Tamara I.

Leontieva
Lectures on Translation Theory

Department of Cross-cultural
Communication and Translation
Study
Foreign Languages Center
Vladivostok State University of
Economics
2008
 PRAGMATICS OF
TRANSLATION

General notion and linguistic

pragmatics
 What is pragmatics?

Pragmatics, n (used with a singular verb)

The noun “pragmatics” is regarded from
different sides, the simplest of which is
“practical considerations” [1935-40] -
Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged
Dictionary of the English Language,
1996. - P.1518.
 PRAGMATICS

Logic, Philos. The branch of

semiotics dealing with causal
and other relations between
words, expressions, or symbols
and their users.
 PRAGMATICS

Ling. The analysis of language in

terms of (a) situational context
within which utterances are made,
including (b) the knowledge and
beliefs of the speaker and the
(c) attitude between speaker and
listener.
 Linguistic Pragmatics
SEMIOTICS

semantics pragmatics
syntax
 Authors of Linguistic
Pragmatics

• Charles Morris (US) - introduced

pragmatics as part of semiotics
• Charles Peirce (US) formulated
linguistic pragmatics under the influence
of  John Austin’s (Great Britain)
theory of speech acts (in the 60-ies and
70-ies of the XX century)
 The Phenomenon of
Linguistic Pragmatics

Speaker Addressee

Linguistic Pragmatics

Situation Interaction
 Linguistic Pragmatics
Terminology
• Illocution (the speaker’s communicative
intention: question, order, information, etc.)
• Presupposition (the speaker’s
background knowledge of the addressee’s
interests, opinions, scope of information)
• Locution - the utterance sense (request,
promise, information, order, etc.)
• Perlocution - the communicative effect of
the utterance on the addressee
 Pragmatics studies co-operative
principle of communication
Four maxims of successful
communication:

• quality (Do not make false statements);

• quantity (Do not say more than required);
• relevance (Speak to the point);
• manner (Avoid ambiguity).
 Speech acts vs speech events

• Speech acts are actions performed via

utterances (apology, complaint, request,
compliment, order, promise, etc.).
• A speech event is an activity in which
the participants interact in order to
arrive at some desired outcome.Usually
a speech event consists of a number of
utterances moving towards the goal.
Classification of speech acts

• Declarations: I pronounce you

husband and wife.
• Representatives: The sky was dark.
• Expressives: Fine! Thanks!
• Directives: Do it immediately!
• Commissives: See you tomorrow.
Communicative vs semantic
translation

Beware of the dog!

Осторожно, злая Опасайтесь

собака! собаки!
 Communicative or semantic?

Она впервые назвала его на ты.

It was for the first It was for the first

time she addressed time she called him
him in the second by his Christian name.
person singular.
Conclusions for the Translator

• In an adequate translation the communicat-

ive effect is close to that of the source text.
• At best the text’s communicative effect
coincides with the author’s communicative
intention.
• Two types of translation are caused by the
above principle: communicative translation
and semantic translation.
 Even for a Tory polititian he set up a
new record for the gap between promise
and performance.
Даже для деятеля Даже для деятеля
партии Тори это партии Тори это
было неслыханное было неслыханное
несоответствие несоответствие
(противоречие) между словами и
между обещаниями делами.
и их выполнением.
 В белом плаще с кровавым подбоем, шаркающей
кавалерийской походкой, ранним утром четырнадцатого
числа весеннего месяца нисана в крытую колоннаду между
двумя крыльями дворца Ирода Великого вышел прокуратор
Иудеи Понтий Пилат (М.А.Булгаков. Мастер и Маргарита).
Early in the morning on the Early in the morning on the
fourteenth of the spring fourteenth day of the spring
month of Nisan the month of Nisan, wearing a
procurator of Judea, Pontius white cloak with a blood-red
Pilate, in a white cloak lined lining and shuffling with his
with blood-red, emerged with cavalry’s man gait into the
his shuffling cavalryman’s roofed colonnade that
walk into the arcade connected the two wings of
connecting the two wings of the palace of Herod the
the palace of Herod the Great, walked the procurator
Great (Michael Glenny). of Judea, PontiusPilate
(Diana Burgin).
 LITERATURE
1. Прошина З.Г. Теория перевода с
английского на русский и с русского на
английский. - Владивосток: Изд-во
ДВГУ, 2002. - С.160-169.
2. Лингвистический энциклопедический
словарь / Под ред. В.Н.Ярцевой. - М.:
Сов. энц., 1990. - С.389-390.
3. Мильруд Р.П. Введение в лингвистику. -
М.: ДРОФА, 2005. - С.24-28.