Abstract

This study tackles the translation of Arabic tourist texts into English within the perspective of skopos theory. The word (skopos) from Greek stands for the purpose or objective of the translation.Skopos theory simplified as ‘the end Justifies the means’ is a purpose or objective based approach to translation which assumes that the skopos of the translation is the main decisive factor in choosing the translation methods and strategies.Translation conducted in accordance with this theory is gaining ground in numerous non-literary domains such as, the translation of scientific, medical, commercial and economic texts, in addition to the translation of tourist texts which is the focal point of this study.The study aims at exploring various translation options offered for the translator within the framework of skopos theory; it also aims at raising translators’ awareness of their audience needs and expectations.The study hypothesizes that each translation task has a certain skopos or purpose to fulfill and that the skopos of the translation is the main determinant of the methods and strategies used to conduct the translation task, it also assumes that the translator as an expert in translational action must carry out his translation task in a way that better serve the interests of translation partners.To test the validity of the hypotheses, a practical chapter is presented which includes data analysis of several tourism related excerpts taken from a tourist text entitled (Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf). These excerpts were handed over to 4 translators to carry out the task of translation. Their translation versions will be verified to determine compliance to achieving the purpose of the translation which is simply to attract more tourists to visit the advertised area.The study concludes that translation from skopos theory perspective is a target text-oriented process; its main objective is to produce a target text that will better serve its purpose or skopos. It also concludes that translator should fulfill his translation task in a way that conforms to target text receivers needs and expectations.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2022-12-08

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