Strategy Orientation In Pragmatic Translation Based On Newmark’s Text Functions

Pragmatic translation refers to the translation of all types of writing for practical purpose and practical use, focusing mainly on conveying the information and the effects it conveys, which differs greatly from the literacy translation endowed with aesthetic and emotional features of arts. To a large extent, pragmatic translation characterizes in its attributes of practicality, reality and wide use, which covers political, economic, social and cultural areas, and also has practical and even utilitarian function. Undoubtedly, the cultural, ideological and linguistic differences are posing difficulties for pragmatic translation, and mistranslations are not only occasional cases in the translation practice in China’s present publications and mass media. Therefore, we say that the study on pragmatic translation is far from satisfactory to its need, and the traditional translation theories seem rather inadequate, which tells that a comprehensive and potent guiding theoretical system is apparently needed.According to Newmark’s text functions, pragmatic translation covers "expressive" texts, such as authoritative statements,"informative" texts, such as technical reports, and "vocative" texts, such as propaganda, advertising, etc.. Newmark points out that different types of texts have different functions and call for different strategy orientation in translation. Many factors influence the choice of translation strategy such as translation purpose, author’s intention, and reader acceptance and so on. With its particular text functions and features, the pragmatic translation should, in order to achieve effectively the translation purpose, focus on the communicative interaction to arrange the target-text form according to the translation brief, to carry out the strategy based on the text functions, and to revise the content of the target text in terms of the target cultural situation. Therefore, according to Newmark, the choice of translation strategy, i.e. foreignization or domestication, mainly depends on the different communicative functions of the source texts.This thesis, mainly based on Newmark’s translation notion, i.e. his text typology and two main translation methods, stresses the significance of distinguishing SL text functions on deciding appropriate translation strategies and approaches to pragmatic translation. Based on the analysis of Newmark’s text functions and translation approaches, combined with the application of foreignization and domestication, this thesis analyzes the strategy orientation in pragmatic translation of texts of different functions, and finally concludes that in pragmatic translation, the SL text functions can serve as the leading factor to the strategy orientation, i.e. foreignization or domestication.