Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Línguas e Literaturas Modernas
INTRODUCTION TO
TRANSLATION STUDIES
Power Point 14
Monday, 3 December 2007
Theory of “translatorial” or
“translational action” by Justa HolzMänttäri, 1984
Please read this link from Routledge
Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (available
in the FLUP library)
(http://books.google.com/books?id=T8Mt8ObE
BOQC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=justa+%22holz
+m%C3%A4ntt%C3%A4ri%22+translatorial+
action+model&source=web&ots=MfzQGerih0&
sig=NP_ZpFAFqiyF9fUKKKfK1T_oA64)
Criticisms levelled
at the skopos theory
• The theory claims to be ‘general’, i.e. applicable to
•
•
•
every text, but is in fact valid mostly for nonliterary texts.
Reiss’s functions and Vermeer skopoi are different
functional phenomena and this might be confusing.
The linguistic nature of the ST is neglected and
smaller segments of text may be inadequately
translated even if the general objective is fulfilled.
The metalanguage coined for the theory
(translatum, skopos, etc.), just as in Holz-Mänttäri
case, confuses rather than clarifying matters.
Nord’s Text Analysis in
Translation: (1988/91)
• Textanalyze und Übersetzung: Theoretische
Grundlagen, Methode und didaktische
Anwendung einer übersetzungsrelevanten
Textanalyze
(published in Heidelberg in 1988)
Text Analysis in Translation:Theory, Methodology
and Didactic Application of a Model for
Translation-Oriented Text Analysis
(translation published in Amsterdam by Rodopi, in
1991)
Nord’s model takes into account the
criticisms of Skopostheorie and offers a new
functionalist approach. She distinguishes
between:
• Documentary translation (readers are
aware that it is a translation; e.g., literary
T, word-for-word T, literal T, ‘exoticizing T’,
i.e., to keep some of the ‘local colour’ of
the ST)
• Instrumental translation (TT receivers
read the TT believing it is a ST written in
their own language for a specific
communicative situation) (Munday: 72-73)
Nord’s guidelines seek to give T students a
model to analyse STs “which is applicable
to all text types and translation situations”.
It has a lot in common with Reiss and
Vermeer’s as well as Holz-Mänttäri work
(functionalism, translation action and its
players)
Translation as a Purposeful Activity
1997
With this new book, Nord revises her
model to make it more flexible.
The “3 aspects of functionalist approaches
that are particularly useful in translator
training” are:
The importance of the translation brief (T
commission)
The role of ST analysis
The functionalist hierarchy of T problems
1. The importance of the T brief
The translators compare the profiles of the ST and
the TT as defined in the brief.
The T brief should carry the following info for both
texts:
 The intended text functions
The addresses (sender and recipient)
The time and place of text reception
The medium
The motive (why the ST was written and why it
is being translated) Munday:82
2. The role of ST analysis
ST is analysed according to the following intratextual
factors:
 Subject matter
 Content: including connotation and cohesion
 Presuppositions: real-world factors of the
communicative situation presumed to be known to the
participants;
 Composition: including micro- and macrostructure
 Non-verbal elements: illustrations, italics, etc.
 Lexis: incl. dialect, register and specific terminology
 Sentence structure
 Suprasegmental features: incl. stress, rhythm etc.
Munday: 83
3. The functional hierarchy of
translation problems
a. Decide on intended function of T
b.
c.
d.
(documentary or instrumental)
Identify elements to be adapted to TT
receivers’ situation (after analysis of T brief)
The T type determines the T style (oriented
towards the SC or the TC)
Deal with text problems at a lower linguistic
level (as in the ST analysis in 2)
This approach combines strong
points from the various functional
and action theories, namely
Holz-Mänttäri’s emphasis on T commission and
its players
Text functions follow Reiss and Vermeer’s
skopos, but the skopos here is not the all
dominant factor.
ST analysis (influenced by Reiss) highlights the
communicative function and genre features of
the ST type and language, but it is more flexible
than the other functional theories
TASK
Work in pairs or groups of three.
Each group will receive a ST and its corresponding
TT.
Follow Nord’s model and produce a case study in
which you establish The ST-TT profiles and you
conduct a ST analysis choosing 3 or 4 elements
form Nord’s list of intratextual factors.
(Refer to Munday’s Case study on p. 84-85)