A Relevance-theoretic Account Of Transmission Of Cultural Default Constituents In Translation

Relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986), originated from cognitive science, though not meant for translation, is a powerful theory in accounting for translation. Inspired by the basic framework of relevance theory in linguistic domain, Ernst-August Gutt (1991) puts forward a systematic insight of relevance theory into translation, finding that the relevance-theoretic approach to translation is adequate to provide a unified theoretic framework for the ontological and methodological studies of translation. However, it is a pity that the relevance-theoretic approach to translation has drawn little attention from the academic circles of translation within China until the last two years. This thesis, therefore, intends not only to provide an ontological and methodological study of the relevance-theoretic account of transmission of culture default constituents in translation as a specific case, but also to demonstrate that relevance theory is powerful in crystallizing the phenomena of translation in general. Due to culture-bounded qualities, the translation of cultural default turns to be a tough nut for the translator to crack, even cultural default is considered as belonging to the phenomena of untranslatability. Therefore, the thrust into this topic by applying relevance theory to cultural default translation will not only reinforce the theoretic concept of relevance translation, but also provide more concrete translation methods of cultural default translation in practice. This thesis is divided into four parts besides "Introduction" and "Conclusion".Chapter One is the ontological study of this thesis. It first introduces the basic notions of relevance and relevance theory by way of retreating the history of these notions. Then the relationship between relevance theory and translation is examined. This chapter holds that translation is an inferential communication process in which optimal relevance to the source text as well as the target context is sought.Starting from the relationship between culture and language, ChapterTwo argues that culture is so crucial in translation that thus special attention is supposed to be paid to culture constituents. Then the relationship between culture and translation is given by relevance theory. In relevance framework, translation is a kind of intercultural communication. Thus the necessity of the research of cultural constituents in translation is proved. Cultural differences lead to cultural default in cultural transmission, which stands out cultural default tends to be more elusive phenomenon in translating texts with cultural default.Chapter Three expounds cultural default in cultural transmission due to cultural differences by introducing the definition of cultural default, its mechanism of the formation and six basic types.Based on relevance theory, Chapter Four explains transferability of cultural default constituents. From the communicative point of view, translation of culture is a process of searching for optimal relevance to the original text as well as the target cultural context. Achieving interpretative resemblance to the source text actually forms the standard to judge the quality of a piece of translation work. At last, through the methodological study of culture default transmission in translation, several concrete methods are brought forth.The summarization and conclusion of the whole thesis is followed. It brings out the research findings of the author about the relevance-theoretic account of transmission of culture default in translation, and then goes to list the limitations of the present study and make suggestions for the future research.