Commercial translation is a term which is often used for convenience to designate an area of translation activity or a course on a translator-training programme. However, it is a very generic term which seems to encompass a range of translation activities, using a variety of translation tools, applied to numerous text types which have various functions or purposes. Commercial translation is therefore not easily separated from other topics discussed in this Handbook. If commercial translation is loosely considered to denote all translation carried out in the commercial sphere or the world of business, then it overlaps with entries which focus on specialised domains (see Technical translation; Legal translation; Journalism and translation) and with entries which are concerned with international and global marketing of goods and services (see Globalisation and translation; Localisation and translation), as well as entries which focus on features of specialised texts (see Terminology and translation) and those which tackle aspects of the translation process (see Translation strategies and tactics), including the employment of translation technology (see Computer-aided translation; Machine translation today) and the use, reception and evaluation of translated texts (see Quality in translation).

References

Böttger, Claudia

2004 “Genre-Mixing in Business Communication.” In Multilingual Communication, Juliane House and Jochen Rehbein (eds), 115–129. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Charteris-Black, Jonathan & Timothy Ennis

2001 “A Comparative Study of Metaphor in Spanish and English Financial Reporting.” English for Specific Purposes 20 (3): 249–266.  MetBib

Freitas, Elsa Simões Lucas

2004 “Similar Concepts, Different Channels: Intersemiotic Translation in Three Portuguese Advertising Campaigns.” The Translator 10 (2): 291–311.

Katan, David

2004 2nd edition. Translating Cultures. Manchester: St. Jerome.  BoP

Laviosa, Sara

2007 “Studying Anglicisms with Comparable and Parallel Corpora.” In The Study of Language and Translation, Willy Vandeweghe, Sonia Vandepitte & Marc Van de Velde (eds), 123–136. Amsterdam & Philadephia: John Benjamins.  TSB

Martin, Elizabeth

2006 Marketing Identities through Language: English and Global Imagery in French Advertising. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Millán-Varela, Carmen

2004 “Exploring Advertising in a Global Context: Food for Thought.” The Translator 10 (2): 245–267.

Navarro Errasti, María Pilar, Rosa Lorés Sanz & Silvia Murillo Ornat

(eds) 2004 Pragmatics at Work: The Translation of Tourist Literature. Bern: Peter Lang.  TSB

Sager, Juan C

1994 Language Engineering and Translation: Consequences of Automation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  TSB

Smith, Karen

2006 “Rhetorical Figures and the Translation of Advertising Headlines.” Language and Literature 15 (2): 159–182.  TSB

Stark, John

2005 Product Lifecycle Management: 21st Century Paradigm for Production Realisation. London: Springer.

Sumberg, Carolyn

2004 “Brand Leadership at Stake: Selling France to British Tourists.” The Translator 10 (2): 329–353.  TSB

Torresi, Ira

2010 Translating Promotional and Advertising Texts, Manchester: St Jerome.  TSB