A Study Of Context In Translation

Defined as the environment people actually use when they communicate with each other, context plays a critical part in language understanding and using. Since the very proposal of the concept, lots of academic attention has been paid to ,which make it a basic concept in many linguistic areas now, such as semantics, stylistics, pragmatics and social linguistics. There are two points of view in context studies: the static studies and the dynamic studies, the former remaining mainstream, and the later as a compensation for and explanation of the former..Translation is closely related to context as a communication method between different languages, and an activity between different cultures. In 1990s the concept of context has been adopted by translation theories, attacking greater importance to translation. Translators are supposed to be aware of context.This thesis focuses on the relationship between translation and context, the influence and use of context while translating. It aims at making translators realize the importance of context, and helping them translate under context. Chapter 1 not only introduces the origination, the purpose and the significance of this thesis, but also gives the history of context studies. Chapter 2 introduces the basic knowledge of context, such as definition, characteristics, and functions of context. Chapter 3 explains the importance of context in translation by examples in the static aspect. Chapter 4 introduces the dynamic studies of context by contrasting two representative viewpoints. In Chapter 5 we can get the conclusion that context and translation are closely connected, translators should translate under context.