A corpus-based study of terminological variation in business incorporation documents from the United States and Peru

Abstract

This corpus-based terminological study explains terminological variation in business incorporation documents. In United States (US) business law, the geographic location, the variety of existing business entities and their distinguishing features lead to different denominative variations, and give rise to different degrees of equivalence. Consequently, asymmetries are generated when such terminology is compared with the terminology used in Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in Peru. Based on the typology of causes of denominative variation proposed by Freixa Aymerich (2006, 52), this paper examines the presence of dialectal and cognitive variations in US business law language as compared to Peruvian business law language. Consequently, certain variants are restricted to specific states or types of business organizations within the US and are not used interchangeably. The results of this study may contribute to the enrichment of legal translation studies in this subfield and offer translators a systematic method to tackle equivalence issues in business documents.