| Language is the carrier and an important component of culture. Every nation has its unique history, cultural tradition, customs, way of thinking and expression, which find reflections in its language. As an important means of cross-cultural communication, interpretation aims to bridge the gap between different cultures and facilitate information exchange, which is also the ultimate criterion in quality assessment. It is often the case that cultural and pragmatic factors in interpretation are ignored and misconceived, which tends to bring about the inaccurate deciphering of source information or even pragmatic failure. The concept"pragmatic failure"was first put forth by Dr. Jenny Thomas in her essay entitled Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure in 1983. As opposed to linguistic errors, it refers to the inappropriate pragmatic performance in cross-cultural communication.Based on pragmatic theories, this paper studies the nature and cause of pragmatic failure in interpretation and its implications in cultural difference. It further explores possible solutions to reduce or avoid pragmatic failure in interpretation and its classroom implication. Based on the definition of pragmatic failure, the author first classified it into two categories and made an analysis of their respective causes. Then he went on to enumerate several culture-specific pragmatic features and examined examples of pragmatic failures rooted in the differences in such features. In the end, the author gave his observation of how to improve interpreter's cross-cultural competence in terms of self training and classroom instruction. After all, studying pragmatic failure in interpretation from the perspective of cross-cultural pragmatics will not only help to formulate a more effective system of quality assessment, but also enhance the conception of culture-related pragmatic failure and motivate them to actively reduce or avoid pragmatic failure through practice, so as to provide better renditions.
|
PDF Full Text Request