So, it really has been a serious problem that we must confront, and it is also a problem of urgency how to introduce our unique Chinese sightseeing sceneries more properly and exactly and promote the inter-culture communication.
As a result, a systematic and effective guide theory is the imperious demand of guide interpretation. As we have always regarded “combing practice with theory”, the theory must provide appropriate strategies for successful guide-interpreting .So I’d like to write such a dissertation to argue something about guide-guiding form the aspect of German functionalist translation theory, which can help us to handle interpreting methodologically.
This thesis will narrow down its scope merely on guide-interpreting on C-E, and most samples are gathered from authoritative bilingual books,websites, newspapers ,which will be listed at the last page of my part .
Ⅱ Functionalist Translation Theory
Functionalist translation theory, a relatively systematic and consummate theory, is the crystallization of wisdom of scholars in long period of human history.I’d like to present a more concentrate and detailed elucidation its features as follows⑶27:
2.1 Development of German Functionalist Translation Theory
German functionalist is the mainstream of the modern functionalist translation theory which sprung up in 1970S in Germany. There have been four outstanding contributors to form this theory: Reiss (1971- Possibilities and Limitations in Translation Criticism), H.J.Vermeer (1986-Skopostheory), Justa Holz Manttari (1988-Translatrional Action) and Nord (2001) .
In 1971, in the book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism, Reiss put forward a model of translation criticism which based on the functional relationship between source and target texts in he book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism. She still held to the equivalence principle ,therefore her theory was based on the functional equivalence between source and target texts.
Vermeer, the student of Reiss, defined translation as a purposeful human activity that takes place in a given situation based on action theory. He put forward Skopostheorie which serves as the foundation of the functionalist translation theory. Skopos is a Greek word for “purpose”, and Skopostheorie means the theory of purposeful action. Skopostheorie theory includes three principal rules: namely, the Skopos rule, the coherence rule (intratextual coherence) and the fidelity rule (intertextual coherence).
On the basis of Skopostheorie, Justa Holz Mănttări put forward the notion of “message transmitter” which is composed of textual materials combined with other media such as sounds ,pictures and body movements. Placing special emphasis on the actional aspects of the translation process, she analyzed the roles of the participants (initiator, translator, user, message receiver) and the situational conditions (time, place, motive) in which their activities take place.