Translation As A Purposeful Activity

TRANSLATING AS A PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY:
A PROSPECTIVE APPROACH

Christiane Nord1
University of Applied Sciences of Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany

Abstract: Taking a prospective approach to translation, translators choose
their translation strategies according to the purpose or function the translated
text is intended to fulfil for the target audience. Since communicative purposes need certainconditions in order to work, it is the translator's task to analyse the conditions of the target culture and to decide whether, and how, the
source-text purposes can work for the target audience according to the specifications of the translation brief. If the target-culture conditions differ from
those of the source culture, there are usually two basic options: either to transform the text insuch a way that it can work under target-culture conditions (=
instrumental translation), or to replace the source-text functions by their respective meta-functions (= documentary translation).
Key words: offer of information, communicative functions, translation strategy, documentary translation, instrumental translation, translation brief

Traditional approaches to translation usually viewtranslations as being a reproduction of an existing source text, where "the source text" is the main yardstick governing the translator's decisions. This means that if we look at the
translation process leading from a point S (the source) to another point T (the
target) they take a retrospective view on translation.

1

The author recently retired from a Chair of Translation and SpecializedCommunication at
the University of Applied Sciences of Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany, Department of Communication and Media. She is also a research fellow of the University of the Orange Free State,
Bloemfontein, South Africa.

131

132 TEFLIN Journal, Volume 17, Number 2, August 2006

SOURCE

TRANSLATOR

TARGET

Modern approaches in the framework of what is called functionalism intranslation studies, however, start out from a dynamic model of what a "text" is:
They maintain that a text is an "offer of information", from which the receiver
accepts what they want or need (cf. Reiss/Vermeer 1984). We all have had the
experience that different readers, depending on their previous knowledge and attitudes, get quite different "messages" out of one and the same text, so thatsometimes we wonder whether they have really been reading the same text.
RECEIVER A
TEXT S
RECEIVER B
RECEIVER C

If this is so, it would be very difficult for any translator to translate "the"
source text because one text may be as many texts as there are receivers of it.
The translator is only one of them, and usually (when translating into their own
language and culture) translators do noteven belong to the audience addressed
by the source text. Merely by looking back at the source text they will not be
able to find out what another receiver might find interesting or important in this
text particularly in cases where this other receiver is located in, and influenced
by, another culture community and its specific perspective on the things and
phenomena of the world.

Nord,Translating as a Purposeful Activity 133

Therefore, it may be wise to take a prospective view of translation as being
an activity geared toward a communicative aim or purpose. Every translation is
intended to achieve a particular communicative purpose in the target audience,
and if we analyse who the target audience will be and what they may need and
expect, we might be better able todeliver a product that suits their needs and expectations. The following diagram illustrates the prospective approach: After receiving (and analysing) the source text, the translator transforms it so as to suit a
particular target audience from among various possible audiences.

SOURCE

TRANSLATOR

TARGET AUDIENCE 1
TARGET AUDIENCE 2
TARGET AUDIENCE 3

TRANSLATING AS A FORM OF INTERACTION...