Applying Skopos Theory to Bible Translation
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OpenGrey Repository FUNCTIONALISM AND FOREIGNISATION: APPLYING SKOPOS THEORY TO BIBLE TRANSLATION by ANDY CHEUNG A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology and Religion School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion The University of Birmingham September 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This thesis considers the practice of Bible translation from the perspective of contemporary translation studies and provides a fresh translation and accompanying commentary of aspects of Paul's Letter to the Romans. The emergence of functionalism, particularly skopos theory, in the latter part of the 20th century is seen as a key moment in the development of translation theory. The thesis argues that it has significant advantages over source text orientated approaches which have traditionally dominated Bible translation practice. An essential history documents this evolution of theoretical developments in translation study. The advantages of skopos theory over equivalence-based approaches are discussed with particular reference to Bible translation theory and the work of E. A. Nida. The functionalist approach increases the range of possible translations, with this thesis adopting a foreignising purpose in a new translation of Romans 1:1-15, 15:14-16:27. The foreignising approach owes its origins to F. Schleiermacher (popularised more recently by L. Venuti among others) and involves rendering a text so as to preserve or heighten the sense of otherness of the source text, thereby retaining something of the foreignness of the original. An accompanying commentary is provided to explain the translator's choices. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks to Dr Philip Burton for his helpful suggestions and recommendations in the research and writing of this thesis. I am also grateful for much stimulating and thought-provoking discussion on Bible translation theory and practice. ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα: αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (ESV) Romans 11:36 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 AN ESSENTIAL HISTORY OF BIBLE TRANSLATION ............................................................................ 13 1.1 Translation Theory Before the 20th Century .............................................................................. 15 1.1.1 Roman Translation ............................................................................................................... 15 1.1.2 English Bible Translators ...................................................................................................... 20 1.1.3 16th Century Translation Theorists ..................................................................................... 22 1.1.4 17th and 18th Translation Theorists .................................................................................... 30 1.1.4 Victorian Translation Theorists ............................................................................................ 38 1.1.5 Section Summary ..................................................................................................................... 41 1.2 Translation Theory in the 20th Century ...................................................................................... 42 1.2.1 Philosophical Theories of Translation .................................................................................. 42 1.2.2 The Linguistic Era ................................................................................................................. 48 1.2.3 Towards Contemporary Translation Studies ....................................................................... 57 1.2.4 Functionalism and the Cultural Turn ................................................................................... 60 1.2.5 James Holmes: Mapping Translation Studies ...................................................................... 74 1.2.6 Chapter Summary .................................................................................................................... 78 2.0 BIBLE TRANSLATION AND EQUIVALENCE........................................................................................ 80 2.1 Criticisms of the General Notion of Equivalence ........................................................................ 83 Equivalence is impossible to define with precision ...................................................................... 84 Equivalence should be seen as one of many possible goals ......................................................... 86 Equivalence assumes that languages exhibit interchangeable symmetry ................................... 87 There are more usable or more efficient alternatives to equivalence ......................................... 88 Equivalence discounts the social and cultural aspects of translation .......................................... 89 Equivalence does not take into account developments in postcolonial studies .......................... 93 Equivalence elevates the source text too highly .......................................................................... 95 2.2 Criticisms of Dynamic and Formal Equivalence .......................................................................... 97 The underlying Chomskian theory behind dynamic equivalence is untenable ............................ 97 Reproducing 'equivalent effect' is unobtainable .......................................................................... 98 Dynamic and formal equivalence are wrongly presented as scientific ...................................... 101 The dynamic vs. formal equivalence paradigm is unnecessarily binary ..................................... 102 The dynamic vs. formal equivalence paradigm does not reflect the variance of text types ...... 104 Supporters of formal and dynamic equivalence are not always aware of other translation theories ....................................................................................................................................... 105 Dynamic equivalence fosters undue fluency .............................................................................. 108 Dynamic equivalence tends to generate unnecessary explicitation .......................................... 109 Dynamic equivalence fosters ethnocentric bias ......................................................................... 111 Dynamic equivalence assumes that the form of the source text is unimportant ...................... 114 Dynamic equivalence is sometimes presented as the only right way to translate ..................... 115 Formal equivalence generates overly literal translations, which are not necessarily more 'accurate' ..................................................................................................................................... 117 2.3 Chapter Summary ..................................................................................................................... 119 3.0 FUNCTIONALISM, TARGET TEXT APPROACHES AND BIBLE TRANSLATION ................................... 122 3.1 Defining Translation and Translating ........................................................................................ 123 Gideon Toury and Descriptive Translation Studies ..................................................................... 124 Functionalist Approaches ............................................................................................................ 127 3.2 Terminology Among Functionalists .......................................................................................... 130 The Term 'Skopos' and its Variants ............................................................................................. 130 Other Terms in Functionalism ..................................................................................................... 132 3.3 Action Theory ............................................................................................................................ 135 Translatorial Action Theory ......................................................................................................... 136 3.4 Skopos Theory ........................................................................................................................... 138 Skopos Theory and Bible Translation .......................................................................................... 151 3.5 Criticisms of Skopos Theory ...................................................................................................... 153 Skopos theory introduces unnecessary complications ............................................................... 153 Skopos