A Study Of Interpretation Process From The Perspective Of Relevance-Adaptability Approach

Interpretation is communication in nature and has been studied from the perspective of communications. Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson (2001) and Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren (2000) are two pragmatic theories which have been applied to the study of communication, translation and lately, interpretation.This paper briefly reviewed the relevant pragmatic and linguistic theories which have been applied into the study of interpretation. It mainly introduces the key notions and concepts of Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory, which are related to the study of interpretation. The thesis divides the interpretation process into two stages. In the first stage, the interpreter plays the role as a listener, while in the second stage, the interpreter plays the role as a speaker. The paper uses the Relevance Theory alone to analyze the interpretation process at first. It finds out that Relevance Theory explains well in the first stage of interpretation when the interpreter is a listener, but it also points out that Relevance Theory is insufficient in explaining the second stage of interpretation in answering how the interpreter uses the appropriate words to convey the speaker-intended meaning to the audience. Therefore, the paper applies the Adaptation Theory to be a complementary of Relevance theory so as to well analyze the second stage of interpretation.Enlighten by the Relevance-Adaptation Model and the Relevance-Adjustability Model of translation studies, this paper combines Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory together to form a Relevance-Adaptability Approach to study interpretation from a new perspective and offers some main coping strategies in interpretation.