On The Contextual Adaptation In Translation

According to Newmark Peter, context is the overriding factor in all translation, and has primacy over any rule, theory or primary meaning (Newmark Peter, 1981). And translation cannot be comprehensively studied without the consideration of contextual phenomenon. Centering on such a close relation between context and translation, this paper tends to illustrate the significance of adaptation to contextual factors in translation. At the outset context is defined as any element of the physical, social and mental world which enters in and lay influence on the result of a certain pragmatic activity based on an analysis of its relation with other two major elements within the same act. The study of its constitutive factors and their features lead to a classification of context into three parts: in-language context, by-language context and ex-language context. In the discussion on the nature of translation the author applied some fundamental concepts of information theory to indicate that translation is an act of communication with language as the inter-medium among the writer of the original text, translator and the reader of translated version. As an act of language application, the whole social environment may boost or hinder the development of translating activity. And during the process of translating communication the necessity of adaptation to context calls for proper consideration of all the major elements such as source, message, receiver, channel, noise, etc.. Translator should not only make himself adaptable to the influence and restriction of contextual elements but also take full advantage of favorable features of context based on a thorough analysis to guarantee the ultimate communication between SL text writer and TL text reader.In addition to the beginning introduction and the final conclusion, there are altogether three main parts which compose the theme presentation. In chapter two the author combines pragmatic analysis into discussion of what is context and its constitutive factors, then classifies them into three groups according to the interior features and their relation with language. Chapter three integrates context into translation. Beginning with a brief introduction to the theory of contextual adaptation,...