Functional relevance as a principle of translation problem-solving

Abstract

Translation is both an interpretive use of language and problem-solving activity. In his work, Ernst-August Gutt adopts a Relevance-Theoretic approach to unveil the inferential nature of translation as interpretive language use. He holds that in translating a translator aims to seek the interpretive resemblance between the ST (source text) and the TT (target text). However, Gutt does not explain how interpretive resemblance can be achieved when translation problems arise. Textual function refers to the intended cognitive effects that a text yields on the part of the readers. Considering that it is only when the textual outcome of a translation activity is both relevant and functional that it is a successful interpretive use of language, we propose Functional Relevance as a principle of translation problem-solving. Namely, a translator needs to strategize their solutions to translation problems by making the explicatures and implicatures of the TT resemblant enough both to justify its reader’s processing effort and to fulfill the contextualized textual functions of translation. This can be exemplified by two English translations of Chinese medicine pun poems in a pien wen, an archaic literary genre popular in China during the tenth century.

traducción especializada desde la Teoría de la Relevancia

“…Realizar un uso interpretativo de la lengua para transmitir la intención comunicativa del autor del original implica cumplir con el texto la función pretendida por la traducción en la cultura de la lengua meta, la cual viene determinada o bien por el propio original (en la mayoría de los casos) o por el encargo de la traducción (Sang, 2022).…”

“…El objetivo de la unidad didáctica era aplicar los conceptos de «inferencia», «enriquecimiento pragmático», «explicatura» e «implicatura», procedentes de la Teoría de la Relevancia de Wilson y Sperber (1998), a la traducción (Gutt, 1991;Smith, 2002;Sang, 2022). La introducción de una unidad sobre Pragmática en la asignatura de Lingüística aplicada a la traducción busca contribuir a desarrollar una conciencia crítica y contrarrestar una de las principales dificultades observadas en la traducción del alemán al español en alumnos universitarios de Traducción e Interpretación (Nadal y Thome, 2023): el calco de las estructuras lingüísticas del original en la lengua meta en detrimento de la idiomaticidad.…”

Contrastive Analysis of English and Arabic Versions of Coelho’s Novel Eleven Minutes

“…Many of the obstacles found in the translation process are related to social, cultural, and ideological factors. Additionally, equivalence and adequacy may be considered solutions to avoiding cultural confrontations or unfamiliar situations in translation (Sang, 2022). Cultural knowledge is not the only concern, though; linguistic differences between the Source Text (ST) and the Target Texts (TTs)-as well as between both target texts-are also fundamental in the translation process.…”