Reiß Katharina, Vermeer Hans J. Towards a General Theory of Translational Action

Skopos Theory Explained. — Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. — x + 221 p. — ISBN: 9781905763955Translated from the German by Christiane Nord. English reviewed by Marina Dudenhöfer.
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.Preliminary remarks
General epistemological considerations
The purpose of T&I studies
General remarks on terminology
Theoretical groundwork
Terminological distinctions
The need for a generic term
The advantage of neologisms
Formal distinctionsOther definitions
Of worlds and languages
Framework for a theory of translational action: an overview
The concept of ‘language’
Forms of transfer
Summary: ‘Transfer’ as a generic concept
Language and culture
What is translated?
Translational action as an ‘offer of information’ (functional definition) (cf. Vermeer 1982)
Different translation strategies at work
Translation seen as a two-phase communication process
An ‘information’ theory of translation
In search of a consistent theory: five examples
Another short note on terminology
Translation as an IO about another IO
Types of ‘information offers’ about texts
The benefits of our theory
Translation as ‘imitatio’
The priority of purpose (skopos theory)
Introductory remarks
The priority of functionalityThe skopos rule
The sociological rule
Phases in decision-making
Skopos hierarchies
Source-text skopos vs. target-text skopos
Summary of the theoretical groundwork (> 3., 4.)
Some further considerations regarding the theoretical groundwork
Success and protest
Intratextual coherence
Intertextual coherence (fidelity)
Types of coherence
General rules for translational action
Taxonomy for a theory of translational action
Preliminary remarks
Models of translational action
Taxonomy
Specific theories
The relationship between source text and target text
Equivalence and adequacy
Preliminary remarks
Towards a definition of equivalence
Origin of the equivalence concept
On the fuzziness of the equivalence concept
Defining the scope of the equivalence concept
The concept of adequacy
Equivalence vs. adequacy
Equivalence as a dynamic concept
Text and textual equivalence
Equivalence criteria
Achieving textual equivalence in the translation process
The text
Hierarchies of equivalence requirements
Discussion of examples
Conclusions
Genre theoryThe concept of genre
Genre definition
Genre conventions and genre classes
The role of genre in the communicative event
The role of genre in the translation processText type and translation
Preliminary remarks
Text status
Text function
Text types
Hybrid forms
Identifying signals
Amplification of the typology
The relevance of text types for translation