Corps de l’article

This book constitutes the first attempt to depict the current research panorama in what can be generally called economic translation. This is definitely a much-needed study due to the dynamic nature of the field, in which new areas of research appear every year as a consequence of changes in the products offered by financial entities and of financial realities in countries all around the world that require regulation. The study is especially relevant given the accelerating pace of technological change as a creative force in the financial industry,[1] with the subsequent implications when it comes to publishing new informative material that needs to be translated into different languages. Indeed, as the author states in the introduction to his book, the main aim when writing it was to provide a bibliometric study of what has been published up to now in this area of specialization, since this is something that has not been previously done. The book also comes as a contribution, within this specialization, to the references that are already available at the very useful open-access database BITRA (Bibliografía de Interpretación y Traducción),[2] at the University of Alicante, Spain. It has a clear structure, divided into twelve different chapters. This review will begin with a brief description of each chapter before making some final remarks with an overall critical appraisal of the content.

In the first chapter, the author analyses the relationship between Bibliometrics and Translation Studies, and shows how the first allows us to analyse the bibliographic production of a certain field – in this case, what has been published so far about translation. Studies of this kind are relatively new in this area, especially in economic translation, despite previous studies by the author which attempted to provide a general overview of certain areas, such as the didactics of economic translation in Spain (Gallego Hernández 2016), or a more recent publication by Román and Herrero (2018) which aimed to show the latest trends in economic translation in Spain.

In the second chapter, the author explains how he set about consulting the bibliographic information for his study and compiling the corpus, which was done through three different channels. First, he used specialized and general translation databases, such as the above-mentioned BITRA or TSB (Translation Studies Bibliography, published by John Benjamins). Secondly, he directly contacted professors and researchers working in the field and then he created a spreadsheet in which he added updated references from all the different labels under which this specialization can be found (commercial translation, financial translation or business translation, among others). This is especially interesting because it shows the many different categories that were considered to achieve a more comprehensive study.

The third chapter focuses on the bibliometric indicators used for the analysis, which were related to the text typology of the studies consulted (chapters, books, doctoral dissertations, journal articles, special journal issues or working documents), the languages used in the studies and their accessibility (whether or not they may be openly accessed on the Internet). The author further explains other indicators that were considered for the study, such as personal features about the authors (sex, institution) or information related to their academic production. Other formal aspects are the period in which the academic works were published and the object of study. All this is carefully illustrated with different graphs and tables that clearly show the result of a very well-established methodology for analysis which could be replicated in other areas of study.

In the ensuing chapters of the book, the author reveals the results of the corpus corresponding to each of the areas covered in the publications. In each case he provides the reader with very clear and illustrative tables and graphs that show how the results were analysed, with specific data about the authors and the number of citations. He also summarizes the main implications of the contributions that constitute his corpus, which is particularly useful for research purposes because of the well-structured and rigorous classification followed.

In this regard, chapter four focuses on history, with a total of 98 studies. In chapter five, 57 studies on textual genres are considered and the author divides them into two groups: one in which the authors proposed a certain kind of taxonomy or text classification, and the other in which a certain type was analysed for professional purposes. chapter six is devoted to contributions related to training in the field of economic translation, which seems to be one of the most prolific topics, since 166 publications were identified. The subtopics in which they are classified include handbooks, curricular design, training and profession, training and language learning, teaching and experiences with students. The author discusses the importance of continuous research in the field of curricular design while creating links with international training methods and the profession, as well as analysing other cognitive aspects, such as the process of acquisition of expert knowledge or strategies used for translation problem-solving.

The focus of chapter seven is on micro-textual aspects of economic translation, which, according to the author (p. 125), have constituted an area of research study since the eighties. 214 publications are analysed in relation to this topic, divided into subsections dealing with publications related to terminology (including aspects such as translation problems, descriptive and comparative studies, specific terminologies, translation techniques and other approaches); interference (lexicological studies, chronological studies, comparative studies, translation approaches and other studies); metaphor (including comparative studies and translation studies), and phraseology (phraseology and translation, and phraseology and dictionaries). Finally, the author analyses publications related to culture and register, metadiscourse, abbreviations, quality and other aspects. As in the previous chapter, the analysis takes into consideration many different elements which provide evidence of its exhaustivity.

Chapter eight analyses publications related to documentation (66 in total). The subsections of this chapter include lexicographical aspects (marketing and advertisement dictionaries, accounting dictionaries and other works); methodological proposals; categorization and compilation of resources and other related studies. The author argues that research in this field is all but non-existent and that many studies do not provide sufficiently detailed data. Accordingly, he proposes, as a line for future research, the identification of a specific forum and analysis of contributions pertaining to it. This could be beneficial for economic translators and could also prove useful as a didactic tool to guide students on how to read or use these types of resources. The chapter also allows readers to learn more about some specific areas in which further research needs to be conducted, thus providing an incentive to continue contributing to this field.

In chapter nine, Gallego Hernández focuses on studies related to the profession (42 in total). The subsections included here focus on the characterization of the professional translator, the study of websites and surveys. The author concludes that this is a recent research trend in which further results are still needed, especially in order to continue adapting university studies to professional reality. Chapter ten is a combination of categories that were not included previously, such as machine translation or corpora, among others. Again, as in Chapter eight, the author detects a lack of specific research on these topics and calls for more studies in the field.

The final chapter contains all the referenced works that the author describes in his book. Although bibliographical information is very valuable in any kind of academic work, in this case it must be emphasized that this chapter is a must-read for any scholar (regardless of how long they have been working in the field), since it is rare to find such a thorough and updated list of specialized contributions in any specific area of specialization, let alone in economic translation.

Overall, it can be stated that the book under review is another major contribution by Gallego Hernández to economic translation, a field in which he has published extensively during his long academic career, with highly interesting and useful results for practitioners and academics alike. It is a major achievement in this area of specialization and reflects years of rigorous academic analysis by the author, since it is the first time that such a meticulous and detail-oriented piece of work has been published. We hope to see in the coming years more books of this kind that have so much to offer to Translation Studies.