A Study Of Pragmatic Translation From The Perspective Of Cultural Context

With the wide application of pragmatic theories into translation practice, pragmatic translation has aroused great interest and attention of scholars from all over the world. The theory wisely thinks that translation, which acts as a kind of communication, is an ostensive-inferential process and that it is pragmatic equivalence that the translator should seek to provide a faithful target version. The pragmatic meaning, which includes explicature and implicature, is the core of pragmatic equivalence. However, because of the difference in cultural contexts, the translator is always confronted with the dilemma of providing an adequate transfer of the meanings.This paper aims at a systematic analysis of cultural context and its influence on understanding and defining the pragmatic meaning in the process of pragmatic equivalent translation. The paper first provides a definition of cultural context and its scope on the basis of previous studies on cultural context both at home and abroad. Then the author expounds that pragmatic translation is in fact an equivalent translation which depends on context, especially on cultural context, to decide its pragmatic meanings. Its substance is the transfer of pragmatic meaning. Through specific studies on the cultural context differences on the three layers of the utterance, including cultural lexemes, cultural communication criteria and belief systems, the author clearly exemplifies that people's pragmatic behaviors are enslaved to their cultural background. Different cultural contexts might cause pragmatic failure and communicative obstacles or even conflicts. To solve such problems, the paper points out that the translator should aim at deducing the intention of the writer and the cognition of the target readers and try to transfer the pragmatic meaning. To achieve pragmatic equivalence, the translator should choose the closest and most natural equivalent to keep the content of the original rather than the form only. Therefore, the author reinforces the subjective role of the translator and the facets that the translator should try to achieve in the process of the translating. Furthermore, some useful pragmatic translation strategies are put forward. The paper concludes that, in the process of translation, the translator will inevitably come across some obstacles caused by differences in cultural context. To solve such problems, the translator should take pragmatic equivalence as the general principle, the transfer of pragmatic meaning as the purpose, the intention of the writer and the cognitive ability of the target readers as the starting point. Pragmatic translation theory can provide instructive principles and suggestions to guarantee the smoothness of communication and success in translation.