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Target
Vol. 20:1 (2008) ► pp.1–28

Skopos and beyond

A critical study of functionalism

| PETRA Research Group, Universidad de Las Palmas, Spain

This paper deals with the main results of a systematic investigation (Martín 2005), supported by concordance analysis, of the metaphorical expressions found in Reiß-Vermeer (1984) and Holz-Mänttäri (1984), two works that in the 1980s established the theoretical foundations of German functionalism. Based on the cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999; Lakoff 1987; Johnson 1987; Lakoff 1993), the analysis led to the identification of two conceptual metaphors that played a crucial role in the articulation of German functionalism: the TRANSFER metaphor and the TARGET metaphor. The paper focuses on the main implications of the use of these metaphors and on the contradictions they create. A broadening of the functionalist theoretical framework is then proposed with the goal of overcoming these contradictions.

Keywords: translation, metaphor, cognition, functionalism, theory, model
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptual metaphors in scientific discourse
  • 3.Metaphors in Translation Studies
  • 4.Shifts and containers in functionalism: Remnants of earlier models?
  • 5.The metaphor of functionalism: Every action is directed towards a target
    • 5.1Does every action have an objective?
    • 5.2Assigning a single objective to each translational action
    • 5.3The end justifies the means
    • 5.4The reconstruction of the TRANSFER model
  • 6.Broadening of the theoretical framework of functionalism
    • 6.1A model of communication as construction
    • 6.2Cultural models instead of cultures
    • 6.3Situated and emerging translational action
    • 6.4Ethics and Translation Studies
    • 6.5Experientialism as a means of overcoming the subject/object opposition
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 May 2008
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20.1.02mar
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