Towards a General Theory of Translational Action: Skopos Theory Explained

240 Pages·2014·1.78 MB·English

by  Katharina Reiss

Katharina Reiß and Hans J. Vermeer
Towards a General Theory
of Translational Action
Skopos Theory Explained
Translated from the German by Christiane Nord
English reviewed by Marina Dudenhöfer
First published (cid:18)(cid:26)(cid:25)(cid:21) by St. Jerome Publishing

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© English translation, Christiane Nord 2013
© Katharina Reiß and Hans J. Vermeer
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reiss, Katharina, author.
[Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie. English]
Towards a general theory of translational action : skopos theory explained
/ Katharina Reiss and Hans J. Vermeer ; Translated from the German by
Christiane Nord ; English reviewed by Marina Dudenhöfer.
pages cm
“Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first published in 1984.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-905763-95-5 (pbk : alk. paper)
1. Translating and interpreting. I. Vermeer, Hans J. (Hans Josef), 1930- author.
II. Nord, Christiane, translator. III. Dudenhöfer, Marina, editor of compilation.
IV. Title.
P306.R4313 1984
418’.02--dc23
2012049567
Towards a General Theory of Translational Action
Skopos Theory Explained
Katharina Reiß / Hans J. Vermeer
Translated from the German by Christiane Nord
English reviewed by Marina Dudenhöfer
This is the first English translation of the seminal book by Katharina Reiß and
Hans Vermeer, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first pub-
lished 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 comprehen-
sible, 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.
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Table of Contents
Translator’s preface i
Foreword to the first edition vii
Foreword to the second edition ix
0. Introduction 1
0.1 Preliminary remarks 1
0.2 General epistemological considerations 1
0.3 The purpose of T&I studies 2
0.4 General remarks on terminology 3
Part I. Theoretical groundwork
1. Terminological distinctions 7
1.1 The need for a generic term 7
1.2 The advantage of neologisms 7
1.3 Formal distinctions 8
1.4 Summary 12
1.5 Other definitions 13
2. Of worlds and languages 17
2.1 Framework for a theory of translational action: an
overview 17
2.2 The concept of ‘language’ 18
2.3 Forms of transfer 21
2.4 Summary: ‘Transfer’ as a generic concept 22
2.5 Language and culture 23
2.6 What is translated? 28
3. Translational action as an ‘offer of information’ (functional
definition) (cf. Vermeer 1982) 33
3.1 Different translation strategies at work 33
3.2 Translation seen as a two-phase communication
process 39
3.3 An ‘information’ theory of translation 43
3.4 In search of a consistent theory: five examples 50
3.5 Another short note on terminology 60
3.6 Translation as an IO about another IO 69
3.7 Types of ‘information offers’ about texts 71
3.8 The benefits of our theory 74
3.9 Translation as ‘imitatio’ 79
4. The priority of purpose (skopos theory) 85
4.1 Introductory remarks 85
4.2 The priority of functionality 86
4.3 Summary 89
4.4 The skopos rule 90
4.5 The sociological rule 90
4.6 Phases in decision-making 91
4.7 Skopos hierarchies 92
4.8 Source-text skopos vs. target-text skopos 92
5. Summary of the theoretical groundwork ( 3., 4.) 94
6. Some further considerations regarding the theoretical
groundwork 95
6.1 Success and protest 95
6.2 Intratextual coherence 98
6.3 Intertextual coherence (fidelity) 102
6.4 Types of coherence 103
7. General rules for translational action 107
8. Taxonomy for a theory of translational action 108
8.1 Preliminary remarks 108
8.2 Models of translational action 108
8.3 Taxonomy 109
Part II. Specific theories
9. The relationship between source text and target text 113
10. Equivalence and adequacy 115
10.0 Preliminary remarks 115
10.1 Towards a definition of equivalence 115
10.2 Origin of the equivalence concept 118
10.3 On the fuzziness of the equivalence concept 120
10.4 Defining the scope of the equivalence concept 120
10.5 The concept of adequacy 123
10.6 Equivalence vs. adequacy 127
10.7 Equivalence as a dynamic concept 128
10.8 Text and textual equivalence 130
10.9 Equivalence criteria 135
10.10 Achieving textual equivalence in the translation process 139
10.11 The text 140
10.12 Hierarchies of equivalence requirements 143
10.13 Discussion of examples 143
10.14 Conclusions 153
11. Genre theory 155
11.0 Introduction 155
11.1 The concept of genre 157
11.2 Genre definition 159
11.3 Genre conventions and genre classes 164
11.4 The role of genre in the communicative event 168
11.5 The role of genre in the translation process 170
11.6 Summary 180
12. Text type and translation 181
12.0 Preliminary remarks 181
12.1 Text status 181
12.2 Text function 182
12.3 Text types 182
12.4 Hybrid forms 183
12.5 Identifying signals 184
12.6 Amplification of the typology 186
12.7 The relevance of text types for translation 187
Epilogue 192
Bibliography 196
Index of Authors 214
Index of Subjects 218
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Translator’s preface
The starting point for what is now called the functional approach to transla-
tion was a lecture course on a ‘General Theory of Translation’ held by Hans
J. Vermeer at the School for Translation and Interpreting Studies in Germers-
heim, University of Mainz, Germany, in the academic year 1976-1977 (cf.
Snell-Hornby 2006: 51). This theory was introduced to a wider audience in
an essay published in Lebende Sprachen (Vermeer [1978]1983), in which
the author proposed a “framework for a general theory of translation”. He
called it skopos theory (Skopostheorie) and suggested that the most impor-
tant criterion guiding the translator’s decisions should be the skopos, i.e. the
aim or purpose, of the translation process. Two factors kept this theory from
becoming widespread: (a) Lebende Sprachen was (and is) a journal for pro-
fessional translators, whose attitude towards theory has always been rather
sceptical, and (b) the German academic style of the paper did little or noth-
ing to make them change their minds. It was not until 1984, when the book
in question here was first published, that German translation scholars began
to pay attention to this new approach. As translation studies in Germany up
to that point had been entirely dominated by linguistic theories based on the
fundamental notion of equivalence, the skopos theory was harshly criticized
for transgressing the limits of “translation proper” and making “the contours
of translation, as the object of study […] steadily vaguer and more difficult
to survey” (Koller 1995: 193).
During the decade after Vermeer first published his seminal article, skopos
theory remained relatively unknown outside the German-speaking world. It
is hard to believe that, by the end of the 1980s, less than a handful of articles
by Vermeer had been published in English, as well as a longer essay in Por-
tuguese and a Finnish translation of some parts of this book. An (incomplete)
Spanish translation appeared as late as 1996. The situation has not changed
much since then. Translation scholars all over the world have had all too often
to rely on second-hand information, which, sadly, has distorted the facts more
than once; a not insignificant factor for this would be the style conventions
of German academic writing, which are not easy to process for readers with
different cultural backgrounds.
The first part of this book was written by Vermeer and explains the theoret-
ical foundations and basic principles of skopos theory as a general theory of
translation and interpreting, whereas the second part, penned by Katharina
Reiß, seeks to integrate Reiß’s text-typological approach, first presented in
1971, as a “specific theory” within the general framework of skopos theory.
This attempt to combine the general with the specific (together with the con-
ventional alphabetical order of the authors’ names) led to the misconception,
which is still widely held, in particular by newcomers to translation studies,
that Katharina Reiß was the founder of skopos theory. What is true, however,