Skopos definition
Skopos in Greek means “purpose”. From the name skopos, we can see clearly that skopos theory emphasizes that all the translation activities and the strategies translators use during the process of translating should serve the goal of “purpose”. Skopos theory was developed in the late 1970s in Germany and marked a general shift from predominantly linguistic and rather formal translation theories to a more functionally and socio-culturally oriented concept of translation (Baker, 1998:235). Hans Vermeer, under the guidance of Katharina Reiss, founded skopos theory, while other major advocators include Justa Holz-Mänttäri and Christiane Nord. Katharina Reiss, in Translation Criticism: The Potentials and Limitations: Categories and Criteria for Translation Quality Assessment, states that “text function” should be viewed as one of standards for translation criticism. She called the ideal translation mode as “integral communicative performance”, which means the translated texts should be equal to the original texts in “content, language mode and communicative function”
Skopos is a Greek word which means objective, purpose as Guidère (2008) stated: “le mot grec “skopos” signifie la visée, le but ou la finalité. Il est employé en traductologie pour désigner la théorie initiée en Allemagne par Hans Vermeer à la fin des années 1970” (p. 72). It is important to indicate that the terms ‘skopos’, ‘purpose’ and ‘function’ are used interchangeably by scholars, but the term ‘function’, linked to text typology,is attributed a specific use by Reiss (1971).