Adriana TortorielloOctober 2013

Katharina Reiss

Hans Vermeer

Christiane Nord

Vermeer (1978) laid the foundations of the Skopos Theory with his 1978 essay, A framework for a general theory of translation (Snell-Hornby 2006:51)

A central idea of the essay was that the aim and purpose of a translation is determined by the needs and expectations of the reader in his culture. Vermeer called this the skopos, and the so-called faithfulness to the original, equivalence in fact, was subordinated to this skopos. (Kussmaul 2004, quoted in Snell-Hornby 2006: 51)

What is equivalence in TS, and whats wrong with it?

Two seminal definitions, Nidas Formal Equivalence and Dynamic Equivalence:

FORMAL equivalence: a type of equivalence that focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content [] One is concerned that the message in the receptor language should match as closely as possible the different elements in the source language. (Nida 1964: 159)

This type of equivalence aims at reproducing the Source Language surface structures as closely as possible.

DYNAMIC equivalence: a type of equivalence that is based on the principle of equivalent effect, where the relationship between [TL] receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between the original receptors and the message. (ibid)

A translation should be producing a similar response in the target audience as it did in the source audience (if a text is meant to make you laugh in SL, it should still make you laugh in TL).

Excessive focus on ST (sacred?)Hard to define equivalence relationship between ST and TT (form, meaning, style, desired effect?)Same receivers vs different receivers; same function vs different functions

ST: destined to the source culture; TT: destined to function in a different culture (target culture)

Source and target texts may diverge from each other quite considerably, not only in the formulation and distribution of the content but also as regards the goals which are set for each, and in terms of which the arrangement of the content is in fact determined. (Vermeer 1989, in Venuti 2004:229)

SKOPOS = Greek for aim, purpose

The aim or purpose of the translation becomes the main focus

The receiver of the TT is of paramount importance in determining its skopos

Translation: not just transferring meaning from text A to text B

Translation = an act of communication

Hence, there is always an intended receiver

Vermeer: action-oriented approach (translation as a type of human action)

Along very similar lines: Justa Holz-Manttari and the Theory of Action (1984)

An action: intentional (the result of a choice) and purposeful behaviour that takes place in a given situation which is embedded in a given cultural context

For an act of behaviour to be called an action the person performing it must (potentially) be able to explain why he acts as he does although he could have acted otherwise. (Vermeer 1989:176, in Nord 1997: 19)

If the behaviour involves at least two participants, then that action can be called interaction.

Human communication = a form of interpersonal interaction, i.e. a form of action, intentional and purposeful, that involves two or more participants

And it is defined as communicative when it involves SIGNS, which are produced intentionally by one agent (the SENDER) and are directed towards another agent (the RECEIVER).

NB: signs are conventional and thus culture-specific (Nord 1997: 23)

Definition of culture by US ethnologist Ward Goodenough (1964: 36, in Nord 2005: 869)

A societys culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves.

Culture is not part of ones biological heritage: it needs to be learnt.

Communicative interaction takes place in culturally determined situations expectations and knowledge of participants.

If the cultural situation of sender and receiver overlap, communication can (usually) take place.

Comprehension relies not only on what is said or written in a given text but also on the previous knowledge and expectations of the recipients (Nord 2005: 868)

When the participants in the communicative interaction belong to different cultures, they need the help of a mediator in order to communicate.

Role of the TRANSLATOR as MEDIATOR

Translation = MEDIATED INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION.

Translator = the mediator who will bridge the gap between situations where differences in verbal and non-verbal behaviour, expectations, knowledge and perspectives are such that there is not enough common ground for the sender and the receiver to communicate effectively by themselves. (Nord 1997:17)

Translation as a form of mediated intercultural communication (Nord 1997:18)

Translation = an intentional, interpersonal, intercultural interaction based on a source text

Translational action without a source text: the translator, as an expert, acts, e.g., as a language consultant.

Translation ServicesThere is an ever-growing need for cross cultural communications. Spry Translations LLC takes great pride in doing our part to help our clients communicate globally. We offer a variety of services to aid in precisely conveying and/or receiving your message. These language services include, but are not limited to: Translation:We translate a wide range of documents into and from English. Our highly skilled professional translators are ready to take on any project you may have. Editing:Our editors are available to review previously translated documents or even monolingual originals. Localization:We work side-by-side with you to ensure that the right message is conveyed to your target audience. This can take multiple forms including non-linguistic consultation, such as the popularity of items in a foreign country and cultural reception to your message.[From: http://www.sprytranslations.com/services.php]

Any form of translational action, including therefore translation itself, may be conceived as an action, as the name implies. Any action has an aim, a purpose. [] The word skopos, then, is a technical term for the aim or purpose of a translation. (Vermeer 1989 in Venuti 2004: 227)

An action leads to a result, a new situation or event, and possibly to a new object. Translational action leads to a target text. (ibid)

The source text gets de-throned.

According to Reiss & Vermeer (1984), a Source Text is nothing but an offer of information to a source audience: the Target Text thus becomes an offer of information (to a target audience) about the original offer of information.

Major shift (focus on TT and its receivers): to translate means to produce a text in a target setting for a target purpose and target addressees in target circumstances (Vermeer 1987, in Nord 1997:12).

The translator, says Vermeer, is an expert in translational action. He or she is therefore responsible for the performance of the commissioned task. (Vermeer 1989, in Venuti 2004: 228)

It is up to him to decide, for instance, what role a source text plays in his translational action. The decisive factor here is the purpose, the skopos, of the communication in a given situation. (ibid)

The main agents in the translation process:

INITIATOR

COMMISSIONER

TRANSLATOR

Initiator: the person / company who needs the translation

Commissioner: the person / agency / company who commissions the translation (for a given purpose and a given addressee)

TRANSLATOR: as an expert in translatorial action, the translator is responsible for the production of a target text that is functional, i.e. that is in accordance with the skopos of the translation (and with the translation brief)

Negotiation with commissioner, offer of expert advice

The brief should (explicitly or implicitly) contain information about:The intended text function(s)The TT receiver(s)The time and place of text receptionThe medium through which the text will be transmittedThe motive [reason] for the production or reception of the text(Nord 1997: 60)

The brief does NOT give any indications as to the translation strategies that the translator should implement

Unfortunately Clients do not normally bother to give the translator an explicit translation brief; not being experts in intercultural communication, they often do not know that a good brief spells a better translation. (Nord 1997: 30)

Creative BriefCAMPAIGN MESSAGETo communicate a technology breakthrough in the market place, so anyone considering a high end home cinema projector has Epson on the top of their shopping list.

CREATIVE IDEAThe creative idea is all about communicating the contrast between black and white with the contrast between tones in films. Dark and light, good and evil. The Home Cinema ads seek to dramatise the difference between black and white with a filmic, dramatic tonality. Epson have deliberately chosen the font, copy and in the case of the banners the animation, to communicate this contrast.The copy should evoke the polarities of good and evil the contrast between the two must be retained. Phrases that represent purity and corruption would be appropriate:Black: bone chilling, night stalkingBlack notes; Black references should be sinister and suggestive, but they should not be murderous or explicit. As with all the best Hitchcock thrillers, the greatest drama is evoked by what goes unseen, but imagined, rather than what is shown explicitlyWhite: pure as snow, bird songWhite notes: The white references should be about innocence and naivity.Please focus on cinematic references where possible.

TARGET AUDIENCEEarly adopter males between 30 and 50. These people are tech geeks and are likely to have done a lot of research before buying a new projector. The product will normally be demonstrated to them ahead of purchase in the shop and many will have a specifically designed cinema room in their homes. They mainly use the projector for films however they may also use it for watching sport

WHAT DO WE WANT THE TARGET AUDIENCE TO BELIEVE/FEEL?Epson high end home cinema projectors offer the best projection quality.Epson are a lead brand in high end home projector sector.

IMPORTANT:The preference is for the localised copy to stay close to the English in meaning, unless it does not make sense in your market. You do however have the creative freedom to come up with a localised version that comes close to the English original. In other words, we are not looking for literal translations of the English but strong, viable options for your market.

Adriana TortorielloNovember 2013

Skopos Theory = a target-oriented translation theory

The source text is de-throned

Translation is a form of MEDIATED INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Major determinants in the translation process: TT skopos and TT addressee(s)

Translation as a form of mediated intercultural communication (Nord 1997:18)

Grundlegung einer allgemeine Translationtheorie (Reiss & Vermeer 1984):

A TT is determined by its SkoposA TT is a message in a target culture/TL concerning a message in a source culture/SLA TT is not clearly reversible (no back translation)A TT must be internally coherentA TT must be coherent with the STThe order of the rules is hierarchical

The purpose of the TT is the main determinant for the chosen translation strategies.

These strategies are used to produce a functionally appropriate result: the translation should function in the situation in which it will be used and for the people who use it.

This rule allows the translator to go beyond the faithful / free dichotomy (the formal / dynamic equivalence dichotomy): depending on the skopos, a translation will be more literal, free, creative etc.

A TT is an offer of information in a target culture and a TL, which is based on an offer of information (the ST) in a source culture and SL.

The meaning or function of a text is not something inherent in the linguistic signs [ ]. A text is made meaningful by its receiver and for its receiver. [] We might even say that there are as many texts as there are receivers. (Nord 1997: 31)

A TT is not clearly reversible: the function of the TT does not necessarily match the function of the ST.

A back-translation might not lead to a text which is similar to the original ST.

Internal coherence: the TT must be coherent for the TT receivers. The receiver must be able to understand the TT, and the TT has to be meaningful in the communicative situation and target culture.

A TT must be coherent with the ST: there must be coherence between the ST information received by the translator, the interpretation the translator gives to this information and the information that is encoded for the TT receivers, i.e., intertextual coherence.

NOTE: because of the hierarchical order (rule six), intertextual coherence is considered less important than internal coherence.

ADEQUACY = a dynamic concept, as opposed to equivalence which is seen as a static concept: adequacy refers to the qualities of a target text with regards to the translation brief i.e., the translation must be ADEQUATE to the requirements of the brief.

In the translational action we find a goal-oriented selection of signs that are considered appropriate for the communicative purpose defined in the translation assignment.(Reiss 1983/1989, in Nord 1997: 35)

Bhlers (1934) model of the functions of language:

REPRESENTATIONAL related to the description of extralinguistic reality, hence factual

EXPRESSIVE related to the senders feelings about the described reality

APPELLATIVE aimed at achieving a response in the receiver

Reiss text types: informative, expressive and operative

INFORMATIVE: texts that aim at informing the reader about facts / phenomena of the real world

EXPRESSIVE: the main component is not informative but rather aesthetic

OPERATIVE: both content and form depend on the extralinguistic effect that the text is meant to achieve

Informative: the translator should attempt to give a correct and complete representation of the source texts content and should be guided, in terms of stylistic choices, by the dominant norms of the target language and culture. (Nord 1997: 38)

Expressive: The stylistic choices of the SL author contribute to the meaning of the SL text: In this case, stylistic choices in translation are naturally guided by those made in the source text. (ibid.)

Operative: translators should try and achieve the same sort of reaction in the target audience this might involve changing some of the content and stylistic features of the original.

A translator will make his/her decisions in terms of the best translation strategies to adopt on the basis of the predominant characteristics of a text

An operative text can be also expressive; an expressive text can be also informative.

An OVERT type of translation is requiredA.1. A US President speech during an electoral campaign

A.2. A literary text, whose value is recognised as part of a given nations cultural heritage

A COVERT type of translation is requiredB.1. An advert for a well-known brand of soap

B.2. A communication of a CEO to all the employees of an international company

Texts that require an OVERT translation:

Historically linked (A1)Timeless (A2)(House 1977: 106)

In both cases, the TT readers will be allowed to eavesdrop, ie they will be enabled to appreciate the original textual function, albeit at a distance. (House 2001: 250)

The role of the translator: give target culture members access to the original text and its cultural impact on source culture members [and put] target culture members in a position to observe and to judge this text from outside. (ibid).

A COVERT translation: a translation which enjoys the status of an original ST in the target culture (House 1977:107) as in the case of B1 and B2.

In this case true functional equivalence is aimed at, and therefore the original may be manipulated at the level of Language/Text and Register via the use of a cultural filter. The result may be a very real distance from the original. (House 2001: 250)

Cultural filter: a way of identifying differences in conventions of behaviour and communication, preferred rhetorical styles and expectation norms in the two cultural communities (ibid)

Translators as cultural mediators; but translation can go either way:

There might be situations in translation where it is essential to bridge the cultural gap and others where the translator is supposed to leave the gap open, insisting on the cultural distance between source and target culture, but making the other culture accessible by explaining its otherness. (Nord 2005: 870)

A DOCUMENTARY translation is one that aims at producing in the target language a kind of document of (certain aspects of) a communicative interaction in which a source-culture sender communicates with a source-culture audience via the source text under source-culture conditions. (Nord 1997: 47)

cf Houses OVERT translation

Documentary translation: the target text will focus on one or more aspects of the source text.

Examples: interlinear, literal or philological translations, that might be used, e.g., for teaching purposes.

INSTRUMENTAL translation: a translation that aims at producing in the target language an instrument for a new communicative interaction between the source-culture sender and a target-culture audience, using (certain aspects of) the source text as a model. (Nord 1997:47)

Instrumental: equifunctional, heterofunctional, homologous.

Equifunctional: same function is preserved (e.g., instruction manual, book of recipes)

Heterofunctional: TT has a different function from ST (e.g., classic novels translated for children, where certain references need to be adapted for a different audience)

Homologous: the ST and the TT have a similar sort of status in their respective cultural contexts (e.g. poetry translated by a poet).

In all these cases the common feature is that readers are not supposed to be aware they are reading a translation at all. The form of the text is thus usually adapted to target-culture norms and conventions (Nord 1997:52) => cf Houses COVERT translation

Is this really a Machiavellian theory of translation?

Functionalism creates mercenary experts, able to fight under the flag of any purpose able to pay them (Pym in Nord 2007:7)

The end justifies the means, therefore the translation purpose justifies the translation procedures and all sorts of manipulations of the ST

And the source text is all but forgotten

Not all actions are intentional and purposeful / not all translations are intentional and purposeful

The Skopos theory cannot be applied to literary translation (art is not necessarily purposeful and intentional)

Clip a: Animal FarmClip b: Fry and Laurie Tricky LinguisticsClip c: Rupert reviews his pictures

TEXT TYPE?SKOPOS?ADDRESSEE(S)?Translation strategies?Domesticate / foreigniseKeep, adapt or lose cultural references?.

House, Juliane 1997. A model for assessing translation quality. META 22 (2): 103-109.------ 2001. Translation quality assessment: linguistic description versus social evaluation. META 46 (2): 243-257.Nida, Eugene 1964. Towards a Science of Translating. Leiden: Brill. Nord, Christiane 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Manchester: St. Jerome.------ 2005. Making otherness accessible. Functionality and skopos in the translation of New Testament texts. META 50 (3): 868-880.------ 2007. Function plus loyalty: ethics in professional translation. Gnesis. Revista Cientfica do ISAG, 2007/6: 7-17.Reiss, Katharina 1983 (1989). Adequacy and equivalence in translation. The Bible Translator (Technical Papers) 3: 301-308.Reiss, Katharina and Hans J. Vermeer 1984. Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie. Tbingen: Niemeyer. Snell-Hornby, Mary 2006. The Turns of Translation Studies. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Vermeer, Hans J. 1987. What does it mean to translate? Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (2): 25-33.------ 1989. Skopos and commission in translational action, in Chesterman, Andrew (ed.) Readings in Translation. Helsinki: Oy Finn Lectura Ab, 173-187. Now also in Venuti, Lawrence (ed.) 2004. The Translation Studies Reader, Second Edition. New York & London: Routledge.

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