Abstract
In Canada, insurance terminology has long been living a linguistic emergency situation. This paper proposes the study of three different lexicographical works written by French authors of Canadian origin, aimed at normalizing the use of this lexicon. This need started at the end of 19th century, as testified by the Dictionnaire franais-anglais et anglais-français sur la vie written by Naraire Payette. This tradition had its great development in the 1960s, when translators and terminologists launched the refrancization project of the insurance sector, promoted by the Office de la langue franaise.
Highlights
In this paper, three bilingual dictionaries of life insurance terminology are analysed
The only example of bilingual dictionary published at the end of 20th century was written by Nazaire Payette, the Dictionnaire français-anglais et anglais-français sur la vie, 1899 (Payette, 1899)
The Vocabulaire des assurances sur la vie is the result of a teamwork achieved with the collaboration of experts, such as actuaries, life-insurers and insurance employees
Summary
Three bilingual dictionaries of life insurance terminology are analysed. The only example of bilingual dictionary published at the end of 20th century was written by Nazaire Payette, the Dictionnaire français-anglais et anglais-français sur la vie, 1899 (Payette, 1899) This author, after a long career in English life insurance, had the chance to work in a French insurance company. The Vocabulaire des assurances sur la vie is the result of a teamwork achieved with the collaboration of experts, such as actuaries, life-insurers and insurance employees It presents a list of terms in order to avoid inferences and translation mistakes. Premium = prime, as a single term, is a case of equal translation, but studying the translations of the word’s lexical combinations, it results that many of these are only in Payette’s Dictionnaire or in Grandpré’s Vocabulaire and vice versa. The accident terminological file shows an example of the Vocabulaire microstructure structure:
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
