【正文】 classification is modified and extended by Jakobson as representational function, expressive function, cognitive function, phatic function, poetic function and metalingual function. Based on their theories, Newmark puts forward the three main functions of language: expressive function, informative function and vocative function. And correspondingly, Newmark classifies the different texts into three types: expressive, informative, and vocative, with each type processing distinctive features in the aspects of author status, text emphasis, language manner and so on. Obviously, the functions of language are of basic importance as a tool for categorizing texts. (Newmark: 2001a:44).FunctionExpressiveInformativeVocativeCoreWriterTruth ReadershipAuthor’s statusSacredAnonymousAnonymousType imaginativeLiterature statementscorrespondenceTopicFormatNoticesInstructionsPropagandasPublicityPopular fictionScientificTextbookTechnologicalReportCommercialPaperIndustrialArticleEconomicMemorandumMinutesOther areas of knowledge or eventsTable 1: Language functions, textcategories and texttypes (Newmark, 2001a: 40)Firstly, the expressive function focuses on the mind of the speaker, the writer, the originator of the utterance. He just expresses his feelings or ideas regardless of any responses from the readers. Thus the expressive text is authorcentered and the status of the writer is sacred. In expressive texts the unit of translation is likely to be small. Newmark thinks the characteristic expressive texttypes are: (1) Serious imaginative literature such as lyrical poetry, short stories, novels and plays。 (2) Authoritative statements. Typical authoritative statements are political speeches, documents etc. Such texts have the personal ‘stamp’ of their authors, although they are denotative, not connotative. (3) Autobiography, essays, personal correspondence. These are expressive when they are personal effusions, when the readers are of a remote background.When translating this type of texts, the translator should be able to distinguish the personal ponents characterized as ‘personal dialect’ rather than normalize them in the target texts.Secondly, The core of the informative function of language is external situation, the facts of a topic, reality outside language, including reported ideas or theories (ibid:40). Typical informative texts are concerned with any topic of knowledge, but texts about literary subjects, as they often express valuejudgments, are apt to lean towards ‘expressiveness’. This type of texts include a textbook, a technical report, an article in a newspaper or a periodical, a scientific paper, a thesis, minutes or agenda of a meeting. A successful translation of this kind of text is to transfer the message efficiently and keep the naturalness of the grammatical form of the target language. Newmark points out that ‘informative’ texts constitute the vast majority of the staff translator’s work in international organizations, multinationals, private panies and translation agencies. And a high proportion of such texts are poorly written and sometimes inaccurate, and it is usually the translator’s job to ‘correct’ their facts and their style.Last, the vocative function is readercentered. The core of the vocative functions of language is the readership, the addressee (Newmark, 2001a:41). These texts must be written in a language that is immediately prehensible to the readership. Newmark further explains that he use the term ‘vocative’ in the sense of ‘calling upon’ the readership to act, think or feel, in fact to ‘react’ in the way intended by the text. This function of language has been given many other names, including ‘conative’ (denoting effort), ‘instrumental’, ‘operative’ and ‘pragmatic’ (in the sense of used to produce a certain effect on the readership). Typical vocative texts include notices, instructions, publicity, propaganda, persuasive writing and popular fiction. This type of texts provokes the readership to react other than conveying information. So the translator’s main task is to transfer the message of the original text to evoke the reader’s response substantially equivalent to that experienced by the original reader.Besides the three main types of texts discussed above, Newmark also introduces Jakoson’s three functions of language: the aesthetic, the phatic and the metalingual.The aesthetic function is designed to please the senses, firstly through its actual or imagined sound, and secondly through its metaphors.The phatic function is used for maintaining friendly contact with the addressee rather than for imparting foreign information.The metalingual function indicates a language’s ability to explain, name, and criticize its own features.Newmark also indicates that whilst the preceding four functions may operate throughout a text, the phatic and the metalingual are normally involved in only part of a text (Newmark, 2001a:43).In brief, Newmark’s classification of texttypes has great significance in translation practice. However, the classification of texttypes does not imply that the text a certain type is only allowed to have on language function correspondingly. On the contrary, most texts include all three functions, in addition to the dominant one. Different types of text require different translation strategies. As a result, Newmark proposes his own methods of translation, which will be discussed at length in next section. Communicative Translation (CT) and Semantic Translation (ST)According to Newmark, “Translation theory’s main concern is to determine appropriate translation methods for the widest possible range of texts or textcategories”.(Newmark, 2001a:19) Therefore, in his work Approaches to Translation published in 1981, Newmark proposes municative translation (CT) and semantic translation (ST) which have already been acknowledged as the milestone in the h