ABSTRACT
In terms of the European Union directive cited above, a functional view would distin guish at least two possible purposes for the translation. The text may be translated for information , in order to give an accurate repre sentation of the provisions of the particular directive in question, or it may be translated in order to stand as a legally binding text in a target-language community. The latter purpose is, of course, more heavily constraining than the former. Such real-world purposes are paramount and complete the translator's chain of communication. Thus, the communicative/ functional perspective can be seen as an approach which relates the circumstances of the production of the source text as a commu nicative event to the social circumstances of the act of translating and the goals which it aims to achieve.
