Tradução comentada de artigos científicos de economia: uma abordagem funcionalista baseada em Nord

Abstract

This monograph presents an annotated translation project involving ten specialized Economics research articles translated from Brazilian Portuguese into international English for publication in Revista Economia Ensaios. The study aims to examine the main translation challenges and difficulties encountered throughout the translation process. The theoretical framework draws on Functionalist Translation Theory, particularly Christiane Nord’s (1991; 1997) contributions regarding Skopos and the principle of loyalty, while also incorporating perspectives from Terminology Studies and specialized translation scholars. Methodologically, this research adopts a retrospective and introspective approach. Based on a corpus consisting of five selected articles, ten representative cases were identified and classified according to Nord’s three categories of translation problems: cultural, pragmatic, and linguistic. The analysis discusses the strategies adopted to address gaps in the target audience’s background knowledge, including the use of translation couplets for culture-specific items and legal terms (Plano de Metas and Fiscal Responsibility Law), the expansion of institutional acronyms (CNPJ), and adaptation to international orthotypographic conventions, such as the use of em dashes. The findings also highlight the importance of rigorous terminological research in preventing structural false cognates (bank branch) and ensuring the accurate use of macroeconomic terminology (Net Funded Debt). The results confirm the initial research hypothesis, demonstrating that the main challenges in specialized Economics translation arise from two dimensions: extralinguistic factors, related to professional and technical working conditions, and intralinguistic factors, involving issues of standardization, terminology, and academic writing conventions. The functionalist framework proved effective in providing a systematic basis for justifying the adaptations and solutions required by the academic genre.