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Introduction

1. Reasons to choose the topic


Technical neologisms, or new technical terminologies, have long been considered the central
difficulty in technical translation for it concerns with great efforts of the translator to make readers of the
target language understand exactly the new translated concepts. What is more, together with such a
rapid development of science and technology at present, new terminologies appear in unquantifiable
numbers to nominate new objects, new processes and new inventions. A reader of reading 1000 words
per minute requires 1.5 months, reading 8 hours a day, to get through one days output, and at the end
of that period, he would have fallen 5.5 years behind his reading1. These numbers imply a serious
problem for translators in finding target language lexical equivalents of neologisms.
Among the present leading technical branches, information technology ranks first. It
has developed so rapidly and covered so many areas of our life that this is called the era
of information technology. New software, techniques and objects are continually created
and changed. So are new words and expressions in this field. In the global integration
process, knowledge of information technology is of great importance to our country and it
is often acquired through translated texts written in English. Therefore, this research will
focus on the English -Vietnamese translation of information of technology neologisms.
Finally, the translation of technical neologisms is important to us, who will be technical
translators in the near future, and who will mostly engaged in the new technology transfer
process. Although we did a course in the Theory of Translation in the third year, we had very few
opportunities to go further and deeper on this matter because of lack of time and reading
sources.A research on the translation of neologisms in information technology, therefore, is
necessary to further understand and apply more effectively the translation theory in
practice.
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Murray, Hubert. Jr. Methods for Satisfying the Needs of the Scientist and the Engineer for Scientific
and Technical Communication. Available from
http://www.serv-inf.deusto.es/abaitua/konzeptu/fatiga.htm - Notes. INTERNET

2. Research Objectives
This research aims at finding out how English neologisms in information technology are currently
dealt with as well as analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each technique used. This would
provide translators some tips to translate technical neologisms in the most effective way.
We do hope that this research will make some contributions to English- Vietnamese technical
translation theory and that it will benefit those involving in information technology translation.
3. Sources of Data
3.1 Primary Sources
The primary data for this research are collected from texts translated by a number of
teachers and students who study English as their major and/or information technology.
3.2 Secondary Sources
We have located a number of reference books, articles and research studies on this
field, which are presented in Bibliography.
4. Research Methods
We use content analysis as the principal method to deal with the collected data. The
quantitative method is also used to find out the frequency of translation techniques while
the qualitative aims at analyzing these techniques. After analysis and synthesis, strategies
of translating information technology neologisms will be listed.
5. Structure of the Research
This research study is divided into the introduction, part 1, part 2, part 3 and the
conclusion. The introduction presents the reasons of the research, research objectives, sources
of data and research methods. Part 1 reviews the theoretical background on neologisms and
the previous studies on neologism translation. Part 2 involves analyzing the collected data
with two subsections: data presentation and data analysis. Part 3 discusses the specific
problems including some tips that need to be taken into consideration when translating
technical translation. Finally, the conclusion summarizes the research results.

Part 1. Literature Review


1.1. Neologism: Definition, Classification
1.1.1. Definition
In dictionaries, neologism is generally defined as a new word or a new meaning for an
established word. To be more specific, Peter Newmarks defines neologisms as
newly come lexical or existing units that acquire a new sense[Newmark 140]. This
definition still provokes in our minds a number of questions. For example, how can a
lexical unit be considered as newly come? or what criteria could be used to assess
whether the sense of a word is new? To partly answer these questions, in her book
Stylistics, the noted Russian scholar Galperin says that if we wish to divide the word
stock of a language in chronological periods, we can conventionally mark off a period
which might be called new [Galperin 84]. This provides us the idea that the language
used in information technology from the 1990s when an explosion of the world wide
web was seen can be conventionally marked as new, given the fact that most words
appeared during this period have not yet been domesticated in our Vietnamese
language. For example, at the same period, the word hacker could be used in
different translated versions, which are tin tc, hch- c, or simply, hacker.
Therefore, we would choose to study the language in information technology in the
latest English texts and pick up words arbitrarily regarded as new.
1.1.2. Classification of Neologisms
Neologisms can be classified according to the style, the translation perspective and the
term coinage.
Regarding the style, Galperin divided neologisms into two types, which are
terminological neologisms and stylistic neologisms. Terminological neologisms are
those that designate newborn concepts while stylistic neologisms are coined because their
creator seeks expressive utterance [Galperine 84-85]. In this research, we are discussing
the first type of neologisms, i.e. terminological neologisms in technical texts, or
technical neologisms.
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In translation perspective, neologisms can be divided into primary neologisms and


translated neologisms. Primary neologisms are formed when a new term is created
for a new concept in a certain language. Translated neologisms are formed when a new
expression in another language is created for an existing term2. Thus, tin tc, hch-c
or hacker is Vietnamese translated neologisms of the new English word hacker.
Regarding the English word coinage, Peter Newmark in his book A textbook of
translation reviewed 12 types of neologisms [ Newmark 140-148]:
a) completely new words.
b) old words or collocations with new meanings
c) New collocations, e.g. urban guerrilla, unsocial hours.
d) Eponyms- recently based on proper names, including inventors and names of

firms and towns.


e) Acronyms.
f) Blends. i.e. combinations of two words, highly productive.
g) Phrasal( nouns or verbs),e.g. trade-off, zero-in.
h) Derived- formed with productive prefixes or suffixes, e.g. misdefine,

encyclopaedism.
i) Abbreviations( shortened form of word).
j) Transferred word-words borrowed from other languages and kept only one sense

of their foreign nationality. They are likely to be media or product rather than
technological neologisms.
k) Pseudo-neologisms- generic words standing in for specific words.
l) Internationalisms- words that keeps the same meanings and the same forms in

many countries.

Terminfo 4/1998 Summaries. Available at www.tsk.fi/fi/ti/ti498_teksti.html.INTERNET

1.2. Features of Translated Technical Neologisms


It is necessary for translator to bear in mind the features of translated (in this case,
Vietnamese) technical neologisms when translating. A Vietnamese technical neologism,
like any other established technical terms in English Vietnamese dictionaries, possesses
three obvious features:
-Monosemantic: each item used in a specialty must be understood by only one
meaning, even though the same term used in different aspects may have different
meanings.
-Consistency: Terms express concepts of things and activities relating to each other
under a system of rules; therefore, they should be consistent .The consistency can be seen
through the structure and the repeated use of words in a specific text.
- Internationality: This is because science and technology are products of human
being as a whole. Newborn concept, once appears will be made popular to all the people
in the world. This explains why a term may be used in many languages.
However, unlike other established technical terms , translated technical neologisms
may not be consistent in forms as they are too new to be standardized in our language.
The acronym LCD may be translated mn hnh tinh th lng or mn hnh LCD.
Clearly, as Peter Newmark pointed out, there is rarely a single correct translation of a SL
neologism, any more than of any SL item, however independent the item is of the
linguistic context[Newmark 141]. A single primary technical neologism may have
different translated forms though the concepts are equivalent. This could be considered
the fourth feature of a translated technical neologism.
1.3. Previous Studies on Translation of Neologisms
The translation of neoloisms has been studied by different foreign authors, among them
Peter Newmark is probably best known to us. In his work A Textbook of Translation,
he suggestes that different neologisms could be translated using different techniques
(transference, naturalization, functional terms, descriptive terms, etc.) depending on
various factors (type of text, readership, recognized translation, etc.) [Newmark 140-148]
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He also introduces a frame of reference after discussing in details some suggested


techniques for translating each type of neologisms.
A primary neologism usually refers to a new object or concept that is unknown to the
target language; therefore, hardly a word or phrase is available for the translation. In this
case, the translator faces one of the most difficult skewing problems: he has to find
lexical equivalent whose concepts are unknown to the target language. Therefore, in
dealing with a neologism, we may use some techniques used for translating words or
phrases when concepts are unknown. Some of such techniques are discussed in
Meaning-based translation: A Guide to Cross-language Equivalence by Mildred Larson.
These techniques, though different from those discussed in A Textbook of Translation
by name, are in fact the same in nature. Here are some typical examples for finding
lexical equivalents when concepts are unknown:
a.

Equivalence by modifying a generic word

When words found in the source language (SL) do not occur in the target language
(TL), it may be helpful to analyze the SL word to discover its generic component. Then
from this analysis, an adequate equivalent may be found in the TL language when a
generic word is used as the equivalent lexical item and modified to carry the correct
meaning. Four possible modifications may be made:
-

By making explicit the form of the item:

Form is the description of the appearance or action of the referent of the word. For
example, a pencil has the form of being long, pointed at one end, made of wood with
graphite in the middle, and usually having an eraser at one end.
If there is no word or phrase which is available for the translation of the word wine,
it can be modified to its generic meaning a kind of drink with its characteristics as
strong, thus:
Wine a strong drink
-

By making explicit the function of the item:

The function has to do with the significance, the reason for, or the purpose of the thing
or event. For example, the function of an anchor is to make the boat stay. If the concept of
anchor does not exist in a language, it is translated by using a generic term thing plus
a functional equivalent that makes the boat stay:
anchor thing that makes the boat stay
-

By making explicit both the form and the function:


There will be terms when the only way to appropriately convey meaning is by

modifying the generic word with both the form and the function.
E.g.

Anchor irons to which they attached ropes


(form)

in order that they would get stuck in the dirt so the boat would not move
(function)
b.

Equivalence by modifying a loan word


Loan words refer to words that are from another language and are unknown to
most of the speakers of the TL language. When translated, a loan word is generally
modified:
-by a classifier: e.g., Amazon is translated a river called Amazon
-with a description of form, function or both: e.g., Satan becomes Satan,
ruler of the demons.
Regarding previous studies on English-Vietnamese neologism translation, we
have, unfortunately, little access to reading sources on this matter. However, all
these mentioned above studies have provided us with theoretical background for
our research.

Part 2: Data analysis


2.1. Data presentation
With a view to gaining maximum accuracy for the research, we have made great effort
to collect primary data from many sources.
Firstly, existing data (translation versions of IT neologisms) were picked up from IT
magazines, books, and websites (see appendix) where neologisms occur.
We also created non-existing data by asking a number of teachers and students of
different backgrounds (Information technology and/or English language) to translate three
paragraphs containing neologisms in IT. These paragraphs about Network Security
consist of eight sentences with four key terms deliberately chosen according to the
classification made by Peter Newmarks (see part 1). We were lucky to gain great support
from these informants who produced thirty-eight translation versions for the three texts,
i.e. about thirteen ones for each. All of them were then compared to see how their
backgrounds affect their translations.
After carefully synthesizing and analyzing all the information collected, we
establishing a table containing translation versions for each key term by three groups of
translators: first, IT students; second, students and teachers at our faculty; third, other
students of English.(See appendix). We found out seven main techniques for translating
information technology neologisms:
-

Transference

Transference plus expansion

Partly transference

Naturalization

Word-to-word translation

Sino-Vietnamese terms

Description of function
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We also calculated the percentage of each technique used in their translations, as


follows:
Description of function
2% 5%
10%
38%
12%

Transferenceplus
expansion
Partly transference

13%

Naturalization
20%

2.2.

Word-to-word
translation
Transference

Sino-Vietnameseterms

Data analysis

2.2.1. The accuracy and naturalness of the translation versions


The first thing we notice is that these informants produced different translation versions
in terms of accuracy and naturalness. Specifically, those produced by IT students are
more technically accurate but less linguistically natural. It is their background that
accounts for this fact. Obviously, they are familiar with the terms and clearly understand
the referents but they lack linguistic and translation skills. The reverse is true for students
of English specialty from National University of Hanoi. Their translation versions are
usually polished but technical terms are not properly translated. In some cases, the
translation versions are totally incorrect due to their ignorance of the field. For example,
the term router was wrongly translated as cu dn or vi mch while its exact
meaning is b nh tuyn in information technology. Those translations by the major
part of senior students at the faculty of foreign languages of our university (HUT) gain
both accuracy and naturalness. This results from the fact that they have studied English
for information technology, thus they have knowledge both in translation and in IT in
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general. Our later interview with them reveals that they have made great effort to consult
dictionaries, books and magazines as well as experts in IT, since they know that technical
terms, though of small number, are very important in the texts.
Secondly, the information collected was a source of reference, helping us to find out
currently used translating techniques and their trends of usage in dealing with IT
neologisms.
2.2.1. Techniques used in IT neologism translation
According to our synthesis, there are seven translating techniques for IT neologism
translation.

Transference (loan words): this technique concerns keeping the source terms
without any modification. It is used more in specialized books and by IT students.
For example:
Router

Router

Cookie

Cookie

Hacker

Hacker

URL

Firewall

URL
Firewall

Phishing Phishing
This strategy does not require translators to understand the referents and find the
target terms; thus, they are not likely to make mistakes when dealing with new
terms. However, it would cause problems for readers to perceive when the terms
are unpopular and unfamiliar to them.
Transference plus expansion: This technique means keeping the terms unchanged
and adding more words to make them clearer. More specifically, a neologism is
translated by modifying a loan word with either a classifier or a description of
form, function or both. It is especially used with acronyms and words with no
equivalents found in the target language.
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For example:
URL

a ch URL

Phishing Nn la o Phishing
Firewall Phn mm firewall
This technique again saves much effort for translators, since it just requires
them to have general idea about the referents, which can be gained by finding in
dictionaries, books and magazines or consulting an expert in the field. This time,
readers can have a general notion about the concept, but it is not sufficient,
especially for the layman. Accordingly, they may not fully understand the text .

Partly transferred terms: Technical terms include both single words and a
combination of words. This technique is mainly used to deal with terms of the
latter kind. Usually, part of the term is kept unchanged and the rest is translated.
For example:
Persistent cookie

cookie thng trc

Pop-up ad

Qung co pop-up

Like transference plus expansion, this strategy makes it easier for translators to do
their job but more difficult for readers to perceive.

Description of function: In this case, the non-equivalent terms are translated by


explaining the function or performance of the things denoted. Usually, the source
terms are put into bracket, right after the explanation.
For example:
Anti-keylogger

Phn mm theo di b mt (Anti-keylogger)

Anti-hijacking

Phn mm chng chim trang ch (anti-hijacking)

Router

B chn ng (router)

Phishing

La o trc tuyn (phishing)

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This strategy helps the readers in the target language have a total understanding
of the term as those of the source text. However, to use this strategy effectively,
translators must have a deep knowledge about the referent so that they will not
produce a wrong description. Moreover, the phrases used to describe them are
usually long, wordy and complicated.

Word-to-word translation: By this method, meaning components of a term in the


source language can be translated into equivalent meaning items in the target
language with a rearrangement in the their order.
For example:
Firewall

T ng la

Antispyware

Phn mm chng gin ip

This strategy provides an easy-to-understand translation version and makes it


closer to readers. However, translators usually have to rely on a specialized
documentaries or other reference sources to get the exact translated versions;
otherwise, the terms will be either not clear or not understandable to target
language readers.
Naturalization: In this technique, the term is transcribed into Vietnamese. In other
words, this technique involves adapting the source terms first into normal
pronunciation then to normal morphology of the target language.
For example:
Hacker

Hch-c

Virus

Vi-rt

Again, this strategy can help translators to avoid mistakes, to which they are
vulnerable when the concepts are unpopular in the target language.

Sino-Vietnamese terms: this technique is often used when translators can not find a
suitable Vietnamese term for the neologism, while a Sino Vietnamese would work

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well because of their compactness and preciseness; thus, it can transfer the whole
meaning of the source term exactly and briefly.
For example:
Router

B nh tuyn /B tip vn

Gateway

Khai l

Adapter

B iu hp

This strategy can cause trouble because Sino-Vietnamese terms are, sometimes,
too brief and unfamiliar. Therefore, readers may find it difficult to understand the
text.
2.2.2. Translating technique trends
Regarding the quantitative uses of the techniques mentioned above, a conclusion could
be drawn that the most preferable method in dealing with information technology
neologisms is describing the function of the referent and putting the source term in
bracket. The use of this strategy accounts for forty percent, followed by word-to-word
translation at twenty-two, and transference at fourteen. Only two percent terms are
translated by naturalization. The higher percentage is for transference plus expansion
(12%) and partly transference (10%) (See the chart above).
The data analysis has shown us that the form (refers to the translating technique) and
the content (i.e. the meaning) of the information technology translated neologism were
different among the three translator groups. Besides background knowledge, it can be said
that the search for the meaning of the new term accounts much for the quality (the
accuracy and the naturalness) of the meaning of the translated neologism. Another
conclusion from the research is that translators have different techniques (strategies) to
deal with a neologism in information technology. However, each technique has its
advantages and disadvantages: there are some factors that will often rule out some
strategies and favour others . This explains why translators still find it difficult to choose
the best technique when translating.

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Part 3. Suggestions
Based on the data analysis, we can now begin to outline some hints for dealing with
the common difficulties for the translator. It is virtually impossible to offer specific
guidelines for translating the various types of English technical neologisms in information
technology. The most can be done in this part, therefore, is to suggest tips that should be
taken into consideration when translating.
3.1. Key words
In dealing with any kind of technical neologisms, it is important first of all to assess
their significance in a given context. Not every instance of neologisms we encounter is
going to be significant. It is neither possible nor desirable to reproduce every aspect of
meaning for every word in a source text. This is because almost every text to be
translated will have some key words. According to Mildred Larson, key words are one
of the special problems in finding lexical equivalents. He defined key words as
words which are used over and over in the text and are crucial to the theme or topic
under discussion.[Larson 177].
Thus, it is suggested that the translator identify key words and a single lexical
equivalent Vietnamese lexical item on each occurrence of a key word. As the
translator studies the source text, he should note the key words and gives special
attention to finding adequate lexical equivalents before the actual drafting process of
translation.
For example, the terms phishing and phisher are key words in the following text:
Phishing scams try to con people out of personal information such as credit card
numbers and bank security codes. Phishers defraud their victims by setting up Web
sites designed to resemble those run by legitimate companies. Then they lure people to
those fake sites via e-mail that pretends to be from major e-commerce firms such as
Best Buy, EBay, and Citybank. The fake Web sites ask victims to confirm personal
and account information- and then the phishers them off

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Here is one translated text in which the translator used the technique description of
function with the loan word in bracket:
Bn cht ca cc v la o qua th in t (phishing) l c gng la phnh
ngi s dng ly cp thng tin c nhn nh s th tn dng hoc m s ti khon
ngn hng. Nhng k trm qua th loi ny (phisher) thng la nn nhn bng
cch xy dng cc a ch ti nguyn trn mng ging nh a ch ca cc cng ty hp
php
The translator tried to explain the meaning of these non-equivalent terms and kept
the transferred words in bracket so that the reader can access the terms in the source
text easily if he wishes further explore their meaning.
In the following extract, the term pop-up ad and script are, however, not the key
terms:
WebWhasher 3.2 beta is among the most powerful and thorough ad blockers. It
uses multiple techniques to determine whether static images should be blocked, checking
ad dimensions as well as both internal and user-defined lists. It also tries to block pop-up
ads, some or all actions taken by scripts, and web bugs.
In the translated version, the translator paid too much detail on explaining the term,
thus distracted the reader from the main theme of the whole text, which is about some
functions of the new software:
WebWasher 3.2 l mt trong nhng phn mm ngn chn qung co mnh nht.
N s dng nhiu k thut khc nhau c th quyt nh nn ngn chn bc nh tnh
no, kim tra kch thc ca cc mu qung co, cng nh cc danh sch ni b v cc
danh sch ngi s dng. N cng c tnh nng ngn chn qung co pop-up (mt loi
qung co m cc ca s c t ng bt ra khi bn vo mt trang Web no , m
khng c s cho php ca bn), ng thi ngn chn c tt c hoc mt s cc
script (ngn ng lp trnh kch bn trong mt s cc ngn ng lp trnh Web)
3.2. Search procedure

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When a technical neologism is identified, especially when it serves as a key word, the
translator should try his best to find an accurate meaning of the word. This is undoubtedly a
painstaking process, especially for those without some basic knowledge of the specialty.
However, it is essential for translators to know where and how to find information. Technical
neologisms, especially brand new words, are normally unfindable words and tracing them
can be even more difficult. As Peter Newmark mentioned, in his search for the unfindable
word, the translator will try at some time or other to consult the SL text writer and, failing that,
appropriate technical experts or SL informants[Newmark 177]. However, when there is not
sufficient time available, dictionaries, encyclopedias, search engines and other documents
related are the first and most important sources. This helps us to avoid giving a wrong meaning
of the term, which is probably the worst mistake, if any, for a translator. Therefore, when not
sure about the meaning of the new term, even after a thorough search procedure, the translator
should transfer the source language term.
As deduced from the fourth feature of technical neologism, that is a single source
term may have different translated versions, we have to accept the fact that there is
rarely a single correct translation of a SL neologism[Newmark 141]. Still, the matter
should be noted here is the recognized translation, which should not be overlooked.
Though the term is new and cannot be found in bilingual dictionaries, the translator
should not hurry to create his own translation for the word. Usually, once a new term
about new a computer technology or concept appears, there would be immediately a
translation for it on daily specialized newspapers or magazines online (e.g. the PC
World Vietnam, some websites as www.VnExpress.com, www.Vietnam.net, etc.). If
there are different translated versions of a new word (e.g., the case of phishing), it is
suggested that the translator supply some additional information such as using brackets,
inverted commas or footnotes, etc. depending on the requirements and types of readership.
Additional information in the translation may take various forms and it is discussed
in details in A textbook of translation by Peter Newmark.

3.3 Readership
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When encountering an information technology neologism the translator should


study other documents at the time, read commentaries of various kinds, used
dictionaries and lexicons, encyclopedias and various reference books to increase his
knowledge as well as to find recognized translation versions before he can translate
the document, as discussed above. However, he should keep in mind that the audience
he is talking to does not have this information also. The appropriate or inappropriate
treatment of the neologisms depends largely on this factor.
Readership of information technology texts may be categorized into three groups
based on their educational level: the expert; the generally educated reader who study
English but not information technology as their major, and the nonprofessional reader
without bilingual background. In general, the more expert the readership, the greater
the requirement for transference ( loan words).They could read the text full of loan
words easier than other types of readership. Meanwhile, the nonprofessional
readership will need a TL explanation as detailed as its interest will allow. In between,
the other readership may need a short explanation (using form or function of the
generic word) followed by the loan word in bracket, or a modification of the loan
word (e.g. transference + expansion) , or Sino- Vietnamese terms if necessary.
Obviously, there is no such thing as an absolute rule for dealing with technical
neologism. However, there are some strategies should be taken into consideration to
make the translation more and more effective. Firstly, the translator should give
special treatment to neologisms that are key terms in the text. Secondly, he should find
out the definition of the primary neologisms to understand their meanings and pay
attention to recognized translations of the terms before producing his own translation.
Finally, he should acknowledge for whom his translation is. There may be other
factors that also determine the appropriate translation of a technical neologism, but we
think those that we have discussed are among the most important ones.

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Conclusion
This research focuses on Vietnamese-English translation of neologisms in information
technology, a rapidly growing area. The translation of neologisms in general, and of IT
neologisms in particular, is a translators most difficult task due to their characteristic of
newness. Because they are new, the translator has to find ways to transfer the whole
denotation of the terms into the target language so that receptors can understand.
This study has synthesized seven main strategies currently used to deal with IT
neologisms. These strategies include transference, transference plus expansion, partly
transferred terms, description of function, word-to-word translation, naturalization, and
Sino-Vietnamese terms. From our observation, the advantages and disadvantages of each
strategy and their trend of usage have also been discussed and analyzed.
Based on a discussion about the use of each technique in the latter part, a number of
suggestions have been listed. Key terms, search procedure and readership are the three
recommended factors that translator should bear in mind when translating.
We hope that this research will make some contributions to the theory of VietnameseEnglish translation of information technology neologisms. We also hope it will be a basis
for further studies on technical neologism translation.

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