Translating As A Purposeful Activity

This bestselling text is a comprehensive overview of functionalist approaches to translation in English. Christiane Nord, one of the leading figures in translation studies, explains the complexities of theories and terms in simple language with numerous examples. Covering how the theories developed, illustrations of the main ideas, and specific applications to translator training, literary translation, interpreting and ethics, Translating as a Purposeful Activity concludes with a concise review of both criticisms and perspectives for the future. Now with a Foreword by Georges Bastin and a new chapter covering the recent developments and elaborations of the theory, this is an essential text for students of translation studies and for translator training.

German-language approaches to translation have been revolutionized by the theory of action (Handlungstheorie) and the related theory of translation's goal or purpose (Skopstheorie). Both these approaches are functionalist: they seek to liberate translators from servitude to the source text, seeing translation as a new communicative act that must be purposeful with respect to the translator's client and readership. As one of the leading figures in this field, Christiane Nord gives the first full survey of functionalist approaches in English. She explains the complexities of the theories and their terms, using simple language with numerous examples. The book includes an overview of how the theories developed, illustrations of the main ideas, and specific applications to translator training, literary translation, interpreting and ethics. The survey concludes with a concise review of the criticisms that have been made of the theories, together with perspectives for the future development of functionalist approaches.

This is the first English translation of the seminal book by Katharina Reiß and Hans Vermeer, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first published 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 comprehensible, 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.

A critically acclaimed foundational text, Translation in Systems offers a comprehensive guide to the descriptive and systemic approaches which have shaped translation studies. Theo Hermans considers translation norms, equivalence, polysystems and social systems, covering a wide range of theorists in his discussion of the principles of translation studies. Reissued with a new foreword by Kathryn Batchelor, which updates the text for a new generation of readers, Translation in Systems endures partly on account of Hermans’s vivid and articulate writing style. The book covers the fundamental problems of translation norms, equivalence, polysystems and social systems, encompassing not only the work of Levý, Holmes, Even-Zohar, Toury, Lefevere, Lambert, Bassnett, D'hulst and others, but also giving special attention to contributions derived from Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann. Hermans explains how contemporary descriptive approaches came about, what the basic ideas were, how those ideas have evolved over time, and offers a critique of these approaches. With practical questions of how to investigate translation (including problems of definition, description and assessment of readerships), this is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in translation studies and related areas.

This book addresses the complexities of the translation process. Informed by theoretical and methodological advances in translation studies, research on writing and the expertise paradigm, it explores translation as a text reproduction task. With triangulation of data from Russian-Swedish translation – think-aloud-methodology and computer logging of the writing process - it makes a cross-sectional comparison of subjects with different amounts of translation experience, highlighting crucial aspects of professional competence and expertise in translation. The book also elaborates a method for a combined product and process analysis, applying it to the study of one type of explicitation: increased cohesive explicitness of the target text. The results have implications for translation theory and pedagogy. This volume will be of interest to translation scholars and translator trainers, irrespective of language combination, as well as to specialists in Russian and Swedish. It will also appeal to researchers on expertise in other domains.

A definitive survey of the most important developments in translation theory and research, with an emphasis on the twentieth century. This new edition includes pre-twentieth century readings and readings from other fields.

Exploring Translation Theories presents a comprehensive analysis of the core contemporary paradigms of Western translation theory. The book covers theories of equivalence, purpose, description, uncertainty, localization, and cultural translation. This second edition adds coverage on new translation technologies, volunteer translators, non-lineal logic, mediation, Asian languages, and research on translators’ cognitive processes. Readers are encouraged to explore the various theories and consider their strengths, weaknesses, and implications for translation practice. The book concludes with a survey of the way translation is used as a model in postmodern cultural studies and sociologies, extending its scope beyond traditional Western notions. Features in each chapter include: An introduction outlining the main points, key concepts and illustrative examples. Examples drawn from a range of languages, although knowledge of no language other than English is assumed. Discussion points and suggested classroom activities. A chapter summary. This comprehensive and engaging book is ideal both for self-study and as a textbook for Translation theory courses within Translation Studies, Comparative Literature and Applied Linguistics.

Thinking through Translation with Metaphors explores a wide range of metaphorical figures used to describe the translation process, from Aristotle to the present. Most practitioners and theorists of translation are familiar with a number of metaphors for translation, such as the metaphor of the bridge, following in another's footsteps, performing a musical score, changing clothes, or painting a portrait; yet relatively little attention has been paid to what these metaphorical models reveal about how we conceptualize translation. Drawing on insights from recent developments in metaphor theory, contributors to this volume reveal how central metaphorical language has been to translation studies at all periods of time and in various cultures. Metaphors have played a key role in shaping the way in which we understand translation, determining what facets of the translation process are deemed to be important and therefore merit study, and aiding in the training of successive generations of translators and theorists. While some of the papers focus mainly on past metaphorical representations, others discuss recent shifts in both metaphor and translation theory, while others still propose innovative metaphors in a bid to transform translation studies. The volume also includes an annotated bibliography of works centrally concerned with metaphors of translation.