Relevance Theory On Translation Studies

Relevance theory, a powerful theory in pragmatics, provides the translation studies with a pragmatic perspective. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore a relevance-theoretic account of translation and adopt Relevance theory to expound translation phenomena and direct translation practice. As one form of communication, translation is primarily an ostensive-inferential cognitive process; the object of translation studies is the mental mechanism of people as communicators. The success of communication depends on two conditions: (1) manifestness, and (2) relevance. The goal of human communication is not the maximal relevance, but the optimal relevance, that is, an expectation on the part of the hearer and his attempt at interpretation will yield adequate contextual effects at minimal processing effort. The ultimate goal of translation is its optimal relevance to the source text. Every translator should understand whatever he does in his translation matters primarily due to the causal interaction of cognitive environment, stimulus and interpretation. This rule of optimal relevance is believed to be able to match, to the greatest extent, the communicator's intention of the source text with the audience's expectation of the target text. In the Relevance framework, translation can be defined as a dynamic process, an act of ostensive-inferential verbal (intralingual or interlingual) interpretation. This dissertation attempts to shed new light on the two dominant topics: untranslatability and equivalence. Relevance theory is not conceived for translation, but it is powerful to account for translation phenomena. The success or failure of translation depends causally on consistency with the principle of relevance.