A Study Of The Treatment Of Conversational Implicatures In The Chinese Translations Of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew

Conversational implicature refers to the unsaid meaning either conveyed by the speaker through violating certain maxims or inferred by the hearer in accordance with these maxims in a particular context.There are many expressions with conversational implicatures in Shakespeare’s plays.In existing Chinese translations,however,the translators either translate theses expressions literally and add footnotes to them,thus leaving the audience with no opportunity to deduce their implicatures;or they express the implicatures explicitly,thus sacrificing the culture-specific metaphors embodied in these expressions and damaging the aesthetic effect of the plays;besides,some other translators ignore the role Chinese modal particles play in conveying the implicatures.As plays are created mainly for performance,translators should try to make it possible for the audience to deduce the implicatures in the original plays instantly.This thesis found that discourses with conversational implicature were mainly realized by verbosity,accommodation to lies,metaphors,proverbs and irony in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.Among them,verbosity,accommodation to lies,and non-culture-specific metaphors can be translated literally to convey their implicatures;while culture-specific metaphors,proverbs and irony need to be translated by showing how the Cooperative Principle and Conversational Maxims are violated in the original text in order to convey their implicatures.Among the translation strategies that can be adopted are:(1)In translating culture-specific metaphors,if there is a corresponding vehicle in Chinese but the vehicle does not invoke the same conventional associative attribute which happens to be the conversational implicature in the original text,a translator can translate the vehicle literally and indicate that associative attribute,as in translating "joint-stool" into 小冷板凳;if there is no corresponding vehicle in Chinese,the original vehicle can be replaced with a Chinese vehicle with a similar implicature,as in translating "crab"(=crab-apple,metaphorically,a sour or cross-grained person)into 刺球.(2)In translating proverbs,a translator can add relevant information omitted in the original text,as in translating "keep you warm" into 你还知道天冷要加衣服啊.(3)In translating irony,a translator can choose corresponding words carrying strong emotions or add a modal particle at the end of the sentence,as in translating"Here’s no knavery" into 这个计策可没坏水儿哦,which can remind the audience of the real meaning of the character’s speech.Finally,out of consideration of form and phonology,a translator can adapt the original expression in some way,as in adapting"That teacheth tricks eleven-and-twenty long" into 他教你二十条妙计、十一条秘诀.