Contexts In Translating

The thesis "Contexts in Translating", based on Relevance theory and Malinowski's theory of meaning, and also with my considerable extension, expounds the close relationship between context and translation. This thesis is composed of three chapters. Chapter 1 introduces Firth's definition of context and the essence of context, analyzing the importance of context in translation. Chapter 2 expounds the relative theories involved in this thesis, such as relevance theory, Malinowski's and Firth's theory of meaning, and equivalent theory, and their relationship with context is elaborated at the same time. Chapter 3 illustrates the functions of context in dealing with various complex problems in the process of translation. In this part, the following functions of context are illustrated: 1) matching function; 2) meaning-determining function; 3) orienting function; 4) gap-filling function; 5) generative function; 6) inferring-function. When words are used in a context, they are endowed with various meanings apart from their conceptual meaning and grammatical meaning, such as thematic meaning, cultural meaning, stylistic meaning, collocative meaning, logical meaning, temporal and special meaning, etc. Since the majority of failures in translating seemingly result from an inadequate understanding of the source text, have foregrounded context consciousness as.an most effective access to the solution, namely, much misunderstanding in the original text and misinterpretations in the target language can be avoided provided that the translator always keeps sensitive to context apart from his competence in both language and culture.