On On Interpretation Variation And Its General Quality Evaluation Principle In Light Of The Skopos Theory

Today, we are at the age of manifold translation criteria, but complete translation is still canonized by many scholars. Thus, some translators still regard translation variation as wrong translation. However, practice has proven that it is more often than not inevitable to embrace unfaithful translation, due to differences in linguistic structures, cultures, ideologies and thinking ways between two languages. Adopting translation variation is an intentional means to meet the demands of the receivers of the target text, while wrong translation is an irresponsible act which should be greatly despised by translators. In addition, research on translation variation is mostly regretfully introduced to the realm of written translation instead of interpreting. As we know, there are several new types of interpretation, such as community interpreting and telephone interpreting, whose important role is no less than written translation, so it is necessary to enrich the research on interpretation variation.Based on the Skopos theory of German functionalist school of translation, the author attempts to probe into interpretation variation in interpreting. The author begins with an overview of the history of Translation Variation, research on interpretation variation by other experts and translation variation's potential development. In the following part, the author introduces the Skopos theory, its three rules, significance and impact and most importantly the Skopos theory in support of the necessity and rationality of interpretation variation. And the author put the focus on four main variation forms in interpretation, namely, addition, omission, alteration and reorganization and discusses the general quality evaluation principle of interpretation variation in light of the Skopos theory. Finally, the author points out the limitation of this paper and the potential area for further research.This paper applies the Skopos theory to interpretation variation, which aims to better guide interpreters to act more creatively in their work.