Contextual Analysis And Its Relevance To The Appropriateness In Non-literature Translation

Based on the translation of the first two chapters of TERRORISM:A Very Short Introduction, this thesis studies the importance of the context for the appropriateness in the non-literature translation. The source language (SL) text involves many social, political, historical and cultural elements, which makes contextual analysis crucial to its translation. Therefore, the first translation version was revised after a deep contextual analysis on the SL text so as to produce an accurate target language (TL) text.The first part of the thesis explores the theories about context and appropriateness in translation. This thesis chooses to divide contexts into two kinds:linguistic and non-linguistic, with social and cultural context and stylistic context as the sub-category under non-linguistic context. Meanwhile, based on the discussion of translation standards conducted by previous scholars, and the definition of appropriateness elaborated in pragmatics, the present thesis tries to define "the translation appropriateness" in this thesis as that which maintains the expressive effect of the original text in the translation so that the TL readers can experience what the SL readers do while reading the text.The second part of the thesis analyzes the translation of the first two chapters of TERRORISM:A Very Short Introduction based upon the above understanding of context, and explains how accurate contextual analysis positively affects SL interpretation and TL expression with the purpose of achieving maximum appropriateness in translation activities.The third part is the conclusion, which points out that translation, as a communicative activity across both languages and cultures, is bound to be restrained by context. In translation process, the SL context affects the interpretation of the SL text, while the TL context regulates TL application. Therefore, the translator should accurately analyze the context of the SL text so as to choose proper translation strategies based on the contextual features, rendering the translation appropriate in the TL context to facilitate cultural exchanges.