The Application Of Conversational Implicature In Fictional Dialogue Translation

According to Conversational Implicature Theory proposed by H.P.Grice,speakers should follow the “Cooperative Principle”(CP).However,in some cases the speaker may violate the Cooperative Principle on purpose,generating conversational implicature.The study object of this report is the translation of the Chinese short story “Can I Have Your Kidney”.The conversational implicature shows the characters’ true emotion and attitude and is of great importance to the characterization and plot development.The conversational implicature is the major difficulty in the translation of the short story.First,the violation of the four maxims of Cooperative Principle in the dialogues is identified and then the reasons for the violation and the conversational implicature generated are provided.Translation strategies are suggested as follows: If the implicature is easy for target text readers to understand,literal translation should be employed to preserve the original writing.If the implicature is too subtle and hard for the target text readers to comprehend,translation strategies like amplification,free translation and conversion should be adopted to convey the implication.It can be concluded that Grice’s Conversational Implicature Theory is of great help in the translation of dialogues in many Chinese short stories.By conveying the conversational implicature,the fluency and accuracy of the target text can be expected and a better reading experience for the target text readers can be achieved.