CROSS-LINGUISTIC ADAPTATION OF ECONOMIC TERMINOLOGY: THEORETICAL MODELS AND PRACTICAL CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

The accuracy of economic discourse is a necessary condition for both international financial integration and scholarly exchange. But in the translation of economic terms, we often need to do elaborate cross-linguistic adaptation, not just basic vocabulary. This paper examines the theoretical bases of the translation of economic lexis and discloses the systemic limitations that prohibit the achievement of semantic equivalence. It deals with the clash of the typical Western economic terminology and the linguistic structures of the target language. The study was conducted on 200 high-frequency economic terms taken from international financial publications (IMF, World Bank) and their translations selected by comparative-typological technique. The study identified adaptation mechanisms such as calquing, descriptive translation, and terminological borrowing according to Koller's equivalence framework. The results demonstrate that nearly 40% of translation errors are due to “systemic gaps” – the lack of a structural counterpart of an economic phrase in the target culture. The findings suggest that functional equivalence works well for general terms but fails often for specific neologisms in the domains of fiscal policy and the digital economy, where direct borrowing remains the prevalent yet linguistically disruptive tendency.