Cultural Default And Translation Compensation In The Light Of Relevance Theory

Relevance theory is not originally conceived for translation; however it proves effective in accounting for translation phenomenon "the most complex thing in the history of the cosmos". In this thesis, the author attempts to discuss the cultural default and translation compensation methods by analyzing the translation practice of Three Kingdoms by Sino linguist Moss Robert, trying to work out a series of translation compensation for cultural defaults with the relevance-theoretic framework, proving the explanation power of relevance theory for translation studies and providing new study perspective for cultural default translation.According to relevance theory, translation is a dual-process ostensive-inferential communication among the original text author, the translator and the target audience. The best translation version is to provide the optimal relevance for the target audiences or produces adequate contextual effects for audiences without unjustified efforts.The definition of cultural default is "the absence of relevant cultural background knowledge shared by the author and his intended reader". The phenomenon of Cultural default is the result of a spontaneous and natural cognitive progress. The cultural default not only enhances the communication efficiency but has the aesthetical and rhetorical functions. However, when the source language audiences are changed into target language audiences after translation, cultural default may cause incoherent reading for target text audience because of their different background knowledge from the source text audience. The translator should shoulder the task of removing the obstacles in understanding caused by different cultural background. Based on relevance theory, the author proposed that we should take the optimal relevance as standard in cultural default translation and let the target readers achieve the adequate contextual effects without unnecessary processing effort and match the ST communicator's intention with the target text (TT) audience's expectation.