1st Edition

Towards a General Theory of Translational Action Skopos Theory Explained

By Katharina Reiss, Hans J Vermeer Copyright 2013
    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    240 Pages
    by Routledge

    This is the first English translation of the seminal book by Katharina Reiß and Hans Vermeer, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first published in 1984. The first part of the book was written by Vermeer and explains the theoretical foundations and basic principles of skopos theory as a general theory of translation and interpreting or ‘translational action’, whereas the second part, penned by Katharina Reiß, seeks to integrate her text-typological approach, first presented in 1971, as a ‘specific theory’ that focuses on those cases in which the skopos requires equivalence of functions between the source and target texts. Almost 30 years after it first appeared, this key publication is now finally accessible to the next generations of translation scholars.

    In her translation, Christiane Nord attempts to put skopos theory and her own concept of ‘function plus loyalty’ to the test, by producing a comprehensible, acceptable text for a rather heterogeneous audience of English-speaking students and scholars all over the world, at the same time as acting as a loyal intermediary for the authors, to whom she feels deeply indebted as a former student and colleague.

    0. Introduction

    0.1 Preliminary remarks

    0.2 General epistemological considerations

    0.3 The purpose of T&I studies

    0.4 General remarks on terminology

     

    Part I. Theoretical groundwork

     

    1. Terminological distinctions

    1.1 The need for a generic term

    1.2 The advantage of neologisms

    1.3 Formal distinctions

    1.4 Summary 1

    1.5 Other definitions

     

    2. Of worlds and languages

    2.1 Framework for a theory of translational action: an overview

    2.2 The concept of ‘language’

    2.3 Forms of transfer

    2.4 Summary: ‘Transfer’ as a generic concept

    2.5 Language and culture

    2.6 What is translated?

     

    3. Translational action as an ‘offer of information’ (functional definition)

    3.1 Different translation strategies at work

    3.2 Translation seen as a two-phase communication process

    3.3 An ‘information’ theory of translation

    3.4 In search of a consistent theory: five examples

    3.5 Another short note on terminology

    3.6 Translation as an IO about another IO

    3.7 Types of ‘information offers’ about texts

    3.8 The benefits of our theory

    3.9 Translation as ‘imitatio’

     

    4. The priority of purpose (skopos theory)

    4.1 Introductory remarks

    4.2 The priority of functionality

    4.3 Summary

    4.4 The skopos rule

    4.5 The sociological rule

    4.6 Phases in decision-making

    4.7 Skopos hierarchies

    4.8 Source-text skopos vs. target-text skopos

     

    5. Summary of the theoretical groundwork (3, 4)

     

    6. Some further considerations regarding the theoretical groundwork

    6.1 Success and protest

    6.2 Intratextual coherence

    6.3 Intertextual coherence (fidelity)

    6.4 Types of coherence

     

    7. General rules for translational action

     

    8. Taxonomy for a theory of translational action

    8.1 Preliminary remarks

    8.2 Models of translational action

    8.3 Taxonomy

     

    Part II. Specific theories

     

    9. The relationship between source text and target text

     

    10. Equivalence and adequacy

    10.0 Preliminary remarks

    10.1 Towards a definition of equivalence

    10.2 Origin of the equivalence concept

    10.3 On the fuzziness of the equivalence concept

    10.4 Defining the scope of the equivalence concept

    10.5 The concept of adequacy

    10.6 Equivalence vs. adequacy

    10.7 Equivalence as a dynamic concept

    10.8 Text and textual equivalence

    10.9 Equivalence criteria

    10.10 Achieving textual equivalence in the translation process

    10.11 The text

    10.12 Hierarchies of equivalence requirements

    10.13 Discussion of examples

    10.14 Conclusions

     

    11. Genre theory

    11.0 Introduction

    11.1 The concept of genre

    11.2 Genre definition

    11.3 Genre conventions and genre classes

    11.4 The role of genre in the communicative event

    11.5 The role of genre in the translation process

    11.6 Summary

     

    12. Text type and translation

    12.0 Preliminary remarks

    12.1 Text status

    12.2 Text function

    12.3 Text types

    12.4 Hybrid forms

    12.5 Identifying signals

    12.6 Amplification of the typology

    12.7 The relevance of text types for translation

     

    Epilogue

     

    Biography

    Katharina Reiß, Hans J. Vermeer, Christiane Nord, Marina Dudenhöfer