Disambiguation In English Contract Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The parties expect that both the English contracts and the Chinese contracts in international transactions can set forth precisely the rights and obligations concerning the deal.However,ambiguity occurs now and then in the process of translating English contracts into Chinese contracts.To avoid dispute that ambiguity may lead to,the translator must deal with ambiguity existing in the process of translating English contracts.This thesis focuses on resolving ambiguity in the process of translating English contract to achieve successful translation and to expand the application field of relevance theory to legal translation.In this view,successful translation should achieve the goal that the English contract drafter’s intention can meet the Chinese contract reader’s expectation through translation while the reader and the translator respectively expend almost the same cognitive effort in understanding Chinese contract and English contract.In order to achieve these goals,this thesis tries to explore the factors causing ambiguity and the ways of resolving ambiguity.Relevance theory can offer a useful guidance for the translator to select the appropriate cognitive context for the only correct interpretation of the intention of the English contract when ambiguity happens.