An Analysis Of Two Chinese Versions Of Is The American Century Over? From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Skopos Theory was proposed by a German functionalism representative,Hans J.Vermeer,in the 1970s,and was later refined by Christiane Nord.According to the theory,translation is driven by skopos.Translation should break the restraints of the source language(SL),and serve the readers of the target language(TL).Under the guidance of the three principals of Skopos Theory,which are the rule of skopos,the rule of coherence,and the rule of loyalty,the thesis aims to identify and analyze the differences in translation strategies and language modalities in two Chinese versions published in Mainland(China)and Taiwan.The selected piece is Is the American Century Over?by Joseph Nye.The study is based on synchronic analysis.By comparing and analyzing the two translations with the aforementioned principles,the thesis found that the language used in the mainland version was more official and plain,and the translation strategies applied in the Taiwan version were more diversified.Moreover,in order to produce competent and accurate translations,depth of experience and the ability to specialize were essential in translating popular science pieces of international relations.