The Theoretical Analysis On Misinterpretation Based On The Skopos Theory

In general, misinterpretation is depicted as failures in interpreting as a result ofinterpreters’ misunderstanding of the source language, or lack of the knowledge ofcultural backgrounds, social conventions and characteristics of the target listeners.Misinterpretation is inevitable appeared. However，a further study of misinterpretationillustrates that misinterpretation can be divided into two parts, the accidentalmisinterpretation and deliberate misinterpretation. The deliberate misinterpretation,which is often called “negative” translation, often appeared in translation or interpretingand loathed by all interpreters. However, the deliberate misinterpretation is a mistakemade by an interpreter on purpose. Sometimes, although interpreters have no doubt aboutthe source information, he still makes some changes or “mistakes” on his interpreting soas to get a better interpretation.The Skopos Theory is a new mode which used as a technical term for achieving thegoal of interpreting. The Skopos Theory focuses on the purpose of translation behaviors.So interpreters need to have a good understanding of misinterpretation.This paper is finished based on the Scopos Theory and the author’s own experiencesand many misinterpretation phenomena have been discussed in the paper. The paper fallsinto three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion. The introduction partintroduces the whole paper briefly. The second part is the main body of the paper whichcan be divided into three chapters. Chapter I is the introduction of the Scopos Theory andbasic information of Interpreting. It includes the history, definition and rules of theScopos Theory, and the definition, classification and criterion of interpreting andinterpreters. Chapter II introduces misinterpretations in interpreting, it contains the basicinformation of misinterpretations. This chapter regards cultural factors as a breakthroughpoint, which discusses the Scopos Theory at large, and gives some reasonableexplanations for misinterpretations. Chapter III is about the strategies and methods ofinterpreting in accordance with the Skopos Theory. The last part is conclusion, whichsummarizes the whole paper.