FUNCTIONAL THEORIES OF TRANSLATION

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the functional theory of translation. Although functional views on translation can be found at different stages of history, functionalist translation theories advanced in Germany only in the 1970s and 1980s of the XXth century. Therefore, this marks the shift of translation studies from mainly linguistic basis to an act of intercultural communication. The article provides an overview of the development of the ideas of functionalism in translation, starting with the classification of texts for translation by Ch. Reiss, who prepared the basis for a functional approach in her work on the critique of translation. Reiss’s initial work links language function, text type, genre and translation strategy. Reiss’s approach was later coupled to H. Vermeer’s highly influential skopos theory, where the translation strategy is decided by the purpose of the translation and the function of the target text in the target culture. Skopos theory is part of the model of translatorial action also proposed by J. Holz-Mänttäri, who places professional commercial translation within a sociocultural context, using the jargon of business and management. Translation is viewed as a communicative transaction involving initiator, commissioner, and the producers, users and receivers of the source text and target text. K. Nord’s model, designed for training translators, retains the functional context but includes a more detailed text-analysis model. The principle of “functionality plus loyalty” formed the basis of the model of text analysis in translation proposed by K. Nord. The author interprets loyalty as a bilateral responsibility of the translator and his partners in social interaction. The article presents an overview of the model of text analysis that synthesizes three aspects of functionalist approaches, which are especially important in the training of translators. At the present stage of development of multicultural digital society the application of existing functional approaches to translation meets the requirements of professional practice and can be successfully applied in the training of a translator.