Christiane Nord

Translator, Doctor of Philology and emeritus

professor of Translation of Hochschule
Magdeburg-Stendal
GERMANY

The Role of a Translator

The recipient and sender need
a mediator in communication
TRANSLATOR:
One who mediates
between two cultures

The process of intercultural text

transfer

In the translation process

the translator should have:
Abilities:
1.Abstraction
2.Transfer
3.Decision
4.Criticism
Knowledge:
1. Thematic
2. Terminological
3. Translatological
4. Cultural

These abilities are

needed to learn how to
translate adequately

Looping model by Nord (1991).

This model focuses on adapting the
translation brief and consists of three
stages:
1. Skopos analysis of the target text:
the main factors that are relevants to the
accomplishment of a porpuse.

2. Analysis of the source text: analysis

to obtain an overview of the elements of the
source text that can be compatible with the
translation order

3. Final text structuring: transfer of basic

text elements to the language and target culture.

Source
communicativ
e situation

Relevant
elements for
translation

Target
communicati
ve situation

Synthesis of
target text

Transference

Nord considers three aspects as

being key to translating:
1.The importance of the translation
commission (or translation brief):
Nord demands that this contribute aspects like
the recipients, the process, the time and place,
etc.

2. The role of text analysis origin:

distinguish factors within the field extratextual.

3. The functional hierarchy in terms

of translation problems: how to solve
the problems of the text.

1. The translation
commission
The translator (T) must always keep in mind the
clients request/guidelines etc. T must compare the ST
and TT profiles as defined in the commission and see
where they may be different.
The translation commission should specify (for both ST
and TT) (these factors are external in relation to the
text)
Intended text functions
Sender
Recipient
Time and place of text reception
Medium (oral / written)
Motive (why the ST was written and why it is being
translated)

2. TEXT ANALYSIS
Nords list of intratextual factors is a possible
model for analysing the ST.
Subject matter
Content
Presuppositions real-world factors of the
communicative situation presumed to be
known to the participants
Composition
Non-verbal elements (illustrations, italics)
Lexic (incl. register, specific terminology)
Sentence structure (sintaxe)

3. The functional hierarchy of

translation problems
When undertaking a translation, it is important to establish a
functional hierarchy.
1. Decide intended function of translation (documentary or
instrumental)
2. Determine elements that will need to be adapted to the
TT addressees situation (after analysis of trans.commission)
3. Decide translation style (SC or TC oriented) based on
translation type
4. Deal with problems presented by text at lower linguistic
level (as in ST analysis)

For Nord, the culture is the most

important aspect in translation; it
is even more important than
language
It determines the
way
we understand
each other

If the translator does not know

the cultural codes of a country
it would be better not to
translate at all

Parallel texts

According to Nord, the process of

translation is to produce a text in a target
language from a source language (the
original text)
The translator must know sufficient cultural
and linguistic knowledge about both
cultures
If the translator lacks this knowledge he
must get acquainted with it by means of
research

Difference between difficulties and

problems

Difficulties (Subjective and individual)

they interrupt the translation process
until they are separated by a use of the
right tools (these are overcome before
translating)
Problems: (Intersubjective and general)
they have to be solved by translative
procedures that are part of translation
competence.

Source text

Translation
competence

Translation
difficulties
translation
commission

Availability tools