Principle Of Pragmatic Priority In Translation

Translation is a topic frequently discussed at home and abroad, but so far no agreement has been reached unanimously. There do exist lots of translation criteria at home and abroad, but most of them are concerned with whether a translation is good or bad, translation theorists define translation differently from different perspectives. There do exist lots of translation theories, but translation theorists discuss translation differently from different perspectives, and we llnd they observe the rule that different situation calls for different renderings. What's more, from practice, we know there are various types of translation (literary translation, scientific translation, legal translation, etc.), and not a single criterion is good enough for judging all of them. So we need different criteria for dilTerent types of translation and we need to judge dilTerent types of translation from different angles.Based on the theoretical analysis and translation practice, here comes up with my point of view-principle of pragmatic priority in translation, that is, priority should be given to the pragmatic factors in deciding the translation criterion, and to pragmatic meaning in translating meaning. That's to say, at first, we have to take the pragmatic or contextual factors into consideration before determining what criterion to follow. These factors are the following, (1) the setting, (2) the source text, (3) the purpose of translation of the initiator, or the commissioner, (4) the experience and motivation of the translator, (5) the readership, and (6) the medium. That's principle of pragmatic priority in translation on the first level. Besides, when semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning cannot be conveyed simultaneously, in order to ensure successful communication, we have to give up the semantic meaning and translate the pragmatic meaning first, namely, (1) illocutionary force, (2) conversational implicature, (3) figurative meaning, (4) reference, (5) emotionalconnotations, and (6) perlocutionary effect.The thesis consists of four parts.Chapter 1 gives a brief historical overview of the basic debates and conflicts concerning the criteria of translation in the translation history. which leads to the principle of pragmatic priority in translation.Chapter 2 expounds the principle of pragmatic priority and explains why it should be observed in translation.Chapter 3 discusses how to apply the principle of pragmatic priority to translation from a macroscopic perspective, which aims to solve the problem of how to choose different criteria and strategies for the translation of texts of different functions.Chapter 4 discusses how to apply the principle of pragmatic priority to translation from a microscopic perspective, which aims to solve the problem of how to render the different meanings of specific texts in different contexts.The end of the thesis is a conclusion, in which we hold that the pragmatic principle is prior to other principles of translation and the principle of pragmatic priority should be observed in the whole process of translation.