研究生部论文

Strategies in Guide-interpreting from Functionalist Perspective

1. Introduction

Nowadays, tourism industry is flourishing, thus creating the need for guide-interpreting. Cultural differences, however, make the intercultural communicative barriers inevitable in guide-interpreting, which, accordingly, calls for an efficient translation theory and interpreting strategy to overcome the intercultural communicative barriers.

This thesis aims to explore how to overcome intercultural communicative barriers in guide-interpreting from a functionalist approach in the hope of finding a workable guiding theory for overcoming intercultural communicative barriers in guide-interpreting and suggesting some feasible interpreting strategies for overcoming those barriers and elaborating the application area of functionalism.

This thesis starts from the introduction of Skopostheorie in functionalism. Then, based on the discussion on the formation of intercultural communicative barriers and Skopostheorie, this thesis presents comparative analysis of cases of overcoming intercultural communicative barriers in guide-interpreting and suggests some interpreting strategies for overcoming such barriers as barriers of culture-specific expressions, barriers of imagery confrontations and barriers of discourse patterns, which are the linguistic forms of intercultural communicative barriers.

Hence, the author believes that functionalism may play a unique role in overcoming intercultural communicative barriers in guide-interpreting.

2 A review of functionalist approaches to translation

2.1 The development of the theory

The functionalist translation theory came into being in 1970s in Germany. Generally speaking, the development of modern functionalism in translation studies has gone through three stages: first is Katharina Reiss and her functionalist translation criticism; second is Hans Vermeer's Skopostheorie and its extensions; third is Nord’s revision of Skopos theory. They are all German scholars, so we call it `German school

of functionalism'.

2.2 Reiss's notions about function and translation

In 1971，in her book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism，which was regarded as the starting point for the scholarly analysis of translation in Germany, Reiss (1971) put forward a model of translation criticism based on the functional relationship between source and target texts. Reiss (1971) still held to the equivalence principle and so her theory was based on the functional equivalence between source and target texts.

In her later publications, Reiss continually insists that different kinds of translation all carry out certain functions. For her, an ideal translation would be the one "in which the aim in the TL (target language) is equivalence as regards the conceptual content, linguistic form and communicative function of a SL (source language) text. She refers to this kind of translation as "integral communicative performance".

From the way Reiss defines "ideal translation", it is easy to understand that her concept of translation is basically equivalence-based and text-bound (Nord, 2001，P.8), though she emphasizes functional factors should be considered in translation criticism. And such inclination is more explicitly expressed in the following words, "every translation project is a balancing process achieved by constructing a target text under the constant restraint of a source text."(Reiss, 2004, p.3) Nevertheless, the text--typology method of Reiss brings much freshness to the development of translation studies. For the first time Reiss has built an association between translation evaluation approaches and functions of language and texts and her work opens a new field for others to rethink about translation activity. Reiss believes, "Text typologies help the translator specify the appropriate hierarchy of equivalence levels needed for a particular translation Skopos (aim)."

2.3 The main body of functionalist approaches--Skopos theory

Vermeer (1986), the student of Reiss (1971), defined translation as a purposeful human activity that takes place in a given situation based on action theory and made a

breakthrough by putting forward his famous Skopostheorie which is regarded as the landmark of functionalist approach to translation. Skopos is a Greek word for "purpose", and Skopostheorie means the theory of purposeful action. According to Skopos theory, the prime principle determining any translation process is the purposes of the overall translational action. Skopostheorie theory includes three principal rules: namely, the Skopos rule, the coherence rule (intratextual coherence) and the fidelity rule (intertextual coherence).

Coherence rule specifies that a translation should be acceptable in the sense that it is coherent with the receivers' situation, that is, the target-text receivers should be able to understand the target text and interpret it as being sufficiently coherent with their own communicative situation and culture. At the same time, it should be noted that since the target text is produced according to the information offered in the source text, it is expected to bear some kind of relationship with the source text. This relationship is what is called "intertextual coherence" or “fidelity". One possible kind of intertextual coherence could be a maximally faithful imitation of the source text. Here the third rule of Skopostheorie, i.e. fidelity rule, is got.

2.4 Nord's revision of Skopos theory

Functionalism models are being continually revised and expanded to better deal with advance in linguistics and other sciences. In her work Translating as a Purposeful Activity; Functionalist Approaches Explained, Nord summarizes the main thoughts of some major Germany functionalist schools in explicit English for the first time. Based on her insightful understanding of translation problems, she distinguishes two types of "translation processes". And furthermore, she proposes loyalty rule to make the Skopos principle, "the ends justify the means" sound not so discordant to the mainstream of translation field.

3 Functionalism in Light of the Theory of Action

Since the theory of action is the very basis of functionalism, it is necessary to analyze the features of translating as a variety of actions, which will be covered in the following sections.

To bridge the language gaps in people's communication, translation emerges out.

Communication is thus interpersonal interaction and, as such, a variety of actions. This is why action theory may be able to explain certain aspects of translation. Action is the process of acting, which means "intentionally (at will) bringing about or preventing a change in the world (in nature)". Action can thus be defined as an intentional "change or transition from one state of affairs to another" (Wright, 1968,p.

28).

Translators enable communication to take place between members of different culture communities. They bridge the gap between situations where differences in verbal and non-verbal behavior, expectations, knowledge and perspectives are such that there is not enough common ground for the sender and receiver to communicate effectively by themselves.

Drawing on the above rudimentary considerations, it may be concluded that as a variety of action, translating may be viewed as an intentional, interpersonal, partly verbal intercultural interaction based on a source text.

4 The Intercultural Communicative Barriers in Guide Interpreting

Guide-interpreting plays a significant role in the success of travel. The guide-interpreter, traditionally speaking, is regarded as a language expert, a bilingual who can smooth communication with people speaking different languages. Some people hold that a bilingual can always ensure successful communication with people speaking different languages.

Thousands of anecdotes, however, have shown that expectant guides and tourists are often found heading for miscommunication even if they are well-intentioned and the language they use is flawless. The major reason is that guide-interpreters fail to notice the fact that they are working more than between languages: they are also working between cultures and that culture differences may give rise to misunderstanding or miscommunication. So the following paragraphs will discuss this facet of guide-interpreting.

4.1 Guide-interpreting: an Act of Intercultural Communication

Interpreting is necessitated when people speaking different languages are not able to exchange their ideas in each other's languages. Thus it is essentially “a

language-based service activity with a communicative function”. The aim of interpreting is to convey the meaning of the speaker and the process of interpreting involves understanding and sharing the message/meaning. Here message is defined as "information the sender consciously want to convey". Translation is, by nature, communication. Hereby, being a special branch of interpreting, guide-interpreting is defined in this way: Guide-interpreting is interpreting used in the services provided by the guide-interpreter to the foreign tourists in tourism industry including all the oral introductions in foreign languages concerning travel services, tourist attractions, natural or man-made landscapes, catering culture in travel, shopping in tourism, transportation in tourism etc. And is an act of cross-cultural communication

4.2 Formation of Intercultural Communicative Barriers

Differences in value systems can bring about intercultural communicative barriers for translators (or interpreters) as value system is the core of intercultural communication. Value system is a combination of behavior standards for making decisions and resolving conflicts. In some sense, the differences in value system are the root for all the other intercultural differences. People from different cultures behave differently according to their own value system. A person's value system is established by his family and society. Value system is said to be prescriptive, which tells a person what is good or evil, what should do or should not do, what is positive or negative, what is true or false. It directs individual's views and behaviors. Value system decides how a person communicates with others within his culture as well as across his culture. Eastern and western worlds have different values. It is believed that people in eastern countries are more implicit, modest and face loving; people in western countries are more direct and egocentric. People from east and west behave very differently in many aspects, such as: payment, punctuality, privacy, etc.

Secondly, another important cultural element resulting in most intercultural communicative barriers for translators (or interpreters) is difference in thinking patterns. People from different cultures get to know the world with different philosophies. People speak in the way they think. Language is not only the tool for thinking and communication but also the refection of culture. Hoijer (1976) even