Approaching Interpretation From The Perspective Of Wittgenstein’s Later Language Philosophy

Since ancient times, interpretation has always been playing a critical role in international communication and cooperation. The past century witnessed a considerable progress in interpretation due to the interdisciplinary studies carried out by scholars in different fields. In this thesis, the author tries to analyze interpretation and its characteristics from the perspective of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later language philosophy. Though being a philosopher, Wittgenstein committed himself to providing "a clear language view " as much as a linguist did. His later thoughts on language, such as "meaning is use","family resemblance","language game" and "forms of life" have exercised a far-reaching influence on all disciplines of society and humanities.Wittgenstein’s later language philosophy serves as a theoretical framework of this thesis. Firstly, the important concepts in Wittgenstein’s theory and their relations are introduced. Next, interpretation is studied within this framework. According to Wittgenstein’s theory, language games are comprised of language and its involving actions. Interpretation, as an action consists of source language and target language, along with the interaction between speakers, interpreter and audiences, can be studied as a language game. A plenty of interpreting examples are employed to analyze the characteristics of interpretation in light of language games.In Wittgenstein’s mind, different languages represent different forms of life. The interpreting process is by no means a search for simple linguistic equivalence in source language. It is transformation between different forms of life. Meanwhile,"meaning is use" provides a new footing for the sense making in interpretation. On account of these findings, the author illustrates a few coping strategies, such as domestication, foreignization, explanation and transliteration, to improve interpretation performance.At last, after summarizing the focus and content of the study, the author points out the defects and limitations of the study. She wishes this thesis can inspire more scholars to conduct further studies in this field.