The Application Of Skopos Theory To The Translation Of Articles In The Economist

This report is based on the translator’s experience of translating essays for The Economist online. During the translation process, some difficulties were encountered, such as the translation of cultural background and producer’s attitude, translation of names and idioms. To solve such problems, the translator turned to Skopos theory of function-based approach for guidance, in the hope that the translation could deliver the voice of foreign media to domestic readers and give some enlightenment to the translation of English news. Based on the Skopos rule, the coherence rule and the fidelity rule, specific translation methods including transliteration, literal translation and free translation, and techniques such as transformation and reversal, were then adopted. In this way the translation purposes could be better achieved.The report consists of four chapters. The introduction part presents main points of this report. Chapter one introduces the translation task in detail, including the initiator, assignment, implementation and significance. Chapter two analyzes stylistic features and linguistic features of source-text. Chapter three introduces the concept of Skopos theory and its role in guiding the translation of news commentary. Chapter four discusses how to use Skopos theory in translation practice from macro and micro perspectives and the proper strategies and techniques are adopted to achieve translation purposes. The conclusion summarizes this report and shows the translator’s reflection.