On The Application Of Relevance Theory In Interpreting

Interpreting has become an indispensable means of human communication in the world with the rapid development of globlization of economical and cultural exchanges among all the nations. Interpreting has correspondently become a very high-income and urgently needed occupation with the enlarging growth of international cultural and economic communication between China and western countries. To improve the development and effect of interpreting as a whole, and cultivate the utmost translation efficiency of the oral translators, expert and researchers have been seeking in all aspects of the language field. In this thesis, based on the linguistic theories and pragmatic principles, the author starts from relevance theory in finding the instructional function of relevance theory on the process of interpreting.Relevance theory provides various perspectives as cognitive environment, ostensive- inferential communication, communicative Principle of Relevance, optimal relevance, relevance-theoretic comprehension procedure, relevance and comprehension, the degree of relevance, contextual effects and processing efforts for analyzing the process of dealing with the source language information, and realizing the optimal relevance by balancing the cost and effect relationship of least processing efforts and utmost contextual effect, thus facilitates the interpreting effect of the source language into target language. Based on a lot of interpreting practice examples, the author analyzes the leading instructive role of relevance principles in dealing with cultural background differences, enlarging the shared cognitive environment between the speaker and the audience, avoiding offending the audience by neglecting the relevance of the communication occasions, preventing from only translate every single word and neglecting the information and idea as a whole, coping with the interpreting both the literal meaning and the figurative meaning, and the interpreting of slang. Not limited in the discovery of the instructional function of relevance theory, the author also tempts to discuss some problems that the interpreter might encounter in the process of applying relevance theory into translation practice. This thesis argues by plenty of interpreting practice examples that under the direction of relevance theory, the optimal relevance among the speaker, the interpreter, and the audience can be realized and the positive role of the interpreter in realizing the best communicative effect in achieving optimal relevance during the process of interpreting.This thesis puts forward that interpreting requires relevance in its definition, contents, process and attributes, and relevance plays a leading general role of directing and instructing the whole process of interpreting. In analyzing the indispensable relationship between relevance principle and interpreting, the author proceeds to discuss how the interpreter as a mediator could play an active role in realizing the optimal relevance and thus achieving the best communication effect.