硕士学位论文-关联理论视角下的小说会话翻译.doc

学校代码：10254密 级：论文编号： 上 海 海 事 大 学SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY硕 士 学 位 论 文MASTER DISSERTATION论文题目： 关联理论视角下的小说会话翻译 学科专业： 外国语言学及应用语言学 作者姓名： 范 春 红 指导教师： 瞿 宗 德 副教授 完成日期： 二九年五月 Approach to Translation of Fictional Conversation from the Perspective of Relevance TheoryBy Fan ChunhongUnder the Supervision ofProfessor Qu ZongdeA Thesis Submitted to the College of Foreign Languages ofShanghai Maritime Universityin Partial Fulfillment ofthe Requirements for the MA DegreeShanghai Maritime UniversityMay, 2009vAcknowledgementsI would like to thank all the teachers and friends who have helped me to make this a better thesis than it would otherwise have been.First and foremost, I am extremely grateful to my supervisor, Prof. Qu Zongde, for his kind instruction, constructive suggestion and constant encouragement over my two-year study at Shanghai Maritime University. He generously spends his precious time in reading my paper and offers me invaluable advice. His wide knowledge and respectable characteristics will have an impact on me perpetually. I extend my sincere gratitude to all the professors of the College of Foreign Languages College of Shanghai Maritime University for their wonderful lectures during my postgraduate study, which have given me great enlightenment.My genuine thanks also go to my best friends and classmates who have helped me in one way or another. They have made my study at this university a valuable and unforgettable experience in my life.Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their encouragement during my thesis writing. Without their support, my thesis would have been impossible.摘 要小说是最为大众所喜爱的文学形式，其会话能够充分表现出丰富多彩的旨趣，全方位地刻画人物性格，描写现实生活状况乃至整个世界背景。小说会话是理解小说人物性格，把握小说主旨的关键，是小说欣赏的基础。本文从关联理论的角度对小说会话的翻译进行了探索性研究。翻译是个复杂过程。关联理论对翻译现象有着极强的解释力。本文通过分析关联理论在翻译研究中的应用，试图用该理论解释小说会话翻译。根据关联理论，翻译是双重的明示推理过程，是寻找最大关联的交际过程，在这一过程中，译者同时扮演了读者和交际者两个角色，其目的就是使译文在译入语读者中产生足够的语境效果，即译入语读者能找到译文与之认知环境之间的最佳关联。关联理论是用来指导交际的最新理论，小说会话是书面交际，翻译是一种特殊的交际形式，因而，关联理论可以用来更好的指导交际或者是小说会话翻译。本文从关联理论出发，在对小说会话的特点和作用进行综合分析的基础上，以名利场中的会话为例，分别从语言和文化两个方面对小说会话含义的翻译进行探索研究，着重探讨了译者在处理特殊语言、文体或文化现象时所采用的不同策略，研究关联理论对小说会话翻译实践的指导性。本文作者认为，翻译策略的选择主要取决于译者对译文读者的认知语境的正确评估，只要译文能恰当地传达小说会话含义，保留原文风格，在译文读者的认知语境中产生最大关联，减少其推理时所需努力，翻译时采用的方法及策略应不拘一格。第一章主要回顾了小说会话翻译的理论性研究成果以及关联理论的起源，发展和其主要理论观点。第二章陈述了小说的地位以及小说会话的特点和作用，从而引出小说会话翻译的重要性。第三章是理论依据部分，对关联理论进行了详细阐述，并指出用其解释小说会话翻译的可行性及意义。第四章是论文的核心，以名利场中的会话翻译为研究案例，结合关联理论，从语言和文化方面进一步阐述翻译的变通灵活性。在结论部分，文章指出译者在小说会话翻译中应遵守关联理论，适应译文读者的认知语境，实现小说会话的特点和作用。关键词：小说会话； 关联理论； 认知语境； 最佳关联ABSTRACTFiction is the most popular literature among readers, and the conversation in it can reflect the colorful themes, give a multi-faceted description of the characters, real lives or even the whole world. The fictional conversation is the key to the traits of the characters and the themes. It is an indispensible aspect of fictional appreciation. This thesis makes an exploratory research on fictional conversations from the perspective of relevance theory.There have always been controversies over translation theories. The relevance theory is in possession of the strong explanatory power for translation. By the application of relevance theory to translation, the thesis attempts to make an in-depth theoretical analysis of translation of fictional conversations. According to relevance theory, translation is a process of ostensive-inferential communication in order to search for the optimal relevance, in which the translator works both as a communicator and a reader. The aim of translation is to help the target readers achieve sufficient context effects; that is, the target readers can find the optimal relevance in their cognitive environment. The relevance theory is a newly developed theory to explain communication. Fictional conversation is the written communication and translation is a special form of communication. Therefore, this theory is also the most suitable theory applied to directing the translation of fictional conversation.This paper makes the analysis and synthesis of the characteristics and functions of fictional conversations, and demonstrates the explanatory value of relevance theory for fictional conversations translation on the linguistic and cultural levels. It chooses the translation of the conversations in Vanity Fair as a case study to explore the varied translation strategies for the specific phenomenon of linguistics, style and culture. At the end of this thesis the author draws the conclusion that various translation strategies can be justified in their own right and it is the translators exact assessment of the target readers cognitive environment that decides the specific translation strategies. The target text should appropriately convey the conversational implicature, reproduce the original style and rationalize the readers efforts at inference. The structure of this thesis is as follows:The first chapter focuses on the theoretical achievements in the translation of fictional conversations and the origin, development and the main theoretical points of the relevance theory.Chapter two introduces the status of the fiction in literature as well as characteristics and functions of the fictional conversation, and further demonstrates the importance of the translation of the fictional conversation. Chapter three is the theoretical basis of this thesis. It elaborates on the major concepts of relevance theory, and points out the feasibility and the significance of the application of the relevance theory to the translation of the fictional conversation. Chapter four is the core of this thesis. It further expounds the flexibility of the methods of translation on linguistic and cultural levels under relevance theory, with Vanity Fair as a case study for the translation of fictional conversations.In the conclusion, the thesis insists that when translating the fictional conversation, the translator should follow the relevance theory and adjust the translation to the target readers cognitive environment in order to achieve the optimal contextual effect and realize functions of the fictional conversation.Key words: fictional conversation; relevance theory; cognitive environment; optimal relevancevContentsAcknowledgementsi摘 要iiABSTRACTivChapter One: Introduction11.1 An Overview of Relevance Theory11.2 The Significance to Translation of Fictional Conversation3Chapter Two: Introduction to Fiction and Fictional Conversation52.1 An Introduction to Fiction52.1.1 Functions of Fiction52.1.1.1 Social Functions of Fiction52.1.1.2 Aesthetic Value of Fiction in Literature62.1.2 Features of Fiction62.2 An Introduction to Fictional Conversation72.2.1 Definition of Fictional Conversation72.2.2 Characteristics of Fictional Conversation82.2.2.1 Differences between Fictional Conversation and Daily Conversation82.2.2.2 Stylistic Features of Fictional Conversation92.2.3 Functions of Fictional Conversation102.2.3.1 Revealing Personality of Characters112.2.3.2 Reflecting Characters Status and Relationships112.2.3.3 Developing the Plot122.2.3.4 Depicting Cultural and Geographic Environments12Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework of Relevance Theory and Translation143.1 Relevance and the Principles of Relevance143.1.1 The Definition of Relevance143.1.2 The Degree of Relevance153.1.3 Cognitive Principle of Relevance163.1.4 Communicative Principle of Relevance173.2 Ostensive-inferential Model193.3 Context223.3.1 Cognitive Environment223.3.2 Contextual Effects243.4 Relevance-theoretical Interpretation of Translation273.4.1 Translation as an Inter-lingual Communication273.4.2 Translation as an Ostensive-inference Communication293.4.3 Translation as an Intercultural Communication313.4.4 Basic Goal of Translation: Communicative Intention32Chapter Four: Application of Relevance Theory to the Translation of Fictional Conversation334.1 Pursuit of Optimal Relevance at Linguistic Level334.1.1 Phonological Level344.1.2 Lexical Level374.1.3 Semantic Level394.1.4 Syntactical Level434.1.5 Rhetorical Level464.2 Pursuit of Optimal Relevance at the Cultural Level484.2.1 Cultural Context494.2.2 Differences and Similarities between Cultures504.2.3 Foreignization and Domestication of Cultural Items52Chapter Five: Conclusion56Bibliography57Chapter One: Introduction1.1 An Overview of Relevance TheoryPragmatics has developed rapidly in the last thirty years. Structuralism and semeiology have proposed a code model for linguistic communication, which seems valid everywhere. The main concept of these theories is to consider communication as an encoding and decoding process between speakers and hearers. However, with the rapid development of linguistics, especially the upsurge of the pragmatics (the study of the context-dependent aspects of utterance interpretation), it is found that languages express not only literal meanings but also other content which can not be interpreted from the language structures, such as indirect speech act, communicative intention and so on. In 1986, Sperber and Wilson co-authored a book entitled Relevance: Communication and Cognition，which marked the beginning of relevance theory in the field of pragmatics. The main goal of this theory is to study the internal mechanism helping human beings communicate successfully with each other. Built on the base of Grices conversational implicature, the theory focuses on the context. It holds that context is not the physical environment outside the language but the cognitive structure inside the communicators mind. It is dynamic and flexible in the process of communication, which challenges the traditional concept of context. It also puts forward detailed points concerning communication, such as relevance, relevance principle, ostensive-inferential process optional relevance, and cognitive environment.Relevance theory is a newly developed inferential approach in pragmatics which also possesses significant value to translation and the other linguistic fields. It tries to give an explicit account of how the information-processing faculties of our mind enable us to communicate with one another. From the point of inferential pragmatics, utterance comprehension is not merely a mechanical decoding process, but an intellectual activity involving reasoning and inference. Utterances are not just signals arbitrarily linked to the messages they convey, but serve as pieces of evidence of the communicators intended meanings, with the aim to enable the hearer to infer this informative or communicative intention from these given evidences. For that reason utterance comprehension on the part of the hearers is not simply a matter of decoding process but involves inferential process. So, it is commonly acknowledged that sentence meaning is inferred on the bases of context. Utterance can be typified as being concrete and context-sensitive and utterance understanding needs to take into account the time and place of utterance, the identity of the communicator, the communicators intentions and so on. Sperber and Wilson also explain the relevance theory from the perspective of the linguistic philosophy, cognitive psychology, communicative theory and others. Relevance theory is in connection with cognition and pragmatics and shifts the focus from the output of an utterance to the understanding of it. It points out that language communication is a process of cognition-inference and the utterance comprehension is a process of cognition. Thus, relevance theory could be used to help guide and explain the communication, especially the fictional conversation, since the fictional conversation is a written form of communication. In order to achieve the same artistic or aesthetic effect of the fictions as that of the source text, the translator should follow the principle of relevance.Many Chinese scholars have also noticed the explanatory power of the relevance theory in translation. Since 1980s some Chinese scholars began to introduce this theory into China, and applied it to the field of second language teaching, grammar and text analysis. After Lin Kenans review of Gutts dissertation published in Chinese Translators Journal, researches on relevance-theoretic perspective of translation have flourished in China. The basis of this theory is that translation is an inferential process and its research object is mental faculties (林克难，1994: 6). Zhang Xinhong, He Ziran and many other Chinese scholars advance some positive opinions on the relevance theory in relation to translation. However, as to Gutt statement in the preface to his book that relevance theory alone is adequate for the studies of translationthere seems to be no need for other translation theory in that field, most scholars hold a conservative attitude towards this viewpoint, but at the same time they fully affirm relevance theorys strong power in explaining translational phenomena, among whom Zhao Yanchun (赵彦春，1999) clearly states that so far compared with other explanatory , relevance theory is the most powerful one to explain translation, but he still argues that relevance theory alone cannot cover all translation theories and involve all translation facts. Undoubtedly, some different voices also sharply criticize Gutts statement. Li Yunxing (李运兴，2001: 6) points out that the new concept of context proposed by RT cannot explain translation at all on socio-cultural level, since the guiding principle of Relevance Translation Theory (RTT) deviates greatly from the developing rules of new subjects. Wang Bin (王斌，2000) holds the similar opinion that relevance theory is helpless in cultural translation.Although relevance theory encounters both compliments and criticisms since its birth, it has been extensively applied to literature, linguistics, psychology, philosophy and so on, and above all, to translation.1.2 The Significance to Translation of Fictional Conversation Fictional conversation is one of the key components in fictions. It plays an essential role in fictional characterization. It can reflect not only characters social status, educational level, occupation, and other background information, but also the novelists efforts in searching for the most appropriate image for each character in fictions. So, in order to reproduce the original style of fictions and maintain the vivid characters with artistic and aesthetic values in it, translators should not only be proficient at both source and target languages and cultures of those two languages but also follow an effective translation theory. Previously, the researches on the translation of the fictional conversation were rare and few scholars have conducted research in this field. Only a few articles have been published related to this topic in the past few decades.Although the translation of fictional conversation has sought its remedy in different theories owing to rapid pace of the theoretical development, it has not attracted enough attention as it rightly deserves. In addition, in the study of fictional conversation, most attention has been devoted to elements of speech style such as “social dialect” “substandard speech”, “regional dialects”, and “idiolects” in classic fictions, while no satisfactory result has been obtained. Since relevance theory has been widely accepted as a persuasive guideline in many fields, in this paper the author intends to apply it to the translation of fictional conversation so as to acquire a more profound theoretical understanding and make a more effective analysis of practical operation in fictional conversation translation. Chapter Two: Introduction to Fiction and Fictional Conversation2.1 An Introduction to FictionOf all literary works, fiction is the most popular one. It is the reflection of various events, thoughts, feelings and spirits in society. On the other hand, it also exerts significant influence on social life. Different from other forms of literary works, fiction possesses its own social significance and artistic value. 2.1.1 Functions of Fiction2.1.1.1 Social Functions of Fiction Fiction is a social ideology, whose healing and inspiring effect is seen through its thoughts, feelings and spirits. People are endowed with the ability to observe life, high consciousness and insightful perception by reading excellent works. They can also learn to distinguish false and truth, the good and the evil, and the beautiful and the ugly. As a means of perceiving and reflecting the real world, fiction, like many other social ideologies, possesses significant functions. It reflects daily life through concrete and vivid artistic images of political, economic lives and social climates of various periods, and displays living conditions and mental outlooks of each class. Just as Gorky says, fiction is the social life and emotional history. As fiction presents a panoramic view of real life by portraying concrete, vivid figures with striking personalities, it reveals the truth to people, helping them understand life. Thus, it plays an irreplaceable role in sociological field. For example, from A Dream of Red Mansions and The Scholars people understand the lively history from prosperity to decay of Chinese feudal society, social relationships among people, and corruption and various ugly performances in officialdom. Thoughtful and explorative works will awaken and educate their readers, inspire and encourage them to improve their living conditions, hold people together to fight against social evils and to establish a new wo