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The thesis is made up of five chapters within the framework of Relevance Theory. Chapter one is a brief introduction to the thesis. Chapter two briefly introduces the Relevance Theory. In this chapter, the relevance theory is studied from three aspects, including the concept of relevance, ostensive-inferential communication, context and cognitive environment. Chapter three discusses the approaches of hot Chinese words translation under the guidance of the Relevance Theory. Strategies of translation have played an important role in the translation of hot Chinese words. The author focuses on the direct translation and indirect translation which are considered as two means of ostensive information and inferential information. Chapter four is the introduction of optimal relevance in translation under context and cognitive environment. Two influential factors from the translator have been introduced, such as: cultural backgrounds and cognitive level. In addition, a lot of typical examples are cited for specific analysis. The two factors have a great influence on the translation of hot Chinese words. Chapter Five is the conclusion. After giving a general summary and implications of the research, the author points out limitations and makes some suggestions for further and presents some factors to be considered in the process of research.
2 The Concepts from the Relevance Theory
This paper will make analysis into the translation of hot Chinese words in the light of the relevance theory. Therefore, the author firstly needs to introduce the concepts from the relevance theory: the concept of relevance, ostensive-inferential communication and context and cognitive environment for the easy understanding of the relevance theory and the further discussion thereby. In this chapter, the author mainly focuses on the ostensive-inferential communication. Three parties including the original writer, the translator and the target text reader are involved in translation. The optimal relevance is the goal that a translator should achieve, and it is also the criterion by which the version is judged. Meanwhile, a translator should try their best to make the target text reader’s expectations in compliance with the original author’s intentions.
2.1 The Concept of Relevance
Relevance Theory is originated from Grice’s Co-operative principle in which relevance is only a maxim to examine whether the communications fully succeed. In 1986, the French linguist and philosopher Dan Sperber and British linguist Deirdre Wilson put forward the new concept of relevance in Relevance: Communication and Cognition and proposed the following definition of relevance: an assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has some contextual effect in that context. (Sperber and Wilson 2001:123) In this definition, context should be the audience’s cognitive context. If the cognitive context is influenced by an assumption, the assumption will be relevant. Relevance, however, is a comparative concept, for relevance itself is a matter of degree. In order to make the definition more scientific and systematic, Sperber and Wilson elaborate on the degree of relevance and thus make a further definition of relevance by adopting an extent-conditions format. Condition 1: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that its contextual effects in this context are large. Condition 2: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that the effort required to process it in this context is small. (Sperber and Wilson 2001:125)
Therefore, relevance depends on two main factors: cognitive effect and processing effort. The processing effort needs to make clear an utterance which relies heavily on two main factors: (1) the effort of memory and imagination need to construct a proper context (2) the complexity of the utterance itself. The notion of cognitive effect is an important factor to take into account of accessing relevance. Obviously, other things being equal, the greater the cognitive effects, the greater the relevance will be. Other things being equal, the smaller the processing effort, the greater the relevance will be.