Effects of pragmatic Interpretation on Translation

This book discusses the impact of pragmatic interpretation on translation. It involves applications of contemporary semantic and pragmatic theory to various translation areas. The main theoretical model adopted throughout is provided by Relevance theory, as a general approach to verbal communication and translation (see Sperber and Wilson 1995; and Gutt 2001). In this respect, two of the main objectives of this book are, firstly, to explore applications of this theory to translation in order to improve and expand the description of the processes and products involved in translation practice and, secondly, to investigate the consequences of these applications for the theory itself.

The areas covered range from the role of pragmatics in translation, the contrast between interlingual enrichment and impoverishment processes, through to acceptability judgements in translation. The link between these various topics stems from three basic assumptions made herein. Firstly, translation is seen as an instantiation of language use, just like any other form of verbal communication, with the only difference that it involves two languages. Secondly, translation falls, consequently, within a general theory of verbal communication, which covers both intra- and inter-linguistic forms of language use. Finally, translation is studied together alongside all other forms of verbal communication within a single unified theoretical model, which in this book is Relevance theory (a framework considered to be one of the main contemporary theories of verbal communication, thus covering the study of translation). In this respect, the applications explored here provide further evidence for the validity of the theory adopted, particularly as a result of its use within a wider set of translation data and languages.