2。3 The application of Skopostheorie in China

In the late 1970s, with the beginning of China’s reform and opening up to the outside world, Chinese scholars and translators began to have chances to keep in touch with Western academic circles。 In 1987, Gui Qianyuan first introduced Hans J。 Vermeer in his book Three German Functionalist School Translators (Gui Qianyuan 53-55)。  But Gui concentrated merely on the introduction of Vermeer not Skopostheorie。 Until the late 1990s, academic researches and studies concerning Skopostheorie started to appear on the scene in China。

Since being introduced into China, Skopostheorie has been widely applied in both translation and oral interpretation, especially in the field of literary translation。 To find out its cause, Skopostheorie has achieved breakthroughs in three aspects。 First, Skopostheorie holds that translation is a kind of purposeful transfer between two languages while traditional theory is restricted in lingual aspect。 Second, Skopostheorie confirms different values and roles played by different language participants。 Third, the most important one, Vermeer reckons that translation should occur in certain cultural context which moves the focus from sheer interlingual transfer to dynamic cultural translation。

Besides the field of literary translation, Skopostheorie is well applied in many other fields to guide the translation activities, such as Children’s literary works, subtitle translations and translation of scenic spots’ names etc。

3。 Three Basic Concepts of Skopostheorie

3。1 Skopos rule论文网

As a technical term, skopos originates from a Greek word which refers to “purpose” or “aim”。 According to Skopostheorie, translation is considered as a kind of human action。 Since any action is intentional and purposeful, translation is a type of intentional behavior occurring in a specific context。 Skopos rule is regarded as the predominant principles in translation。 Vermeer supposes that the transfer between two languages happens for a purpose or aim。 

However, there are too many purposes or aims in translation practice to define the only one。 In view of Vermeer’s analysis, the purposes can all be grouped into three main categories as follows: general purpose, communicative purpose and particular purpose。 In a word, there is always a purpose or aim involved in the translation process, result and procedure。 The translator should realize how a source language is to be transferred and it is the translators who are responsible for the choice of translation strategy which is to be adopted in translation。 In order to create an appropriate and satisfying result, all the choices made must be instructed under and serve the skopos rule。

3。2 Coherence rule

Generally speaking, the word “coherence” can be defined as “the agreement of text with its situation”。 (Shuttleworth&Cowie 59)。 In terms of coherence, there are two criterions: intratextual coherence and intertextual fidelity respectively。 Intratextual coherence concentrates on the reception of the target language in the target context。 Under this situation, coherence rule holds that a translation is feasible as long as it conforms to the target receivers’ context。 Nevertheless, the same expected readers may receive wholly different implications of the same text at different times, let alone the different target receivers。 According to Vermeer, this means that the source text serves as an intermediary of offering information to target receivers who retain the right to select the interesting and important items of the source text。 It can be concluded that what the translator must do in the translation process is to make the target text meaningful in the culture where target receivers conceive。

3。3 Fidelity rule

Fidelity rule, also known as intertextual coherence, mainly focuses on the loyalty between source text and target text。 Intertextual coherence or fidelity rule depends on the comprehension of the source text, and also on the function of the target text。 As a result, translators argue that the imitation of the source text as much as possible can be regarded as one type of intertextual fidelity。 Although the possible imitation of the original text is allowed, the target text must be loyal to the source text accordingly in terms of linguistic styles。 In translation practice, the translator plays a positive role in conforming to the fidelity rule between the source text and the target text, since the target text must conform to its skopos。