Interlingual Translation In The Light Of Sociosemiotics: A Decision-making Process

Interlingual translation as a complex but fascinating event has been studied from a variety of perspectives, such as linguistic, philological, communicative approaches. But these theories are deficient in one way or another, for they all invariably consider translation as a linguistic or textual operation to reproduce the source text (ST) meanings in the target language (TL), neglecting or failing to attach due importance to the factors outside the text itself. However, translation is not merely a linguistic activity, but a communicative activity across cultures and languages in socio-cultural settings.Sociosemiotics, taking all things as signs is primarily concerned with the meanings of signs constructed and interpreted through the relations with other signs of whatever nature in human society at all periods of time. Since translation and sociosemiotics share the kernel task of exploring meanings, it is legitimate to study translation in the light of sociosemiotics, which is likely to be a more holistic and scientific methodology to approach this social-cultural event.This thesis, in the framework of sociosemiotics, aims to give some other explanations to some central issues of translation. The author maintains that interlingual translation as a sign activity is an ST-based, target text (TT) -oriented decision-making process. In the process of translating, the translator 1) decodes the ST, digging out its referential, linguistic and pragmatic meanings, on the basis of SL context, 2) decides which aspects of meanings to be retained, with references to the target language (TL) context, 3) then encodes the selected meanings into the potential TT, allowing it to be compatible with the TL context and perform given functions. The whole process is restricted and modified not only by the ST, but also equally by a series of contributing factors in the TL context. The author points out that the essence of translating is not to strive for maximum transference of the ST meanings, but to let the potential TT to be compatible with an exotic socio-cultural environment, keeping a certain degree of equivalence. This mode of translation dissolves the ST-oriented criterion for translation, which holds the ST as the overriding determinant for the TT and takes non-linguistic signs as determinants for the TT, including the translator's intention for the TT, readers' expectancy, translator's subjectivity and the TL socio-cultural environment when the translation is produced.The thesis starts with an introduction in which the author makes clear the background to the present study and reviews the status quo of translation studies, with emphasis on sociosemiotic approach to translation both at home and abroad, and then stresses that sociosemiotics is a more holistic and systemic methodology to study translation. Then semiotics and sociosemiotics which are often mixed up in many studies are differentiated and the basic principles as well as the advantages of sociosemiotic mode of translation are pointed out. Next the essential notions in sociosemiotics such as sign, icon, index, symbol, semiosis and interpretant are elaborated and their implications for translation studies are pointed out in brief. Much has also been said about the terms such as meaning, function, language, culture and context, which are of significance to translation. After this, the thesis deals with, in the light of sociosemiotics, some central issues in translation such as the name, types, definition, process and essence of, as well as the criterion for translation attempting to develop the most theoretically inspiring idea that translation is an ST-based TT-oriented decision-making process which is restricted and modified not only by the ST, but also equally by the TL context. With the insights taken from the discussions, the thesis tries to examine real translation practices with adequate examples supplied, depicting how this decision-making is done. Lastly, the present paper summarizes its main points and puts forward some suggestions for further development of this theory.