A Semantic-pragmatic Approach Toward Translation Studies

The author of this thesis holds, it is impractical to describe translation studies with a purely linguistic mode, such as "equivalence"; only starting from meaning and regarding it a systematic concept, can we reach a rational understanding of translation studies.The problem of meaning lies at the core of all translation studies. To study this problem will afford us a clarified cognition of the general frame of translatology and base us well for our further exploration toward its sub-branches.Treated as a system, meaning presents its multiple dimensions and complexity. The author thinks, guided by modern language philosophy and with achievements of semantics and pragmatics, we are able to grasp the essence of meaning soundly.In this thesis, the author takes semantics and pragmatics as two fundamental viewpoints. From the angle of semantics, he expounds upon "semantic fields" theory, "componential analysis", the theory of "markedness" as well as "the text" theory; from the angle of pragmatics, he introduces and adopts the "discourse" theory and the "speech act" theory, "cooperative principles" and the theory of "implicatures", the "context" theory and the theory of "relevance".Situated in a system, meaning is of a binary nature of being at once subjective and objective. This nature is not only embodied in that a comprehensive attitude has to be insisted in order to ensure the two's harmonious existence when taking up theories and principles of semantics and pragmatics to examine meaning, but also reflected in that when applying achievements of such meaning researches into translation studies, we have to hold on to a standpoint of integration: an integration of theory and practice, and an integration of translators the subjective entity and objective factors such as the original text, the context of the author's background, the translated text, the context of the translator's background, etc.Traditional translation studies put more emphasis upon a translator's subjective initiative, which makes translation theories often elusive for us as translation apprentices; in regard to this, the author emphasizes that translation studies should strengthen the study of the translating process and describe it more as an objective activity, and he believes this emphasis does devote so much to the establishment of the translatology and boast of a profoundinfluence upon translation practice. Therefore, on the basis of the results of meaning study, the author sensibly demands a semantic-pragmatic approach be employed toward translation studies.On the whole, (lie author divides translation studies into two parts: the field of theoretical studies and the field of practical studies. For the former, taking the mode of "original texts-translating- translated texts" as the guideline, the author highlights problems concerned with "interpreting the original texts and translating", "understanding the context and translating", and "pragmatic failures and translating"; for the latter, along with a severe restatement of the dynamic nature of the semantic-pragmatic approach, the author takes up "style" as his starting point to analyze examples concerned with such various literary genres as poetry, prose and drama.