A Relevance-theoretical Study Of Pragmatic Enrichment In Translating Business Text

Pragmatics guides the practice of translation for its powerful interpretation. Business translation, as a cross-cultural bilingual communicative activity with purposeful intent, can be guided effectively by some concepts in pragmatics. The thesis attempts to apply pragmatic enrichment to solve the questions such as the language and cultural pragmatics involved in business translation. Pragmatic enrichment in business translation is thought as a pragmatic cognitive process and a reconstruction strategy of translation.Under the guidance of the theoretical framework of relevance theory, the thesis aims to explore pragmatic enrichment in business texts, particularly in business letters, and further to explain the cognitive mechanism and specific categories of pragmatic enrichment in business translation. The research selects a number of examples from business letters with Chinese and English versions and compares the source and the translated versions of language use and further analyses the equivalences and nonequivalences caused by pragmatic enrichment from the relevance-theoretical perspective.The research has the following findings. Firstly, under the framework of relevance theory, translators need to deal with reasoning and sense selection and adjustment by considering various contexts of logical, professional business and encyclopedic knowledge when understanding business texts. Furthermore, pragmatic enrichment confirms to the optimal relevance. Language specification as well as distinctive business culture should be respected. The choice and adjustment of the target text can be dynamically fulfilled by evaluating the cognitive context of readers, that is to say, the optimal relevance and the maximum pragmatic effect between the original text and the target text can be realized.Secondly, pragmatic enrichment devotes itself to determining various forms of uncertainty in language use. Pragmatic enrichment can be categorized into three spheres, namely deictic, conceptual and textual cohesion. Specifically speaking, deictic enrichment is the explicitation of objects represented by deixis. Conceptual enrichment is the transformation of the culture-loaded business terms connotative of rich business and social distinctions. Enrichment of textual cohesion aims to make the context more closely related and coherent.Finally, relevance theory, as a forceful guiding principle, can be used to explain various pragmatic enrichments in business translation so that we can better understand the diversity of culture, society and business environment.The significance of the research can be generalized from two aspects: theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the present research has absorbed the achievements in pragmatic field into business translation and has studied the common phenomenon of PE in the translation of business letters. Practically, through the proper enrichment of the pragmatic information, the original texts can be translated accurately, which will be conducive to international businessmen to better manage their own language in business activities to achieve more effective communication.