Contributions of Functionalist Approaches to Translation

Contri besidesions of Functionalist Approaches to renditionINTRODUCTIONThe 1980s saw the birth of a number of glide slopees to Translation Studies (TS henceforth) conjointly termed functionalist, which brought about a paradigm shift in the system. This essay examines the strengths and weaknesses as well as the contributions of these functionalist blastes to the field of TS. Structur altogethery, the essay starts with a brief historical overview of the approaches to interpretation before the advent of functionalist approaches. Then it discusses the major functionalist approaches, utmostlighting their major postulations and the criticisms against them, which testament then be followed by a everyday summary of the motley contributions of the various strands of functionalism.TRANSLATION STUDIES BEFORE FUNCTIONALISMOver the years, scholars gain approached the discipline of Translation Studies from various angles largely depending on the dominant philosophy of the time and/or b eneathlying conceptions of the record of comment and how the translated school schoolbookbook will be use (Schaeffner 2001 c5). However, one dilemma that has prevailed over the centuries is the decision on the ruff method of translating a textbookual matter edition. This dilemma of the best method of translating is an age-old one. Jerome (395/2004 24) expresses this dilemma thusIt is difficult, when following the lines of another, not to overshoot somewhere and arduous, when something is well put in another language, to preserve this same kayo in supplantingif I translate word by word, it sounds absurd it out of necessity I alter something in the order or diction, I will obtainm to have abandoned the task of a translator.However, Jerome and indeed many other translator of his time end up not translating word by word. He plagiarizes Cicero as observing that in his interlingual rendition of Platos Protagoras and Xenophones Oeconomicus, that he kept their meanings but wit h their forms their figures, so to speak in words adapted to our idiom (395/2004 23). He adds that except for the case of Sacred Scriptures, where the very order of the words is a mystery I render not word for word, but mavin for sense (395/2004 25) so as not to sound absurd in the stub language.These scholars, including others like Nicolas Perrot DAblancourt (1640/2004), Martin Luther (1530) and John Dryden (1680/2004), may not be seen as definitions scholars per se since they all had their respective vocations and definition was what they did in the passing. However, their views and comments formed the bedrock on which the field of adaptation studies was to be built.Linguistic-based approachesThe argument over word by word or sense for sense displacement prevailed over the centuries up till the 20th century when Jakobson (1959/2004) introduced the term equivalence in the literature and Nida (1964/2004) expands it by distinguishing between prescribed and dynamic equivale nce. While formal equivalence aims at matching the cognitive content in the receptor language as closely as likely to the variant elements in the arising language, including the form and content, dynamic equivalence aims at complete naturalness of expression, and tries to relate the receptor to modes of demeanour relevant within the context of his hold finishing (Nida 1964/2004 156). According to Nida, the purposes of the translator to a large extent determine whether the translator should aim at formal equivalence or dynamic equivalence. oneness observes that these scholars atomic number 18 pertain with the correspondence between the laughingstock language and the reservoir language and these approaches were thus collectively called lingual approaches to displacement. According to Saldanha (2009 148), the term linguistic approaches to interpreting studies is used to refer to theoretical models that represent variation and/ or interpreting as a (primarily) linguistic process and are therefore informed full superior generally by linguistic surmise. Translation studies was subsumed under applied linguistics and thus studied with methods developed in linguistics (Schaeffner 2001 6). Other scholars that contributed to research in this empyrean are Catford (1965) and House (1977/1981). Translation was seen as a transfer of information from one language to another, as an activity that affects just the two languages involved. Thus scholars were concerned with prescribing methods of translating from one language to the other in order to reproduce in the target language a message that is equivalent to that of the offset text. One much(prenominal) prescription was Vinay and Dabelnets (1958/2994) seven methods or procedures for version borrowing, calque, literal translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. The first three they call direct translations as they involve transposing the source language message element by element , while the last four they call oblique because they involve an upsetting of the syntactic order of the source language.One major defect of linguistic approaches is that they do not take cognisance of the contribution of the context in which an expression is used to the understanding of the full-page message or text. Schaeffner (2001 8 9) observes thatStudies conducted within a linguistic-based approach to translation concentrated on the systematic relations between units of the language systems, but often abstracted from verbal expressions of their contextual use. A chosen TL-form may well be correct according to the rules of the language system, but this does not necessarily mean that the text as a whole appropriately fulfils its communicatory function in the TL situation and market-gardening.Working on the translation of the Bible, Nidas distinction between formal and dynamic equivalence introduced aspects of sociolinguistics and ending into translation studies. He says tha t any discussion of equivalence, whether formal or dynamic, must consider types of relatedness determined by the linguistic and pagan distance between the codes used to convey the message (1964/2004 157). He declares that a natural translation or dynamic equivalence involves two principal areas of adaptation, namely, grammar and lexicon (2004 163). However, his theory has been criticised for being restricted in application and scope as it appears to be meant mainly for Bible translations and to focus on just lexical and syntactic correspondence. A few years later, Koller (1979 215f) proposes quint categorisation of the concept of equivalence namely textralinguistic facts/state of affairs (denotative equivalence) form of verbalisation, including connotations, style and (connotative equivalence) text norms and language norms (text-normative equivalence) TL-text audience (pragmatic equivalence) and specific aesthetic, formal , characteristic features of text (formal-aesthetic equival ence) (quoted in Schaeffner 2001 9)This too receives a lot of criticisms which apparently inform its review by the author over the years. Pym (1997 1) observes that four editions of Kollers book Einfhrung in die bersetzungswissenschaft (Introduction to Translation Studies/Science) has been published as at 1995, with an article summarising the main points appearing in English in Target. and so the concept of equivalence was (and still is) highly contentious even to this day.Textlinguistic approachesIn reaction to the apparent rather restricted linguistic scope of these approaches, some scholars then argue for a text-linguistic or pragmatic approach to translation, whereby the whole text is seen as the unit of meaning and translation, as against the lexicon and grammar which was the focus of linguistic approaches. Katharina Reisss (1971/2004) text-typology is seminal in this respect, being about the first to introduce into TS a consideration of the communicative purpose of translati on (Munday 2008 74). According to Reiss, the communicative function of a text in its source culture determines its function in the target culture and how it will be translated. She classifies text-type into instructive (communicates content), expressive (communicates artistically organised content) and operative (communicates content with a persuasive character) (Reiss 1971/2004 171). In her view, a text that is adjudged informative should be translated in such a way that the same content in the source text is transferred into the target text an expressive text should protect the artistic and creative features of the source text in the target text while an operative source text should inform a target text with a similar or analogous effect on the target audience. In situations where a text exhibits features of more(prenominal) than one text-type, the translator should concern themselves with foreground processing the overriding text-type and back-grounding the rest if the need s o arises. Reiss does a lot to stress the importance of text-variety or literary genre in translation studies. She observes that genre conventions are culture specific and the translator should consider the distinctions in genre conventions across culture so as not to endanger the functional equivalence of the TL text by naively adopting SL conventions (1971/2004 173). Neubert (1985) and its sequel co-authored with Gregory Shreve (1992) have done a lot to emphasise the importance of genre analysis in translation studies. In the say to Translation as Text, they observe the decline in influence of linguistics in translation studies and the movement towards interdisciplinarityTranslation studies has abandoned its single-minded concern with stringently linguistic issues. It has been invigorated by new ideas from other disciplines. Translation scholars no longer hesitate to adopt new ideas from information science, cognitive science, and psychology. (Neubert and Shreve 1992 vii)Schola rs that favour this approach focus a lot on setting up prototypes of genres, or as Corbett (2009 291) puts it, these scholars focused on the descriptions of highly predictable, ritual, transactional texts, many of which seem banal in nature like Swales (1990) on reprint requests and Eggins (1994) on recipes. Thus scholars tried to identify parallel texts across languages and cultures by doing a systematic comparison of genre exemplars in both the source culture and the target culture (Schaeffner 2001 11). Schaeffner also notes elsewhere that genre conventions are determined by culture and, thus, prone to constant variety (2000 222). This enables the translator to adapt the text to the conventions of the receptor or target culture. Thus scholars operating within a text-linguistic approach to translation believe that a translation goes beyond language to cultural considerations.FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHESThe second half of the 20th century witnessed some paradigm shift in translation s tudies, especially with the publication in German of Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeers Foundation for a General Theory of Translation and Justa Holz-Manttaris Translatorial Action Theory and Method, both in 1984. These set the pace for what is later known as functionalist approaches to translation, approaches that see translation as a communicative action carried out by an expert in intercultural conversation (the translator), playing the role of a text producer and aiming at some communicative purpose (Nord 2001 151). Functionalist approaches generally believe that the function of a text in the target culture determines the method of translation. They are said to have developed in opposition to the equivalence paradigm of the linguistic-based approaches which see the source text as what determines the nature of the target text. Using the conversation scheme of SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, they accentuate the importance of the target text as the goal of the translational process. One of the major proponents, Vermeer (1987 29) declares that linguistics alone is not effective because translation itself is not merely nor primarily a linguistic process, and that linguistics has not yet formulated the right questions to tackle our problems (cited in Nord 1997 10). Quite a earnest number of translation scholars subscribe to functionalism like Vermeer (1978, 1989, 1996 Reiss and Vermeer 1984, 1991 Nord 1997, 2005 Holz-Manttari 1984, 1993 Honig 1997 Honig and Kussmaul 1982, 1996 among many others. Following are some of the major strands of functionalism.SkopostheorieThe most popular among the functionalist approaches, skopos theory was developed in Germany by Hans Vermeer in 1978 in dissatisfaction with the linguistic-based approaches to translation. He sees translation as an action governed by a skopos from Greek meaning purpose or aim. This purpose now determines how the translation is done. Vermeer argues that the source text is produced for a situation in the source cultu re which may not be the same in the target culture. It then follows that the translation should be produced to suit the purpose for which it is needed in the target culture the source text is oriented towards, and is in any case bound to, the source culture. The target textis oriented towards the target culture, and it is this which ultimately defines its adequacy (Vermeer 1989/2004 229). Reiss and Vermeer jointly published Translatorial Action Theory and Method in 1984 to give what has been described as the general translation theory, sufficiently general, and sufficiently complex, to cover a multitude of individual cases (Schaeffner 1998 236). They see a text as an offer of information and translation as an offer of information existing in a particular language and culture to members of another culture in their language. They hold that the needs of the target text receivers determine the specification of the skopos and the selection made from information offered in the source text (Schaeffner 1998 236). Thus translation goes beyond linguistic considerations to also encompass cultural issues.The question then arises Who determines the skopos? According to Vermeer (1989/2004 236), the skopos is defined by the commission and if necessary adjusted by the translator. Nord (199730) adds that the skopos is implant in the translation brief, which means that the soulfulness initiating the translation invariably decides what the skopos is. She agrees with Vermeer that the skopos is often negotiated between the client and the translator.The skopos of a text in the source culture might be the same as the skopos of the translation in the target culture, but that is just one of the different purposes for which a text might be needed in a different culture as the purpose in the target culture might be different. Reiss and Vermeer (1984) call the situation where the source text function is the same as the target text function functional constancy, while for the other situa tion where both texts have different functions they say the text has undergone a change of function.Vermeer also gives two save rules coherence rule and fidelity rule. Coherence rule stipulates that the target text must be sufficiently coherent for the target audience to understand presumption their assumed background knowledge and situational circumstances while the fidelity rule focuses on the intertextual relationship between the source text and the target text (Schaeffner 1998 236). The nature of this intertextual coherence between the source text and target is moreover determined by the skopos.The theory of translatorial actionThis theory, proposed by Holz-Manttari, draws a lot from action theory and communication theory. An action is generally seen as doing something intentionally, and communication basically means transferring information from one entity to another. Holz-Mantarris theory then sees translation as transferring information embedded in one culture to receiver s in another culture, and the translator is the expert saddled with the responsibility of this information transfer. Using concepts from communication theory, Holz-Mantarri identifies the players in the translatorial process the initiator, the person in need of the translation the commissioner, the person that contacts the translator the source text producer or author the target text producer, the translator or translation agency the target text drug user, teachers for example and the target text recipient, for example students in a target users class. She does a lot to emphasise the role play by these participants in the translational process.The need for a translation arises in situations where there is information in a particular culture that members of another culture do not have access to as a result of the cultural differences among the communities, or as Nord (1997 17) puts it,situations where differences in verbal and non-verbal behaviour, expectations, knowledge and perspe ctives are such that there is not enough common ground for the sender and receiver to communicate effectively by themselves.Translation then is a process of intercultural communication aimed at producing a text capable of functioning appropriately in specific situations and contexts of use (Schaeffner 1998 3). And since the focus is on producing functionally adequate texts, the target text should then conform to the genre conventions of the target culture. This makes the translator the expert in translatorial action, who determines what is suitable for the translatorial text operation and ensures the information is transmitted satisfactorily.One interesting aspect of this theory is the introduction of new terminologies into the literature. For example, instead of text, Holz-Mantarri prefers Botschaftstrger, message carrier, a concept that broadens the traditional concept of text to include non-verbal aspects of communication thereby doing justice to the complexity of communicative processes (Martin de Leon 2008 7). Other changes include Botschaftstrgerproduktion for text production and translatorisches Handeln for translate or translation.The principle of the necessary degree of precisionThis principle was developed by Honig and Kusmaul to depict a more detailed account of translation relevant decision-making processes as against the framework theory of translation (Honig 1997 10). One of the outcomes of functionalist approaches is that the translator washstand give more information in the translation if the skopos requires that. An instance is making clear in a target text what is not so clear in the source text. However, it is not clear to what extent the translator can exercise this liberty. To this end, the principle stipulates that what is necessary depends on the function of the translation (Honig 1997 10). Honig illustrates this in this rather long quotethe term public school implies such a large amount of culture-specific knowledge that it is imposs ible to render its meaning completely in a translation. within a functionalist approach, however, the function of a word in its specific context determines to what degree the cultural meaning should be made explicit. In a strong belief such as (my emphasis)(2a) In Parliament he fought for e tone, but he sent his son to Eton.the translation will have to be different from translating the analogous term Eton in the sentence(3a) When his father died his mother could not afford to sent him to Eton any more.The following translations would be sufficiently detailed(2b) Im Parlament kmpfte er fr Chancengleichheit, aber seinen eigenen Sohn schickte er auf eine der englischen Eliteschulen. (one of the English elite schools)(3b) Als sein Vater starb, konnte seine Mutter es sich nicht mehr leisten, ihn auf eine der teuren Privatschulen zu schicken (one of the expensive private schools).Of course, there is more factual knowledge implied in the terms Eton or public school than show in the tra nslation, but the translation mentions everything that is important within the context of the sentence, in other words, the translation is semantically precise enough. (1997 11)Here the translator does not aim at an exact or perfect target text, but a text that is sufficiently good enough for the situation. The translator provides as much (or less) information as the readers need as determined by the skopos.Christiane NordChristiane Nord is one of the major proponents of functionalism. She agrees with Vermeer that the situation under which a target text is produced is different from that of the source text in terms of time, place (except for simultaneous interpreting), and sometimes medium. Thus the meaning of a text is found beyond the linguistic code, in the extratextual situation. In fact, she even stresses that meaning interpretation depends a lot on the personal experience of the text userA text is made meaningful by its receiver for its receiver. Different receivers (or even t he same receiver at different times) find different meanings in the same linguistic material offered by the text. We might even say that a text is as many texts as there are receivers of it. (2001 152)Nord however has some reservations for the unrestricted freedom Reiss and Vermeer, and Holz-Manttari have given the translator to produce a target text of whatever form so long as it conforms to the skopos as directed by the client. To check this, she introduces the concept of fast(a)ty which she defines as the responsibility translators have towards their partnerstranslators, in their role as mediators between two cultures, have a special responsibility with regard to their partners, i.e. the source text author, the client or commissioner of the translation, and the target text receivers, and towards themselves, precisely in those cases where there are differing views as to what a good translation is or should be. (Nord 2006 33).Nord thus contends that the skopos is not the only deter mine factor in translation, that loyalty is necessary. Loyalty commits the translator bilaterally to the source text and target text situations not to falsify the source text authors intentions (Nord 200532) and fulfilling the expectations of the target audience or explaining in a footnote or antecede how they arrived at a particular meaning. Loyalty is different from fidelity or equivalence in that the latter refer to the linguistic or stylistic similitude between the source and the target texts, regardless of the communicative intentions involved while the former refers to an interpersonal relationship between the translator and their partners (2001 185).Christiane Nord also fatten outs on the possible range of functions a target text may have, different from that or those of the source text. She first distinguishes between documentary translation and instrumental translation. Documentary translation is such that aims at producing in the target language a kind of document of (c ertain aspects of) a communicative interaction in which a source-culture sender communicates with a source-culture audience via the source text under source-culture conditions (1997 138) instrumental translation, on the other hand, aims at producing in the target language an instrument for a new communicative interaction between the source-culture sender and the target-culture audience. A documentary translation usually results in a target text with a meta-textual function or standby take function according to House (1977). An instrumental translation may have the same range of functions as the source text, whereby it is said to be equifunctional but if there are differences in the functions of both texts, the case is said to be heterofunctional. Nord also talks about homologous translation, also called creative transposition (Bassnet 2002 24), where the target text represent the same degree of originality as the original in relation to the respective culture-specific corpora of t exts.One other seminal input of Nords into functionalism is her call for an elaborate analysis of the source text before translation proper. Unlike Vermeer and Holz-Manttari who almost make the source text so invisible, Nord rather gives some attention to it since it is the supplier of the offer of information that forms the basis for the offer of information formulated in the target text. She argues that the pre-translation analysis of the source text helps in deciding on whether the translation project is feasible in the first place, which source text units are relevant to a functional translation, and which strategy will best produce a target text that meets the requirements of the brief (Nord 1997 62). Nord goes further to identify and categorise the kind of problems a translator might encounter pragmatic, convention-related, interlingual and text-specific and also steps to follow in the translational process. Schaeffner (2001) has done a critical review of Nords postulations (and indeed other functionalist approaches) and their applicability in practical translation.CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES TO TRANSLATIONExpectedly, functionalist approaches have received a lot of criticism, especially from scholars of the linguistic-based approaches, one of which is the definition of translation. Critics of skopos theory argue that not all target texts based on a source text can be called translations, that skopos theory makes no distinction between a real translation and adaptation or what Koller (1995) calls nontranslation. They argue that the supposed dethronement of the source text and focus on the target text (Newmark 1991 Schreitmuller 1994) subverts the intrinsic meaning of the translation. Pym (1997) argues in this light and supports Koller (1995) in upholding equivalence and calling on functionalists to distinguish between translation and nontranslation. However, functionalists view translation from a broader perspective, as any trans lational action where a source text is transferred into a target culture and language Nord 1997 141). They see the linguistic-based definition as being restrictive and in need of expansion.Linked to this is the supposed dethronement of the source text and emphasis on the skopos as the determining factor of how the translation is done. It is then argued that functionalism gives translators the freedom to produce any kind of target text and call it a translation. Pym (1991), for instance, accuses functionalists of producing mercenary experts able to fight under the flag of any purpose able to pay them (1991 2). Nord responds to this by introducing the concept of loyalty, which restricts the liberty of the translator as they are now expected to be loyal to the source text author as well as other partners in the translational process. She also insists on an elaborate source text analysis before translation for a better understanding of both the source text and source culture which will then engender some high level coherence between the source text and the target text.One other controversy surrounding functionalism is the myriad of terminologies introduced and used differently, especially those by Holz-Manttarri. Indeed many of these criticisms still go on to this day. However, despite the various controversies surrounding the development and thrust of functionalist approaches, their contributions to the study of translation are remarkable.CONTRIBUTIONS OF FUNCTIONALIST APPROACHES TO TRANSALTION STUDIESOne major contribution of this approach is that, according to Nord (1997 29), it addresses the eternal dilemmas of free vs faithful translations, dynamic vs formal equivalence, good interpreters vs slavish translators, and so on. Thus a translation may be free of faithful or anything between these two extremes depending on its skopos or the purpose for which it is needed. The translator no longer has to always go back to the source text to solve translational proble ms, rather they base their translation on the function of the text in the target culture.Functionalist approaches liberate translation from theories that impose linguistic rules upon every decision (Pym 2010 56). They recognise that the translation process involves more than languages involved and requires the consideration of these extra-textual and extra-linguistic factors for its actualisation. Thus they introduce the cultural dimension to translation studies and break the uncalled-for recourse to the authority of the source text. While linguistics-based approaches may be said to be retrospective in that they look back at the source text as the model for the target text, functionalist approaches are seen as prospective in that they look forward to the function of the text in the target culture as the major determining factor for how the translation will be done. A retrospective translation operates a bottom-up process, works from source language elements and transfers the text s entence by sentence, or phrase by phrase. But a prospective translation operates a top-down process, starting on the pragmatic level by deciding on the intended function of the translation and asking for specific text-typological conventions, and for addressees background knowledge and their communicative needs ( Ouyang 2009 104).Functionalist approaches are flexible and general enough to account for a wide range of translational situations. Talking about the theory of skopos theory for example, Schaeffner (2001 15) observes that this theory is presented as being sufficiently general to cover a multitude of individual cases, i.e. to be independent of individual languages, cultures, subject domains, text types and genres. Interestingly, the consideration of extra-textual factors in the translational process accentuates the multidisciplinary nature of translation studies. The introduction of text-typology and considerations of genre-conventions introduces elements of pragmatics, text- linguistics and culture studies into the discourse. So also is the belief that a text does not have a stable intrinsic meaning, but that meaning is moved(p) by the subjective translator as well as by the cultural, historical, ideological and historical circumstances surrounding the production of the text (Schaeffner 2001 12).Tied to the quality of flexibility mentioned above is functionalisms apparent accommodation of the shortcomings of some other translation theories. For example, Baker (2007) criticises the polysystem theory (Even-Zohar 1990) and Tourys (1995) theory of norms for encouraging analysts to focus on repeated, abstract, systematic behaviour and privileging strong patterns of socialization into that behaviour and for glossing over the numerous individual and group attempts at undermining dominant patterns and prevailing political and social dogma (Baker 2007 152). She also expressed some dissatisfaction with Venutis dichotomies of foreignizing and domesticating strate gies (Venuti 1993, 1995), also called minoritizing and majoritizing strategies (Venuti 1998), for, inter alia, reducing the intricate means by which a translator negotiates his or her way around various aspects of a text into a more-or-less straightforward choice of foreignizing versus domesticating strategy (Baker 2007 152). However, these criticisms have been adequately taken care of by functionalist approaches whose methodology would not be seen as been that straitjacketed, with no manner for flexibility. By their very nature, functionalist approaches bridge the gap between mere theorising and the practice of translation, as they suggest practical ways of going about translational problems. originally the advent of functionalist approaches, the translator is rarely noticed. Emphasis was on the source text and its supposed equivalent, the target text. No attention is paid to the identity or view of the translator in the translational process. On the one hand, the translator is s een as not being original, as merely performing a technical impede (Honig 1985 13) of transferring an original authors ideas into a different language. On the other hand, the translators identity is hidden when they produce texts that sound so fluent in the target culture as it they wer