A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of The Wealth Of Nations From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Skopostheorie, as the kernel of German functional theory of translation, is originated form Katharina Reiss?s Translation Criticism and put forward by Hans J. Vermeer in the 1970 s. The theory is further developed into a full-fledged theory by Justa Holz-Manttarri and Christiane Nord. Its emergence and flourish mark the shift of translation from a purely code-switching process of languages to a communicative interaction which involves several participants and bases on the skopos and texts? functions. It holds that the “skopos” of the translational action is the dominating factor that determines the whole translation process, and the translator should employ suitable translation strategies and methods that are in line with the skopos and translation brief in order to produce a TT(target text) with expected function.The Wealth of Nations, written by Adam Smith, is named “the Bible of western economics” and its publication marks the birth of modern economics as an independent discipline. It paves the way for the development of western economics and generally considered as the founding statement of modern economics. As a masterpiece on economics, The Wealth of Nations has been given tremendous attentions by the scholars at home and abroad. However, the focus of researches is the economic thoughts and theories put forward by Adam Smith, and few researches are about the translations of this great book.Based on Skopostheorie, this thesis aims to conduct a comparative study of Guo Dali & Wang Yanan?s version, Yang Jingnian?s version and Hu Changming?s version of The Wealth of Nations from perspectives of translation skopos and backgrounds, translation strategies, faithfulness to the linguistic form and content of ST(source text), stylistic features such as conciseness and naturalness as well as textual coherence. Then it will summarize the features of the three Chinese versions and make an analysis of how the skopos influences the features of scientific text based on the findings of the comparative study.The thesis holds that skopos? role in the translation process of scientific text can be classified into three phases. Firstly, a translation skopos and translation brief should be formed considering target readers, the expected function of the TT, the function of ST and previous translations of the ST. The translator?s subjectivity aslo plays a vital role in determining or adjusting the skopos and translation brief. Secondly, the skopos and the translation brief will determine the translaton strategy being used, such as the specific methods and translation unit. Thirdly, the translation strategy will directly influence the features of the TT from the following five aspects, such as the conversion of ST?s information and linguistic form, naturalness and conciseness of language, changes of text structure, the preservation of ST producer?s writing luctions and pet phrases and the translation of technical terms.