Holistic Textual Analysis and Translation of the Balance Sheet (Spanish – French) within the Business-Internationalization Process

Abstract

The purpose of this research is twofold. First, the concept of specialised translation (especially, financial translation) is examined in order to analyse its relevance (or irrelevance) in explaining strategic choices by translators. The second objective focuses on the official translation of the balance sheet (Spanish-French) within the internationalisation process for Spanish companies in relation to France. My investigation is based on: a) the need to unify translation theories into a global perspective; b) a socio-professional conception of translation practice; c) the consideration of translation as a cognitive textual activity.

Specialised translation has conventionally been categorized according to its purpose, the thematic content of texts or their communicative situation (genres). However, it has not been possible to demonstrate its relationship to translators’ behaviour because a) thematic differentiation is subjective (cultural) and does not take into account the fact that texts usually embrace heterogeneous statements that contradict the content of the thematic unit; b) texts, which emerge from a social activity, should no longer be classified according to their main function, since the complex interaction of which they form a part suggests the inclusion of a more specific functional unit of study, i.e. the textual sequence; c) as genres classifications are based on communicative purposes that contextualise original source texts or original parallel texts, less emphasis is placed on translating activity.

This thesis therefore considers these traditional paradigms in a holistic manner. The methodology consists of conducting a hypothetical translation order of annual accounts within the business-internationalisation process with the intention of determining some of the contextual aspects that surround the process of translation, such as the motives for entrepreneurs to expand their companies beyond their national frontiers, the established requirements by Spanish and French public administrations, and some accounting and legal backgrounds. From a textual perspective, I investigated the different and complementary documents that form annual accounts. This analysis is contrastive and has been undertaken by means of a corpus of five published Spanish annual accounts and five published French annual accounts. I finally focused on the balance sheet by identifying its sequential functions, the macro-structure and the micro-structure, both in French and Spanish. Translation records have been developed in order to define a set of main problems (and their solutions) that could emerge in the translation process, from legal differences, macro-textual differences, space restrictions, reader expectations or the personal choices of the translator.

This thesis stems from having combined four basic theoretical frameworks —social context, genre studies, functional analysis, and conceptual categorizations— for the description of the translation process, from a top-down perspective. One result of the research is the development of a practical tool that can be used by both professional and student translators in the submission of their products, since specific solutions have been proposed for every term and functional sequence. However the relevance of this work lies also in the adopted proceeding model that could be used for different types of translation orders. This analytical tool may also be adapted by every translator according to his or her professional needs.