TRANSLATION LEARNING

COHERENCE , IMPLICATURE, AND TRANSLATION STRATEGIES

           

For an alternative view of inferental processes in communication see Sperber and Wilson (1986)

1.      The conventional meanings of words and structures and the identity of references.

a.       The conventional meanings of words and structures

This is an obvious point if we do not understand the meanings of the words and structured used in the text, we cannot work out implied meanings. Knowledge of the language system may not be sufficient but it is essential if  one is to understand what is going on in any kind of verbal communication. This means that any mistranslation of words and structures in the source text may well affect the calculability of implicatures in the target text.

An example :

b.      The identify of any references that may be involved

The ability to identify references to participants and entities is essential for drawing  inferences and for maintainning the coherence of a text. A proper  name or even a reference to a type of food or gadget which is unknown to the reader can disrupt the continuity of the text.

Example :

2.      The co-operative Principle and its maxims

Grice suggests that the co-operative Principle and its maxims are not arbitary but are a feature of any cational behavior be in linguisticor non-linguistic. He gives examples of non-linguisticsevents in which all the maxims are seen to apply as they would in any verbal encounter. If someone is assisting you to mend a car and you ask for (Quantity), if you are mixing ingredients for a cake you do not expect to be handed a good book (Relevances)and so on. This sugggest that the co-operative principle and its maxims are universal, on the assumption that the linguistics behavior is just one type of national bahaviour and that all human beings are rational.

3.      The content, linguistic or otherwise of the utterance

The content n in which in utterance occure determines the range of implicatures that may sensibly be derived from in Sperber and Wilsonsuggest that the content does much more than filter out in approriate interpretations in provides premises without which the implicature cannot be inferred at all.

            The content also includes certain strategies that people regularly employ in order to impose some kind of structure  on the world around them. When a person describes something recounts an event or list a number of items s/he will normally  fallaw a prelerred sequences rather than a random one. For instance in recounting a seriesof events, one would normally follow  a temporal order, listing events, in the order in which they occured.

4.      Other items of background knowledge

Text presented information can only make sense if it can be related to other information we already have a text may confirm, contradict,modify,or extend what weknow about the world as long as it relates to in some way.

Example :

5.      The availability of all relevant items falling under the previous headings

 The final factor on Grice’s list of data on which the hearer will reply in working out an implicature is, in his own words the fact that all relevant items fallings under the previous headings are available to both participants and both participants know or assume this to be case ‘(1975.50).

            Coherence is a very problematic and elusive nation because of the diversity of factors linguistics and non-linguistics which a particular factor can assume in a given context.