关联理论下《傲慢与偏见》中的反讽翻译.pdf

分类号：分类号： h315.9h315.9 单位代码：单位代码：1011010110 学学 号：号： s20090773s20090773 中中 北北 大大 学学 硕硕 士士 学学 位位 论论 文文 a research on the e-c translation of verbal irony from relevance theory perspective a case study on pride and prejudice 关联理论下关联理论下傲慢与偏见傲慢与偏见中的中的反讽反讽翻译翻译 candidate 孔祥娜 supervisor 张思洁 major english language secondly, putting linguistics theories into concrete discourse will assist our understanding of the literary works; thirdly, language research can not break away from literary works, the research on literary works without language research will not be conducted to the fullest extent; fourthly, more interest is expected to be stimulated to pride and prejudice. keywords: relevant theory; verbal irony; pride and prejudice iii 摘摘 要要 关联理论作为语用学分支的一项理论，对所有的语言现象都有着强大的阐释力。 关联理论认为：言语交际是一个从认知到推理的互明过程，而交际的目的是为了改变 人们的认知语境。语言的理解要通过不断推理和对语境的构建来达到。为达到认知效 果，必须在篇章处理上下功夫。而篇章处理与认知间的关系即关联。任何言语交际都 是在关联理论的指引下进行的。同样，反讽作为另一种语言现象也受关联理论影响。 在关联理论的框架下，反讽是说话人对周围人思想的一种反应。说话者的反对情绪也 通过反讽的效果表达出来。本文以一定的语料为基础，选取文学名著傲慢与偏见 中的语言反讽为具体语料， 以 sperber 和 wilson 的关联理论反语回应论为指导， 运用 现代语言学和文学评论相结合的方法，论证了关联理对反语强大的阐释力，指出把语 言学理论运用到具体篇章分析中可以帮助更好地理解文学作品，同时也加深了我们对 傲慢与偏见的理解和兴趣。 关键词关键词：关联理论； 言语反讽； 傲慢与偏见 iv table of contents acknowledge 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 abstract(in english) . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 abstract(in chinese) ii chapter i introduction . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 1.1 research goal . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 1.2 research method 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 1.3 research significance . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 1.4 research structure 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 chapter ii general introduction to researches on irony . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.1 the definition of irony . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.2 the importance of research on irony 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3 the pragmatic research on irony 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3.1 grices theory 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3.2 the speech act theory . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3.3 leech and levinsons theory . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3.4 disadvantages in traditional pragmatic theory of irony 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.3.5 sperber and wilsons relevant theory 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 2.4 summary 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 chapter iii the application of the echoic mention theory of verbal irony in pride and prejudice . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.1 language character of pride and prejudice 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.1.1 brief introduction to pride and prejudice 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.1.2 irony in pride and prejudice 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.1.3 the feasibility of the echoic mention theory of verbal ironys application in pride and prejudice . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.2 the macro-speech irony in pride and prejudice 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.2.1 macro-speech irony in shaping the theme. 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 v 3.2.2 the macro-speech irony in character building 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.3 the micro-speech irony in pride and prejudice . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.3.1 direct and instant response 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.3.2 the echo to other peoples ideas . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.3.3 the echo to standards and expectations 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 3.4 the summary of this chapter 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 chapter vi the practical significance of the analysis of pride and prejudice in the echoic mention theory of verbal irony. 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 chapter v conclusion . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 bibliography . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 paper published during ma program . 错误错误!未定义书签。未定义书签。 thesis for masters degree 1 chapter i introduction the research on irony can be traced back to the ancient greek so it has a history of thousands years. since platos observation and thinking on irony, different scholars have illustrated and analyzed this language phenomenon from different angles and in different research areas, forming kinds of schools and various theoretical assumptions. in the initial researches, irony is often regarded as a rhetorical phenomenon so it achieved great attention from rhetoricians and literary critics. the classic rhetorical theory regards irony as figures of speech with explicative and conceals meanings or the prepositional content which is contrary to the real meaning. with the origination and development of linguistics, pragmatics, psychological linguistics and cognitive linguistics, new research situation of irony appears, among which the researches on pragmatic linguistics has broadened researchers viewpoint and makes their cognition toward irony clear. generally speaking, the pragmatic research on irony can be divided into two stages: one is the traditional pragmatic research represented by grice, which upgraded the narrow-termed rhetorical research to the communicative level. this kind of pragmatic research seems different from researches that regarding irony as a rhetorical phenomenon, it is based on the assumption that people use irony attempting to express the contrary meaning to the literary meaning. the other stage is the echoic mention theory of verbal irony in the framework of relevant theory put forward by sperber and wilson. sperber and wilson had conducted further researches on irony based on the summary of disadvantages and shortages in researches by grice. (sperber,d. and d. wilaon 86) according to relevant theory, any kind vernal communication is governed by relevant principles and any communication is oriented by relevance. then there is no difference between the understanding of irony and metaphor and the understanding of non-rhetorical utterance. in the framework of relevant theory, irony is regarded as a response discourse which is to response to other peoples opinions, and at the same time, speakers express their attitude toward the response discourse. the response attitude is always negative and passive. the echoic mention theory of verbal irony in the framework of relevant theory by sperber and wilson regards the understanding of irony as thesis for masters degree 2 the interaction of mutual communications, integrating pragmatics and cognition. therefore, the research method of irony had been changed, providing the convincing explanation of the understanding toward irony, which is a great breakthrough in the research of irony. pride and prejudice is the masterpiece of jane austin who was a famous british novelist in the 19th century. this novel carries plenty of ironic characteristics and presents the real social life in briton in the 19th century. in this paper, texts are selected from pride and prejudice to conduct the analysis based on the advanced theories of linguistics. it not only proves the strong illustrative power of irony by the echoic mention theory of verbal irony in relevant theory, but also deepens peoples understanding toward literary works. 1.1 research goal the term irony originates from “eironia” from the ancient greek language. it refers to a kind of role playing in the greek drama. in platos the dialogues, the famous philosopher socrates adopts this language means to speak malarkey in his opponents and after that, these malarkey spoken by him were regarded as truths. therefore, people insist that irony originates from the rhetorical terms from the ancient greek, meaning the speaking of opposite meaning. afterwards, irony gradually becomes a figure of speech as well as an expressive method which is widely adopted by poets and litterateurs. the usage of irony has been a common phenomenon in peoples daily life, especially in works by shakespeare, jane austin and mark twain. irony is always regarded as a rhetorical phenomenon so it achieves much attention from rhetoricians and linguists. with the development of researches on irony, its meaning has been broadening and its usage is becoming wider and wider. irony can not only be reflected on the language and behavioral levels, it can also be reflected on the philosophical and artistic levels. in the 1970s, with the origination and development of pragmatics, psychological linguistics and cognitive linguistics, people had a brand new cognition toward irony. linguists began to conduct researches from different angles and different levels, trying to illustrate this language phenomenon that “why language allow this apparently irrational means to exist”. among them, researches conducted from the pragmatic angle had made the greatest breakthrough. the pragmatic research originated from american thesis for masters degree 3 philosopher grice, he regarded irony as conversational implication that if speakers violate the conversation cooperative principle, implications will be created. afterwards, linguists such as searle and leech made supplements and revise to grices research. in recent years, the most influential pragmatic research on irony is the echoic mention theory of verbal irony conducted by sperber and wilson. they argued that speakers intend to show their attitudes in the response to some familiar language unit. they insisted that “the attitude that irony indicates is dissenting”. making a general survey of irony researches, we can say that the echoic mention theory of verbal irony is the research integrating pragmatics and recognition, transferring focus from the origination of irony to the understanding of the irony, giving more convincing explanation to the understanding of irony compared with traditional ironic pragmatics. from the pragmatic angle, irony can be divided into verbal irony, dramatic irony, expanding irony and making irony. (raskin victor 79) verbal irony refers to the common language phenomenon in daily life; dramatic irony is generally presented in the dramatic plays which are closely connected with the plots and structure in scripts; expanding irony means that the real situation can be regarded as the extension of situational irony; making irony refers to the exceeding of current ironic intention. among them the verbal irony is the research focus in this paper. jane austins novel pride and prejudice can be regarded as the excellent model in the usage of irony. in this novel, irony runs through the whole novel, by the crafty usage of the author, pride and prejudice has become a classic works. jane austin uses her spicy language, sharp viewpoint and distinct ironic mood to build a group of vivid characters, setting readers in the ancient europe of the 19th century. literature as a means for writers usage of language has never separated from linguistics, to view from linguistic theories will not only add ideological contents to literary works, but also assists readers deeper understanding of these literary works. holding this principle, this paper will start from the pragmatic angle and be guided by relevant theory to conduct a deep research of irony in pride and prejudice. 1.2 research method thesis for masters degree 4 in this study, some materials about verbal irony are selected from pride and prejudice, using sperber and wilsons relevant theory as guidance, to research on verbal irony in this book. the modern linguistics and literary critics are used together in this study. due to the limited researches on irony in recent years, and most of them emphasize on the theoretical aspects and do not put theories into practice, so the disadvantages in concrete discourses are created. this study starts from relevant theory and analyzes its applications in concrete discourses to prove the strong illustrative power from relevant theory to irony. at the same time, it aims to deepen peoples understanding of pride and prejudice, which also serves as the innovational points of this study. 1.3 research significance as a pragmatic theory which illustrates communications, relevant theory has its strong influence. according to relevant theory, all verbal communications including metaphor and irony are cognitive behaviors of human, they are the reflection of human mind; verbal communication is a mutual manifest from recognition to reasoning, the goal of communications is to change the cognitive situation of speakers and listeners can understand the utterance through the construction of language situation. people should pay efforts when dealing with utterance, and can achieve some certain cognitive effects; the relationship between them is relevance. any kind of verbal communications including irony is oriented by relevance and is guided by relevant principles. in the framework of relevant theory, the research on irony can be regarded as a kind of antisense response theory, human recognition is oriented by relevance and irony is a kind of explanation relationship between the speakers thoughts and the ideas or utterance he or she belongs to. irony expresses the disapproval attitude, by which to indicate the ridiculousness of the topic. antisense response theory or the echoic mention theory has integrated pragmatics and cognition, providing reasonable explanation for the understanding of irony. (newmark 181) jane austins pride and prejudice adopted the language characters of irony which runs through the whole passage, fully presenting the infinite charms of this novel. this paper aims to illustrate how to understand irony in the framework of relevant theory through the case study of verbal irony in pride and prejudice, to prove that the ironic view in relevant thesis for masters degree 5 theory has rationality and strong illustrative power to irony. through argumentation, conclusions are gotten: (1) relevant theory has rational illustrative power to irony; (2) putting linguistic theories into specific utterance can assist our understanding of literary works better ;(3) language research can not break away from literary works, the researches on literary works will never continue without the language research; (4) to stimulate peoples more interest to pride and prejudice. 1.4 research structure this paper contains five parts. the first part is the purpose, significance, method and the overall arrangement of this research. the research focus is verbal irony. in the second part, a brief introduction to irony is firstly given, and then the indication of the reasons for researches on irony is presented. the research on irony has gone through different developing stages. this paper mainly illustrates the research achievement of irony from the pragmatic angle, insisting that traditional researches on irony can not illustrate irony in a good way, while sperber and wilsons e verbal irony theory broadened the new way for irony research, which also lays the foundation of this paper. the third part is the key of this research. in this chapter, theories are put into practice by the guidance of the echoic mention theory of verbal irony. at the same time, verbal irony as research materials from pride and prejudice are selected to prove the strong illustrative power of echoic mention theory of verbal irony. the fourth part is the conclusion part, in which the conclusion is gotten and disadvantages are pointed out. thesis for masters degree 6 chapter ii general introduction to researches on irony 2.1 the definition of irony “irony” is one of the most ancient terms in western literary discourse. it not only carries different manifestation, but also develops continuously in the definition (nida 164). the term “irony” comes from the ancient greek language “eironia”, which is originally a kind of role in the ancient drama meaning to speak malarkey in front of opponents. then “irony” evolved into a common figure of speech as “sarcasm”. in the 1930s to the 1940s, the new criticism used irony into poetic criticism, transforming it from a common figure of speech to an important definition which carries the tenor meaning. the new criticism connects irony which is a language skill with the irony as a poetic structural principle, evolving it into a more comprehensive “tenor” principle. from the rhetorical angle, irony is a method in language expression and a common figure of speech in daily life.( kevin gary smith 177) according to websters dictionary, irony is defined as “using words to express the meaning that does not refers to itself especially the contrary meaning to the literal meaning”(kevin gary smith 178). it means using the “litotes” and “irony” to reach the satiric and humorous effects. when we speak to a miser: “you are so generous.” the actual meaning we want to express is “you are such as miser.” at the same time, the contempt and satire can be expresses as well by people. however, with further development of irony researches, different theories and researches have provided different viewpoints for the definition of irony, broadening and enriching the research results of irony. at the same time, it brought difficulties to the definition of irony. this paper will give the definition of irony from the pragmatic angle. what should be pointed out is that the research on irony need to be further developed, any definition of irony is not the final conclusion. the classic definition of irony is put forward by grice and searle. they argued that irony is a special form for language use; it is also a result by speakers intention to obtain the conversational implication that is contrary to the literal meaning. from the above definition about the traditional rhetoric and grices definition, we can thesis for masters degree 7 conclude that they all regard irony as a special language phenomenon which uses some certain language form to express the opposite meaning to the literal meaning. based on the previous researches, founders of the cognitive pragmatics sperber and wilson give a new illustration to irony from the cognitive pragmatic angle: irony is the echo of the speaker to other peoples opinions, holing the negative attitude of the repeated opinions or ideas; the understanding of irony contains three stages: the first one is to identify the responsiveness of the utterance; the second one is to establish the origination of the responsive utterance; the third one is to recognize speakers attitude toward the responsive opinions.( gutt,e.a 85) sperber and wilsons ideas not only give rational explanations to the essential characters and pragmatic mechanism of irony, it also provides strong evidence t