Ontological Metaphors in English Business Economics Terminology and Their Equivalence in Vietnamese

This study investigates the use of ontological metaphors in the nomination of business economics terminology in English and their equivalent representations in Vietnamese. The research corpus comprises 357 English metaphorical terms and 365 corresponding Vietnamese terms, which were collected from business economics dictionaries and textbooks. The findings highlight that metaphorisation serves as a highly effective method for term nomination, evidenced by the prolific use of ontological metaphors in the business economics terminologies of both English and Vietnamese. By conceptualizing our experiences in terms of concrete objects, abstract business economics concepts – such as company, brand, market, business activity, industry, economy, price, cost, and capital – are symbolically represented as physical entities. The analysis reveals three primary methods employed when translating English terms into Vietnamese: (i) an English ontological metaphor is translated using the identical metaphor in Vietnamese (with differences mostly limited to word order), (ii) an English ontological metaphor is translated by a different metaphor in Vietnamese, (iii) the Vietnamese term utilizes a loanword or a descriptive translation. The study also discovers that, unlike in English-speaking countries, Vietnamese speakers do not extensively utilise the animal source domain to describe abstract business concepts. These findings are anticipated to provide valuable insight into the metaphorical nomination of business economics terminology in English and Vietnamese for economists, scholars, and language users.