The paper can be pided into five parts。 The introduction introduces the background of the study。 The second part is literature review which introduces the previous studies on the Skopostheorie and previous researches about the film title translation。 The third part is concerned with the features and purposes of film titles。 The fourth part is the most important part which is about the application of Skopostheorie in the film title translation and analysis of the differences of film title translation in Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan。 The last part is conclusion which gives a summary to the whole thesis。

2。 Literature Review 

2。1 Previous studies on the Skopostheorie

The Skopostheorie is a branch of German Functionalist Translation Theory, which is very influential all over the world。 The scholars at home and abroad do a lot of researches on this theory。

2。1。1 Foreign studies论文网

“Skopos” is a Greek word for the meaning of “Purpose”; “Theorie” is a Germany word for the meaning of “Theory”。 This theory applies the concept of Skopos into translation and it thinks that each action has a purpose。 The translation is also a purposeful, communicative and intercultural activity。 The translator adopts the translation methods according to the textual purposes。 The Skopostheorie is an external study to the translation and it transfers the research focus on the relationship of original text and target text to the expected result of target text。 (Li 77) The studies about this theory have gone through four stages。

First stage: the basic formation of the Skopostheorie is the translation criticism raised by Katharina Reiss。 She was first one that regarded the textual function as a standard of translation criticism in her published book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism。 Although Reiss still did research on the basis of Equivalence Theory, she came to realize that the original text and target text could not achieve the equivalent principle in the realistic context。 Sometimes it does not hope to establish the equivalent relationship because some target texts want to achieve the purpose or function which is different from the original texts。 It is just as Nord said “Where equivalences is not possible and in some cases, not even desired and there are certain exceptions from the equivalence requirement”。 (Nord 9)So what we should firstly consider is the functional features of target text instead of the equivalence in the given circumstance。

Second stage: Reiss’s student Vermeer broke through the confinement of the Equivalence Theory and established the Skopos Theory based on the Action Theory。 He firstly came up with the basic principle of Skopostheorie in his book named A Framework for a General Theory of Translation published in 1978。Vermeer defined Human action as intentional and purposeful behavior that taken place in the given situation。 As a part of human action, translation has its own purposes and these purposes are determined by the addressees who are intended audiences of the target text 。Therefore, the translator should choose the best methods to combine the skopos of translation with specific needs of readers。

Third stage: Manttari extended the research focus and proposed the “Translation Action Theory” by using the Communication and Action Theory for the reference。 This theory thinks that the key point of translation process is the complicated action designed for the specific purposes。 It emphasizes the interaction of the three aspects: (1) behavior in the course of translation (2) the behavior of participant in the process of translation (3) subjective and objective requirements of the circumstances。 The target text through this complete process has a particular purpose。

Fourth stage: 1989, Nord introduced the “Function plus Loyalty” principle into the Skopostheorie。 This principle clarifies the internal and external factors needed to consider during the process of textual analysis。 It also clarifies how to adopt the translation methods designed for translating purpose based on the function of source text。 The “Loyalty” is different from the “Faithfulness”。 The former is the concept of interpersonal category which illustrates the social relationship between the persons; instead, the latter is the equivalent relationship between the source text and target text。 Nord further explained that the principle she introduced was to deal with the problems of cultural specificity。