On The Application of Relevance Theory to The C—E Translation of Scenic Spot Introduction

【Abstract】It is important to get successful exchange across boarder through appreciating the beauty of scenic spot， by the Relevance Theory which includes relevance and two principles of relevance， and the application of it， the translation of the introduction of scenic spot can be appropriate to understand.

【Key words】Relevance Theory： translation： RT-based approaches

It is necessary to make the cultural connotation completely and well understood through the translated introduction from the Chinese writings of the scenic spot. This paper mainly introduces the Chinese-English translation of scenic spot introduction from the perspective of relevance theory（RT）. Firstly the relevance theory will be briefly stated， which includes the introduction of relevance and principles of relevance. Then the translation in RT will be explained， and the last part is RT-based approaches to C-E scenic spot translation.

Relevance theory is formally proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their book Relevance： Communication and Cognition in 1986. It seeks to explain the implicit inferences in communication and it argues that the human mind will instinctively react to an encoded message by considering information that it conceives to be relevant to the message.

Relevance is greatly influenced by two factors： contextual effect and processing effort， which is explained as （a） other things being equal， an assumption with greater contextual effects is more relevant. （b） other things being equal， an assumption requiring a smaller processing effort is more relevant.（Sperber Wilson 2001）. So the contextual effects of the utterance of the communicators need to be the most relevant of and the least requirement processing effort.

According to Sperber and Wilson， there exists the presumption of optimal relevance： a. It is relevant enough to be worth the audience’s processing effort； b. It is the most relevant one compatible with communicator’s abilities and preferences.（Sperber Wilson 2001）

RT developes two general principles about the role of relevance in cognition and in communication.The cognitive principle of relevance： human cognition tends to be geared to the maximisation of relevance and the ommunicative principle of relevance： every act of communication conveys a presumption of its own optimal relevance.（Sperber Wilson 2001）

Translator is the information communicator， the purpose during their translation is to try hard to find the most appropriate. The essence is to get and communicate the optimal relevance which is mainly affected by two factors as stated already. There are two rules the translator should follow. Firstly to make translator’s intention and foreign tourist’s expectation meet. The tourists can enjoy the charm of the scenic sites in their translated writings. And the next is to seek the optimal relevance to lower tourists’ manifestation difficulty， which means the understanding of the translated introduction dosen’t need more processing effort.

When it is difficult for the foreigner to appreciate the meaning. The translator need to add some background information， such as times， names， historic events， and some important quotations. Sometimes the use of explanatory notes in the target language to make the information highly relevant to the potential tourists will be useful. Take the following sentence as example：

五代時(shí)的吳越國(guó)和南宋均曾在此（杭州）建都，歷史237年

Hangzhou also served as an imperial capital for 237years-first as the State of Wuyue （907-908） during the Five Dynasties Period， and again as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty（1127-1279）.

Before translating， another information should be added， “歷史237年” should be explained clearly， and Hangzhou served as capital respectively.

When there is some redundant information and some rather complicated information， the translators need to omit them in order to make the translation brief and concise so as not to carry out unnecessary efforts for the readers to understand them. Such as in this passage：

嶗山位于青島市東部的嶗山區(qū)，距市中心40公里， 是中國(guó)著名的道教名山，鼎盛時(shí)期有“九宮八觀七十二庵”，使嶗山成為道教全真天下第二叢林。

Laoshan Mountain： Situated in the Laoshan District，40 kilometers from the city center， this is the most famous Taoist mountain in China.

The translation above just offers the reader the main information， and omits the unnecessary one， so it is concise and easy to understand.

It is important to get successful exchange across boarder through appreciating the beauty of scenic spot. RT helps to make the translation of the introduction more appropriate.

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