The Compensation Mechanism Of Cultural Default In Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

French cognitive scientist Dan Sperber and British psychologist Deirdre Wilson put forward relevance theory in their book Relevance:Communication and Cognition. They regard communication as an ostensive-inferential process, establish a cognitive inferential model and redefine "context". The core of relevance theory is relevance and optimal relevance. Successful communication is the hearer’s achievement of optimal relevance in the process of inferring the speaker’s intention. Later, Ernst August Gutt applies relevance theory to translation studies for the first time. He points out that translation is essentially dual ostensive-inferential communication. The translation process, for the purpose of searching for optimal relevance, is the translator’s ostension and inference according to dynamic context.Cultural default, a communication strategy related to cognition, is often employed in literary creation. In the translation process, cultural default has double meanings. One is the absence of cultural background knowledge shared by the original writer and his intended readers, and the other is cultural vacancy between different cultures. How to properly deal with cultural default in translation becomes the research subject of many scholars both at home and abroad. However, most of the researches focus on the explanatory power of relevance theory over translation and the application value of cultural default. Study on the compensation mechanism of cultural default in translation from the perspective of relevance theory is seldom mentioned.On the basis of previous studies, this thesis, based on relevance theory, takes cultural image transfer in Tang poetry translation as an example and reveals the formation mechanism of cultural default in translation from a cognitive viewpoint. It summarizes the function and classification of cultural default and probes into the explanatory power of relevance theory over cultural default. The authoress constructs a translation model of cultural default in translation from the perspective of relevance theory and tentatively put forward four compensation mechanisms of cultural default in translation, namely, the transplantation model, the substitution model, the paraphrase model and the filtration model. In translation practice, the priority order of these four compensation mechanisms is determined by optimal relevance. In order to guarantee that the target language reader can obtain adequate contextual effect without spending unnecessary processing effort, the translator should select the most appropriate translation model according to optimal relevance under different circumstances.Cultural images in Tang poems have such features as nationality, constructiveness and fuzziness, which make the phenomenon of cultural default prominent in Tang poetry translation. The authoress believes that relevance theory has explanatory power over cultural image transfer in Tang poetry translation. In relevance-theoretic framework, cultural images in Tang poems are translatable. The authoress’choice of cultural image transfer in Tang poetry translation is beneficial to the research in this thesis.This thesis is not only a further proof of the great explanatory power of relevance theory, but also a breakthrough in related studies on cultural default. This research objects to such point of view as poems are untranslatable. It provides a brand-new perspective and a unique research method for cultural image transfer in Tang poetry translation. The four compensation mechanisms of cultural default in translation put forward by the authoress tentatively also give some suggestions to contemporary translators to solve related problems.