Transference Of Implicature In Fictional Conversation Translation

Gone with the Wind, a long fiction, reflects American society during the Civil War. Since it was published in1936, it has produced impact over the world. This fiction has been translated into several Chinese versions. However, the present studies on these versions mainly concentrate on comparative analysis about the faithfulness of the target language (TL) text to the source language (SL) text. There is little research on translation method in a single version. This thesis, on the basis of conversational implicature theory (implicature theory in short), takes Dai Kan, Li Yeguang and Zhuang Yichuan’s version (1990) of Gone with the Wind as a text of analysis and probes into fictional conversation translation, which focuses on the transference of conversational implicature (implicature in short) in fictional conversation translation in this version.Implicature theory is one of the major theories in linguistics. Grice (1975) proposes that the participants of a conversation should obey basis principle, called cooperative principle (CP) for the purpose of an effective conversation. However, an addresser may deliberately violate the principle and deliver intended meaning called implicature. Due to the influence of context and addresser’s communicative intention, fictional conversation produces implicature. Therefore, in this thesis, the author attempts to apply implicature theory to fictional conversation translation and reveals the importance of implicature in fictional conversation as well as probing into the methods of fictional conversation translation.The overall findings show that the transference of implicature is crucial in fictional conversation translation. As long as the translator transfers the implicature into the TL, the TL readers are able to grasp the intention of the addresser. In order to solve the problem of implicature transference, the author first points out that implicature should be interpreted from the perspective of context and intended meaning. Then with the analysis of examples, the author demonstrates implicature in Gone with the Wind in detail. The author holds that in the process of implicature transference, the translator should preserve the form of implicature in the SL as the same as that in the SL, namely, the translator should not add, change or omit the implicature randomly so as to achieve the equivalent effect that the translated text on the receptors as that the original text on the receptors in the TL. Finally, the author analyzes the examples and attempts to propose effective translation methods, namely:relative equivalence, mode transfer, substitution, and omission, with which the translators transfer implicature into TL properly.This thesis is of theoretical and practical significance, for it demonstrates the application of implicature theory to fictional conversation translation which deepens the theoretical instruction of fictional conversation translation. The author also endeavors to propose effective translation methods with the desire of helping translators deal with implicature properly in order to make the TL readers understand and appreciate foreign fictions.