Translation Ethics Of German Functionalism

The proposition of translation ethics was set forth by the French scholar Antoine Berman in 1981 and since then it attracts more and more attention from translation scholars.As an important school in translation studies, German Functionalism contains rich ethical thoughts on translation. However, relevant sutudies are rare. Taking Chesterman's ethical models as a basis and combining other scholars' researches, this thesis makes a tentative study of translation ethics of German Functionalism. It finally reaches the conclusion that over the two major concerns of translation ethics i.e.how to translate and how to deal with interpersonal relation, German Functionalism experiences three phases of development: representation ethics of equivalence which embodies traditional translation ethics; service ethics which attaches much importance to the status of a client and ethics of multilateral loyalty which takes into account the interests of all the parties involved in translation.Through the analysis of translation ethics of German Functionalism, the thesis draws the following conclusion: translation ethics is a dynamic and pluralistic concept. Translators, in different time and space, may follow various models of translation ethics. Therefore, ethical criteria are supposed to be pluralistic while evaluating translators and their translations.