Relevance Theory in Translation and Interpreting

Dr Fabrizio Gallai is research fellow and lecturer at the UniversitaÌ degli Studi Internazionali - UNINT in Rome. He is the author of a range of articles on translation and interpreting and cognitive pragmatics (Relevance Theory), including the chapter on "Cognitive pragmatics and translation studies" in The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Pragmatics.

• ContentsList of abbreviationsAcknowledgementsConventions PrefacePART I1 Gricean pragmatics: Meaning more than we say 1.1 Introduction 1.2 What pragmatics aims to explain 1.2.1 Sentence, utterance, proposition1.2.2 Truth value and truth condition1.2.3 The notion of context1.3 Gricean theory of meaning and implicature 1.3.1 Types of meaning1.3.2 Saying and implicating 1.3.3 The co-operative principle and its conversational maxims 1.4 Critical voices on Grice’s model 1.5 Summary 1.6 Food for thought 1.6.1 Further reading1.6.2 Review questions1.6.3 Exercises2 Relevance Theory: A cognitive approach to pragmatics2.1 Introduction 2.2 Relevance, cognition, and communication 2.2.1 Relevance as a psychological property: Effects and effort2.2.2 Two principles: Maximising and optimising relevance2.3 The relevance-guided heuristic in (language) comprehension 2.3.1 A path of least effort and then stop 2.3.2 Explicatures2.3.3 Only one type of implicature2.3.4 Overall comprehension heuristic 2.4 The distinction between conceptual and procedural encodings 2.4.1 Procedural constraints on the inferential phase of comprehension2.4.2 Discourse markers and perspective dependance2.5 Descriptive vs interpretive utterances 2.6 Criticisms 2.7 Summary 2.8 Food for thought 2.8.1 Further reading2.8.2 Review questions2.8.3 ExercisesPART II3 A relevance-theoretic model of translation3.1 Introduction: pragmatics and translation (and interpreting) studies3.2 Gutt’s approach to translation 3.2.1 Translation as an act of interlingual interpretive use3.2.2 Indirect vs direct translation3.2.3 Shared communicative clues3.2.4 Cognitive environments 3.3 Translator decision-making processes3.3.1 Assessing communicabilty3.3.2 Adjusting the content or the Interpretation?3.3.3 Monitoring resemblance relations 3.3.4 Coordinating intentions and expectations of resemblance 3.3.5 Modelling translators’ competence3.4 Applications of Gutt’s model in translation studies 3.4.1 The effort-effect relation 3.4.2 The role of conceptual and procedural encodings 3.4.3 Translation competence acquisition: the role of metacognition3.4.4 Explicitation and explicitness 3.4.5 Style and figurative language 3.4.6 Irony, jokes and wordplay3.4.7 Audiovisual translation3.5 Interdisciplinary methods of analysis 3.5.1 Comprehension by ST and TT viewers3.5.2 Sci-tech translation3.5.3 Translators’ metacommunicative and metapsychological processes3.5.4 Post-editing machine translation 3.6 Criticisms 3.7 Summary 3.8 Food for thought 3.8.1 Further reading3.8.2 Review questions3.8.3 Exercises4 Relevance Theory and Interpreting Studies4.1 Introduction: interpreting and its bewildering complexity 4.2 Early cognitive models in interpreting studies 4.3 Relevance Theory and simultaneous interpreting 4.3.1 Setton’s mental model 4.3.2 The quest for optimal relevance 4.3.3 Enrichment in simultaneous interpreting4.3.4 Explicitation 4.3.5 The multimedia environment in in-vision sign language interpreting4.3.6 Addition of discourse markers in European Parliament speeches4.4 Insights into consecutive interpreting 4.4.1 A relevance-theoretic approach to note-taking4.4.2 Maximizing and/or optimizing quality in CSI4.4.3 Reducing and focusing cognitive overload 4.4.4 Procedural elements in consecutive interpreting4.5 Dialogue interpreting and Relevance Theory 4.5.1 Mutual accessibility of contextual assumptions4.5.2 Gallai: The illusion of an ‘invisible’ interpreter4.5.3 Discourse markers in war crime trials 4.5.4 The relevance and metarelevance in interpreter-mediated courtroom proceedings4.5.5 Relevance and metarelevance of interpreting sequences in police interviews 4.5.6 Modelling courtroom interpreters’ competence: The role of clues4.5.7 The effects of the verbalization of interpreters’ inferences 4.6 Critical voices 4.7 Summary 4.8 Food for thought 4.8.1 Further reading4.8.2 Review questions4.8.3 ExercisesPART III5 Relevance Theory in context: Theoretical implications and practical applications5.1 Introduction5.2 Theoretical implications5.2.1 A unified definition of T&I 5.2.2 Interdisciplinary perspectives5.3 Testing Relevance Theory in mediated communication5.3.1 Expanding methodologies: triangulation 5.3.2 Integrating product and process 5.3.3 Experimental testing5.4 Issues in translation and interpreting practitioner (and service user) training and practice5.4.1 Meta-/cross-pragmatic competence as a mental faculty 5.4.2 Ensuring quality: interpretive resemblance plus relevance5.4.3 Implicit and explicit competence5.4.4 The role of clues and procedural meaning5.4.5 Cognitive efficiency5.4.6 Monitoring skills5.4.7 Language proficiency enhancement5.4.8 Ethical implications5.5 Summary 6 Future directions6.1 Introduction 6.2 The quest for unitary, Relevance Theory-oriented models of translation and interpreting6.3 Promoting interchange between descriptive and applied relevance-theoretic pragmatics 6.4 Conclusion Glossary on key notions of Relevance Theory and Relevance Theory-oriented translation and interpreting studies References Index

"This book stands out as a felicitous combination of explaining the significance of Relevance Theory for translation and interpreting and of providing a wide-ranging overview of its application in practice over the last three decades." -- Dr Ernst-August Gutt, author of Translation and Relevance: Communication and Cognition. "Those considering the central problems of translation and interpreting inevitably confront the elusive nature of meaning in human communication. Relevance Theory offers a key to this door: Gallai turns the key. Informed and informative, theoretical and applied, this work is set to make a distinctive contribution to the field." -- Professor Graham H. Turner, Heriot-Watt University, UK."Gallai’s book provides a clear and thorough account of a relevance-theoretic approach to translation and interpreting. A perfect example of research in translation and interpreting studies giving a central place to professional practice, which will be welcomed by translation/interpreting trainees, practitioners and theorists alike." -- Professor Federica Scarpa, University of Trieste, Italy."Gallai’s volume provides a theoretically solid and empirically supported account of the complexity of translators’/interpreters’ cognitive processing mechanisms from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics. He shows how translators and interpreters get close to communicators’ intentions, illustrating the explanatory potential of Relevance Theory. This long-awaited volume on the intersection between Relevance Theory and translation and interpreting studies is a vital resource for researchers and students." -- Ryoko Sasamoto, Associate Professor, Dublin City University."In the first full-length relevance-theoretic study of translation and interpreting in twenty years, Gallai takes us a step closer to understanding the subtler features of live, situated speech and the challenges and arts of interpreting. The author makes a persuasive case for an extended interdisciplinary prism, both theoretically and methodologically, to integrate the cognitive and social dimensions of complex mediated encounters, notably in the charged settings of public service interpreting." -- Professor Robin Setton, (formerly) GITIS (Taipei), SISU (Shanghai) and ETI (Geneva).