 Can Translations Achieve Comparability? The Case of Translating IFRSs into SwedishJörgen Dahlgren and Sven-Arne Nilsson Accounting in Europe, 2012, vol. 9, issue 1, 39-59 Abstract: Since 2005, all listed EU/EFTA companies are obliged to prepare their consolidated statements fully in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). The requirement is a consequence of an EU decision, in Lisbon in March 2000, aiming at improving the flow of capital within a free internal market. Since the IFRSs are in the English language, this has made it necessary to translate them into all the languages in the European Union. The purpose of the translation is to produce the same quality regulation in each member state and consequently achieve comparability. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the comparability objective from an accounting language perspective. We do this by using the translation of IFRSs into Swedish. Since the IFRSs are translated from English to every other language within the EU, the Swedish experience is potentially relevant to all the other member states. The discussion is based on translation theory and the result indicates that comparability is not achieved simply by using words from another language. To achieve true and genuine comparability, contexts need to match or be made congruent. Date: 2012 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:acceur:v:9:y:2012:i:1:p:39-59 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/17449480.2012.664391 Access Statistics for this article Accounting in Europe is currently edited by Lisa Evans More articles in Accounting in Europe from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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