Die englischen Fachsprachen im 20. Jahrhundert und ihre Erforschung: Eine Übersicht

Observations on the changing language of accounting

“…7 They are characterised mainly, but not exclusively, by specialized terminology (as for example, in accounting, terms such as "asset", "liability", "true and fair view", "materiality"). In the linguistics literature such varieties are referred to as special "register", "functional variety" (Salmond, 1998), "genre" (Beier, 1998; with reference to Biber, 1986;Swales, 1990); "languages for specific purposes" (for example Engberg, 2006), or even "jargon" (Crystal, 2003;Allan, 2006). 8 Such registers or jargon can have a number of functions and implications.…”

“…Special registers use the same mechanisms to satisfy the demand for new terminology as other language areas. However, they use, and combine, some of these methods more frequently (Beier, 1998, with reference to English). Semantic shift frequently occurs in the accounting registers of languages.…”

“…She argues that this shift suggests: that the idea of the account, and thus of accountability or responsibility, was changing, becoming more closely associated with concepts of enumeration and losing, as a result, the pervasive sense of legality and stewardship that had characterised it earlier. (Mills, 1989, p.30) Neologisms (new coinages) have been employed productively in special registers, including accounting language, especially in terms of combinations of different words (compounding) (Beier, 1998), as for example in "non-current assets". According to Labardin and Nikitin (2009) the increasing division of labour among French accountants in the second half of the nineteenth century resulted in the combination of adjectives with the term comptabilité, to create terms such as comptabilité agricole, comptabilité industrielle, comptabilité commerciale, comptabilité générale and comptabilité auxiliare.…”

“…Where concepts are imported from foreign language areas, non-translation, or the adoption of "loanwords" appears common, as do new coinages based on foreign components (Beier, 1998;Kirkness, 1998) (cf. for example the large number of words of Italian origin in accounting and banking). This can however be problematic, because the meaning is likely to shift between the source and target languages.…”

“…This can however be problematic, because the meaning is likely to shift between the source and target languages. This also occurs when a special register uses "loanwords from everyday language" or from other disciplines (Beier, 1998(Beier, , p.1407; with reference to Savory, 1967;Klasson, 1977). Examples of the former, in English, may be "reserve", "prudence", or "realisation", which have different meanings in accounting as compared to "everyday language".…”