On Translation Of Kinship Terms-From The Perspective Of The Relevance Theory

This paper aims to explore some problems in the translation of kinship terms and tries to find solutions from this new perspective-relevance theory.The relevance theory (RT) is the most influential pragmatic theory in the western world these years. The key point of the relevance theory is cognition and communication. It focuses on the effect that the cognitive context has on the inference of the communicator's communication intention. It considers translation as an ostensive-inferential process and reasonably explains the questions such as the intention of the author, the cognitive environment of the target reader and the strategy taken by the translator. It can explain the translation phenomenon in a macro view.From the perspective of the relevance theory, cultural default in the process of translation is unavoidable, just as all cognitive and communicative activity of human beings cannot avoid default. The so-called relevance is the interrelationship between different things according to the cognitive environment. When exploring a test, one will try to emphasize the contextual effect to a large extent and reduce the processing effort in order to get the optimal relevance. The so-called optimal relevance is to filter the unnecessary information which forms the cultural default. Therefore, when dealing with cultural default in the process of translation, one can omit the unnecessary part according to the relevant element and find the optimal relevance.Because of the differences between Chinese and English kinship systems, the connotation and the usage of Chinese and English kinship terms are quite different. Relatively speaking, Chinese kinship terms are more complex than the English ones and have more socialized usage. When doing the translation, the translator should first deal with the codes according to the source text writer's intention and target text reader's cognitive environment and enable target text readers to find the optimal relevance between the translation text and their context. The translator should first get a true understanding of the contextual effect of the source text according to the inference on the ostensive behavior of the source text writer and try to transfer the original intention of the author to the target reader and give them conveniences to make the right assumptions. As to the translation of kinship terms, the translator should first find out the intention of the author to use the term and meanwhile think about the ability of acceptance of the target reader. By considering the entire relevant elements, the translator should find the optimal relevant term.