Approach To Translator's Subjectivity From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The present thesis is an attempt to explore the connotation of translator's subjectivity and the role it plays in translation from the perspective of relevance theory. Basing on the case study of two English versions of Luotuo Xiangzi translated by Evan King and Shi Xiaojing, the author thinks that the translator, under the influence of source language text and author, target language reader's cognitive environment and his translation purpose, exerts subjectivity during the choice and inference of source language text and the selection of translation strategies in expressing stage.Translation study has a long period of more than two thousand years whether in China or western countries. Through studying the long history, however, we find that translator's status and role in translation activity do not keep the same all the way. In traditional point of view, translator, in a marginal place, usually is neglected in the study of translation. However, since the early 1950s translation theorists and scholars have come to be aware of the need for a multidisciplinary study on translation."Whatever translation is in its entirety, it seems to involve semiotic, linguistic, textual, lexical, social, sociological, cultural and psychological aspects or elements, all of which are being studied nowadays as determining factors in whatever the translator does."(Hickey, 2001) With the development of translation, especially after the culture turn, more and more translation theorists and linguists and scholars begin to pay more and more attention to translator. Translator's status and role played in translation process are becoming more and more obvious and clear. Translator's subjectivity has been studied from different points of view, among which is relevance theory.Relevance theory is put forward by French linguist Dan Sperber and English linguist Deirdre Wilson. It is a theory about communication in pragmatics and applied into translation first by Gutt. In the framework of relevance theory translation becomes an ostensive-inferential communicative course full of searching after the optimal relevance which is tested by the processing effort and the contextual effect. Translator is the bridge connecting the source language author with the target language readers. In order to achieve optimal communicative effect, the translator has to acquire the intention of the source language author through inference and then transfer it to the target language readers by estimating their cognitive environment. Because the cognitive environment of the translator is not identical to that of the source language author or that of the target language readers, there is a wide space for translator to exert his subjectivity to achieve the optimal relevance in the whole process of translation.In the light of the theory briefly introduced above, the author of this thesis tentatively defines translator's subjectivity as following: Translator's subjectivity is the initiative the translator manifests in translation process with the aim to achieve optimal relevance on some aspects, under the constraint of the source language text and target language reader's cognitive environment and his own translation purpose. And by comparing the two English versions of Lao She's novel Luotuo Xiangzi it is concluded that the success of the translation is dependent on the exertion of translator's subjectivity and the extent of its exertion.