On Culture Default-A Study From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Relevance theory is formally proclaimed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition. As a pragmatic theory interpreting communication, the influence of relevance theory has greatly gone beyond the field of pragmatics itself, and even extended to the field of translation. The principle of relevance has now become a new principle guiding the pragmatic approach to translation. Noticeably, Gutt has proposed a relevance-theoretic approach to translation in his book Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context.Relevance theory holds that one has to search for optimal relevance of information by means of a certain context in the course of receiving natural language information resulting in successful communication. Translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication. Relevance theory, as a cognitive theory guiding communication, has most powerful explanatory power over translation. So Gutt sees reason to try to describe translation in terms of this theory of human communication. Gutt's efforts lie on the basic premise that the ability of human being to infer what is meant may be accounted for in terms of observing the principle of relevance, defined as achieving maximum benefit at minimum processing cost. Gutt suggests that translation is an instance of interpretive use and that translations seek to resemble their originals interpretively. Translating is constrained by the principle of relevance. According to relevance theory, the process of searching for relevance is a process of cognition and inference and also a process of taking efforts. Within the relevance framework, translation can be defined as a dynamic act of ostensive-inferential verbal interpretation. The explanation to translation with the relevance-theoretic approach is dynamic and dialectical, which has seen the essence of translation and has positive significance in guiding the practice of translation.Cultural default is a commonly seen but often ignored cultural phenomenon in written texts. It is the absence of the relevant cultural knowledge shared by the writer and his intended readers. The construction of the coherence of cultural default in a text is secured in that the readers can retrieve the relevant cultural information from their memory schemata. According to the Reception Aesthetics theory, the occurrence of culture default in a text can stimulate the readers'imagination, increase the communicative efficiency between the writer and the readers, and hence strengthen the aesthetic effect of the text. But in translation, cultural default of the original texts often turns out to be a tough nut to crack due to the difference of cultures. The present thesis attempts to probe into the various aspects of the influence imposed by cultural default on translation as well as the many problems bred by cultural default in translation practices in the hope of finding some practical approaches to translating texts with cultural default.First of all, the author of this thesis states the necessity of the research by revealing the inextricable connection among language, culture and translation. In view of the close relationship between language and culture, translation is inevitably an inter-cultural activity, rather than a simple process of inter-lingual transference. The discussion of translation of texts with cultural default can help us resolve cultural translation problems better, thus enhancing cultural communication. The author then makes an overall analysis of cultural default from the aspects of its definition, mechanism of formation, aesthetic value and classifications.Because of cultural disparity in translation, cultural default of the original texts poses a big challenge to the translator. The translator, as a mediator between the SL writer and the TL readers, must qualify himself with the following aspects. On one hand, he must have a good command of the two language-cultures concerned; on the other hand, he should mane an accurate assumption of the TL readers' cultural knowledge so as to form a correct judgment. In translation practices, nevertheless, translation problems arising from cultural default are not rare due to the translator's incompetence in cultural knowledge or inadequate assumption of the TL readers' cultural knowledge, or sometimes due to the interference of cultural presupposition in the translator's interpretation of the SL texts.