A Contextual Analysis Of Pragmatic Equivalence Principles As Manifested In The Translation Of Teahouse

This thesis is an attempt to explore the strategies of achieving pragmatic equivalence in translation from the perspective of context, which is a core element in pragmatics. He Ziran (1997), Baker (2000) and Gutt(2001 )have all elaborated on pragmatic equivalence in translation. The term "pragmatic equivalence" reflects an integration of translation with pragmatics. It refers to the level of translation equivalence which aims to convey the essential meanings and implicature of the source text by considering and balancing the contexts of both the source text and the target text.This thesis probes into the theories of context within the framework of pragmatics, such as the theories of Levinson(2001), Yule (2000), Sperber and Wilson ( 2001 ), Halliday(2001), Hatim and Mason (2001) etc. It discusses the pragmatic equivalence in different types of contexts as well as how pragmalinguistic equivalence, register equivalence and sociopragmatic equivalence can be achieved within linguistic, situational and cultural context respectively.Based on the theoretical elaborations, this thesis discusses the strategies of achieving pragmatic equivalence through the comparative analysis of the data gathered from the Chinese drama Teahouse and its two English versions. Through the analysis, the author points out that contextual difference may become a barrier of effective communication. Therefore, one of the translator's central tasks is to reassess and evaluate different contexts and try to strike a reasonable balance between conveying the essential ideas and preserving the style and form of the source text. In dealing with the conflict between the form and the communicative value of the source language, sometimes the form has to give way to the communicative value—pragmatic meaning. This thesis also puts forward that performability should be taken into account in achieving pragmatic equivalence of drama translation.