contrastive study on mencius versions from relevance theory【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p>　　本科畢業(yè)論文(設(shè)計)</p><p>　題 目：The Embodiment of Contradiction: An Analysis on Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities</p><p>　學(xué) 院：</p><p>　學(xué)生姓名：</p><p>　專 業(yè)

2、：英語</p><p>　班 級：</p><p>　指導(dǎo)教師：</p><p>　起止日期：</p><p><b>　　Contents</b></p><p>　　Abstract ....................................................

3、.............................................................. 1</p><p>　　Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3</p&

4、gt;<p>　　On Relevance Theory (R.T.) ............................................................................ 3</p><p>　　1.1 Background ...........................................................

5、.................................... 3</p><p>　　1.2 Definition of Relevance Theory ................................................................ 4</p><p>　　1.3 Terminology of Relevance Th

6、eory ............................................................ 4</p><p>　　2. Relevance Theory and Translation .................................................................. 5</p><p>　

7、　2.1 Cognitive Context and Translation ........................................................... 6</p><p>　　2.2 Optimal Relevance and Translation .........................................................

8、. 7</p><p>　　2.3 Achieve Optimal Relevance in Translation ............................................... 8</p><p>　　2.4 Comparison of Class A’s Performance with Class B’s ..................

9、............ 9</p><p>　　2.4.1 Cognitive Context of the Source Writer ......................................... 9</p><p>　　2.4.2 Cognitive Context of the Target Language Readers..............

10、.......... 10</p><p>　　3. Contrastive Study on Two Versions ................................................................. 10</p><p>　　3.1 Translators’ Cultural Background .................

11、............................................ 10</p><p>　　3.2 Translation Method ................................................................................... 11</p><p>　　3.3 Textual Fact

12、ors .......................................................................................... 14</p><p>　　3.3.1 Diction .....................................................................................

13、....... 14</p><p>　　3.3.2 Syntax ............................................................................................. 14</p><p>　　Conclusion ..........................................

14、.................................................................... 16 </p><p>　　References .............................................................................................................. 1

15、7</p><p><b>　　摘要</b></p><p>　　《孟子》是儒家文化的經(jīng)典代表，對中國歷代社會產(chǎn)生了深遠影響。近代以來隨著該書逐漸被譯成英文，其在英語世界也產(chǎn)生了深遠影響。重視對儒家經(jīng)典譯本的研究，對我們推動發(fā)揚中華文化事業(yè)有著不容忽視的價值。</p><p>　　本文主要以格特提出的關(guān)聯(lián)論為理論基礎(chǔ)，結(jié)合兩名名主要譯者的譯作，

16、分析不同譯者在對語義的選擇，對傳統(tǒng)習(xí)俗的敏感度，對孟子思想的理解等方面各自的特點，旨讓讀者感受他們眼中儒家思想的魅力，并對其譯本做出客觀評述，得出各譯本的優(yōu)缺點。</p><p>　　關(guān)聯(lián)理論是從認知角度對人和人之間語言理解過程所做的解釋。該理論是Sperber 和Wilson 于1986 年在他們出版的著作《關(guān)聯(lián):交際與認知》一書中提出的，并在1995 年作了修訂。關(guān)聯(lián)理論的目的，是想從認知的角度對交際過程加以

17、切實的解釋，包括具備關(guān)聯(lián)性的期待究竟是怎么回事，這些期待對于用實證性的方法解釋理解過程可能會發(fā)揮什么樣的作用。</p><p>　　【關(guān)鍵詞】：關(guān)聯(lián)理論；孟子；認知環(huán)境</p><p><b>　　Abstract</b></p><p>　　As the classic representative of Confucian culture

18、in China, “Mencius” has made a profound influence on the Chinese society from ancient to modern times. Since this book gradually had been translated into English, it has also produced profound influence in the English-sp

19、eaking country. Attaching importance to the study of Confucian classics translating version plays an extremely important role in promoting Chinese culture. </p><p>　　On the basis of Relevance Theory, by ana

20、lysing two primary translating versions, this paper tries to compare different translators’ characteristics on semantic choices, sensitivity of the Chinese traditional custom and understanding of Mencius thought. It is a

21、imed at helping readers appreciating the charm of “Mencius” thought in different versions and summarizing merits and demerits by analysing translating texts.</p><p>　　Relevance Theory is defined as “cognitiv

22、e account of pragmatic understanding”. It was proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognitionpublished in 1986, and revised in 1995. The aim is to explain in cognitively real

23、istic terms what these expectations of relevance amount to, and how they might contribute to an empirically plausible account of comprehension.</p><p>　　【Key words】: Relevance Theory; Mencius; cognitive envi

24、ronment</p><p>　　Contrastive Study on Mencius Versions from Relevance Theory</p><p>　　Introduction </p><p>　　Mencius as one of the classical books of Confucianism plays an importa

25、nt role in the extensive and profound Chinese culture (Jiang, 1997:92). Many translators have tried to translate this book into English, among whom some are churchmen who came to China in the early time to spread religio

26、n in China some are modern interpreters. Until now there have been many versions of Mencius in English, which have made great contribution to the development of Chinese culture in the west. Therefore, to better</p>

27、<p>　　Although many scholars have analysed and compared different Mencius versions, most of them focus largely on the surface comparison of the translated texts, they seldom adopt any translating theories as the r

28、esearch basis. This paper will continue the contrastive study of Mencius versions on the basis of Relevance Theory.</p><p>　　According to the Relevance Theory by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986, one e

29、ssential feature of most human communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is the expression and recognition of intentions. That is to say, communication is a process of mutual manifestation, from the cognition to inferen

30、ce. There are two main terms in the Relevance Theory, contextual effects and ability of processing information. </p><p>　　On Relevance Theory (R.T.)</p><p>　　Relevance Theory is defined as “cogn

31、itive account of pragmatic understanding”. It was proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognition published in 1986, and revised in 1995.</p><p>　　1.1 Background

32、</p><p>　　R.T. was proposed with an attempt to work out in detail one of Grice’s central claims: that an essential feature of most human communication, both verbal and non-verbal, is the expression and recog

33、nition of intentions (Gutt, 1991:32). In developing this claim, Grice laid the foundations for an inferential model of communication, an alternative to the classical code model.</p><p>　　The relevance-theore

34、tic account is based on another of Grice’s central claims: that utterances automatically create expectations which guide the hearer towards the speaker’s meaning(Gutt, 1991:45). Grice described these expectations in term

35、s of a Co-operative Priciple and maxims of Quality (truthfulness), Quantity (informativeness), Relation (relevance) and Manner (clarity) which speakers are expected to observe: the interpretation a rational hearer should

36、 choose is the one that best satisfies t</p><p>　　The two important topics in modern pragmatics are utterance produce and utterance interpretation. Grice’s conversational Theory is regarded as the theoretica

37、l foundation of modern pragmatics. Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance is considered to be the base of cognitive Pragmatics .The two have influenced the linguistic field on a large scale and drawn wide spread attention.</p

38、><p>　　1.2 Definition of Relevance Theory</p><p>　　Relevance Theory holds that communication is a process of mutual manifestation from the cognition to inference. When we achieve a best cognition p

39、attern-relevance, we are able to communicate fluently. It focuses on the degree of relevance and two governing principles—cognitive principle and communicative principle, and proposes the conception of optimal relevance

40、(Bo, 2005:36). </p><p>　　Relevance is defined in terms of cognitive effects and processing effort. Cognitive effects are achieved when newly-presented information interacts with a context of existing assumpt

41、ions by combining with an existing assumption to yield a contextual implication, and the greater the cognitive effects, the greater the relevance will be (Sperber & Wilson, 1995: 12).</p><p>　　That is to

42、 say Relevance Theory is based on two main factors: contextual effects and the ability to processing information. The core of this theory is that communication is a process to build optimal relevance. The hearer will sea

43、rch for meaning in any given communication situation and under the Relevance Theory they will find meaning that fits expectation of relevance in a simple way with least resistance. Relevance Theory, the theory on Pragmat

44、ics and Cognition, has the most powerful explanato</p><p>　　1.3 Terminology of Relevance Theory</p><p>　　Code Model: a communicator encodes her intended message into a signal, which is decoded b

45、y the audience using an identical copy of the code. In this model the speaker/author encodes their thoughts and transmits them to their audience. The audience receives the encoded message and decodes it to arrive at the

46、meaning the speaker/author intended.</p><p>　　Inferential Model: a communicator provides evidence of her intention to convey a certain meaning, which is inferred by the audience on the basis of the evidence

47、provided. An utterance is, of course, a linguistically coded piece of evidence, so that verbal comprehension involves an element of decoding. However, the linguistic meaning recovered by decoding is just one of the input

48、s to a non-demonstrative inference process which yields an interpretation of the speaker’s meaning.</p><p>　　Optimal Relevance: In Relevance Theory the optimal relevance has the most powerful explanation reg

49、arding to translation and it is as well the basic argument for relevance-theoretic translation. The Relevance Theory focuses on the degree of relevance and two governing principles—cognitive principle and communicative p

50、rinciple, and proposes the conception of optimal relevance. That is speakers design their utterances to maximize the number of cognitive effects listeners infer while minimizing the </p><p>　　Cognitive Conte

51、xt: According to Relevance Theory by Sperber &Wilson, context is a cognitive dynamic process. In the process of communication, cognitive context makes people form the knowledge script, the psychological schema. It is

52、 a stratified and dynamic system with its distinctive features serves as amechanism in the recognition of communicative intention. </p><p>　　Cognitive Effects and Processing Effort: In different circumstance

53、s, the same stimulus may be more or less salient, the same contextual assumptions more or less accessible, and the same cognitive effects easier or harder to derive. Intuitively, the greater the effort of perception, mem

54、ory and inference required, the less rewarding the input will be to process, and hence the less deserving of our attention. In relevance-theoretic terms, other things being equal, the greater the processing effort </p

55、><p>　　2. Relevance Theory and Translation</p><p>　　The proposal of Relevance Theory is a great contribution to linguistic field, which was first proposed by Sperber and Wilson in 1986, relevance t

56、heory looks at linguistic phenomena from a new perspective, which is based on the notion of communication and regards communication as an ostensive-inferential process, which involves human beings’ cognition, mental orga

57、nism and contextual effects. What is essentially important in Relevance Theory is the notion of relevance. In order to achieve successf</p><p>　　2.1 Cognitive Context and Translation</p><p>　　Gu

58、ided by the Relevance Theory, we can use different translating strategies according to three main aspects: the cognitive environment of the original author resembles the target language reader’s; the source language writ

59、er’s cognitive environment and target language reader’s are different; the original writer and target language reader can understand each other despite their different cognitive environment.</p><p>　　A. Simi

60、lar Cognitive Environment</p><p>　　When the original author’s cognitive environment and the target language reader’s resemble each other, we can employ literal translation. Under this situation readers of ta

61、rget language can simply understand the version, because they both share the mutual background. For example:</p><p>　　Walls have ears 隔墻有耳</p><p>　　Like a duck to water如魚得水</p><p&

62、gt;　　An eye for an eye 以眼還眼 </p><p>　　B. Different Cognitive Environment </p><p>　　When the cognitive environment of the original writer and the translators don’t overlap, the translator w

63、ill be faced with some tough problems. Because under this situation cultural barriers obstruct translators to process information correctly. Relevance Theory holds that we should pay more attention to the extended meanin

64、g than the literal meaning. For example: </p><p>　　龍蛇混雜 version1: Snakes mix up with dragons.</p><p>　　version2: The worst and the best are mixed up. </p><p>　　Version1 does not re

65、ach the purpose of translation. Because dragons in the western and Chinese culture are two totally different symbols. In the Chinese culture, dragons symbolize strength and power, while snakes are called dragonet. Howeve

66、r, in the west snakes are regarded as devil and dragons are monsters of fire, therefore they two are not equivalent. So literal translation does not work. Version2 can be understood by the westerners easily. </p>

67、;<p>　　Translation is not a bilateral activity ,but a triple one. It not only involves the writer of source language and translator but also readers of target language. For example:</p><p>　　When in R

68、ome, do as the Romans do. </p><p>　　Version1: 到羅馬，就像羅馬人一樣生活。</p><p>　　Version2: 入鄉(xiāng)隨俗。</p><p>　　Version3: 上什么山唱什么歌。</p><p>　　Most Chinese people are not familiar with Ro

69、mans’ living style, so Version1 can not be understood directly. Because of the different education level readers accept, not all people can comprehend version2. Version3 can be understood by most common people, it not on

70、ly reaches the original text’s contextual assumptions but also keeps its vivid image, it reaches the optimal relevance between the original text and the translated one. Therefore, under this situation the translator shou

71、ld infer the tar</p><p>　　C. Common Understanding Despite Different Cognitive Environment</p><p>　　When the original writer and target language reader can understand each other despite their dif

72、ferent cognitive environment we can adopt conversion translation strategies. For example: David Hawkes translates “怡紅公子” into green boy. Because, in Chinese culture the word red can remind readers of flower, spring, yout

73、h, happiness, prosperity and so on, but in English it is the word green that is associated with the above things. Therefore, at the cost of the original text form Hawkes make a flexible</p><p>　　To sum up, R

74、elevance Theory tells us that before translating we had better have a good knowledge of the cognitive contexts of the source language and target language. According to Relevance Theory, the translator should not be confu

75、sed by the form and surface meaning, and should try to imagine the contextual effects in which these sentences are uttered, it is aimed at ensuring that translation text can achieve the same effect as the source language

76、. Then we’d better choose proverbs with the simi</p><p>　　2.2 Optimal Relevance and Translation</p><p>　　D.Sperber & D. Wilson have proposed Relevance Theory with the aim to guide communicat

77、ive activities from a cognitive perspective. Translation is a subordinate term to communication, therefore the theory has a definite impact on translation. According to RT, human’s cognitive activities tend to coincide w

78、ith Most Relevance Principle whereas people are likely to be looking for the optimal relevance in their communication. And the essence of translation is to “make intentions of the author and exp</p><p>　　Tr

79、anslation is communication activity which is relevance-oriented. Translator should make different choices during translation and balance gain and loss. With dual duties translator must correctly choose proper supposition

80、s and adjust translation strategy in order to seek for the optimal relevance and similarity between the original and version. Relevance Theory is used to guide the communication activities, and the translation belongs to

81、 the communication activities, so the Relevance Theory has</p><p>　　A translator’s key work is striving for optimal relevance to make the intention of the original author and the expectation of the target re

82、ader meet, achieving verisimilitude. However, when the original author wants to convey some emotion which is closely related to the national culture, the translator will face severe problems, that is how to properly anno

83、tate different cultural image with the target language. </p><p>　　For example, the English regard the dog as a family member, therefore the proverb in English love me, love my dog equals to 愛屋及烏 in Chinese.

84、And the English are used to comparing a person as a dog, as they often say a lucky dog. But the Chinese usually regard the dog as a lowest-class animal, if we compare a person as a dog that is a very grave offence. We of

85、ten quote 落水狗 and 喪家狗 to abuse others, if we translate 落水狗 into a dog in the water and translate 喪家狗 into a homeless dog, that will not onl</p><p>　　2.3 Achieve Optimal Relevance in Transaltion</p>&l

86、t;p>　　According to Relevance Theory, the translator should consider the following two aspects: a translator should make assumptions about the reader’s cognitive context, so as to achieve contextual effect; a translato

87、r should judge the reader’s amount of the effort required to understand the translated text. </p><p>　　The process of implicature translating is the very process to pursue the optimal relevance. A translator

88、 should first of all find out the implicatures in pursuit of the optimal relevance based on the explicatures of the source text and his own cognitive context. Then if he estimates that such implicatures may be yielded in

89、 the target text audience’s cognitive context, the translator should endeavour to leave the implicit utterance to be implicit in the target language for the sake of actual effe</p><p>　　Implicature translati

90、ng is one of the difficulties for by literary translators. Relevance Theory gives a full interpretation of the nature of implicature. Therefore, it provides a good guide to better understand and convey implicature in tra

91、nslation. The process of implicature translating is to pursue the optimal relevance. Adjustment must be made according to the similarity and difference between the cognitive context of the source text readers and that of

92、 the target text reader, so that the ta</p><p>　　Relevance Theory, proposed as a foundation for cognitive science, is mainly concerned with communication and cognition,which is powerful in accounting of lite

93、rature. The paper points out that literary appreciation is primarily an ostensive-inferential cognitive process during which the reader aims at seeking for the optimal relevance. The process is double-inference (identifi

94、cation and inference), involving a series of important variants.</p><p>　　2.4 Analysing Cognitive Contexts in Translating Process</p><p>　　2.4.1 Cognitive Context of the Source Writer</p>

95、<p>　　Mencius sought to defend the teachings of Confucius (sixth to fifth century B.C.E.) against other influential movements of thought. He is probably best known for the view that “human nature is good”, a view o

96、f human nature on the basis of which he defended the Confucian ideal and developed an account of the self-cultivation process.</p><p>　　Mencius lived in the fourth century B.C.E., during the Zhou dynasty and

97、 in the Warring States period, during which the Zhou king was weak and China was divided into different states with their own rulers, often waging war against each other. He is said to have studied under Confucius’ grand

98、son Zisi, and he traveled to different states in an attempt to convert their rulers.</p><p>　　Mencius elaborated on the Confucian ideal by highlighting four ethical attributes — ren (benevolence, humaneness)

99、, li (observance of rites), yi (propriety), and zhi (wisdom). Besides the above four ethical attributes, Mencius also highlighted other desirable qualities such as a steadfastness of purpose that enables one to follow wh