Context Analysis: An Approach To Appropriateness In C-E Or E-C Translation

Translation is a communicative process and device between people who speak different languages. As an act of communication, the task of translation is to transform meaning correspondingly from the source language into the target language in order to complete a proper and appropriate communication. An appropriate communication demands that the language in use is not only appropriate to the linguistic context but also to the extralinguistic context in which it happens. In other words, appropriateness, to a large extent, depends on the context of situation that is made up of linguistic and extralinguistic contextual factors. Negligence of the role of context of situation in translation may cause the inappropriateness of translation. So it is quite necessary to take the important role of context of situation into consideration in the whole process of translation.The interest of translation is centered around the successful transfer of meaning. And as meaning is multilayered and dynamic, it is not right for the translator to just understand the conceptual meaning of the word given in bilingual dictionaries. He should go further from its conceptual meaning to understand its contextual meaning. In semantics, conceptual meaning (sense), also called referential meaning, is the core of meaning. But contextual meaning can be defined from the following two aspects. First, it is the meaning of the word in a specific linguistic context where the conceptual meaning can be adjusted so that its true meaning can be attained. Secondly, because both social environment and cultural background belong to context of situation, the contextual meaning no doubt, should include the meaning immensely influenced by communicative purpose and cultural factor, which are often called meaning determined by the social function and cultural background. The analysis of the contextual meaning at the second level is based on the theories of speech acts of pragmatics and cross-culture communication.What the translator confronts is an interrelated and interactive communicative process. He is likened to a bridge, connecting the original text and its translation. On the one hand, he has to communicate with the author, comprehending all information the original text contains. The information he grasps includes communicative value and cultural significance as well as form and content. In the comprehension stage, the translator usually goes through three steps in order to have a better understanding of the contextual meaning of the text. In the first step, he gets rid of ambiguity and polysemy of expressions in context so as to decide their real referential meaning. Then the translator considers the intention of the original text to infer its communicative value, or so-called pragmatic meaning. In the last step, the translator verifies his comprehension against the cultural background. Context of situation plays a vital role in all these three steps. After all, linguistic context, the author's intention and culture are included into the concept of context of situation. The explanatory function of context of situation shown in this stage helps the translator to break away from the confinement of the surface structure of the text. In thus doing, he can comprehend the sense and significance of the language units. After all, it isthe focus of meaning transformation in translation.Deep and correct understanding is the solid basis for appropriate translation. In this comprehensive phase, the influence of context of situation is explicit. Then in order to reproduce the original text in the TL faithfully, context of situation plays its constraint function in the restructuring phase. After all, the choice of expression in a specific context of situation is limited. The function manifestes itself as the concrete considerations of the translator in the translation process. To be exact, he has to consider, one by one, the cultural features of the TL, functional equivalence of his translation with the original text and the representation of the original st...