翻译过程中的关联缺失与关联重构

Reconstruction of Target Text Relevance in the Process of Translation

关联理论认为,言语交际总是建立在一定语境假设基础之上的明示-推理过程,也就是说,在交际过程中交际者意欲传递的新信息总是以一定的已知信息假设为前提的。翻译作为跨文化的言语交际活动,涉及到两种语言文化语境。在翻译过程中,由于交际环境发生了变化,源语中的许多信息假设在译语环境中或耗损、或流变、或被取消,致使译文读者无法取得一定的语境效果,或产生错误的语境效果,最终使译文失去关联,造成翻译交际失败。本文试图从关联理论出发,把翻译置于交际范畴,从认知的角度剖析了翻译过程中语境假设缺失的成因,提出了在目标文本中重建译文关联的几种处理策略。

According to Relevance Theory, verbal communication is an ostensive-inferential process on the basis of certain contextual assumptions. In other words, the known assumptions always function as the premises for conveying the new information intended by the communicator. Since translation is a special kind of verbal communication which involves at least two cultures, many contextual assumptions in the source language culture would possibly be consumed, altered or even eliminated in the process of translation for the changed communicative context. As a result, the target language readers may only achieve a wrong contextual effect or even could not achieve any effect. In the end, the relevance in the target text would be lost and hence the translational communication fails. This paper attempts to locate translation in the paradigm of communication from relevance--theoretic perspective. It first analyzes why the loss of the contextual assumptions arises and then proposes several corresponding strategies for the reconstruction of relevance in the target text.