When a translator begins his work he or she has to make decision.

one of the most

important things a translator have to decide is the choice of the method and strategies he
or she will use in the translation process. But on what should the translator base his or
her choice?. Hans Vermeer formulated a concept called the Skopos theory. Skopos is
the Greek word for "aim, purpose", and the basic principle of Skopos theory is that the
(intended) purpose of the target text determines the choice of method and strategy in the
translation process. Based on this idea Cristiana Nord recognizes two modes of text
transfer. In this essay I will present the two modes Nord distinguishes and the strategies
and methods use in each mode. Take into account that in speaking about strategies ,
vinay and delbelnet speak of methods of translation, and newmark of translation
procedures.
The first concept proposed by Nord is that of Documentary Translation. It serves to
document in the TL the communication which a ST contains. In this case of translation,
aspects of the ST or the whole ST in situation are reproduced for the TT receivers, who
is conscious of observing a communicative situation of which they are not a part. The
second concept proposed is Instrumental Translation. It is a freer method of translation
which could be totally at variance with what the source text was intended to achieve in
the source language.

It serves as an independent message. Is is a transmitting

instrument in a new communicative action in TC, and is intended to fulfill its

communicative purpose without the receiver being aware of reading or hearing a texrt
which, in a different form, was used before in a different communicative action. This
translation type comprises three forms: Irst, if the target text can fulfil the same
function as the ssource text ; second, if the ST fumctions cannot be realized as such by
TT receiver, they may be adapted by the translator, provided that the TT funcions are
compatible with the ST functions and do not offend against the senders intentions and
the tird if it is intended to achieve a similar effect by reproducing in the TC literary
context the function the ST has in its own SC literary context.
As regards which method goes with which mode of text transfer we can say that
methods as Word-for-word Translation where The SL word-order is preserved and the
words translated singly by their most common meanings, out of context and Cultural
words are translated literally. Literal Translation The SL grammatical constructions are
converted to their nearest TL equivalents but the lexical words are again translated
singly, out of context. Goes with documentary translation. While methods as

Adaptation which is used mainly for plays and poetry. where the themes, characters and
plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL culture and text
rewritten. Or Free Translation which reproduces the matter without the manner, or the
content without the form of the original. Are typically use with instrumental translation.

Now that we know the modes of text transfer , we can chose the strategies. In order to
analyze the different strategies I would like to present to you the classification of
translation strategies made by . chestermans which consists on three primary groups.
The first one is Syntactic translation strategies. In this groups the strategies have effects
on the form of the text, they indicate a change in the grammatical form. One of the
strategies that comprise this faction is for example Transposition which is a translation
strategy involving a change in the grammar from SL to TL. An example to illustrate it
could be the shift of the order of adjectives in the phrase the white house in the English
version the order is determiner + adjective + noun while in the Spanish version la casa
blanca the order is determiner + noun + adjective. Borrowing is another strategy present
in syntactic translation strategies it is the conscious decision of translators to establish
equivalences by transcribing items from ST to TT. As in the case of (ST) travers le
conflit qui oppose les merciers et les drapirs la fin du 17 . (TT) by the conflict
between the merciers and the drapiers in the late seventeenth century. Other group
proposed by Chestermans is Semantic translation strategies this set is form by those
strategies that change or modify the meaning of the text, a sentence or a clause. For
instance Synonymy in the sense of a near TL equivalent to a SL word in a context, where
a precise equivalent may or may not exist. personne gentille, 'kind' person. The last
division is Pragmatic translation strategies. The strategies of this group have to do
with the selection if information in the TT. They concern the message of the text itself,
and they typically incorporate syntactic and semantic strategies. A case of pragmatic
translation strategy would be Adaptation which is the use of a recognised equivalent
between two situations. such as 'Dear Sir' translated as Monsieur; 'Yours ever' as
Amitis.