Interpretation Strategies From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Interpretation is a cross-language, cross-cultural and cross-social communication activity, the process of which is not only a conversion process of languages, but also of cultures that reflect distinct social characteristics. It helps people overcome language barrier and serves as a bridge for communication among speech communities of different cultures.With the global economic integration approaching, especially after China's accession into the WTO, there have been more frequent exchanges with other countries in such areas as politics, economics, culture, sports and commerce. Interpretation is playing a bigger role at both formal and informal conferences. As we human beings enter into the 21st century, interpretation studies have registered a cross-disciplinary trend of comprehensive researches with findings of other subjects borrowed upon.Relevance Theory put forward by Sperber and Wilson researches on the communication process of human beings from a cognitive point of view. The theory argues that communication is an ostensive-inferential process based on cognitive environment and is consistent with the principle of optimal relevance. Within the framework of the theory, interpretation, which is regarded as a cross-national and cross-cultural communication activity, entails two ostensive-inferential processes relating to the speaker, the interpreter and the hearer. Thus, interpretation itself also follows the general principle of communication, that is, the principle of relevance. The interpretation process in nature is an inferential process with the pursuit of optimal relevance. In order to understand and then represent the informative and communicative intention of the speaker, the interpreter should select the proper context, combine information with his own cognitive environment and make inference about the speaker-intended assumption. At the reproduction stage of the target language, he has to be aware of the hearers'cognitive environment and express the communicative intention of the speaker with words that enjoy the most relevance.This thesis is intended to explain the communication barrier caused by those cultural factors and make tentative study on ways of dealing with culture from the perspective of relevance theory. Chapter One introduces the fundamental concepts of relevance theory. Chapter Two briefly reviews the characteristics and nature of interpretation and illustrates its comprehension and reproduction process. Chapter Three exemplifies the application of relevance theory in interpretation with a focused analysis on cultural factors. Chapter Four further proposes the interpretation strategies of domesticating ostension and foreignizing ostension based on the principle of optimal relevance to help interpreters better grasp the nature of interpretation, make the best choice of words and guide our daily practices.