On the Application of Relevance Theory to Interpretation1.doc

关联理论在口译中的应用On the Application of Relevance Theory to InterpretationAbstract: Interpretation is a communicative process which faithfully and orally transfers the information from one language to another. It helps people who speak different language to overcome language barriers and serves as a bridge in intercultural communication. Since China communicate with the outside world more frequently, the demand for interpretation increases dramatically. Interpretation practice greatly develops, and the research work on interpretation has gained more intention. However, the study of interpretation in China is long being ignored and many researches are still experience- oriented, lacking sufficient theoretical support. Based on this situation, the theoretical research in this field should be deepened. Since Relevance Theory can provide a new cognitive perspective for the study of interpretation, this thesis attempts to research interpretation in the light of Relevance Theory.Relevance Theory proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986 holds that human communication is an ostensive- inferential cognitive process. This thesis introduces a few essential concepts of Relevance Theory, and it is a tentative study of interpretation under the guidance of Relevance Theory. It also indicates that in the process of comprehension, the interpreter should search for the context that is closely relevant to the information conveyed in the utterance; and in the process of reproduction, he should also consider the target hearers cognitive environments so as to achieve optimal relevance. Finally, the author makes a general survey of the thesis and concludes the main points of the thesis. Interpretation serves as a bridge in intercultural communication. Based on Relevance Theory, interpreters can achieve optimal relevance and ensure the efficiency of interpretation.Key words：Relevance Theory; interpretation; communication; understanding; function 摘要：口译是通过口头表达将信息从一种语言形式等价地转换成另一种语言形式的交流过程，它帮助人们克服语言上的障碍，在跨文化的交际过程中发挥了桥梁作用。随着中国对外交流日益频繁，社会对口译的需求快速增长，口译实践得到很大的发展，有关口译的研究也得到更多的关注。但我国的口译研究较晚，大多是以实践经验为基础，缺乏足够的理论性，因此我们有必要深化这一领域的理论研究。基于关联理论可以从认知的角度为口译研究提供新的视角，本论文尝试从关联理论来研究口译过程。Sperber和Wilson在1986年提出关联理论，他们认为言语交际是一个明示一推理的认知过程。本文介绍了关联理论的一些重要概念，对关联理论框架下的口译过程作了一番探讨，指出译员在话语理解过程中应在自己的头脑中搜寻与说话人话语信息最具关联的语境，在原语再现时又要考虑听话人的认知语境寻求最佳关联。最后，论文对全文进行了回顾，总结本论文的主要观点。口译是交际的桥梁，译员应充分利用关联理论来指导口译，获得最佳关联，出色地完成口译任务。关键词：关联理论；口译；交际；理解；作用Contents. Introduction.3. Literature Review.4 A. About Interpretation.4B. About Relevance Theory.5III. Relevance Theory .6. The Application of Relevance Theory to Interpretation.7A. Degree of Relevance .7 B. Optimal Relevance .81. Optimal Relevance.82. Interpretation of Optimal Relevance.8C. The Principle of Relevance.10. Conclusion 11Works Cited.13I. IntroductionWith the development of communication and transportation technology, the world has seen an unparalleled expansion of communication across many countries. Therefore, people speaking different languages come together more often to hold meetings, conduct research, and solve problems of common concern. All these activities involve international or intercultural communication and hence all ask for the participation, which can be considered as a kind of intercultural communication, and which can enhance the intercourse among different cultures.Under such environment, China, as one of the promising developing countries in the world, has also seen a great many encouraging achievements in its drive for modernization: Chinas accession to WTO, Beijings selection as the host city for the 2008 Olympics, and Shanghais successful bid for the 2010 World Exhibition, all of which prove that Chinas level of international engagement has reached an unprecedented height and all of which ask for the involvement of intercultural communication. Therefore, interpretation is gaining more and more importance in China.However, in China, interpretation is still a fledgling research field. Although in recent years, great achievements have been made in interpretation practice, the interpretation theory badly needed to guide interpretation practice is comparatively lagged behind. In other words, the field of interpretation theory in China is still at its initial stage. So it is necessary to pay more attention to this field, and more researches should be carried out on it.Relevance Theory is proposed by Sperber and Wilson whose aim is to present a new approach to the study of human communication. Since its birth, Relevance Theory has been considered a breakthrough in theories of communication and been applied to disciplines such as linguistics, literary studies, translation, and psychology.Since interpretation is a kind of intercultural communication, it is plausible to study it from the perspective of communication theories. And since Relevance Theory is a new approach to the study of communication, studying interpretation within the framework of Relevance Theory may bring about some new insights into interpretation and give the interpreters some new strategies in their interpreting practice.This thesis , distinguishing interpretation from translation, and regarding interpretation as a cognitive- inferential communication, tires to explain the process of interpretation within Relevance Theory. Whats more, with examples, it shows the importance of the application of the relevance in interpretation, and the important function of Relevance Theory in interpretation.II. Literature ReviewA. About InterpretationSince languages are often obstacles for interlingual and intercultural communication, translation becomes a go- between to bridge the language gap. Translation is to express the meaning of one language by another language. It has two forms, oral interpretation and written translation. (梅德明，2000：3). Interpretation, as the oral translation, plays an important role in helping speakers of different languages and cultures to freely exchange ideas without feeling the language barriers.As a phenomenon or an activity, interpretation has a long history, dating back to the early period of human society. At that time, the economic and cultural activities of primitive tribes and nationalities were only provincial activities, which restrained the further development of the society. Since people speaking different languages have desire for exchanges in trade and culture, they need to communicate with others for the purpose of bartering, exchanging information and marriage. When language becomes the obstacle in intercultural activities, interpretation occurs. It helps people remove the language hindrance in communicating with the outside world (梅德明，2000：3). So we say interpretation has much to do with exchanges between peoples of different nationalities.Interpretation existed in ancient times and represented human communications among different nationalities in politics, economy, military affairs, culture, science and technology etc. The earliest interpretation appeared in an unprofessional way because anyone who knew both languages would do the work. There were no interpretation theories or skills at all.The real interpretation in the world begins at the early 20th century with the occurrence of the two world wars. To some extent, we can say that the Paris Peace Conference held in 1919 was a changing of interpretation, because the modern interpretation skills such as interpretation memory, notes taking and retelling were presented and extensively used for the first time. It was at this conference that interpretation became a profession and basic technique and the skill training gained more importance. Then the New Castle Criminal Trial held at the end of the Second World War was another changing in the history of interpretation, for the application of interpretation in four languages (English, French, Russian and Germany) improved the efficiency of the trail, which was also generally regarded as the beginning of contemporary interpretation.With Chinas opening up to the outside world to revitalize her economy and its entry into WTO, the situation today is much better now. The demand for interpreters increases a lot and people begin to attach importance to interpretation practice, so interpretation has made much progress. More and more college students show great interest in interpretation. Interpretation has gained more attention than ever before. Though the researches of interpretation have been enhanced, the problem of insufficiency in theory study still exists.B. About Relevance TheoryRelevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986) is a pragmatic theory which is derived from Gricean approach to pragmatics. Both approaches hold that verbal communication involves not only encoding and decoding, but more crucially, the drawing of inferences, in which contextual assumptions play an important role. The central tenet of Relevance Theory is its belief that humans tend to pay attention to the most relevant phenomena available; the construct the most relevant possible representations in a context that maximize their relevance. In relevance theory, the counterbalancing effect of contextual effects and processing effort is crucial in the process of achieving optimal relevance on the part of the hearer. We can say that the pursuit of relevance is general and compulsory guide communicators have to abide by, and no linguistic interpretation of discourses can stand well without.Sperber and Wilson (1986) hold that meaning is actively constructed by the mind through the interplay of the context with knowledge and reasoning. They propose relevance- theoretic model of human communication that includes an explanation for the existence and nature of implicit information. They contend that at heart hunman communication relies on inference. Meaning is not conveyed by the text alone, but crucially relies on the inferential combination of the text with a context. Sperber and Wilson (1995: 1- 64) reasonably argue that most types of human communication, including some verbal communication, are often too vague to be properly analyzed with the encoding and decoding model of information transmission, which largely ignore the non- linguistic properties of utterances. In the inferential model, the communicators intention is to be inferred by the receptor in an effective act of communication. Then what is involved in the inference and what guides the inference?Relevance Theory answers the two questions in terms of “context” or “cognitive environment”, which provides the recourses for inference, and “the Principle of Relevance”, which guides and delimits the inference.III. Relevance Theory According to the study of cognitive linguistics, human beings have mutual cognitive psychology and get recognized with things through relevant knowledge. Proceeding from mans cognitive features, English scholar Dan Sperber and French scholar Deirdre Wilson put toward an influential communicative theory: Relevance Theory in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition first published in 1986 and revised in 1995. Relevance Theory is a cognitive approach towards communication. In Relevance: Communication and cognitive (Speber and Wilson, 2001) Sperber and Wilson present an analysis of the code model of communication and propose and ostensive- inferential model. Relevance is a core part in Relevance Theory. Sperber and Wilson first defined it as follow”:“An assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has some contextual effects in that context.” （ Sperber & Wilson 2001: 122）.Context used to process new assumptions is essentially a subset of th individuals old assumption, with which the new assumptions combine to yield a variety of contextual effects （ Sperber and Wilson 2001: 132）. It is part of an individuals cognitive environment. In other words, if an assumption can result in changes in an individuals cognitive environment, we call it relevant to the individual.According to Speber and Wilson, relevance is compatible with human psychology. Thus humans cognition is closely related with relevance. In the process of communication, each utterance of the speaker has different extent of relevance which will create the hearers choice of relevance; undoubtedly, he would choose the one with great relevance.“Relevance means during the process of the comprehension of an utterance, people try to seek for relevance between newly- presented information and contextual assumption. In terms of relevance, it refers to the process of cognition and inference.” (He Ziran: 1998:133).There are two main points of the Relevance Theory: (1) Inference is the core of communication. A sentence can be hardly understood if only know the relationship of pronunciation and meaning. For example: She is so great. If only comprehend this sentence from surface, this sentence means that she is very great. Or “she is so great!” Is it the tone of satire? (2) The principle of relevance: the construct the most relevant possible representations in a context that maximize their relevance. Therefore, relevance depends on the relationship of two facts: contextual effect and cognitive effort. Only when the two facts are balanced, the information is considered relevance. IV. The Application of Relevance Theory to InterpretationThis thesis will explain the application of Relevance Theory to interpretation from three aspects.A. Degree of RelevanceRelevance is a matter of degree. Relevance is defined in terms of contextual effect.So the more contextual effects an utterance achieves, the more relevant it will be.However, contextual effects do not come freely: they cost some mental efforts to derive, and the greater the efforts need to derive, the lower the relevance will be. Consider the following example:Rose to Mary: Do you still remember the first bike you have? If it is uttered when Rose to Mary are talking about their childhood, it is obviously highly relevant to her and she will spend not so much effort in recalling memories of her first bike. However, if it is uttered abruptly when Rose and Mary are talking about business, it is obviously less relevant to Mary at that moment. Yet, while still assuming Roses question to be relevant, Mary will try very hard to recall the memories of the first bike. So while cont