After the 1970s, a transitional period from to pragmatism in
linguistics, meant that text-linguistics was used for translation studies.
It was only during the late 1980s that the concept of culture was
introduced into translation studies. Since the...
After the 1970s, a transitional period from to pragmatism in
linguistics, meant that text-linguistics was used for translation studies.
It was only during the late 1980s that the concept of culture was
introduced into translation studies. Since then, translation studies have
seen a dynamic development which has its roots in holistic-gestalt
principles from the prototypical theory. These developments have
resulted in the transition to Skopostheorie. This theory puts more
emphasis on the function of target language texts than on the original
language.
For the last twenty or more years, translation scholars have paid
attention to culture in their studies and have recognised that it was
crucial to begin inter-cultural studies for the optimal translation. As
was shown by the Wortfeldtheorie, each language has different
systems of concepts and values. To put it more simply, translation is a
matter of culture, not a matter of transferring linguistic signs. This
realization helped to make the Skopostheorie seem valid to the
scholars' eyes.
What counts most here is to set up a concrete concept of culture that
helps to clarify the relation between a culture as social system and the
features of it expressed in text. When Heinrich's defined culture
recently as a specific constructional system that can be
sub-categorized, he enabled systemization of cultural factors in the
texts. This progress forms the core of Skopostheorie and is expected to
be of great influence to the theory.
The author's point of view is that culture, or the fundamentals of
Skopostheorie, consists of diverse factors differences and coincidences.
Therefore, it is very hard to define the concept of ‘function’itself. This
leads to the conclusion that inter-disciplinary efforts are crucial for the
further development of the theory.
In addition, it will be of benefit to introduce the concept of
‘Funktionem’in order to organize a more systemized and objective
cultural translation theory.