A Cognitive-Pragmatic Model for Translation Studies Based on Relevance and Adaptation.

Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 February 2009 A Cognitive-Pragmatic Model for Translation Studies Based on Relevance and Adaptation UN MODELE COGNITIF ET PRAGMATIQUE POUR LES ETUDES EN TRADUCTION BASE SUR LA PERTINENCE ET L’ADAPTATION Chang Zixia1 Abstract: The current study makes an attempt to explore how Relevance affects the translator’s comprehension of the source text (ST) and how Adaptation bears on the choice-making in the reproduction of the source message in the target text (TT) from a cognitive pragmatic perspective. The primary objective is to construct a cognitive pragmatic-oriented model based on Verschueren’s Adaptation (2000:66 ) and Relevance Theory advanced by Sperber and Wilson (2000: 12) for the enhancement of harmony in translation, thus offering effective guidance for translation practice and a unified theoretical framework for a better understanding of pragmatics of human language in its socio-cultural contexts. The major hypothesis is that translation as a communicative activity consists of two dynamic processes---the decoding-inferential process and the encoding-choice-making process in which three parties (writer, translator and target reader) are involved and the work translated is the product of the interaction of the three parties’ cognitive environments. Taking into consideration all the three parties (writer, translator, target reader) involved in the communicative event of translation, the thesis holds the view that the translator’s cognitive environment plays a key role in successful communication between the writer and target reader. Based on a review of previous translation studies, this thesis argues that both of the Relevance-guided translation studies and the Adaptation-guided translation studies suffer from one-sidedness since the former is mainly concerned with the first dynamic process---interpretation of the ST while the latter with the second dynamic process--- production of the target text. They fail to pay sufficient attention to the interplay among the cognitive environments of the three participants. The emphasis on this interplay is due to the fact that translation concerns both ST interpretation and TT production. Negligence of either by the translator may lead to inadequate communication and even complete communication failure. To benefit from the previous studies and, at the same time, to overcome their one-sidedness, the thesis proposes a more comprehensive cognitive-pragmatic model 1 Female, MA in English Language and Literature. Tianjin Foreign Studies University, China. Professional Title: Associate Professor. Address: 117 Machang Road, Hexi District, Tianjin, 30020, China. E-mail: changzixia@yahoo.com.cn * Received 2 December 2008; accepted 12 February 2009 CHANG Zixia/Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 2009 88-111 89 for translation studies based on a combination of Relevance and Adaptation. Such a model sees translation in terms of multiple interactions in the two processes among the three parties who are different in cognition and cultural backgrounds. To prove the efficacy of this model, this thesis provides some authentic linguistic evidence collected from translation practice for illustration. Based on the linguistic evidence and illustration, the thesis arrives at the conclusion that the translator whose task is to produce a target language text that bears a close pragmatic resemblance to the source language text should be aware of the cognitive and cultural issues when translating because different cognitive environment and culture influence people’s way of using and comprehending language; the proposed cognitive-pragmatic model, approaching translation studies from a cognitive pragmatic perspective and emphasizing dynamic contextual analysis, represents only a tentative attempt at offering a more unified theoretical guidance for future translation practices. Key words: Pragmatics; Cognition; Relevance; Adaptation; Translation Studies Résumé: Cette présente étude essaie d’explorer comment la pertinence affecte la compréhension de l’auteur sur le texte original et quel est le rapport entre l’adaptation et la prise de décision et de choix dans la reproductin du message original dans le texte objectif, à partir d’une perspective cognitive et pragmatique. L’objectif primaire est de constuire un modèl cognifif et pragmatique basé sur L’Adaptation de Verschueren (2000:66 ) et sur La théorie avancée concernant la pertinence de Sperber et Wilson (2000: 12 ) pour assurer l’harmonie dans la traduction, donner une orientation effective pour les exercices de traduction et offrir un cadre théorique unifié pour une meilleur compréhension des langues humaines dans leur contexte socio-culturel. L’hypothèse principale est de considérer la traduction comme une activité communicative qui consiste en deux prcessus dynamiques - le processus d’inference-décodée et le processus de prise de décision encodée dans le quel trois parties (l’auteur, le traducteur and les lecteurs ciblés) sont impliquées et que l’oeuvre traduite est le produit de l’interaction des environnement cognitifs de ces trois parties. En prenant compte de ces trois parties (l’auteur, le traducteur and les lecteurs ciblés) impliquées dans le cas communicatif de traduction, la thèse tient le point de vue que l’environnement cognitif du traducteur joue un rôle important dans une communication réussie entre l’auteur et les lecteurs ciblés.Basée sur une révision des études antérieures en traduction, cette thèse affirme que les études guidées sur la pertinence et les études guidées sur l’adaptation souffrent de l’unilatéralisme, car celles-là sont principalement concernées par le premier processus dynamique- l’interprétation du texte original, tandis que celles-ci par le second processus dynamique-production du texte objectif. Elles ne font pas suffisamment attention aux interactions entre les environnements cognitifs des trois parties. La raison de la mise en accentuation sur les interations est le fait que la traduction concerne l’interprétation du texte original et la production du texte objectif. La négligence du traducteur pour l’un d’ entre les deux pourrait conduire à une communication inadéquate ou à un manquement de communication complète. A fin de profiter des études antérieures et en même temps, de surmonter l’unilatéralisme, la thèse propose un modèle cognitif et pragmatique plus compréhensif pour les études en traduction, basé sur une combinaison de pertinence et d’adaptation. Ce genre de modèle considère la traduction comme de multiples interations dans les deux processus entre les trois parties qui ont de différentes cognitions et venant de différents milieux culturels. Pour prouver l’efficacité de ce CHANG Zixia/Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 2009 88-111 90 modèle, la thèse montre quelques preuves lingustiques authentiques receuillies lors des exercices de traduction en tant qu’exemples. Basée sur les preuves lingustiques et les illustrations, la thèse arrive à conclure que le traducteur, dont le travail consiste à prduire un texte en langue ciblée qui a une ressemblance pragmatique au texte en langue originale, devrait être attentif aux problèmes cognitifs et culturels quand il fait la traduction, car les environnements et les cultures différents peuvent exercer de diffentes influences sur les gens dans leur moyen d’utiliser et de comprendre la langue; le modèle cognitif et pargmatique ainsi proposé, en abordant les études en traduction d’une perspective cognitive et pragmatique et en mettant l’accent sur les analyses contextuelles, représente seulement une tentative de donner une orientation théorique unifiée pour les futurs exercices en tradution. Mots-Clés: pragmatiques; cognition; pertinence; adaptation; les études en traduction 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purpose and Significance of the Current Study The term Pragmatics was first introduced into the scholarly stream by the American philosopher Charles Morris2 in 1938. Since then it has undergone rapid development and established itself as an independent discipline. One of the reasons that contribute to the great interest in Pragmatics, according to Stephen Levinson, is that with the increase of knowledge of the syntax, phonology and semantics of various languages, it has become clear that there are specific phenomena that can be described only by recourse to contextual concepts (2000:36). In the past twenty years or so, different perspectives have appeared on Pragmatics with various definitions offered by linguists. “Pragmatics is the study of relations between language and context that are gammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language” (Levinson 2000:9). Pragmatics as a branch “concentrates on those aspects of meaning that cannot be predicted by linguistic knowledge alone and take into account knowledge about the physical and social world” (Peccei 2000:2). Pragmatics, a topic in linguistics, “studies the use of context to make inferences about meaning (Fasold 2000:119). Pragmatics is the study of how hearers add contextual information to the semantic structure and how they draw inferences from what is said (Jaszczolot 2004:1). “Pragmatics studies the use of language in human communication as determined by the conditions of society” (Mey 2001:6). Pragmatics is a general cognitive, social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena in relation to their usage in forms of behavior (Verchueren 2000:7). Pragmatics is a capacity of the mind, a kind of information-processing system, a system for interpreting a particular phenomenon in the world, namely human communicative behavior (Sperber & Wilson 2001:183). Pragmatics studies the relationship between linguistic signs and sign users (Xiong 1999:1). Pragmatics is a brand new linguistic area，studying utterances in given situations and how to understand and use language through context (He 1997: 4). Different as the definitions of Pragmatics are in their wording and contents, they represent two major ways approaches to Pragmatics: traditional approach; cognitive, social and cultural approach. The traditional approach has tended to see Pragmatics as an adjunct to, and a means of solving 2 Charles Morris is an American philosopher who lived from 1901 to 1979. He is best known for his monograph Foundations of the Theory of Signs published in 1938, in which he proposed his threefold divisions of a sign as consisting of sign vehicle, designatum, and interpreter, and of semiotics as consisting of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics. This latter distinction became normalized in linguistics. Pragmatics, a basic field of linguistics today, originally had its roots in Morris's idea of a division of signs concerned with "the relations of signs to their interpreters" or users. CHANG Zixia/Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 2009 88-111 91 problems in Semantics. Topics under its investigation are all restricted within the linguistic forms or pragmatic aspects of linguistics. They usually consist of deixis, presupposition, conversational implicature, speech acts and conversational analysis. The purpose of the traditional approach is essentially to nip off any elements of understood meaning that might complicate semantics and interfere with the hoped-for parallels between logic and natural language. In a different vein, the cognitive, social and cultural approach concerns itself mainly with the task of finding the ‘internal’ factors, such as the cognitive bases for linguistic performance, the inferential processes leading to the final interpretation of utterances and the ‘external’ factors, i.e. social and cultural factors which determine those aspects of the selection and interpretation of linguistic forms. Concerning the relationship between human cognition and language, Lakofff and Johnson make this remark, “Human cognition originates from reality and language is the product of experience and cognition” (Lakoff & Johnson qtd in Wang 2005:15-18). Chinese scholar Lu echoes his view by saying that language is a cognitive phenomenon and the result of the cognitive process; since language is the representation of cognition, language study must be conducted in combination with cognition study (Lu 2006:1-67). For scholars who advocate the study of language from a cognitive perspective, language system is a combination of various cognitive conventions. Linguistic meanings can not be found in the language system itself. They originate from the knowledge and belief system of the language user. He Ziran gives his support to such a view: Language is the result and product of human cognition about the objective world. Linguistic faculty simply can not exist as an autonomous sign system independent of other cognitive abilities. (He 2006:13) Looking at pragmatics in its broadest sense, Verschueren explores the whole range of social, cultural and cognitive aspects involved in constructing meaning. He comes up with the principle of Adaptation, contending that Pragmatics should study the ‘acts of meaning’, cognitively mediated, performed in a social and cultural environment (Verschueren 2000:68). Sperber and Wilson’s approach, overlapping in part with that of Verschueren’s, is more restricted to cognition. For them Pragmatics is a capacity of the mind, a kind of information-processing system, a system for interpreting a particular phenomenon in the world, namely human communicative behavior (2000:183). Their principle of Relevance (Sperber and Wilson 2001:260) is a generalization about the way in which our minds work; it has to do with the special way in which intentional communicative behavior is interpreted. For the interrelations between cognition and language, it is natural for linguists to turn to cognitive science for answers when they are faced with linguistic problems that can not be solved within the linguistic framework. “Language is a cognitive structure and has to be put in such a structure in order to be understood” (Lu 2006:21). With regard to translational communication, Song maintains that translation involves two languages and two cultures and is a process of both language production and language comprehension (2004:22). As we know, the communication process of translation concerns three parties: the original writer, the translator and the target reader. Exposed to different physical and cultural environments, the three have different cognitions about the world. However in the actual event of communication, communicators can always make assumptions about their shared cognition despite the difference. In translation, with both the original writer and target reader being absent from the scene, the translator must depend on his assumptions about their shared cognition in order understand the original text, and to produce in the target language what is communicated in the original. Apparently, translation must be approached from a cognitive perspective. “Only such an approach is able to offer a more comprehensive theoretical explanation for human understanding and translation activities”(Wang 2005:46). Drawing on Verschueren’s Adaptation (2000:66 ) and Relevance Theory advanced by Sperber and Wilson (2000:12) and based on illustration by authentic linguistic evidence collected from translation practice, this current research is to construct a cognitive pragmatic-oriented model for translation studies CHANG Zixia/Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 2009 88-111 92 for the enhancement of harmony in translation, thus offering effective guidance for translation practice and a unified theoretical framework for a better understanding of pragmatics of human language in its socio-cultural contexts. 1.2 Research Hypothesis The cognitive-pragmatic model for translation studies based on Relevance and Adaptation is making attempt to offer a more unified theoretical guidance for future translation practices. It hypothesizes that translation, as a cross-language and cross-cultural communication activity consists of two dynamic processes: decoding-inferential process and encoding-choice-making process in which three parties are involved: the writer, the translator and the target reader. In these two processes, the cognitive environments of the three interact with one another and the translated work is the product of this interaction. The cognitive environment of the translator plays a key role in successful communication between the writer and target reader. 1.3 Research Methods and Framework To test the hypothesis, this study will review critically the previous studies related and based on the review a more comprehensive cognitive pragmatic model will be proposed for translation studies in combination of Relevance and Adaptation, which sees translation in terms of multiple interactions in the two processes among the three parties who are different in cognition and cultural backgrounds. To prove the efficacy of this model, this thesis will provide authentic linguistic evidence collected from translation practice, illustrating that the reader/hearer, the translator, in this particular study, makes sense of utterance by linking it up with what is in store in his/her cognitive environment. Departing from Verschueren’s Adaptation, the thesis will also look into the significant impact of the social and cultural contexts of the target reader (TR) on the translator’s choices at various levels and on his/her translation strategy in reproducing in the target text what is intended in the source text. 1.4 The Overall Arrangement of the Thesis The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one opens with the significance and purpose of a cognitive-pragmatic approach to translation studies, then proceeds to the hypothesis and research questions of the study. Chapter two is a review made on previous researches done in the field of pragmatics in translation. The deficiency of the previous researches is also pointed out and analyzed in this chapter. Chapter three establishes the theoretical framework for the intended cognitive-pragmatic model for translation studies, which deals with important concepts in Relevance Theory, the principle of Relevance; Verschueren’s view on Pragmatics; Verschueren’s explanation of the making of choices; the key notions of Adaptation Theory and method used to validate the current cognitive pragmatic approach to translation studies. In Chapter four, a tentative cognitive-pragmatic model based on Relevance and Adaptation is introduced, together with examples to illustrate its validity and effectiveness. Chapter five ends the thesis by summarizing the major findings of the study, pointing out its limitations and proposing suggestions for further research in this area. Next is a general picture of what has been accomplished in cognitive-pragmatic translation studies. CHANG Zixia/Canadian Social Science Vol.5 No.1 2009 88-111 93 2. A REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Pragmatic-oriented Translation Studies Abroad When linguistics, or in other words, the study of language shifted its focus from discovering the nature of language to the actual use of language, translation studies have accordingly switched in this direction. Translation scholars began to divert their attention from static language analysis to the analysis of the speaker/writer’s use of language for a particular purpose and to the analysis of the hearer/reader’s understanding of utterances. Defining sentence-building as a process of endowing a