Perspective Of Relevance Theory Research Articles

Contextual Study of Japanese Film and Television Subtitle Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: A Case Study of the Movie Love Letter

Contextual Study of Japanese Film and Television Subtitle Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: A Case Study of the Movie Love Letter

A Study on Cultural Default and Compensation in C-E Translation of Soft News from the Perspective of Relevance Theory: A Case Study of China Daily in 2022

Cultural default and compensation play an important role not only in literary translation, but also in many non-literary translation fields, including news translation. Under the guidance of relevance theory, this paper takes the bilingual soft news of China Daily as the materials adopts the literature method and case analysis method to examine the cultural defaults in the translation process of soft news, and finds out the appropriate compensation strategies. Through research, it is found that the most common cultural defaults in soft news are linguistic cultural defaults, followed by social cultural defaults, material cultural defaults, ecological cultural defaults and religious cultural defaults. In addition, reconstruction, transliteration and transplantation are common compensation strategies in translation, which need to be adjusted flexibly according to translation requirements. This study is expected to provide some reference for the translation of soft news and attract more scholars’ attention to cultural default and compensation in soft news translation, so as to improve the translation quality of soft news.

On Cataphora in English Conversations From the Perspective of Relevance Theory

On Cataphora in English Conversations From the Perspective of Relevance Theory

An analysis of Arabic tautology in English compounds used in customer-service settings in Jordan: A pragmatic perspective

This paper examines the utilization of Arabic tautological expressions, provided by customers as a reiteration of an element of an English compound such as ‘apple pie’ [fatˁi:rit ʔabil bai ‘an apple pie pie’], from the perspective of Relevance Theory (RT). Data was collected from 90 participants, divided into two groups: 40 native speaker informants recruited from various shopping malls, and 50 shop assistants in Amman, Jordan. The first group was interviewed, whereas the second group filled out a multiple-choice task aimed at identifying the type of expression they typically receive when taking orders from customers. The data analysis revealed that Arabic tautological expressions are more frequently used compared to other alternatives. Drawing on RT, we argue that Arabic tautological expressions function as an ostensive stimulus. We propose that tautological expressions, utilized within a code-switching context, function as a means of pragmatic enrichment. This occurs through the process of ad hoc construction, wherein speakers refine the originally encoded concept to convey corrective or contrasting meanings. Instead of lacking information, the use of tautological phrases can be seen as a pragmatic tactic to maximize relevance by minimizing cognitive effort, optimizing successful communication of the intended meaning, and reinforcing contextual effects.

The ‘Loose Use’ of Figurative Language in Pakistani TEDx Talks A Perspective of Relevance Theory

The current study utilised a qualitative approach to implement thematic analysis of the ‘loose use’ of figurative language in TEDx Talks, focusing on irony, hyperbole, and metaphor, within the framework of Relevance Theory by Wilson and Sperber, which states that the successful interpretation of figurative language depends on its own optimal relevance to the context. Two speeches from TEDx Pakistan, delivered in English, serve as the data sources. This qualitative study attempts to identify whether figurative utterances used in public speaking facilitate an appropriate interpretation of ideas. The study found that metaphor, hyperbole, and irony enhance communication without complicating interpretation. Metaphors connect details to the main message, hyperboles convey emotions vividly, and irony, when used appropriately, maintains meaningful communication. Also, strong implicatures are communicated instantly based on context and speaker attitude. This research suggests that mindful use of figurative language can empower public speakers to connect with audiences more deeply, paving the way for more impactful and memorable communication. There is a wide scope for future research in the public discourse of Pakistani English.

Implicit temporality from the perspective of relevance theory

The article presents an attempt to apply the basic principles of Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson’s Relevance theory to the study of implicit means of time reference. The theory combines both cognitive and pragmatic features, which makes it suitable for online analysis of the natural communicative process including the possible mistakes in the cognitive mechanism of inference. The article contains an overview of the main aspects of Relevance theory exemplified by contexts with implicit temporality. The preliminary classification of implicit means of temporal location of an action, which includes lexical, grammatical and contextual implicit means, is also provided. The article also provides analysis of the addressee’s perception of implicit time information in accordance with its relevance. The article also dwells on the problem of how a person decides that an utterance is of informative and cognitive value (that is relevant) and hence must be processed. Besides, the author looks into the factors that affect the relevance of an utterance (for instance its broad communicative context, by which we understand both communicants’ background knowledge about the language, the situation of communication and the world) and cites situations in which informative relevance decreases resulting in mistakes in information processing and the addressor’s informative and communicative failures. The author also attempts to demonstrate the prospects of further integration of the conceptual framework of Relevance theory and other cognitive and pragmatic linguistic theories, the theory of presuppositions and mental spaces in particular. Besides, the author looks into the terminological inexactitude of such notions as ‘implicature’ (implication) and ‘explicature’ and also suggests considering the application of weak implicatures to the analysis of inferential mistakes.

The Study of Pun Translation in Zhu Shenghao’s Chinese Version of King Lear from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

As one of the most commonly used rhetorical devices by Shakespeare, pun plays a significant role in Shakespeare’s works. In the translation of pun, it is quite important to handle it well so that the target text readers can understand Shakespeare’s works better. There are plenty of puns in King Lear, which brings great challenges to translators. By analyzing the pun translation in Zhu Shenghao’s version of King Lear from the perspective of relevance theory, this paper attempts to prove the explanatory power and guiding role of relevance theory in pun translation. By analyzing the translation of puns, it can figure out whether the translators have provided the best contextual effects and realized the optimal relevance in their translations.

The Research of Culture-bounded Terms in the English Translation of Red Sorghum from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature gave Mo Yan an international repute. And the study of Howard Goldblatts translation of Mos work has become a trend. Previous studies have already taken various of perspectives to research Goldblatts translation texts, focusing on his translation strategies and the effects in the western world. As Red Sorghum is among the most popular novels of Mo Yan in the western world, this essay will take it as the research material to reveal Goldblatts translation strategy of Explicitation from the perspective of the Relevance Theory, and thus to conclude a feasible approach for translators to disseminate Chinese literature and culture to be seen and heard by the world. It creatively combines Explicitation in stylistics and the Relevance Theory to categorize the effects of the translation in three types: add dramatic effects, enhance the tone and make the words more vivid. The findings indicate that Explicitation is feature of Goldblatts translation work and it does take positive effects on the dissemination of Chinese culture, providing the target readers the highest contextual effect with the lowest processing efforts.

A Relevance Theory Perspective on the Quality of Simile Translation in Al-Mutanabbi’s Selected Panegyric poem on Sayf Al-Dawlah

Simile is a figure of speech, which involves “an explicit comparison between two things or actions” Cruse (2006, 165). Similes compare things “normally felt to be incomparable, typically using vivid or startling images to suggest unexpected connections between the source and the target (Israel et. al, 2004, 124). Like metaphors, similes, especially creative and poetic similes or ‘open similes’ (Walaszewska, 2013) involve ‘open mapping’ (Croft and Cruse, 2004) and normally leave out the grounds or the connections between the source and the target domains. This elliptical phenomenon creates a cognitive challenge for simile interpretation and translation as the relevance of the ground on which comparison is based, is usually implicit and tends to be open for multiple interpretations, hence the difficulty of establishing relevance. Purpose : Based on these cognitive features of simile and using a relevance-theoretic framework (Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995 and Gutt, 1991/2000), this paper aims to answer the following two questions: (1) What are the translation strategies used by the three translators Arberry (1967), Wormhoudt, (1971) and Ibrahim, (1992) to achieve optimal relevance in translating simile in one of Al-Mutanabbi’s panegyrics on Sayf Al-Dawlah? (2) Comparing the three translations and the translation strategies used by the three translators, which translation is the most optimally relevant? Results: The paper shows that Ibrahim’s translation seems to be the most optimally relevant because it tends to design the translation in such a way as to provide the target addressees with the shortcuts to the intended meaning, sometimes even by ignoring ostensive stimulus provided in the source.

A Relevance-Theoretic Approach to the Subtitle Translation of Farewell My Concubine

This paper investigates the subtitle translation of the film Farewell My Concubine from a relevance-theoretic perspective. The Chinese film Farewell My Concubine has been well-received in China as well as in other parts of the world and marked a milestone in Chinese film history. Its subtitle is rich in Chinese culture-loaded words, which may pose difficulties for both the translator to translate and for the oversea audience to understand. To explore the reasons for the warm reception of the subtitle translation of Farewell My Concubine among international audiences, this paper takes a relevance-theoretic approach to analyze the translation of culture-loaded expressions in the film, including mainly three types: Beijing Opera jargon, the Beijing dialect, and Chinese idioms. Through a detailed case study, this paper finds that the translator flexibly uses different translation strategies, such as domestication and foreignization, for different texts and contexts to cater to the audience’s cognitive environment. Meanwhile, the translator also takes into account the features of subtitles, which are often limited by time and space, and accordingly makes reasonable omissions of the translated texts. From the perspective of relevance theory, the translator realizes optimal relevance and delivers the subtitle information accurately to the target audience. This paper also proves that relevance theory, as a cognitive pragmatic approach to communication, is a useful tool for translation studies.

Study on the English Translation of Culture-Loaded Words in the Perspective of Relevance Theory in The Kingdom of Wine

It has gone through a period of development from the theory of relevance to the theory of relevance translation. The embodiment of relevance requires the constant efforts of translators. Cultural loaded words, as vocabulary with specific cultural colors, are not easy to find corresponding expressions in the target culture. This paper takes the English translation of Wine Country by Ge Haowen as a basis to study the translation of culturally loaded words from three dimensions: material culture, linguistic culture and social culture. It is found that Ge Haowen, the translator, greatly preserves the characteristics of the original text in the process of translation, and also endeavors to make the translation achieve contextual proximity, so as to convey the intention of the text to the readers.

On the Translation of the Chapter 31 of A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

As one of the four famous works in China, A Dream of Red Mansions enjoys reputation of all over the word and gains numerous readers. It reflects the background and conditions of Chinese ancient feudal society. To this end, it remain a great work in Chinese literature. Moreover, its language is simple, natural, beautiful and humorous. There are many Chinese cultural words in it, which need the translator to think deeply, and then translate, figure out the tone of the article and combine the context to achieve the harmony among the author, translator and reader. This paper aims to analyze the translation of words and sentences in Chapter 31 of A Dream of Red Mansions under the guidance of the Relevance Theory. And it seeks to find the translation methods and strategies that can be adopted when using the Relevance Theory, with the aim to achieve the optimal relevance between the source text and the target text.

Chinese Translation of English Film Titles Guided by Relevance Theory

As a form of artistic expression, film is loved by the public. Film title, as a precise summary of the film content, plays a significant role in expressing the film theme. In the context of great differences between Chinese and western cultures, the translation of English film titles is undoubtedly faced with many difficulties, such as language differences, cultural conflicts and deficiencies, misunderstanding of the audience and so on. This paper studies the E-C translation of film titles from the perspective of relevance theory, to discuss how to reflect the functions of film titles precisely on the premise of considering the audience’s response. This thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is the introduction, which will introduce the research background, research significance and research methods. The second is a review of the research situation of the Chinese translation of English film titles. The third part is the main part. This chapter will point out the needs of English film title translation by analyzing a large number of examples of film title translation. The fourth part is a summary of how to choose translation strategies and techniques in the translation of English film titles into Chinese, and how to use relevance theory to make the Chinese translation of film titles meet the needs of the audience.

Relevance theory perspective in translating media implicit meaning from English into Arabic

This research focuses on translating implicit meaning conveyed through media news reports within the framework of relevance theory. Relevance theory focuses on a core concept which dictates that speakers and listeners are interested and pay more attention to information that are relevant to their basic beliefs, thoughts, ideas, etc. in other words, a message will be optimally relevant if it is closely related to the audience points of interest, inclinations, preferences, etc. Implicit meaning is the meaning intended by the speaker when making an utterance. Therefore, implicit meaning shows the difference between what is said and what is meant. The significance of this study stems from the fact that misunderstanding might sometimes occur in communication process particularly when the hearer does not understand the meaning intended by the speaker. In order to convey the implicit meaning properly, translators should render this intended meaning accurately, thus hearers would be able to easily comprehend the targeted meaning.

An Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in the English Version of Fortress Besieged from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

An Analysis of Rhetorical Devices in the English Version of Fortress Besieged from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Study on Context in College English Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Study on Context in College English Translation from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

A Study on the English Translation of the Willow in Tang Poetry from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

A Study on the English Translation of the Willow in Tang Poetry from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Typographical iconicity and the communication of impressions: A relevance-theoretic perspective

AbstractThis article studies the cognitive and communicative effects of typographical iconicity in poetry from the perspective of relevance theory. It argues that the visual aspect pertaining to an instance of typographical iconicity conveys a sensory impression, which perceptually resembles elements of the semantic material represented via the typographical iconicity’s lexical aspect. It is suggested that the non-propositional information relating to this impression can trigger the derivation of a wide array of weak implicatures which can combine to form an impressionistic and indeterminate cognitive state described within relevance theory as apoetic effect. Furthermore, since the added effort, which the typographical iconicity requires to be perceived and processed, is offset by the derived implicatures, the use of typographical iconicity may be said to produce anoptimally relevantlevel of processing.

The Pragmatic Function of the Discourse Maker “Well” in TED Talks from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

This paper uses 25 speeches under the topic The most popular talks of all time in the TED official website as the corpus, and analyzes the pragmatic function of “well” in the genre of speech. The study finds that the discourse marker “well” in TED talks can achieve the following pragmatic functions, that is, delaying thinking, moderating tone, linking discourse, emphasizing information, constructing discourse, making up for shortages, correcting information, and changing turns. The use of discourse marker “well” can make communication more fluent and increase the compliance of conversation. The purpose of this study is to strengthen the correct use of the discourse marker “well” when delivering English speeches, and to improve English speaking ability to a certain extent.

A Study on Relevance Reconstruction in Xu Yuanchong’s English Renditions of Ancient Chinese Poetry From the Perspective of Relevance Theory

A Study on Relevance Reconstruction in Xu Yuanchong’s English Renditions of Ancient Chinese Poetry From the Perspective of Relevance Theory