A List of Economics English I I Frank E. Daulton words technical vacabulary Economics English economics terminology 1. Introduction An attractive goal for economics graduates of Japanese universities is to be able to converse about their field in English. To be an "international economist," not only mastery of basic English but also of academic vocabulary and the technical vocabulary of economics is necessary. In this paper, after explaining the types of vocabulary, the procedure for compiling a list of Economics English and the implications of this list will be discussed. 2. Types of Vocabulary A careful choice of vocabulary can simplify teaching. Nation (1999 p. 7, 8) identifies four types of vocabulary for English instruction. 1) high-frequency 2) academic 3) technical 4) low-frequency 2.1 High-frequency Words High-frequency words are the most frequently used in English, beginning with the. In order to achieve good comprehension of informal conversation and reading, as well as to have a well- rounded arsenal for production, at least 2000 and preferably 3000 word families (head words plus inflections and common derivations) are required (see Nation, 2001). This vocabulary A List of Economics English (Daulton) - 59 -
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A List of Economics English
I I
Frank E. Daulton
~Key words
technical vacabulary
Economics English
economics terminology
1. Introduction
An attractive goal for economics graduates of Japanese universities is to be able to converse
about their field in English. To be an "international economist," not only mastery of basic
English but also of academic vocabulary and the technical vocabulary of economics is necessary.
In this paper, after explaining the types of vocabulary, the procedure for compiling a list of
Economics English and the implications of this list will be discussed.
2. Types of Vocabulary
A careful choice of vocabulary can simplify teaching. Nation (1999 p. 7, 8) identifies four types
of vocabulary for English instruction.
1) high-frequency
2) academic
3) technical
4) low-frequency
2.1 High-frequency Words
High-frequency words are the most frequently used in English, beginning with the. In order to
achieve good comprehension of informal conversation and reading, as well as to have a well
rounded arsenal for production, at least 2000 and preferably 3000 word families (head words
plus inflections and common derivations) are required (see Nation, 2001). This vocabulary
A List of Economics English (Daulton) - 59 -
typically covers around 80 percent of the running words of academic text and newspapers, and
around 90 percent of conversation and novels (Chung & Nation, forthcoming). If one takes
proper nouns as a given, this level provides nearly 95 percent coverage of most non-academic
texts --a crucial threshold for comfortable reading (Hirsh & Nation, 1992). A modern collection
of high-frequency English words is the BNC 3000, a frequency list derived by Nation
(forthcoming) from the 100-million-word British National Corpus.
For more on high-frequency words appearing in The Ryukoku Journal of Humanities
and Sciences, see Daulton (2003a).
2.2 Academic Words
Academic words (e.g. academic, lecture) are necessary for academic discourse. One
characteristic of academic words is that they are shared by several fields of study. Another is
that they are supportive of but not central to the topics (see Coxhead 1998: 214). The most
thorough collection is the 570 word family Academic Word List (AWL; Coxhead, 2000), which
covers on average 8.5 percent of academic text, 4 percent of newspapers and less than 2 percent
of the running words of novels (Coxhead, 1998).
For more on academic words appearing in The Ryukoku Journal of Humanities and
Sciences, see Daulton (2005).
2.3 Technical Words
Technical words (e.g. cost-benefit analysis, micro-economics) are quite useful for those in
particular circumstances (e.g. economists). In a sense, both academic words and technical
words are high-frequency words for special purposes. But unlike academic words, technical
words are typically limited to one field. Moreover, as technical words are content words, they
are highly salient in discourse. The coverage for technical words varies, but tends to be rather
high; it was found to be 31.2 percent in an anatomy book and 20.6 percent in a linguistics book
(Chung & Nation, forthcoming).
2.4 Low-frequency Words
Low-frequency words (e.g. intuitive, pastoral) are words with infrequent use. They are not
academic words but do include technical words unrelated to a particular field (e.g.
photosynthesis for economists). As their number exceeds 100,000 and typically cover only
around 5 percent of any text (Chung & Nation, forthcoming), it is better that learners not study
low-frequency words, per se, but deal with them individually by guessing or referring to a
dictionary.
3. Collecting the Technical Words of Economics
Japanese need the high-frequency vocabulary of English for basic communication, and academic
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vocabulary for general academic purposes. And with knowledge of the English technical
vocabulary of economics, Japanese will be lexically ready to participate in economics discourse --
reading and writing economics papers, attending conferences, and so on. While there are
suitable lists of high-frequency words (e.g. BNC 3000; Nation, forthcoming) and academic words
(AWL; Coxhead, 2000), no reasonably comprehensive list is available for basic economics
terminology.
To assemble a list of "Economics English," three glossaries were examined. They were
the on-line glossary from The Economist magazine <http://www.economist.com/research/
Economics!>), and the glossaries of two prominent textbooks of introductory economics, Stiglitz'
Economics (1997) and Mankiw's Principles of Economics (2001).
Even with overlap among the three glossaries, the list of Economics English would likely
be too large. Typically, the technical vocabulary of a field contains less than a thousand words
(Nation, 1999: 13). As the total number of economics terms assembled would exceed this, an
economics professor with experience teaching English economics terminology deleted terms he
felt were non-essential. (Where appropriate word will be replaced by term as much of
economics terminology consists of phrases such as absolute advantage and diminishing marginal
utility rather than single words such as bubble.) Data on the glossaries and deletions is
summarized in Table 1:
Table 1: Summary of glossaries, number of deletions and terms remaining
original size number of number of terms
of glossary deletions remaining
The Economist 653 179 474
Mankiw 233 16 217
Stiglitz 645 143 502
The Economist glossary contains 653 terms and 179 deemed non-essential were deleted, leaving
474 terms. Mankiw's glossary has 233 terms and 16 were deleted, and when the remaining 217
were added to The Economist's terms the total became 585 (with 106 having overlapped). With
Stiglitz' glossary of 645 terms, 143 were deleted, and with the remaining 502 the total of
Economics English grew to 892 terms (with 232 overlapping).
Considering that all three glossaries were intended to cover the basic technical vocabulary
of economics, the lack of consensus among the glossaries was striking. Data on the sources of
terms in the list of Economics English is summarized in Table 2:
A List of Economics English (Daulton) - 61 -
Table 2: Summary of sources of economics terminology by glossary
All3 68
E&M 38
E&S 80
M&S 46
Only E 288
Only M 65
OnlyS 307
Total 892
"E" stands for The Economist glossary, "M" for Mankiw's and "S" for Stiglitz'. Regarding the
previous deletions made to the glossaries, it is reasonable to assume that non-overlapping items
(i.e. the least useful) had been cut. It is therefore surprising to find that of the remaining 892
terms, only 68 (7.6 percent) overlapped in all three glossaries, and only 232 (26.0 percent) were
found in at least two. The majority of terms appeared in but one glossary; for instance, Stiglitz'
glossary contained 307 terms not included in The Economist glossary or Mankiw's. Regarding
the two introductory textbooks, 84.3 percent of the terms did not overlap.
4. Analysis
An examination of the list of Economics English revealed two important pedagogical
implications: discord in economics resulting in an inflated lexicon; a lack of cognates to facilitate
learning.
4.1 An Inflated Lexicon
The lack of consensus among the three glossaries attests to a discord within economics, and
competing political agendas swell economics with conflicting terminology. Approaches in
economics range from laissez-jaire to state control, with innumerable permutations between.
Alternative perspectives (unmentionable in the mainstream media) include that Western-style
economic growth is based on war, crime, corruption and the exploitation of the weak (e.g.
Chomsky, 1993).
Therefore economists from non-English countries will experience a lexical barrier. There
are more terms than can be fully mastered. Those who resort to circumlocution (i.e. referring to
a concept without using its exact terminology) will be judged ignorant of their field and their
opinions dismissed. Meanwhile the developed countries maintain global hegemony with their
monopolies on all manifestations of power including the lingua franca.
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4.2 Lack of Cognates
Sometimes a student's native language is a great resource for learning foreign vocabulary, and
this is usually the case for Japanese learning English. Various research (e.g. Daulton, 1998 and
2005; Hashimoto, 1992; Kimura, 1989) has shown that loanwords in Japanese (e.g. takushi)
assist the learning of their related borrowed words (e.g. taxi). Words from different languages
similar in form are cognates. Daulton (2003b) has shown that nearly half of the high-frequency
words of English are cognate with common loanwords in Japanese, and Daulton (2005) has
shown this for roughly a quarter of the academic words. Particularly with technical and
scientific terms borrowed from English, due to internationally defined and accepted concepts,
the Japanese meanings remain the same as the English ones (Nishiyama, 1995: 33).
Unfortunately, economics in Japan is conservative in its borrowing patterns. While the
related field of trade contains about 80 percent of words of foreign origin, marketing 75 percent,
and finance 34.5 percent (Loveday, 1996: 101, 111), only 15.4 percent (137 terms) in the list of
Economics English have been borrowed into Japanese as free-standing loanwords (e.g. cartel
and karuteru). That is, Japanese economics prefers Sinofication (e.g. cost-benefit analysis
becomes hi you beneki bunseki) or hybridization (e.g. macro-economics becomes makuro
keizai). Indeed, economics joins the mainstays of power -- law and politics (Loveday, 1996:
88) -- in their begrudging and conservative approach to language. Those wishing to master the
technical vocabulary of economics in English will not be greatly helped by cognate relationships
with Japanese loanwords.
5. Recommendations for Teaching the Terminology of Economics
Given its large size as well as scarcity of cognates, we should organize our list of Economics
English in a fashion that will facilitate teaching and learning. Features to consider are
prevalence as determined by overlap among the glossaries, usefulness as determined by
correspondences to high-frequency English, and ease of learning as determined by the
presence of loanword equivalents in Japanese.
5.1 Grouping Terms that Overlap Among Glossaries
Based on the degree of overlap among the three glossaries, it is possible to predict a term's
prevalence in economics discourse. This is a compelling consideration when deciding how soon
a term should be presented and learned. The most ubiquitous terms should be mastered early.
Wording among the glossaries sometimes differed subtly, and judgments about how to
handle each situation were necessary. For example, while Stiglitz contains constant returns, the
other two glossaries contain constant returns to scale. In this case, constant returns was
considered different enough to be a separate term by the economics professor, and then deleted
as non-essential.
A List of Economics English (Daulton) - 63 -
5.1.1 Terms Overlapping in Three Glossaries
Those terms that all three glossaries shared (e.g. absolute advantage) would constitute the first
sublist of terms to be taught. Only 70 terms met this criteria. Time spent learning these terms
is justified, as they are likely to be highly prevalent in economics.
5.1.2 Terms Overlapping in Two Glossaries
Those terms found in two of the three glossaries (e.g. barriers to entry) would constitute the
second sublist of terms. There were 159 terms that qualified. Following mastery of the first
sublist, the second sublist should be studied as its technical vocabulary are rather likely to be
met.
5.2 High-frequency Words with Technical Meanings
The present study included economics words that are also high-frequency vocabulary (i.e.
polysemes). Having been encountered previously in English classes, corresponding economics
words should be more easily remembered (see Ringbom, 1987). Although meanings may vary,
generally the technical usage of a word and its high-frequency usage share a core meaning (e.g.
cost and shock). Moreover, Japanese learners can add meanings to the English words they know
(Kimura, 1989).
A third sublist of high-frequency words with technical meanings was compiled from
among the words not appearing in the first and second sublists. Sixty-eight words met this
criteria. Such high-frequency words will typically have meanings very obscure (e.g. derivatives),
specific (e.g. velocity) or important (e.g. demand) for economists.
5.3 Cognates
The intrinsically easiest terms to learn are those that have been borrowed into Japanese. When
learners know the corresponding Japanese economics terminology (e.g. sutoraiki), they will
have a relatively easy time learning the original English (e.g. strike). If learners have not yet
learned the Japanese terminology, learning the English version now may aid them in learning the
Japanese one later. Of the terms yet to be listed, 80 were found to have Japanese equivalents
and were included in a fourth sublist.
5.4 Remaining Terms
The vast majority of terms in the list of Economics English, those 511 (e.g. usury, producer price
index, and voting paradox) for which there was no overlap, were not to be found among high
frequency words, and for which there were no cognates, would constitute the fifth sublist.
5.5 Summary and Analysis
The data for these five sublists of vocabulary is summarized in Table 3:
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Table 3: Summary of economics terminology by sub list and number of terms
1st Sublist 3x glossary overlap 70
2nd Sublist 2X glossary overlap 163
3rd Sublist high frequency 68
4th Sublist cognates 80
5th Sublist (remaining words) 511
Total 892
The first four sublists are of a size easily dealt with in classes. Various methods are
available to learn these terms (e.g. memorization, flash cards, keyword method). These 381
terms are distinguished by their prevalence in the field of economics, their usefulness in English
overall, and their ease of learning. They should be learned.
However, the majority of Economics English remains in the fifth sublist. These 511
otherwise crucial terms exist without consensus among economists, and do not correspond to
high-frequency English nor cognates. They are probably the least useful and hardest to learn of
the Economics English terms; even if it were possible to teach this many terms over a semester
or year, using classroom time to do so is questionable. When learners encounter these and more
obscure terms, an English/Japanese technical dictionary such as the Yuhikaku Keizai Jiten
(1983) will be indispensable.
6. Conclusions
By using glossaries, it was possible to create a list of Economics English. With the help of an
economics professor, this list could be shortened to a more practical size. Finally, organizing the
terms into five sublists according to overlap among the three glossaries, correspondences to high
frequency vocabulary, and the presence of cognates further enhanced the list's practicality.
Future research can determine the actual coverage of the five sublists in a wider scope of
economics discourse. It should be possible, after examining various economics writings and
utterances, to know how likely terms in each sublist are to be met. Such data could verify the
rationale for the sublists.
For learners, the nature of the technical vocabulary of economics (e.g. inflation and lack
of cognates) presents a considerable hurdle. Economics graduates from non-English countries,
including Japanese, will have difficulty contributing to economics discourse on the global stage.
Given the perilous state of world affairs, a more humanitarian and Earth-friendly approach to the
distribution of resources must emerge as the consensus. As the new paradigm rejects affronts to
decency such as regressive tax and beggar-thy-neighbor policies, as well as insidious
euphemisms such as free trade and zero-sum game, the number of terms in economics will
deflate to a size easily dealt with by future international economists.
A List of Economics English (Daulton) - 65 -
7. Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Professor Naoki Tani, Ryukoku University Faculty of Economics, for his
help in reducing the list of Economics English.
References
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Chung, T. M. and Nation, I. S. P. (forthcoming). Technical vocabulary in specialized texts.
Coxhead, A. (1998). An Academic Word List. Occasional Publication Number 18, LALS, Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand.
Daulton, F. E. (1998). Loanword cognates and the acquisition of English vocabulary.· The Language Teacher
20, 1: 17-25.
Daulton, F. E. (2003a). The High-frequency Vocabulary of English. The Ryukoku Journal of Humanities and
Sciences 24, 2: 19-42.
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Journal of Humanities and Sciences 25, 1: 51-78.
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Appendix: The List of Economics English (381 items)
Sublist One (Terms Overlapping in Three Glossaries; 70 items)