Metaphors of Money Laundering: Teaching Specialized Text Translation with Corpus-Based Methods

Publication Date

Fall 10-30-2025

Faculty Department

Department of World Languages and Cultures

Document Type

Book

Abstract

Financial crime is a significant factor in most transnational crime, and is wide-reaching. Many critical stakeholders use specific metaphors in their communications about transnational security threats relating to financial crime. Metaphors are often idiomatic figures of speech that do not transfer quickly from one language to another because they originate from cultural concepts. Within the public safety, regulatory, and compliance community, key stakeholders from different linguistic backgrounds tend to use English as a contact language to interact with their counterparts, the media, the public, and stakeholders to ensure regulatory compliance.
Translating metaphors requires unique skills acquired through deep cultural knowledge and experience in both source and target cultures. This research for this book began by observing how language played a crucial role in relationships between everyone involved in the criminal justice process, not limited to the United States but also in many Spanish-speaking countries and geographical regions. Highly effective communication is critical for those who regulate against it, those involved in compliance initiatives, law enforcement, and the public to better recognize and prevent money laundering. This project’s genesis came from interpreting criminal cases, translating documents in United States federal court cases, and observing how investigators followed the money trail to uncover illegal activity.

It will provide an important reference source for researchers, instructors, and practitioners in the sector.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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