German Functionalist Approach To Translation Studies-A New Light Shed On Translation Process

German functionalism takes Skopostheorie as the leading theory, regarding translation as a purposeful activity and claiming that the decisive factor in translation is translation purpose. It takes the extratextual factors into full consideration and aims to help translators solve pragmatic problems in translation practice.Many researches have been carried out on German functionalism since it was introduced into China over ten years ago, mainly focusing on its application. But most of the studies are horizontal, analyzing how German functionalism functions in translating a certain type of text such as the translation of brand names, advertisements, political statements, etc. They could not offer a systematic translation process for translators. It is hard for translators to have a comprehensive understanding of the practicability and universality of German functionalism, which makes it harder to apply the theory to their own translation practice.This thesis attempts to study the application of German functionalism from the vertical perspective, analyzing how it directs the whole process in pragmatic translation. Based on the thorough interpretation of the theories and the detailed analysis of quantitative examples, the thesis demonstrates how German functionalism systematically plays its role from the minute a translation starts to the minute the translation ends and at the same time provides a systematic and practical translation process for translators. In addition, to encourage English majors to study the pragmatic theory, the thesis conducts a survey to reflect the problems that usually exist in the translation of English majors and analyzes how some of the problems can be effectively tackled by German functionalism, which proves the necessity of learning it.We hope that the thesis can bring a more comprehensive view of German functionalism to translation learners so that they can realize its significance and practicality and thus will learn and apply it to improve their translation.