Conversational Implicature And Fictional Dialogue Translation

In this thesis, a pragmatic theory—Conversational Implicature is used to account forthe process of fictional dialogue translation with Fortress Besieged as a case. Thedialogues of the characters serve to enliven a fiction. To be specific, they can disclose theidentities and personalities of the characters, reveal the setting of the fiction, push the storyforward and stimulate the readers’ interest in the fiction. Thus, the importance of a goodtranslation of these dialogues is self-evident. However, researches on fictional dialoguetranslation are relatively unsystematic and incomplete. In spite of the fact that manytheories like aesthetics, stylistics, sociolinguistics and discourses have been applied to thestudy on fictional dialogue translation, the results are unsatisfactory to date. As aconsequence, fictional dialogue translation requires further exploration.Meanwhile, the increasingly developing pragmatics is constantly offering alternativeperspectives for translation studies. Conversational Implicature suggested by Herbert PaulGrice serves well the purpose of studying fictional dialogues. It is centered on finding outthe general conditions governing conversations and explains the mechanism underlying theuse of a sentence to convey extra meanings. Grice starts with the discussion of theviolation of the four maxims of Cooperative Principle; then he focuses on three kinds ofcases where conversational implicatures arise, namely, cases in which no maximwhatsoever is violated, cases where a clash between two maxims face the speaker andcases where the maxims are “exploited” and “flouted”. Therefore, it is rational and feasibleto build a theoretical framework based on Conversational Implicature to elucidate theprocess of analyzing the implied meaning of fictional dialogues and improving thetranslation. In this thesis, the significance of Conversational Implicature both in meaninganalysis and in affecting translation aims, translation principles and quality assessment, isto be explored.This thesis is laid out in four chapters. The first chapter is the literature review. Boththe past relevant researches on translation of fictional dialogues and the dialogues ofFortress Besieged are examined. In the beginning, fictional dialogue is clearly defined asthe direct speeches of the speakers. Firstly, it is found that studies on fictional dialogue translation can be safely divided into two groups, namely, the one with literary approachand the one with linguistic approach. Secondly, the dialogues in Fortress Besieged areabundant in witty and thought-provoking words, but the current researching angles arelimited. It deserves exploring from a broader theoretical perspective.The second chapter builds the theoretical framework of the thesis. With a briefing ofthe basic concepts of Conversational Implicature and a review of the pertinent articles onConversational Implicature, cultural elements, contextual elements and figures of speechare suggested as three essential elements to analyze fictional dialogues. The reason behindit is the fact that these three elements, by violating Quality Maxim, Quantity Maxim,Relation Maxim or Manner Maxim, lead to the generation of implicatures and set greatbarriers against translation. This thesis aims to find out the specific way of grasping andreproducing the implicatures in fictional dialogues from the perspective of ConversationImplicature.The third chapter is an in-depth analysis of the implicatures of the dialogues inFortress Besieged. Many implicatures which violate the four maxims are inferred byexamining and analyzing the dialogues through the four maxims of Cooperative Principleand integrating the elements of culture, context and rhetoric devices. This practice initiallyproves the feasibility and efficaciousness of analyzing fictional dialogues under the theoryof Conversational Implicature. Meanwhile, it is figured out that the ConversationalImplicature must be taken into consideration so that the translation aims of adequatelypreserving cultural characteristics of the original work, considering both textual and socialcontext and working out the fittest rendering of rhetoric devices will be achieved.The fourth chapter is a comprehensive assessment of Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao’s translation of dialogues in Fortress Besieged and analysis of translation strategiesemployed by them. This chapter is also concerned with translation principles suggested inthis thesis from the practical experience of using Conversational Implicature to solveproblems in fictional dialogue translation. On the whole, the translation of dialogues inFortress Besieged is successful thanks to the translators’ appropriate ways of translationwhich reproduce the implied meaning conveyed by the original work; however, it fails toreproduce some cultural implications and rhetoric devices because of differences betweentwo languages and cultures. The translation strategies used in Fortress Besieged, namely literal translation, amplification, paraphrase and annotation have their own advantages anddisadvantages in fictional dialogue translation, and a detailed analysis is made so that theycan be appropriately used. Finally, specific translation principles to fictional dialogues aresuggested from the following three aspects. From the aspect of cultural elements, the traitsof foreign culture should not be lost as long as the ideas and contents in the fiction areclearly conveyed to the target readers; from the aspect of contextual elements, the socialand textual settings should be considered to make the implicatures correctly understoodand rendered; from the aspect of rhetoric devices, both ideas and forms should bepreserved on the basis of figuring out their different kinds of violation of the maxims ofCooperative Principle.The thesis concludes with the feasibility and necessity of applying ConversationalImplicatures to fictional dialogue translation as well as the findings and significance of thethesis. Above all, it is found that there is a close link between Conversational Implicaturesand fictional dialogue translation. With a detailed analysis of Fortress Besieged, it isproved that Conversational Implicature may serve as a theoretical framework for fictionaldialogue translation. Secondly, in the light of this framework, principles of fictionaldialogue translation are pointed out in a scientific way. To sum up, this study sheds light ona broader perspective for fictional dialogue translation. And it solidifies the theoreticalfoundations and practical employment of applying pragmatics to the research of translation.What’s more, the findings of this thesis will benefit translation teaching and comparativeliterature.