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On the Compensation Methods for the Cultural Defaults in the English Version of Thunderstorm from Relevance Perspective

Author: WangLin
Tutor: LiHaiPing
School: Jilin University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: cultural default relevance theory optimal relevance compensation Thunderstorm
CLC: H315.9
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 112
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Abstract

People living in the same cultural background and sharing the common knowledge about a society usually have identical cognitive environment. In their daily life, they will naturally omit the self-evident contents so as to promote their communication efficiency. In the same way, a writer in his writing could omit some cultural background knowledge shared by him/her and the intended readers. Such omission is the so-called cultural default. In cross-cultural communication, this default phenomenon resulted from inadequate knowledge of different cultures may quite possibly bring about inconsequent understanding and even impose negative influence to the communication. Cross-cultural communications conducting on whatever forms-- such as films, lectures, books, magazines, etc.--will inevitably resort to translation. Therefore, cultural default in cross-cultural communication is a severe test for translation studies.Cultural default, as a cognitive phenomenon in communication, is connected closely with relevance theory that takes cognition and communication as its core. The present thesis is an attempt to make a combination of the two. Relevance theory, put forward by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition in 1986, has been applied to many research fields on account of its great explanatory power. The theory, based on code and inference, is naturally put into the study of translation by researchers, as translation itself is a communication involving code and inference. Within relevance theoretical framework, translation can be seen as a dynamic act of ostensive-inferential verbal interpretation. In the process, translators should enhance contextual effects and reduce processing efforts to the greatest degree so as to get optimal relevance.This thesis is a qualitative analysis of the cultural defaults in the English version of Caoyu’s classic drama Thunderstorm from relevance perspective, which is helpful for us to understand the essence of pragmatic translation, to enhance our ability to sense cultural defaults, to discover ways of reasonable compensations for the defaults and to ensure the resurgence of the original’s art effects and esthetic values in translation.

On the Compensation Methods for the Cultural Defaults in the English Version of Thunderstorm from Relevance Perspective

Abstract

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