației financiare precum și a rezultatelor (perf ormanțelor) obținute de aceasta” [32].
The term Auditing {en} is found in Romanian context as audit financiar {ro}. The words are
equivalents, but their structure differs one from another. The English term is a single noun, but
the Romanian term is a word combination of two words. The gramm atical difficulty is caused by
the different structure of the Romanian term. The grammatical s tructure of the English term is
simper, mainly a noun expressed by a verb in continuous form. T he Romanian term is a word
combination of a noun and an adjective. The term economic actions {en} is found in Romanian
text as situațiilor financiare {ro}. We can say that the words are not equivalents, but they are
contextual synonyms, because the Romanian term perfectly fits i n this context, and it expresses
the meaning. The structure is similar, because the terms are wo rd combinations of two words,
but the grammatical difference is caused by the different order of words. In English, on the first
place goes the adjective and then the noun, while in Romanian i s vice versa. The term
organization {en} is met in Romanian context as entitate {ro} . The rendering in this case was
quite easy, because in this case the term found its equivalent. In such cases there are not found
any difficulties. The Romanian a uthor decided to use the synony m of the English term, instead of
using its Romanian equiva lent “organizatie”.
10). The last example in this chapter will be the excerpt from the same book, where the
author speaks about the types of audit: “A financial statements audit is an examination of an entity ’s financial statements , which have
been prepared by the entity’s management/directors for shareholders and other interested
parties outside the entity, and of the evidence supporting the information contained in those
financial statements. It i s conducted by a qualified, experienced professional , who is
independent of the entity, for the purpose of expressing an opi nion on whether or not the
financial statements provide a true and fair view of the entity ’s financial position and
performance, and comply with relev ant statutory and/or other re gulatory requirements” [16] p.4.
The Romanian analogy is extra cted from the online-source:

31
“Prin audit financiar se înțelege examinarea efectuată de un profesionist contabil competent și
independent asupra situațiilor financiare a l e u n e i entități(sau asupra unor parti ale situatiilor
financiare) în vederea exprimării unei opinii motivate asupra i maginii fidele, clare și complete a
poziției și situației financiare precum și a rezultatel or (performanțelor) obținute de aceasta” [32].
The term a financial statements audit {en}, is found in the Romanian text as audit financiar
{ro}. The grammatical difference is in the term structure, in English language, the term was tree
words within. These words altoge ther describe the term in Engli sh, but in the Romanian case the
author decided to simplify the term and not to write any additi onal words. The semantic
difficulty is caused by the missing word in the Romanian word c ombination, but the meaning is
clear in the both contexts. The term entity {en} is found as entitate {ro}. The Romanian author
used the equivalent term to avoid any ambiguities, from the sem antic point of view, and in this
case, there are not found any grammatical difficulties. The nex t term financial statements {en} is
found in the Romanian as situații financiare {ro}, they are also equivalent s, which basically have
the same structures and grammati cal categories, and their meani ngs are similar. The terms like
“entity’s management/directors for shareholders ” {en} are not found in the Romanian context,
but of course they do exist in other theoretical material. The term experienced professional {en}
is rendered as profesionist contabil {ro}, which mostly mean the same in the same context. From
the semantic point of view, the terms designate the same concep ts but they are written by the
means of another words. The term financial position {en} is found in the Romanian context as
poziției financiare {ro}. In this case we also deal with equivalents, which almost all th e time
does not cause any problems while r endering them into another l anguage.

2.2 Translation Difficulties of Accounting Terminology from Eng lish into Romanian
In this chapter we are going to analyze the main difficulties during translation the
accounting domain, mainly the t erminology of accounting. This c hapter will describe the way the
terminology is translated, and the techniques and methods that have been used during the
translation process.
As we already mentioned, a translation method is applied to the entire text to be
translated, while the technique may vary within the same text according to each case and
depending on the specific verbal elements to be translated.
Accounting domain is full of ter ms and they differ by their str ucture, formulation, and they also
can be word-combinations. They are rendered in Romanian languag e i n d i f f e r e n t w a y s ,
sometimes they do have equivalents, but there are registered so me cases when they are rendered
by means of other words, which ex press the meaning of those ter ms. Besides the terminology, a

32
good translator of a particular domain must know how to transla te a concrete context to have a
good final result. He is oftentimes helped by the translation t echniques and methods, which have
been mentioned in the theoretical chapter of our research. So, let us try to analyze the techniques
and methods found in the enumerated examples. In the theoretica l chapter we have told that there
are observed several techniques, they are: borrowing, calque, literal translation, transposition,
modulation, reformulation/ equivalence, adaptation , as well as omission .
In the specialized domains, like accounting, we may think that calque can be used, but
sometimes calques work, sometimes they don't. It is like if we take to translate a section with
terms and translate it just wh at it says. It would sound ridicu lously. As well as calques , there
may be used borrowings . This means taking words straight into another language. Borrowe d
terms often pass into general usage, for example in the fields of technology ("software") and
culture ("punk"). Transposition is often used in translation, due to the fact that grammatical
structures are not often iden tical in different languages. Modulation i s a l s o o f t e n u s e d i n
translation, this consists of us ing a phrase that is different in the source and target languages to
convey the same idea. Adaptation is used in the cases when in the TT could not be found the
same concept as in the ST. Anothe r model describes a technique known as compensation . This is
a rather amorphous term, but in general terms it can be used wh ere something cannot be
translated from source to target language, and the meaning that is lost in the immediate
translation is expressed somewhere else in the TT. Reformulation (sometimes known as
equivalence ), is a type of technique that expresses something in a complet ely different way, for
example when translating idioms or, other phrases, or advertisi ng slogans. The process is
creative, but not always easy.
If we take a dictionary of Accounting terms and their equivale nts in Romanian language,
we can see that every concept has its equivalent, which has bas ically the same structure and
grammatical category. But when we take a whole text and analyze its equivalent text in
Romanian language, we see that t he translation is a very flexib le process. One and the same term
may be translated in many ways, as we have already seen in the case of English term “ assets ”
which has an equivalent in Romanian, but it is found translated in many different ways, like
“bunuri”, besides the dictiona ry’s version “active”.
This phenomenon is caused by the usage of different techniques of translation. So, let us see
what are the difficulties from the examples that we have alread y analyzed in the previous
chapter.
From the first example, the terms are:

33
Accounting Audit {en} – auditului contabil {ro}, in this case the equivalent term from Romanian
language has been translated directly, by means of the same wor ds in Romanian language. The
difficulty that have appeared is the difference in grammar of t hose two languages. We may say
that in this case, the author used transposition , because the noun in the English language stands
on the second place in our case, and in the Romanian it stands on the first place. Also, we can
add that it may be used calque as a technique, because the terms look similar from the struct ural
point of view. Auditors {en} – audit {ro}, in this case we can see that the term has the same
structure in the both ST and TT, so it means that the English t erm is borrowed and then adapted
to use. Financial reporting {en} – situa țiilor financiare anuale {ro}, in this situation we can say
that the Romanian author used the technique named reformulation or equivalence and then he
used compensation to bring the lost meaning in the SL. This way, the author brou ght the clearer
sense to the term. From the second example, the terms are the following: Accounting Policies {en} – Politicile contabile {ro}, in this case the Romanian term is translated
directly, and the equivalent is similar to that from the ST. Fr om those enumerated techniques and
methods, we can say that the tec hnique that fits here the most is calque, because it is a literal
translation at phrase level. The difficulty that have appeared i s t h e d i f f e r e n c e i n g r a m m a r o f
those two languages, so, we ca n admit that the author used transposition , because the noun in the
English language stands on the second place in our case, and in the Romanian it stands on the
first place. The couple of terms: Accounting bases {en} – bazele {ro}, in the cases like this, it is
obviously that in the English language, the term is a word comb ination, as we have already
mentioned, but what do we see in the Romanian version? The Roma nian version of this term is
different, it is a simple word, which is not actually a term, b ut a word from GL. The technique
that was used in the process of translation is called rather omission , because using this method,
the author gives up to all the details, due to the fact that in the context it is written clear
everything, besides that generalization can also be applied in this case, because the Romanian
version is more general than Eng lish one. The structural differ ence of terms may lead a translator
into mistake, but, again, it is very important to read well the context. The terms Business
enterprise {en} – entitate {ro} are also a special case. In this situation we can see that in t he
English language the term is also a word-combination, while in Romanian, again, it is a single
word. In this example, the Romanian term could be translated di rectly through literal translation,
and it would sound okay, but the author used omission to give a straight general and clear term-
equivalent, and to avoid any unnecessary details. Financial position {en} – situa țiilor financiare
anuale {ro}, if we take to comment on this example, we must say that the dif ference is evident,

34
and again, the main difficulty here is the difference of term s tructures. The English term has a
more general meaning, and Romanian has more concrete one. In th is case, we should admit that
the author was helped by specification . In the Romanian version, the author introduced concrete
detail that he thought it was necessary. From the third excerpt, the terms are: Financial statements {en} – Situa țiile financiare
{ro}, this case is similar to one of those that we have already analy zed. It means that in this case,
the Romanian author used modulation , which means that he translated and replaced the word
“statement” with his contextual synonym “situatii”, but, due to the fact that the grammar of
English language differs from the grammar of Romanian language, we have the transposition
here, like in the example with accounting policies {en} – politicile contabile {ro}. Assets {en} –
un activ {ro}, this couple of terms are perfect couple of equivalents, but the re is a small
difference between therm. As they both are nouns, these nouns c an have different categories of
grammar, for example in the English text, the term is a noun in a plural form, while the
Romanian term is a noun in singular form. This kind of techniqu e, where the term gets another
grammatical category is called transposition. We can see that this is the only one difference in
this example. In the case of liabilities {en} – o datorie {ro}, we can see that the difficulty is the
same as in the previous example, so, here as well, was used transposition .
F r o m t h e f o u r t h e x a m p l e t h e t e r m s a r e : Going concern {en} rendered as principiul
continuității activității {ro} , and the difficulties that have appeared here are the followin g: The
English term is structurally di fferent from the Romanian one. T he Romanian term gets an
additional word that adds more meaning to the context. It has t he aim to make it clearer for the
reader, while the English is more abstract term, which can lead a translator into errors. We can
say that Romanian author used reformulation , because he restructured the term from the
graphical point of view, and a bit of specification , to make the term more common and
understandable for everybody. Accruals concept {en} is found in Roman ian version as principiul
contabilit ății {ro}, in this example, the Romanian author decided to modify the Roma nian
version of the term to make it also clearer, because it is the translator’s aim to give the equivalent
not the direct translation. The English term in translation int o Romanian would sound like
“conceptul regularizarii”, we see that in such version the term is meaningless, that is why the
Romanian author consulted the special dictionary to give the pe rfect equivalent. The techniques
via which was this term rendered may be adaptation , because the author adapted the term to the
Romanian public or modulation , because the author used comple tely different words to render
the same concept. The next term consistency {en} is found in Romanian as principiul
permanen ței (constan ței) metodelor {ro}, in this case the Romanian author gave more profound

35
definition to the term than it was written in the Source Langua ge. The English term is much
more hypothetical and unclear in the context of accounting. The author used adaptation as well
as reformulation , because he somehow adapted unreal for the accounting word and reformulated
it into a phrase. The term prudence {en} which is rendered in Romanian language as principiul
prudenței {ro}, is the case where the Romanian author gave explanation by writi ng an additional
word to the term to give a clear er sense to the term. We can sa y that he used specification .
In the fifth example from the previous chapter, the detected t erms are: Fixed assets {en}
rendered as mijloacele fixe {ro}, is a good version of equivalence, because the Romanian author
used literal translation and he was close to the ST term . In such cases literal transla tion is a good
idea, because the term from the ST does not need any additional words to be understood, but,
due to the fact that the grammar of English and Romanian langua ges is different, the translator
should change the position of the words to get a good result, s o, he will choose a supplementary
technique that is called transposition . In the case of the terms intangible assets {en}, which can
be found as bunuri intangibile {ro}, the author used literal translation, because we can see that
the terms look almost the same, and a small grammar correction brought the final result, and this
change is provided by the transposition . The succeeding term, which has been found by us is
English term tangible assets {en}, and its Romanian analogy obiectele tangibile {ro}, and this
situation is similar to the previ ous, where the Romanian author u s e d literal translation and
transposition to get the final result.
From the sixth text, the term accounting policies {en} is rendered as politici contabile
{ro}, the Romanian author translated literally the English term and g et a good version, because
the terms are equivale nts and they can be found in specialized dictionaries. So, in this case literal
translation is a good choose. The same conclusion is in the following case s bases, conventions,
rules and practices {en} – baze, conven ții, reguli ș i practici {ro}. T h e t e r m s h a v e t h e i r
equivalents which fit in accounting contexts, and they are also understandable for general public,
so these terms can belong not only to the accounting domain. As well as an entity {en} – o
entitate {ro}. This is an example of a perfect translation, the Romanian equi valent was rendered
literally and the context have not changed. Another accounting term found in that section is
financial statements {en}, which is rendered into Romanian as situații financiare {ro}, we must
admit that in this section the terms were rendered through a te chnique that is quite often met in
this domain, and it is called modulation , but not without the help of transposition that changes
the places of words to get th e most suitable result.
The seventh section is composed of the following terms: The En glish term depreciation
{en} that has its equivalent in Romanian language depreciere {ro}, the term is translated literally

36
and it does not lose anything from the final meaning. The term tangible fixed assets {en} is
found in Romanian analogy as active {ro}, and in this situation, the Romanian author decided to
generalize the term and to avoid all the details, so he modulated the term and gave more general
term from his rendering. In th e case of the English term value {en}, which is found in Romanian
analogy as valoarea {ro}, we must say that it is a simple term and it is an equivalent a nd it did
not bring any difficulties w hile rendering. The term companies {en} is found in Romanian text as
entitatea {ro}, here we see the difference in the grammar, mainly the use of si ngular form of the
equivalent English term. The term cost of the asset {en} is found in Romanian version as
costurile de vînzare {ro}, the Romanian concept is with similar meaning and grammar
construction, only the English part of term “asset” is rendered as “vînzare”, but this term has a
Romanian equivalent. This technique that was used is called reformulation or giving the right
equivalent. The eighth excerpt gave us several terms, and they are: The depreciation charge {en}
which is found in the Romanian text as amortizare , this case can be described as like the
Romanian author reduced the number of words and chose a shorter equivalent with an extensive
meaning. That would be because the Romanian language already ha s this concept and there is no
need of rewriting it. This technique is called adaptation , because the Romanian author adapted
the term to the Romanian language to get the necessary result. The English expression the cost or
valuation of the property {en} is found in Romanian text as prețurilor pe piața bunurilor
imobiliare {ro}, in this case, we have two similar contexts that have been writt en with different
words. This procedure is called modulation , in the case of the term the property {en}, which is
rendered as bunurilor imobiliare {ro}, we have something different. Here, the author used
another type of technique that had the aim to explain the same concept with the other words or
reformulated the term. The term residual value {en} is translated as valoarea rezidual ă {ro}, and
it is literally translated and given the best variant of e quivalent. The next term from t hat section
is tangible fixed asset {en} which is a fixed term with his equivalent term in Romanian
imobilizările corporale {ro}. In this case it was used modulation, because the author express ed
the same concept with the other words.
The ninth example from the prev ious chapter has also several c oncepts, and they are:
The term Auditing {en}, which is rendered as audit financiar {ro}, is a case of changing the form
of the term. In the cases like this, the author used additional words to express the meaning more
comprehensible, we can say that it was used specification to explain the term into concept. The
term economic actions {en} as situațiilor financiare {ro}, is rendered via modulation , because
the author used the contextual s ynonyms to render the English t erm. The term organization {en}

37
is rendered in the context as entitate {ro} , here the author also used contextual synonym to
express the same idea, this pr ocedure has to do with the techni que named modulation, because he
modulated the term, instead of us ing Romanian existent equivale nt “organizatie”.
The las section from the previous chapter is tenth, and it com prises also several terms,
which are: The term a financial statements audit {en} – audit financiar {ro}.
The term entity {en} – entitate {ro}, is a case of perfect match of equivalence and literal
translation . The next term financial statements {en}, which is found as situații financiare {ro},
is rendered by the Romanian author through modulation and transposition , because the
grammatical order is different and also there is used another e quivalent word for the English
term “statements”. The author chose to reformulate a little bit the Romanian version, and he did
it right. The term experienced professional {en} is rendered as profesionist contabil {ro}, we can
see the difference in the process of rendering, because instead of translation and living the
English word “experienced”, the Romanian author chose to specif y which kind of “professional”
is described in the text. This showed us that he used specification and transposition , because
besides that he also changed the order in the phrase, due to th e grammatical differences between
the languages. The term financial position {en} is found in the Romanian context as poziției
financiare {ro}, so, this means that the Romanian writer did not change anything and translated
the term literally into Romanian language, and ag ain, he changed only the position of the words,
as the result of grammatical differences.
Conclusions
In the Chapter Two, we have analyzed the differences between th e English a nd Romanian
languages from the linguistic and grammatical points of view, a lso we have investigated the
techniques and methods via which the terms of Accounting are tr anslated. We have used several
manuals for accountants and the specialists of this domain to m ake the analysis possible. This
chapter gave us many interesting conclusions, which can be very useful for us as future
specialist. The most important conclusion was, probably, that w e have to be acknowledged with
the domain in which we are going to activate. The accounting pr ofession is very responsible,
because it allows to account businesses and finances. Translato rs are those people who make
possible the understanding of di fferent accounting principles a ll around the world, that is why
they must know the most relevant and useful techniques that wil l help them to do their job
qualitatively. From this chapter, we have learned that the most
used techniques are the following:
literal translation, m odulation, reformulation , and of course, due to the grammatical differences

38
between languages – transposition . These techniques are very useful and they helped us a lot in
the process of analysis. Accounti ng is difficult science for th e people who have nothing to do
with it, almost for the persons like us, students-translators, who do not have experience in this
field. That is why, the greatest advice and conclusion is to le arn the terminology by heart, to
know how to “swim” easily in this domain.

39
General Conclusions and Recommendations
The aim of this diploma paper was to identify the difficulty o f rendering from English
language into Romanian the ter minology, and terms that are comm only used in the texts from the
specialized area of accounting. Fo r this purpose, we have compi led a list of books that would
help us in accomplishing this goal. The next step was writing t he corpus of the diploma paper to
make the research easier by plan ning it. The main parts of the diploma are the theoretical and the
practical parts.
In the theoretical chapter, we h ave introduced the basic inform ation about accounting and
its terminology, which is very important for this research. We have mentioned about the so-
called father of terminology, who is considered to be Eugen Wüs ter. Wüster, an Austrian
engineer with a strong interest in information science, and the one who wanted to achieve a
professional communication without ambiguity, developed a theor y of terminology on the basis
of his terminographic experience in compiling The Machine Tool. An Interlingual Dictionary of
Basic Concepts (Wüster 1968), a systematically arranged French and English dictionary of
standardized terms (with a Germa n supplement) intended as a mod el for future technical
dictionaries. He is considered the father of Terminology becaus e he designed his life for this
science and he discovered many imp ortant and useful things for translators.
Also in the theoretical chapter we have written about the Accou nting as a science, its
specialists, its terminology and of course, about the translati on in general. Translators are also
specialists who deal with it, and they must be acknowledged wit h all of the peculiarities of this
domain, because they are responsible for the translated result. It is also important to know that
different countries have their own methods of calculating and m easuring and they use specific
terms but we should know that every detail depends on the count ry. Different countries –
different methods of calculating. Besides that, different count ries – different terminology and
translation techniques that help a lot.
As we can see from the theoretical chapter, accounting is a sci ence that has been
developed from the ancient times by the Egyptians and Babylonia ns. It is a domain that is quite
complicated to translate if you are not acknowledged with it. A ccounting is a very old science
and during the centuries many people influenced to its developm e n t , a n d s o m e o f t h e m a r e
mentioned in our research.
The purpose of the translation pr ocess is to create such a text in the target language that
will be clearly understood by its intended readers. However, wh en translating texts in a
specialized subject field, transl ators must not only understand the source and the target languages

40
but they must have a sufficient knowledge of the given domain, as well. This means that they
must be acknowledged with the terminology that is used in the d omain. Terminology can be
defined as a specialized vocabul ary that commonly appears in di fferent specialized subject fields.
Accounting is a science with a very huge number of terms and co ncepts, which is also a
very difficult science which re quests much attention and concen tration. Accounting is a science
which deals with money and economy, counting money and multiply ing them. From the
theoretical point of view, it is a fixed science which needs th e basic knowledge of mathematics,
but in fact, only an accountant can realize what does it really mean, and a good translator must
be specialist in the domain of his activity. He should practice more and to attend different
professional courses, and trainings which develop his professio nal skills. A very responsible job
is also to translate this domain, because the translator must k now exactly what was talked about
in the documents.
What can we say about terminology? Terminology in translation i s actually an expanded
vocabulary as it can hold phrases and key terms and concepts. W e can add that terminology can
be cоnsidered a practice оr science, оr both оf them. It just d epends оn the point оf view, оn the
aim оne has, and fоr which pur pоse оne intends tо use it.  The terminology is very tricky because
of the cultural and other aspects of any country, for example i n our country may be used some
terms and in other country may be used another category of term s.
Every kind of job has to be paid and counted accurately, withou t mistakes, and this is the
responsibility of accountants. Accountants are those persons wh o work with it and meet all these
difficulties by themselves. Not only accountants can meet probl ems in this domain, also the
translators who are not s o long in this field.
In the practical chapter, we have discovered the difficulties a nd differences in rendering
the English context into Romanian one, and the methods and tech niques that have been used to
get a highly-qualitative result. We have analyzed all the possi ble ways of rendering and made
some conclusions upon this problem. The knowledge of domain is very important for translators,
but also the understanding and le arning by heart of all the tec hniques and methods of translation.
We have used some specialized manuals and books that gave us th e practical observation of the
difficulties. Also, we have observed that the accounting termin ology is full of different concepts
and their structures may vary while rendering, and that the can be substituted by the other
concepts that are suitable in the particular context. The contr astive analysis was not an easy
process, but it gave us ma ny important conclusions.
We can see also that some terms from this science are not well- established yet as can be
seen from the number of different terms used to describe a sing le concept. Also, certain terms

41
can have more than just one meaning. In such cases, the context is crucial. That is why, it is
necessary for translators to be familiar with the subject field , its terminology, in question in order
to be able to situate the text in a broader context, relate con cepts to the correct terms and render
every nuance in meaning accurately in the target language.

42
Bibliography
Primary sources:
1. Alexander, D. and Britton, A. and Jorissen, A. International Financial Reporting and
Analysis , London, Cengage Learning EMEA ; 5th Revised edition, 2011, (49 6 pages);
2. Alexander, D. and Britton, A. Financial Reporting. Sixth edition , London, Thomson Learning,
2002, (740 pages);
3. Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies , New York:
Routledge, 2008; 4. Baker, M. (1992). In other words:A course book on translatio n. London and New
York:Routledge 5. Bassnett, S. Translation studies , London & New York: Routledge, 1990;
6. Bernstein, L.A. The Analysis of Financial Statements, Homewood, IL: Dow -Jones/Irwin,
1978; 7. Christopher J. Skousen and Larry M. Walther Basics of Accounting & Information Processing.
The Accounting Cycle, 1
st edition.pdf
8. Doina Maria Robu, Contabilitate General ă.pdf
9. Etizioni, A. A comparative analysis of Complex Organisations: On power, involvement and
their correlates, New York, Free Press, 1975;
10. Kockaert, H.J. and Steurs, F. Handbook of Terminology, Volume 1 , Amsterdam,
Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2014; 11. Monitorul Fiscal/FISC.md, Standardul na țional de contabilitate pol itici contabile, modific ări
ale estimărilor contabile, erori și evenimente ulterioare .pdf;
12.Monitorul Fiscal/FISC.md, Standardul na țional de contabilitate. „Deprecierea
Activelor” .pdf;
13. Morris, W. and Morris, M. Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage, Harpercollins; 2
nd
Reprint Edition, November 1988, (641 pages); 14. Naylor, J. Management, Harlow, Financial Times Pren tice Hall/ Pearson Education, 1999,
(866 pages); 15. Pendleury, M. Groves, R. Company Accounts. Analysis, Interpretation and Understanding ,
London, Thomson Learning, 2002, (288 pages); 16. Porter, B. Simon, J. Hatherly, D. Principles of External Auditing. Second edition, Chichester,
John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2003, (608 pages); 17. Protopopescu, D. Theories of Terminology – Past and Present , Bucharest;

43
18. Stoian, A. și Țurlea, E. Auditul financiar – contabil , București, Editura Economică, 2001,
(222 pages); 19. Wright, S.E. and Budin, G. Handbook of Terminology Mana gement, Volume 1, Basic
Aspects of Terminology Management , Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 1997, (370
pages);
Dictionaries:
19. www.businessdictionary.com ;
20. Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe, Mic dicționar de terminologie lingvistic ă, București,
Albatros, 1980; 21. www.iate.europa.eu ;
22.www.investopedia.com ;
23. www.en.wikipedia.org ;
24. www.en.oxforddictionaries.com ;

Secondary sources:
25. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting ‘Special issue on financial statement analysis’,
Spring 1990 26. Sauberer, G. There is no Knowledge without Termi nology. How Terminological Methods and
Tools Can Help to Manage Monolingual and Multilingual Knowle dge and Communication ,
Vienna, 2011; 27. http://quotes.lifehack.org/quote/bob-newhart/i-worked-in-accoun ting-for-two-and/ ;
28. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/function-accounting-audit-17398. html ;
29.http://www.avocatnet.ro/content /articles/id_43045/Manualul-de-p olitici-contabile-este-
obligatoriu-pentru-toate-firmele- Ce-elemente-trebuie-s%C4%83-co n%C8%9Bin%C4%83-
acesta.html ;
30.http://www.academia.edu/29131656/Cap itolul_1_CONCEPTE_DE_BAZ%C4 %82_%C3%8
EN_CONTABILITATEA_FINANCIAR%C4%82 ;
31. http://www.faracontabilitate.ro/contabilitate/mijloacele-fixe-s i-incadrarea-acestora/ ;
32. http://audit-financiar.go.ro/ceeste.html ;

44
Glossary
1. Accounting contabilitate
2. Accounting Audit auditul contabil
3. Auditor audit
4. Auditing audit financiar
5. Accounting Policies politici contabile
6. Depreciation depreciere
7. Depreciation charge amortizare
8. Enterprise entitate
9. Financial statements Situații financiare
10. Financial position Pozitia financiara
11. Fixed assets Mijloace fixe
12. Liabilities Datorii
13. Terminology Terminologie
14. Translation techniques Tehnici de traducere
15. Translation methods Metode de traducere