Relevance Theory And Translation

With the change of views on communication, opinions on translation are also subject to development. The proposal of relevance theory put forth by Sperber & Wilson has introduced new angles of pragmatics and cognition into the study of translation. The central concepts included in relevance theory, such as cognitive environment as the base of communication, mutual-manifestness as the necessity of communication, the distinction between communicative intention and informative intention, and most of all, relevance, especially optimal relevance as the guideline for communication, lead people to research translation in terms of its pragmatic and cognitive aspects. The translation studies directed by relevance theory utilize relevance as the means to seek translation understanding, which intends to seek the relevance of utterances, believe what is translated is either informative or communicative intention, and consider to transfer the optimal relevance is the translation criteria. On the basis of his theoretical explanation, the author also illustrates his paper with practical examples, a poem by Li Bai, and comparison of its four translations along with the author's presumably improved translation supported by relevance theory.