从关联理论视角看软新闻的汉译英的中期报告

从关联理论视角看软新闻的汉译英的中期报告AMid-termReportontheEnglishTranslationofSoftNewsfromthePerspectiveofRelevanceTheoryAbstractSoftnews,agenreofnewsthatfocusesonhumanintereststoriesratherthanhardfacts,hasbecomeincreasinglypopularandimportantinmodernmedia.Thetranslationofsoftnewsfacesmanychallenges,especiallyinmaintainingtherelevancetothetargetaudience.ThisreportaimstoprovideapreliminaryanalysisoftheEnglishtranslationofsoftnewsfromtheperspectiveofrelevancetheory.Thestudyfindsthatrelevanceplaysacrucialroleinthetranslationofsoftnews,andthetranslatorneedstoconsidernotonlythelinguisticaspectsbutalsothesocio-culturalbackgroundofthetargetaudience.Moreover,differentsoftnewseventsmayrequiredifferenttranslationstrategiestooptimizerelevance.Thefindingsofferinsightsfortranslatorsandeditorsinthefieldofsoftnewstranslation.Keywords:softnews;relevancetheory;translation;audience;strategy1.IntroductionSoftnews,agenreofnewsthatemphasizeshuman-intereststoriesratherthanhardfacts,hasbecomeincreasinglypopularandimportantinmodernmedia(Hallin&Mancini,2004;Liu&Huang,2015).Withtheglobalizationofmedia,thetranslationofsoftnewshasbecomeacommonpractice,butitalsopresentsanumberofchallenges,especiallyinmaintainingtherelevancetothetargetaudience(Hermans,2009).ThisreportaimstoprovideapreliminaryanalysisoftheEnglishtranslationofsoftnewsfromtheperspectiveofrelevancetheory,whichoffersinsightsintohowhumansprocessinformationandmakesenseoftheworldaroundthem(Sperber&Wilson,1986).Thestudywillfirstintroducethebasicconceptsofrelevancetheory,followedbyareviewofrelevantliteratureonthetranslationofsoftnews.Then,itwillpresentacasestudyofthetranslationofasoftnewseventanddiscussthefindings.Inconclusion,thereportwillprovidesuggestionsforfutureresearch.2.RelevanceTheoryandTranslationRelevancetheorysuggeststhatcommunicationisaprocessofcreatingandenhancingrelevancebetweenthespeakerandthehearer(Sperber&Wilson,1986).Inthisprocess,thespeakerseekstoconveyanoptimalrelevance,whichisthebestpossiblebalancebetweenthecognitiveeffects(thenewinformationconveyedbytheutterance)andtheprocessingeffort(thecognitiveeffortneededtoprocesstheinformation).Thehearer,ontheotherhand,seekstoinfertheoptimalrelevancefromthecontextandthecuesprovidedbythespeaker.Intranslation,relevancetheorysuggeststhatthetranslatorshouldaimtocreateanoptimalrelevancebetweenthesourcetextandthetargetaudience.Thisrequiresthetranslatortoconsidernotonlythelinguisticaspectsofthesourcetextbutalsothesocio-culturalbackgroundofthetargetaudience(Gutt,1991;Hermans,2009).Moreover,thetranslatorneedstotakeintoaccounttheconstraintsandaffordancesofthemediumandthecontextofthetranslation(Chesterman,1997).3.LiteratureReviewPreviousstudiesonthetranslationofsoftnewshaveidentifiedseveralchallenges,suchastheculturalgapsbetweenthesourcecultureandthetargetculture,theuseofcolloquiallanguageandidiomaticexpressions,andtheneedtomaintainthehuman-interestelementofthenews(Hermans,2009;Chesterman,2011;Wei,2019).Somescholarshaveproposedstrategiesforsoftnewstranslation,suchasdomesticationvs.foreignization(Venuti,1995),additionandsubstitutionofculturalelements(Hoenig&Kluwick,2001),andadaptationandsimplificationoflanguage(Meylaerts,2015).4.CaseStudyToillustratetherelevancetheoryapproachtothetranslationofsoftnews,weconductedacasestudyofthetranslationofasoftnewsevent.Thesourcetextisanewsarticleaboutayoungboywhoraisedmoneyforacancercharitybysellinglemonadeinhisfrontyard.ThetargetaudienceisanEnglish-speakingcommunityinaWesterncountry.Weanalyzedthesourcetextandidentifiedthefollowingcognitiveeffectsthatthenewseventseekstoachieve:theboy'sinitiativeandaltruism,thecommunity'ssupportandsolidarity,theimpactofcanceronfamilies,andtheimportanceofcharitablework.Basedonthesecognitiveeffectsandthesocio-culturalbackgroundofthetargetaudience,weproposedthefollowingtranslationstrategies:1.Domesticationofculturalelements:Wereplacedthereferencestothelocalcommunityinthesourcetextwithnamesanddescriptionsofsimilarcommunitiesinthetargetcountry,toenhancetherelevanceandfamiliarityofthenewseventtothetargetaudience.2.Simplificationoflanguage:Wesimplifiedsomeofthecomplexsentencesandtechnicaltermsinthesourcetext,toreducetheprocessingeffortandincreasetheaccessibilityofthenewseventtothetargetaudience.3.Additionofcontextualcues:Weaddedabriefintroductiontothenewsevent,explainingthebackgroundandsignificanceofcancercharitiesinthetargetcountry,tohelpthetargetaudienceunderstandtherelevanceandimportanceofthenewsevent.5.ConclusionandSuggestionsThecasestudydemonstratesthatrelevancetheorycanprovideausefulframeworkforthetranslationofsoftnews,byhighlightingthecognitiveeffectsandsocio-culturalfactorsthataffectthetranslationprocess.However,therelevancetheoryapproachalsorequiresthetranslatortobeawareoftheconstraintsandaffordancesofthemediumandthecontextofthetranslation,andtoadoptflexibleandcreativestrategiestooptimizetherelevancetothetargetaudience.Futureresearchcouldinvestigatetheeffec