On The Contextualization Competence Of The Translator

The role of context in translation is known to all.In order to clarify the role of context,the concept of translational context has been introduced and discussed by scholars at home and abroad since 1990 s.However,the understandings of the concept by different scholars are sharply different.The reason behind the difference is that scholars have adopted different perspectives,levels and aspects in approaching to translational context.With their own perspectives and taking some specific questions as the standpoint,scholars have achieved results that are hardly holistic.In order to approach to translational context holistically,this paper takes context realism as the basis,holism as the guidance,and relevant research as the theoretical support.By combining the macro analysis with the micro analysis,the author draws the conclusion that translational context is a relational entity in the cognitive form,demonstrating a series of dialectical features.The cognitive form and relational nature of translational context determine that translational context has an omnipresent restrictive role on the translation process.Based on the observation and the analysis of the restrictive role of context in translation process,combining the relevance translation theory of Gutt and other relevant research on translational process,this paper explains the translational process as a contextualization process.Here,interpreting the source text is the process in which the translator deconstructs the original meaning according to the contextualization cues,and producing the target text is the process in which the translator encodes the target version in light of the contextualization information.The contextualization competence of the translator plays the same important role as his translational competence when the translational process is taken as a contextualization process.Based on the analysis of contextualization process with the examples of poem translation,the contextualization competence of the translator is deconstructed into five kinds of sub-competence,i.e.,the competence to address the source text,the competence to retrieve relevant experience,knowledge and ideas,the competence to infer assumptions,the competence to express meaning representations and the competence to organize the target text.In addition,based on the features of translational context,the features of contextualization competence are summarized,including the uniqueness and instantaneity,the individuality and personal difference as well as the constructiveness and openness of contextualization competence.The cultivation of the contextualization competence of the translator cannot do without the cultivation of its five kinds of sub-competence.These kinds of competence are mainly determined by three factors,i.e.,the linguistic proficiency of the translator,the range and salience of his experiences,knowledge and ideas and the systematicness and structureness of his experiences,knowledge and ideas.The improvement of the translator's contextualization competence lies in the improvement of these three factors.As a result,some specific suggestions on improving these factors are given to provide guidance to the cultivation of the translator's contextualization competence.