Idioms in dictionaries of economics. Study of their presence and encoding proposal from a translation point of view

Unlike other LSPs, the economic discourse shows a high degree of emotive meaning, abstract processes like metaphor, which bring about a great number of idioms. If the specialized lexicographic resources want to answer the needs of users like translators, they should improve their treatment of these phraseological units, basing their entries in the conceptual structure of economy.; I describe the hybrid nature of business English that mixes technical terms and general vocabulary with subtechnical terms: metaphors from everyday language or disciplines related, whose meaning is widened or narrowed to explain abstract economic notions with concrete images.; Two groups of conceptual metaphors are summarized that can be used to describe the conceptual structure of economy and the meaning of its idioms, both in English and Spanish. Economy, which is easy to manage, is described with familiar animate metaphors, whereas the market movements are identified with inanimate images because they are beyond human control. These basic metaphors are culturally motivated, as they refer to a few well-known categories ( tools, machines, liquids, human body, everyday life, animals, plants, colours, medicine, war, sports, games).; I study the treatment of 7 business idioms, based on those conceptual metaphors, in specialized dictionaries (39) and glossaries (17), in paper and digital format, to discover their lexicographic deficiencies. Through an additional translation test, I show the close relationship between those lacks in dictionary information and the typical errors inexperienced translators make.; Finally, I develop a proposal for a better lexicographic treatment of business idioms, from the point of view of translation. I recommend the use of a Terminological Knowledge Base with different modules interrelated (ontology and term base), that provide enough conceptual and linguistic information for the adequate translation of these expressions. I suggest that the ontology be expanded with complex lexical relations, that allow to include the conceptual metaphors as nodes in the conceptual structure of economy, so that they can be used to semi-automatically predict the figurative meaning of business idioms. I also indicate how the lexicographic entry in the term base can be expanded with ISO data categories suitable for the treatment of specialised phraseology.