A Study Of Museum Interpreting Strategies From The Perspective Of Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory

Under the background of global integration, economic and cultural communications between China and the world are becoming closer and closer. As an important window which intensively shows the history, culture and ethnic customs of the Chinese nation, the museum is attracting more and more visitors to come and appreciate the charm of Chinese culture. However, the limited numbers of English guide in the museum are unable to meet the needs of foreign tourists, which makes an urgent demand of English interpreters. As an effective way to transmit Chinese culture to foreigners, the importance of museum interpreting is becoming increasingly prominent, which has drawn the attention of domestic researchers. Unfortunately, the researches mostly focus on the terms of cultural relics and the methods of research are mainly about Skopos Theory and Theories of Intercultural Communication. It is obvious that few researchers focus on the process of museum interpreting under the guidance of Relevance-theoretic Translation.As a new product of Relevance Theory applied in the field of translation, Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory sees the process of interpreting as two ostensive-inferential processes. Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory has a strong explanatory power to museum interpreting which is regarded as a cross-cultural verbal communication behavior. Based on Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory, taking the process of the interpreting as the process of realizing communicative intention, this thesis researches on the transcript from the consecutive interpreting in Ordos Museum on July 24th,2015, supplemented by the interview of interpreter, and summarizes problems existing in the interpreting and analyzes the reasons, and finally proposes some coping strategies.On the basis of analyzing the process of interpreting with Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory, combined with a case study, the thesis draws following conclusions:It is feasible to analyze museum interpreting with Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory, for the essence of museum interpreting is a kind of cross-cultural verbal communication behavior, and Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory is a theory of verbal communication. During the process of interpreting, Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory points out different tasks undertaken by the interpreter in two ostensive-inferential processes, which provides a theoretical direction for the interpreter to formulate strategies. According to Relevance-theoretic Translation Theory, in the first ostensive-inferential process, two strategies are formulated as repeating ostensive information and adding turns, in order to help the interpreter understand the intention of source language. In the second ostensive-inferential process, three strategies are proposed, including transliteration combined with explanatory interpreting, analogy interpreting and blur interpreting, with the purpose of helping the interpreter interpret successfully and helping the audience build optimal relevance and finally comprehend the source language. It is hoped that the five strategies above can help interpreters achieve cross-culture communication successfully and offer useful reference for the newcomers engaging in museum interpreting in the future.