ABSTRACT
Functionalist approaches have been developed with an orientation toward translator training, and this is still one of the main fields in which they are most useful. This chapter explains the meaning of communicative functions and how they can be identified in a text, and how translations can be classified according to the functions that include expressive function, referential function and appellative function they are intended to carry out. It discusses the role of norms and conventions in functional translation. The chapter explains the practice of translator training it, asking how the acquisition of translational competence can be guided by means of appropriate translation briefs, source-text analysis and a systematic approach to translation problems. It also examines what translation units the translator has to focus on. All this enables one to define and classify translation errors, and evaluate the adequacy of translations as texts. Various models of text function could serve as points of departure for translator training.
