Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Translator's preface; Foreword to the first edition; Foreword to the second edition; 0. Introduction; 0.1 Preliminary remarks; 0.2 General epistemological considerations; 0.3 The purpose of T & I studies; 0.4 General remarks on terminology; Part I. Theoretical groundwork; 1. Terminological distinctions; 1.1 The need for a generic term; 1.2 The advantage of neologisms; 1.3 Formal distinctions; 1.4 Summary; 1.5 Other definitions; 2. Of worlds and languages; 2.1 Framework for a theory of translational action: an overview. 2.2 The concept of 'language'2.3 Forms of transfer; 2.4 Summary: 'Transfer' as a generic concept; 2.5 Language and culture; 2.6 What is translated?; 3. Translational action as an 'offer of information' (functional definition) (cf. Vermeer 1982); 3.1 Different translation strategies at work; 3.2 Translation seen as a two-phase communication process; 3.3 An 'information' theory of translation; 3.4 In search of a consistent theory: five examples; 3.5 Another short note on terminology; 3.6 Translation as an IO about another IO; 3.7 Types of 'information offers' about texts. 3.8 The benefits of our theory3.9 Translation as 'imitatio'; 4. The priority of purpose (skopos theory); 4.1 Introductory remarks; 4.2 The priority of functionality; 4.3 Summary; 4.4 The skopos rule; 4.5 The sociological rule; 4.6 Phases in decision-making; 4.7 Skopos hierarchies; 4.8 Source-text skopos vs. target-text skopos; 5. Summary of the theoretical groundwork (3., 4.); 6. Some further considerations regarding the theoretical groundwork; 6.1 Success and protest; 6.2 Intratextual coherence; 6.3 Intertextual coherence (fidelity); 6.4 Types of coherence. 7. General rules for translational action8. Taxonomy for a theory of translational action; 8.1 Preliminary remarks; 8.2 Models of translational action; 8.3 Taxonomy; Part II. Specific theories; 9. The relationship between source text and target text; 10. Equivalence and adequacy; 10.0 Preliminary remarks; 10.1 Towards a definition of equivalence; 10.2 Origin of the equivalence concept; 10.3 On the fuzziness of the equivalence concept; 10.4 Defining the scope of the equivalence concept; 10.5 The concept of adequacy; 10.6 Equivalence vs. adequacy; 10.7 Equivalence as a dynamic concept. 10.8 Text and textual equivalence10.9 Equivalence criteria; 10.10 Achieving textual equivalence in the translation process; 10.11 The text; 10.12 Hierarchies of equivalence requirements; 10.13 Discussion of examples; 10.14 Conclusions; 11. Genre theory; 11.0 Introduction; 11.1 The concept of genre; 11.2 Genre definition; 11.3 Genre conventions and genre classes; 11.4 The role of genre in the communicative event; 11.5 The role of genre in the translation process; 11.6 Summary; 12. Text type and translation; 12.0 Preliminary remarks; 12.1 Text status; 12.2 Text function; 12.3 Text types.

This is the first English translation of the seminal book by Katharina Reiß and Hans Vermeer, Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie, first published in 1984. The first part of the book was written by Vermeer and explains the theoretical foundations and basic principles of skopos theory as a general theory of translation and interpreting or 'translational action', whereas the second part, penned by Katharina Reiß, seeks to integrate her text-typological approach, first presented in 1971, as a 'specific theory' that focuses on those cases in which the skopos requires equivalence