On the Instruction of Relevance Theory in Business English Interpretation

【Abstract】： Relevance Theory is a new theory of pragmatics and it has established an “ostensive-inferential” model which explains the mental process， contextual effects and nature of language communication from the cognitive aspect. Business English interpretation serves as the most significant role in business activities and is required to be accurate in order to avoid unnecessary economic disputes and losses. This paper is going to verify that Relevance Theory is a more scientific theory to guide interpreters.

【Key Words】： Business English； relevance theory； optimal relevance； strategies of interpretation

1.Introduction

As globalization develops rapidly， commercial activities have become increasingly frequent nowadays. People convey information， exchange ideas and learn new knowledge through language. All these activities require the participation of Business English interpretation， which is the key to successful cross-cultural communication in global economic system. Therefore， professional and skillful interpreters play a decisive role between China and other countries on many occasions.

Relevance Theory mainly focuses on cognition and communication. It aims to seek a new approach to study human cognition and has been applied to many disciplines. According to RT， Business English interpretation is an ostensive-inferential process involving a speaker， an interpreter and a hearer. Relevance theory can instruct the specific practice of interpretation and improve the quality of translation. Therefore， its framework may bring some new insights and strategies into Business English interpretation.

2. Theoretical Framework—Relevance Theory

Sperber and Wilson have formally proposed that all Gricean maxims should be reduced to a single principle of relevance， which is defined as： “Every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance” [3] in their book Relevance： Communication and Cognition in 1986. This theory is named as Relevance Theory （RT） and it was based on Conversational Implicature proposed by Paul Grice. [2] It aims at developing a specific psychological cognitive pattern， and promotes human information communication.

Relevance is a core notion in the Relevance theory. It is the potential property not only of utterances and other observable phenomena， but also of thoughts， memories and conclusions of inferences.[1] There are two necessary conditions for Relevance： an assumption is relevant if and only if it has some contextual efforts in that context； an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that the effort required to process it in this context is small. Also， RT develops two general principles about the role of relevance in cognition and in communication： cognitive principle of relevance and communicative principle of relevance. If utterance can produce enough contextual effects when dealing it with minimal effort， it has optimal relevance.

3.Instruction of Relevance Theory on Business English Interpretation

3.1 Seek the Optimal Context

In terms of Relevance theory， languages can express meanings only when they are used in a specific context. That is to say， Business English has its own specific use of context， in which it is meaningful.[5] Business environment can endow some new connotations to Business English words and phrases. Business English interpretation depends on context to convey the information between two different languages.[6] Thus， interpreters need to consider contextual factors when exploring the real intention of source language and examine target language in order to establish optimal relevance between target language and source language. They should create the best contextual effects to find out optimal relevance and achieve the best interpretation. Only by this way can the audience comprehend the original meaning. For examples：

a）“As to partial shipment， it would be to our mutual benefit if we could ship immediately whatever is ready instead of waiting for the whole shipment to be completed.” As is known， “shipment” has many meanings. According to the context， “partial shipment” can be interpreted as “分批裝運”， while the second “shipment” can be interpreted as “貨物”.

b）“中國股市穩健發展需要‘不折騰’。”In this sentence， “不折騰” should be interpreted as “not sidetracked” rather than “not flip-flop”， whose meaning is “ to suddenly change one’s position or opinion on a political issue” and should not be used in Business English.

The above examples are determined by the linguistic context， situational context， social context and cultural context.[4] The context in Business English can immediately influence the quality and the standard of interpretation. Interpreters should create the best contextual effect by establishing optimal relevance.

3.2 Master Cultural Differences and Knowledge

Relevance theory puts forward that translation is a communicative process， which involves the speaker， the interpreter and the audience. It is concerned with cultural differences between the target language and target language. Therefore， it is important for interpreters to establish their cross-cultural awareness in Business English interpretation when building mutual understanding. Here are some typical examples：

a）“招待不周，請多包涵。”If it is interpreted as： “Please forgive me for giving you such a poor reception”， foreigners will feel uncomfortable even if we try to show hospitality. An appropriate interpretation is “Please enjoy yourself ” .

b）“亞洲四小龍”should be interpreted as “Four Asian Tigers” rather than “Four Asian Dragons”. The reason is that “Dragon” is not a mascot but an evil in western countries.

The interpretation of the original text should be consistent with the expression of target language to achieve the best relevance. Thus，interpreters should respect the culture， customs and etiquette of the source language speaker.

3.3 Pay Attention to the Information Processing

In Business English interpretation， it is sometimes difficult to use proper words to interpret the utterances. Inappropriate translations sometimes occur and influence our commercial activities. The most

obvious reason is that the interpreters have not deducted and processed the original information. We can know that translation is an ostensive-inferential process according to the Relevance theory， and so is Business English interpretation. Interpreters must pay attention to the logic when analyzing original text. They can use some strategies to deal with the information， such as generalization， classification， sequencing and contrast. For examples：

a）“To sum up， in conclusion， on the whole， in short” can be used to generalized the original information. “First， second， further more， before， preceding， during， when， finally， meanwhile” can be used to show the sequence of the interpretation. “Likewise， as well as， in common with， both， similarly， compared to， on the other hand， on the contrary” can be used to compare the two things.

b）“矗立在蘇州新區的依莎中心目前正在如火如荼地興建。”In this sentence， “如火如荼”is a redundant modifier， so that the interpreter should omit or change the translation of this word. It can be interpreted as： “Situated at the gate of Suzhou New District， the Ever Success Center is under well construction.”

4.Conclusion

Interpretation studies have constantly developed and gained some achievements. Based on previous studies， this paper illustrates the leading role of relevance theory in the Business English interpretation， and provides it with a new perspective. Business English interpretation， which is required to be professional and accurate， has become one of the hot spots of academic researches. Therefore， interpreters should possess the cross-cultural awareness and understandings of the western culture. This paper will bring some important instructions to interpreters on Business English interpretation.

Undoubtedly， there are still some deficiencies in this paper. Business English interpretation is a flexible and practical process， which should be conducted in a long-term observation in every aspect. There are few materials and resources about this subject， so it is effort-taking to make a complete research. It needs further modification to provide a new perspective for Business English interpretation. Therefore， I should collect practical instances as much as possible and keep a close watch on this topic.

References：

[1] Dan Sperber. Deirdre Wlison. 1986. Relevance： Communication and Cognition [M]. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

[2] Grice， H.P. 1975. Logic and Conversation. In Code and Morgan [M]. Syntax and Semantics. New York： Academic Press.

[3]胡壯麟. 語言學教程（第三版）[M]. 北京：北京大學出版社2007-1-24.

[4]李曉暉. 從關聯理論角度看語境對商務英語翻譯的影響[N]. 外語教學與研究（35）2010-12.

[5]任珊. 論關聯理論在口譯過程中的應用[J]. 文學界（理論版）2012.

[6]肖永賀. 黃曉雄. 關聯理論指導下的商務英語翻譯[A]. 遼寧醫學院學報（社會科學版）2010.

作者簡介：蕭艷華，漢族，廣東省深圳市人，云南大學外國語學院英語語言文學專業在讀碩士，研究方向是系統功能語言學；

鄧 悅，漢族，云南省曲靖市人，云南大學外國語學院英語語言文學專業在讀碩士，研究方向是英國文學。