On The Value Of Relevance In Translation And Translating Strategies Under The Framework Of Relevance Theory

Pragmatics is a newly born member of the linguistics family. It studies language in use. It contributes especially to how to comprehend and use language in different contexts. Being cognitive pragmatic theory with great influence in the West recently, the influence of relevance theory has greatly gone beyond the field of pragmatics itself, even extended to the field of translation. Translation is a kind of cross-cultural communication. Relevance theory, being a cognitive theory guiding communication has most powerful explanatory power as regards translation. The relationship between relevance theory and translation is that the two are compatible with each other, and the former can explain such a complex decoding / encoding phenomenon as the latter in an ontological sense (Zhao Yanchun, 2001:190).Relevance theory holds that one has to search for relevance of information (i.e. making contextual assumptions) through context during the course of receiving natural language information if he wants to comprehend natural language correctly. The process of searching for relevance is one of cognition and inference and also one of taking efforts. In the relevance framework, translation can be defined as a dynamic process, and act of ostensive-inferential verbal (intralingual or interlingual) interpretation (Meng Jiangang, 2000:25). The explanation to translation of the translation notion of relevance theory is dynamic and dialectical. It can use relevance in seizing the nature of translation and has positive significance in guiding translation practice.This thesis is a tentative study of the value of relevance in translation and translating strategies under the framework of relevance theory from the perspective of the function of relevance in translation action and translation reading. It presents clearly that in the process of decoding / encoding, relevance plays a vital role, determining theselection of relevant factors such as information and form. It proposes that translation action and translation reading is a process for translator searching for relevance in source language and target language readers looking for relevance in target language respectively.The author argues that in the framework of relevance theory, translating principle is not absolute or single, but relative and multiple. The choice of strategies should depend mainly on the communicative intentions of the source language author and of the translator. The whole thesis consists of four chapters:Chapter One introduces the definition of relevance and principles of relevance; points out the difference between most relevance and optimal relevance.Chapter two discusses Gutt's pragmatic role of the notion oftranslation; introduces He Ziran's notion of "translation"--pragmaticthree-participant translation under the principle of relevance; compares traditional aim of translation with the translation of relevance theory.Chapter Three reviews the history of context study; expounds the cognitive context notion of relevance theory; emphasizes pragmatic inference is an important component of relevance theory, i.e. the process of searching for relevance is one of cognition and inference; introduces the main methods of looking for relevance in translation; further emphasizes the importance of relevance in translation; discusses how a translator searches for relevance in source language and reproduces it in target language from six aspects.Chapter Four expounds translating strategies under the framework of relevance theory from the following four aspects: accounting for the foreignization principle with the notion of optimal relevance; accounting for the domestication principle with the notion of optimal relevance, pointing out that in the framework of relevance theory, translating principle is not absolute or single, but relative and multiple, in translating strategy the two principles should be considered as one of unity in opposites according to the different communicative intentions of thesource language author and the translator; draws...