Contextual View Of Relevance Theory And Translation

The study on context is one of the essentials in translation studies. In fact, it is nothing new. The age-old saying of "No context, no text" provides a handy example. Further more, many a translation theorist has touched upon the topic from time to time. The idea put forward in the monumental book After Babel-Aspects of Language and Translation by George Steiner readily pops up in my mind: "No grammar or dictionary is of very much use to the translator: only context, in the fullest linguistic-cultural sense, certifies meaning."(Fetzer, A., 2001)In language studies, context plays a very important role and performs a fundamental restrictive function in the process of translation. It contains different meanings according to different linguists. In this thesis, the writer regards context as a dynamic and psychological concept which means that context is "the subset of the hearer's assumptions about the world and the set of premises used in interpreting utterance". (Ekbia, H. and A. Maguitman, 2001:8)Hence, this thesis starts from a historical overview on the concept of context followed with the discussion about the characteristics and functions of context. Then by resorting to Relevance Theory, the writer discusses the close relationship between the dynamic context and translation, and points out the purpose of translator in the RT sense in the process of translation is to seek for the optimal relevant contexts. Once the optimal relevance is found, a certain dynamic context will be located, and then translators would take a further step to decide the degree of contextual effects and create proper relevant effects in the process of translation.