Reflections On Strategic Treason In Translation-from The Perspective Of Skopostheorie And Norm Theory

Deviations in translation had long been criticized as treasons till the Descriptive Group adopted a new perspective for investigation of these "treasons" in the 1970s, when one of the descriptivist figures, Gideon Toury, described non-lingual constraints in perspective of Norm Theory, followed by German Functionalists who advanced in the next decade a Skopostheorie arguing that translation decisions are determined by purposes (skopos) of translation participants.Though remarkable progresses have been made in the field of descriptive studies the question remained unanswered as to how translation decisions are led to by these constraints which are possibly mutually contradictory and exclusive. The author wants to give answers to the questions. With the combination of Skopostheorie and Norm Theory as the instrument, he attempts to make a speculation of the operative pattern of the constraints together with a case study aimed at testing its applicability, as well as an explanation for recurrence of strategic treasons.Introduction of the thesis is a sketchy review of the current situation of traditional and descriptive translation studies as well as their advantages and blind points. The chapter also contains summaries of the kernel points of the thesis regarding how the translator makes translation decisions in facing of the mutually exclusive constraints.Chapter one offers an exploration of the nature of translation, strategic treason and manipulative forces. Translation is a process of rewriting in which treasons (including strategic ones) occur as the result of manipulation of two constraints namely norms and skopos.Chapter two makes a brief introduction of Skopostheorie (2.1) and Norm Theory (2.2). The ending section (2.3) is an exploration of the common grounds between the approaches, which suggests a possibility to integrate them into a more panoramic perspective in looking into the non-lingual constraints as both approaches share a theoretical foundation (Action Theory), target-orientedness and descriptiveness.Chapter three as the kernel of the paper is a speculation on the pattern of interaction between the norms and skopos as well as an exploration of the recurrence of strategic treasons. (1). The diverse norms and skopos that govern the translating process may be mutually contradictory and exclusive. (2). As norms differ in their...