Application Of Speech Act Theory To Translation

Translation studies have been enriched by advances in neighboring disciplines, resulting in a multiplicity of research in terms of theory, concepts, and approaches. Based on the researches of scholars at home and abroad, the author of the thesis tries to study further the speech act theory in an attempt to understand its significance to the theory and practice of translation. Speech act theory studies linguistics from a philosophical perspective, focusing on how language is ordinarily used. Exploration by many scholars in this field has so far made great advances which provide valuable insights into translation. This thesis centers on the concept of meaning in speech act theory and discusses two of its principal factors --- convention and intention. Arguments are mainly based on the exploration of conventional and intentional forces which dominate the meaning of utterances. The conventional force is carried by convention which is an invariant in the utterance meaning. Therefore, utterances are comprehensible through convention in most cases. However, convention differs between languages, hence translation problems in such circumstances. The intentional force is carried by intention which is a variant in the utterance meaning. Intention is less restrained by language than convention. It differs between language users. The language user is free to give intention within the restraint of circumstances. As a result, the translator has to dig into the circumstance for the intentional meaning. Intentional meaning may depart from conventional meaning, which poses problems for the translator. As a matter of fact, words may have literal meaning which is static and circumstantial meaning which is dynamic. The problem for understanding an utterance therefore arises, and what makes it more problematic is that both literal and circumstantial meanings may have no equivalents across linguistic border. While analyzing translation problems arising out of the two forces, the author tries to propose some strategies that might be employed in different circumstances.