2.1.2.2 The Intratexual Rule
Intratextual coherence, which can also be called coherence rule, specifies that a translation should be ―acceptable and meaningful in a sense that it is coherent with the situation in which it is received. Being ?coherent with‘ is synonymous with being ?part of‘ the receiver‘s situation and culture‖ (Nord, 2001: 140). The coherence rule states that the target text ―must be interpretable as coherent with the TT receiver‘s situation‖ (Reiss and Vermeer, 1984: 113).That‘s to say, the original text must be translated into such a way that the target language receivers can comprehend the target text, given their assumed background knowledge and situational circumstances(Munday, 2001: 79).
Since ―what a translator can do, and should do, is to produce a text that is at least likely to be meaningful to target-culture receivers‖ (Nord 2001: 32), the translator should try to render the target text in such a way that the target-language receivers have no difficulty in understanding it.
2.1.2.3 The Intertexual Rule
―To the extent that a translator judges the form and function of a source text to be basically adequate perhaps regards as the pre-determined Skopos in the target culture, we can speak of a degree of ?intertexual coherence‘ between translatum and source text.‖ (Vermeer: 1984:114) Therefore, the rule of intertextual coherence concerns the relationship between the source text and the target text within the framework of a skopos-oriented translation.
Just as Vermeer puts it in such a way: ―Since a translation is an offer of information about a preceding offer of information, it is expected to bear some kind of relationship with the corresponding source text‖ (Nord, 2001:32). More specifically, the target text should be intertextually coherent with the source text from the following aspects: the ST information received by the translator; the interpreter/ the translator makes of the information; the information that is encoded for the TT
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receivers (Munday, 2001:80).
There exists intertextual coherence between source and target text, while the form which it takes depends on both the translator‘s interpretation of the source text and the translation Skopos. Intertextual coherence is subordinate to intratexual coherence, and they both again are subordinate to the Skopos rule.
2.1.2.4 The Relationship of the Three Rules
The intertexual rule is fragile, ―some relationship must remain between the two once overriding principle of skopos and the rule of intratextual coherence have been satisfied‖ (Baker, 2004:68), that is to say, only when the overriding principle of Skopos and the rule of intratextual coherence are obeyed can the intertexual coherence remain.
According to Vermeer, the above three rules are in a hierarchical order: the intertextual coherence is of less importance than intratextual coherence, which in turn is subordinate to the Skopos (Munday, 2001: 80).
In another word, if the three rules cannot be fulfilled at the same time, the other two rules should give way to the Skopos rule. Similarly, if the intratexual rule collides with the intertexual rule, the latter should obey to the former one.
2.1.3 Comments on the Skopostheorie
According to Vermeer, Skopostheorie does not state what the specific translation method is, ―this must be decided separately in each specific case‖ (Vermeer, 1989: 228). So it ―expands the possibilities of translation, increases the range of possible translation strategies, and releases the translator from the corset of an enforced — and hence often meaningless—literalness‖ (Vermeer, 2000: 237).
Vermeer even gives an example to illustrate such advantage: an ambiguity in a will written in French would need to be translated literally, with a footnote or comment, for a foreign lawyer dealing with the case. On the other hand, if the will appeared in a novel, the translator might prefer to find a slightly different ambiguity
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that works in the target language without the need of a formal footnote, so as not to interrupt the reading process.
In a word, the advantages of this theory can be expressed at least in the following three aspects:
Firstly, it takes the purpose of the target version and the comprehending ability of target language readers, which are easily omitted in traditional translation and training, into consideration, and provides theoretical foundation for the translators to make the translation in different ways according to the purpose of the target text and the commission (Zhong weihe, 1999).
Secondly, the Skopostheorie ―directly challenges the traditional concept of equivalences as a constitutive feature of translation‖ (Nord, 2001:35) and ―enlarges the scope of possible translation strategies‖ (Vermeer, 2000: 231).
Thirdly, regarding translation as ―communicating something new and original, rather than simply furnishing the target recipient with the same information in a recodified form‖ (Shuttleworth & Cowie 2004:157). Skopostheorie lays emphasis on the accountability of the translators and requires his/her translation to be clearly understood by the target language receivers.
In a word, Skopostheorie is a milestone which reflects a shift from predominant linguistic and rather formal translation theories to a more functional and socio-cultural oriented concept of translation. It brings a new perspective to translation studies and reflects ―a more functionally and socio-culturally oriented concept of translation‖ (Baker, 2001: 35).
2.1.4 The Application of Skopostheorie to Financial News Translation
Just as what we have mentioned above, the Skopostheorie‘s advantage lies in it does not confine to a certain translation method and it lays emphasis on the purpose of the translation. As long as a translation can help to achieve a certain aim, it is a good translation and can be adopted. As for financial news, it is usually about news of the
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financial fields. It should be published as soon as possible for the main task of financial news is to inform readers of the latest financial events. These characteristics determine the traditional translation methods are not suitable for financial news translation. In order to attract readers, save time and room, financial news is required to use comprehensive skills to achieve the purpose of educating and attracting readers. Because Skopostheorie can help financial news to achieve these purposes, in this thesis we will apply Skopostheorie to the financial news translation.
2.2 An Overview on News Translation
Before we come to the analysis of the translation of news, we should first make clear the meaning of news. One of the common descriptions of news is: at any given time, news in the mass media follows two general guidelines:(1) News is information about a break from the normal flow of events, an interruption from the expected, a deviation from the norm.(2) News is information people need to make some decisions about their lives (Mencher, 2003:68).
Generally speaking, news usually has the following characters:
1. Timeliness: news should come to the readers as soon as possible and provide readers with the latest reports.
2. Freshness: it is determined by the character of timeliness. If the news fails to reach readers at the first time it may be out of date.
3. Humorousness: the purpose of the news media is to increase the number of their readers. In order to call the readers‘ attention, they always try many ways to make the news vivid and interesting.
4. Honesty: it is the basic feature and the basic requirement for news. The news should cover the fact of the events and it should be loyal to the facts.
5. Significance: in our daily life there are so many evens that it is impossible for us to report all of them, therefore, the news usually choose something of great importance to report.
6. Novelty: if all of the news presents in the same way, it may be too dull for the
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readers to read. Besides, our society is changing very rapidly. In order to keep up with the pace, the news should have some novelty, not only in vocabulary, but also in style.
Then what is news translation? News translation means renewing in one language significant current information by the form of another language. But nowadays for some practical purpose, the translators are allowed to make some rewriting, renewing, amplifying or even summarizing to make the translated news more vivid and understandable. From this perspective, there comes another definition of news translation ―news in Language A(ST )is translated into Language B(TT)and broadcast again; information is transferred to Language B readers and these readers may enjoy being informed, directed and enlightened almost the same with Language A readers.‖(Liu Qizhong, 2004:2)
According to the definition, the features of news translation can be summarized as follows:
1. Accuracy: the translated news should present the same information of the original news, and it should be accurate in both contents and styles.
2. Clarity: for the limited room of the news paper, the translation of news ought to be brief, and to explain events of the original news with as little room as possible.
3. Readability: the task of translators is to make the target language readers have no barriers in reading, and to help them get the information as conveniently as possible.
2.3 An Overview on Financial News Translation
Financial news, as a main type of news, occupies an important position in news translation. And more and more people are realizing the importance of financial news translation.
At present, many scholars turn to the study of English financial news translation. They make many achievements in this field. Their contributions lie in the following three aspects:
1, they make a thorough study of features of English financial news.
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