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1、语用学与翻译策略语境与文化视角阐释Pragmatics and Translation Strategies-A Contextual and Cultural Perspective摘 要本文介绍语用学和翻译策略，并以实例重点论证了语境和文化视角下的翻译策略。其结构如下：第一部分介绍了语用学理论及其对翻译的指导意义。第二部分为理论综述。首先介绍语用学，包括语用学的发展概况、定义，其中语境和文化因素为其主要内容。其次介绍文化的内涵和意义。最后介绍语境的定义、特点和作用。 第三部分介绍翻译策略，包括语言角度的直译、意译、直译和意译的结合，文化角度的归化和异化以及归化和异化的关系。第四部分总结全文
2、，指出语用学为翻译提供了科学的翻译方法，可以有效地指导翻译实践。关键词：语用学；文化；语境；翻译策略Abstract This paper uses pragmatics and translation strategies to illustrate that pragmatics, especially its cultural and contextual factors, plays an important role in translation. The first part introduces pragmatics and the necessity of adopting p
3、ragmatics in translation. Part two firstly introduces pragmatics including its development and definition, among which culture and context are the most important factors. Secondly, an introduction is given to the connotation of culture and an analysis is made of western and Chinese cultures. Thirdly
4、, an explanation is given to the definition, features and functions of context.Part three discusses translation strategies: literal translation, free translation and the combination of the two from the linguistic perspective and domestication, foreignization and the relationship between the two from
5、 the cultural perspective. The last part concludes the whole paper and points out that pragmatics plays an important role in translation.Key words: pragmatics; culture; context; translation strategies Contents. Introduction.1. Theoretical Overview.2A. Pragmatics.2B. Context.3C. Culture.5. Translatio
6、n Strategies.7A. Literal translation.7 B. Free translation.10C. Combination of literal translation and free translation.12D. Domestication.14E. Foreignization.17F. Relationship between domestication and foreignization.19. Conclusion.22. Notes.23. Bibliography.26. Acknowledgements.28. IntroductionPra
7、gmatics is the study of language in use. “It deals with particular utterances in particular situations and is especially concerned with the various ways in which the many social contexts of language performance can influence interpretation.”1From this we can see that pragmatics is mainly concerned w
8、ith the way language is used to communicate rather than with the way language is structured and studies the meaning, not generated by linguistic system but conveyed and manipulated by participants in a communicative situation. So if communicators want to get genuine understanding, they must make cle
9、ar their partners communicative intentions which are often coated with culture and context. Because of the cultural differences between speakers of different languages in cross-cultural communication, participants use pragmatic knowledge to help understand each other. Translation is an intercultural
10、 communication. Better understanding of the meaning can lead to better translation. Since meanings are coated with culture and determined by the writers/speakers intention in a given context, it is quite difficult for a translator to translate the intended meaning which combines with the contextual,
11、 cultural and linguistic aspects of the message. Then the pragmatic approaches can be adopted in translation to help solve this problem, which can assist the translator to understand the source text (ST) deeply which can simultaneously reproduce the source text in the target language (TL). . Theoret
12、ical OverviewPragmatics is the study of language in use, which is the study of how contextual and cultural factors determine the interpretation of an utterance. From the view of this paper, context and culture are the most important factors in translation. In this part pragmatics, context and cultur
13、e will be introduced.A. PragmaticsPragmatics is a highly complex but fascinating area of language study. It is one of the rapidly growing fields in contemporary linguistics. In 1938, the American philosopher Charles Morris first introduced the term “pragmatics” in his works on semiotics. He defined
14、semiotics as the use of signs governed by syntactic, semantic and pragmatic rules. This theory of semiotics was later developed by another American philosopher Carnap who pointed out that pragmatics refers to the relationships between signs and their users. Since then the discipline has been develop
15、ed with enthusiasm by philosophers and linguists alike. It entered an especially meaningful phase in linguistic when J. L. Austins How to Do Things with Words was published, which shows that, “the uttering of the word is indeed, usually a, or even the leading incident in the performance of the act,
16、the performance of which is also the object of the utterance.”2 In attempting to express themselves, people not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words through those utterances but also perform actions-they do things, usually in a context that combines linguistic and non-
17、linguistic elements.Following Austins work, pragmatics focuses on the conditions which permit speakers and writers to achieve what they want to achieve by bringing about certain modifications in the behavior, knowledge, attitudes or beliefs of others, and further studies the rules and principles gov
18、erning their uses of language itself, grammar or vocabulary, and what makes some uses of language more appropriate than others in certain situations.From the above we can see that pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener
19、 (or reader). It has, consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves3. So the study of pragmatics involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context with a particular
20、culture and how the context and culture influence what is said. Meaning in pragmatics is highly contextual and cultural. Translators should pay attention to context and culture in translation.B. ContextContext is basic to an account of language understanding. In some senses, pragmatics originates fr
21、om the fact that formal linguistics and semantics have trouble in the exploration of meaning without recourse to context and is defined as the study of the relations between language and context. Pragmatics deals with the interpretation of utterances in particular contexts. So context is a major and
22、 decisive component in pragmatics. Once the contexts parameters are specified, what is conveyed by the utterances will be confirmed. Context is a kind of linguistic phenomenon related to the use of language. It is put forward in the 1920s by the anthropologist B. Malinsonki. Historically, linguists
23、differ in their ways of treating context. Context, therefore, is given different definitions by different linguists for different purposes. The present paper will introduce the definition given by Sperber and Wilson in their relevance theory. According to them “the notion of context of an utterance
24、is a psychological construct, a subject of the hearers assumption about the world; more especially it is the set of premises used in interpreting (that) utterance.” 4 Under this definition context is a very wide notion, which is not limited to information about the immediate psychical environment or
25、 the immediate preceding utterance, but includes expectation about the future, scientific hypotheses or religious beliefs, general cultural assumptions about the mental state of the speaker, which may all play a role in interpretation. So we can see that context is a complex notion, concerning not o
26、nly the internal, linguistic environment of the text itself, but also features of external, non-linguistic environment when a text is composed and interpreted.Context has a strong influence on communication and much information on features of context will be helpful for comprehension. Its features a
27、re determinacy, relativeness and gradation.Determinacy means that, when a communicative event happens, the context is fixed and followed by the content of utterance. Sperber and Wilson think that context is fixed and further precedes the comprehension process. For example, the factors of context, in
28、cluding place, time, participants and their professions, positions, and so on, when an utterance communication is going on, are fixed and followed along in order to keep the communication.Besides determinacy, context is of relativeness, which means context can be changed and replaced with the proces
29、s of communication. It sounds contradictory but quite reasonable. The interpretation of communication not only depends on context but also changes it. The contextual implication produced by proceeding utterance will become the context for the further ones.Context includes many factors in different c
30、ategories. Theoretically contextual factors are infinite. For an utterance or communication, a larger contextual factor consists of many small contextual factors. Sperber and Wilson point out that every contextual factor (except for the smallest one) includes one or more smaller factors; and every c
31、ontextual factor is included in one or more larger contextual factors (except for the largest one). This paper will introduce three major functions of context: definitive function, restrictive function and explanatory function of context.Definitive function refers to the definitiveness of context. F
32、or this function, one of contextual features, determinacy, can explain it. They are equal in some degree. No language communication is context-free. A context-bounded characteristic is one language property.To be simplified, restrictive function refers to the influence of context on language applica
33、tion. From the broad sense, this function may influence the whole nature, the human society and the culture. And from the narrow sense, it may influence a sentence, a phrase or even a word. Restrictive function is one of major functions of context and also plays an important part in meaning understa
34、nding. This function can be subdivided into three aspects: the restriction on meaning in an entire scale, the restriction on meaning through preceding or following information of a text and the restriction on meaning based on cultural differences. Explanatory function refers to the explanations and
35、illustrations to some language phenomena in language use. Context combines the situations that the event happens with the co-conditions of surroundings together and offers us a general expression and the prediction of understanding in psychology. To be concrete, it shows more choices of understandin
36、g and then narrows down the choices according to the situation, and finally identifies the one that is in return most suitable for itself. The explanatory function also has a direct relation to understanding meaning. This function is subdivided into three aspects: the explanation of words in situati
37、onal circumstances, the explanation of ambiguity and the supplication of information omitted through ellipsis. There are two types of contexts: linguistic context and non-linguistic context. The former includes phonological context, lexical context, grammatical context and textual context. And the l
38、atter includes situational context, social context and cultural context.Context determines not only how a word is to be understood, but also how it is to be translated. Those who are engaged in translation should take context into consideration. When translating the original, with the help of the sp
39、ecific context, the translator can have a deep and correct understanding of the meaning of the source language (SL), and reproduces the message of SL to readers. We can never let context aside when discussing translation. Whatever one discusses on methods of literal translation or free translation h
40、e should never avoid taking contextual factors into consideration. C. CultureOne of the oldest and most quoted definitions of culture was formulated by the English anthropologist E. B. Tylor and Edward Spair quoted it widely: “culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, mora
41、ls, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” 5 Newmark distinguishes culture “from universal and personal language.”6 He defines culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a community that uses a particular language as it
42、s means of expression.” 7 Nowadays when we talk about culture, we usually define it in two ways. In a narrow sense, culture means intellectual and conceptual culture. While in broad sense, culture means human culture in contrast with nature, i.e. the sum of a peoples customs, material and spiritual
43、products, ways of thinking and so on. When we are translating or doing translating studies, we tend to consider culture in its broad sense. This thesis categorizes culture as ecological culture, material culture, social culture, religious culture and linguistic culture.Culture is a broad and complex
44、 notion which has distinguished features. First, culture is learned, which is socially acquired rather than biologically inherited. Second, culture is a set of shared ideas, values and standards of behaviors. Third, culture is symbolically expressed and transmitted. And symbolizing means assigning t
45、o entities and events which are external to them and not able to be grasped by themselves alone. Language is the most typical system within culture. Fourth, culture is integrated. Each aspect of culture is tied with other aspects. People who examine one aspect of a culture invariably find it is nece
46、ssary to examine others as well.Moreover, language and culture act on each other, too. Being the vehicle and proportion of culture in most cases, language grows with the development of culture, which in a broad sense is the symbolic representation of a people, bringing their historical and cultural
47、backgrounds, their approaches to life and their ways of thinking together. Language works as the bearer of culture, reflecting culture in certain aspects.It is by taking the form of language that culture exists in translation. Without language, the representation of culture in translation can be impossible. Thus some sociologists consider it the keystone of culture. In addition, language is greatly influenced and shaped by culture. Langu
