1. Functional Theories of Translation

2. Katharina Reiss’s Text Type
Systematizing the assessment of translations according to text type and function.
Characteristics of each text type:
Informative
Expressive
Operative
Audiomedial (p.73, Table 5.1)

3. Text type model
Informative reference work report, lecture tourist brochure biography sermon play electoral speech poem satire advertisement Expressive Operative

4. Criteria of Adequacy of the TT
Assessment of the adequacy of the TT according to:
Intralinguistic criteria
Extralinguistic criteria
Application of criteria according to text type
Occasions where the TT function differs from the ST function. (Example: Gulliver’s Travels)

5. Mary Snell Hornby’s Integrated Approach
Attempts to integrate a wide variety of different linguistic and literary concepts in an integrated approach to translation.
A “stratificational model” from the most general to the most particular
Study diagram on p.76

6. Holz-Mänttäri’s Translatorial Action Model
Translation is purpose-driven, outcome-oriented human interaction.
The process of Translation involves the intercultural transfer of message-transmitter compounds
“ [It] is not about translating words, sentences or
texts but is in every case about guiding the intended
co-operation over cultural barriers enabling
functionally oriented communication”.
(Holz-Mänttäri, 1984)

7. Translatorial Action (Cont.)
Interlingual translation is “translatorial action from a source text” and is a “communicative process involving a series of roles and players”:
The initiator
The commissioner
The ST producer
The TT producer
The TT user
The TT receiver

8. Translatorial Action (Cont.)
In the production of the TT, the ST is analyzed only for its “construction and function”. Relevant features are described according to :
Content: structured into:
factual information
overall communicative strategy
Form: structured into:
terminology
cohesive elements

9. Skopos Theory Meaning of skopos Hans J. Vermeer & Katharina Reiss
Focus : the purpose of the translation
The purpose determines the methods and strategies
Aim: to produce a functionally adequate result
The result is the TT, or translatum (Vermeer)
Conclusion: Why the ST needs translation & the function expected of the TT are crucial

10. Rules of the Skopos theory:
A translatum (or TT) is determined by its skopos
A TT is an offer of info. in a target culture and TL , concerning an offer of info. in a source culture and SL.
A TT does not initiate an offer of information in a clearly reversible way.
A TT must be internally coherent. (coherence rule)
A TT must be coherent with ST. (fidelity rule)
The 5 rules above stand in hierarchical order, with the skopos rule predominating

11. Christiane Nord Translation-Oriented Text Analysis
Christiane Nord’s types of texts:
Documentary translation:
An instrumental translation: ‘function preserving translations’ or translations un-preserving function
Aspects of functionalist approaches useful for translator training:
The importance of the translation commission
The role of ST analysis
The functional hierarchy of translation problems