Pragmatic equivalence in context

Plan

1 The notion of pragmatics

2 Towards a pragmatic taxonomy of misunderstanding

3
Conversational implicatures

4 Communication maxims

2
Pragmatics

- the ways in which context contributes meaning. It

talks about contextual analysis based on philosophy,
sociology, linguistics and anthropology. Pragmatics is
concerned with the use of language in social contexts
and the ways in which people comprehend meanings.
 Misunderstandings

According to Humphreys-Jones, a misunderstanding

occurs “when a hearer fails to understand correctly
the proposition which a speaker expresses in an
utterance”. Misunderstandings are particularly easy
to find in cross-cultural communication and also in
situations in which there are errors in the
identification of the interlocutors’ conversational
styles

Pragmatic equivalence in
translation is the perfect
mode to build bridge
between cultures.
And hence the cultural and social
concepts have to concentrate
without misguiding the TL readers.
Green opines that ‘the meaning of
the lexical item in an utterance is
not fixed by a linguistic system. It
is entertained by the help of the
context.’ The translator takes the
clue for the meaning from the
context.
Examples:
Names of Foodstuff and Drinks. The difference in Food Culture of recipients of the
original and its translation leads to misunderstanding :
- Amanda had brought home Cornish game hens / Аманда принесла додому
диких курчат (A small chicken, usually of the Rock Cornish breed, slaughtered
young and sold for roasting.)
- Buche de Noel / Різдвяний пиріг (byʃ də nɔˈɛl) a French Christmas cake made
from a thin layer of spongecake that is rolled up and frosted so as to resemble a
decorative Yule log.)
But sometimes the usage of generalization is unjustified. For example, potato crisps
«Pringles» can be found on the shelves of almost all Ukrainian supermarkets, hence, it was
not necessary to change the proper name with the common noun:
- I opened a can of Pringles / Я відкрив бляшанку з чипсами
Names of Games, that are popular among the English speakers and are little-known to
target readers :
- busied herself with socks and shoes and toothbrushes and Game Boys / стала
клопотатися, дістаючи шкарпетки, черевики, зубочистки та ігрові приставки
- I pictured myself as a Play-Doh figure / Потім я уявила себе різнокольоровим
пластиліном
 ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES FOR TRANSLATING CULTURE-SPECIFIC
COMPONENTS OF FILM TEXTS INTO UKRAINIAN

1. The assimilation method consists in reproducing semantic and stylistic functions of source-language
realia by employing target-language analogues.
“Pilates has been working out for you. I guess you do not seem so awkward” – “Ти не дарма ходив
на бойовий гопак. Раніше ти був вайлуватим”.
2. The method of contextual translation is widely used in the reproduction of the English film text.
“What do you think I’m gonna do? Run over there and be like “Hey, I’m a crazy lady! Where’s the
buffet? I’m from the Midwest. Where’s Blue Man Group?” – “Чи по-твоєму я мала забігти: Я
кінчена американка! Де можна пожерти? Я – дівка-ковбойша! Де мої шкварки в майонезі?”.
3. Contextual translation with a contextual equivalent is actively used when foreignising the English
film text provided that the source text contains a word or collocation the literal translation of which
may result in distorting the author's idea.
The Guards of the Galaxy: “I ain’t waiting around for some humie with a death wish” – “Я не збираюсь чекати
цього камікадзе”.
4. Transcoding is a letter-for-letter or phoneme translation of the foreign lexical unit through the target language
alphabet.
“Hey, daddy! I made up a club. We are called the Crescos” – “Привіт, тату. Я створив клуб. Ми
називаємося ‘Крескос’”
 Baker’s taxonomy
From the instruction received during the course, the students were expected to use Baker’s strategies at word level in their translations, which are
based on the different types of lexical meaning we find in words and utterances (propositional, expressive, presupposed and evoked meanings,
Baker. After dealing with the difficulties implied in the lack of equivalence at word level, Baker proposes the following classification of strategies
used by professional translators:

Translation by a more general word (superordinate) Related to propositional meaning. It works in most languages

Translation by a more neutral/less expressive word It has to do with differences in expressive meaning

Translation by cultural substitution Involves replacing a culture-specific item with a target language item which
does not have the propositional meaning but is likely to have similar impact on
the target reader

Translation using a loan word Related with cultural specific items, modern loan word plus explanations
concepts and buzz words

Translation by paraphrase using a related word Used when the concept expressed by the source item is lexicated in the target
language but in different form and when the frequency of use in the source
language is higher than in target language

Translation by paraphrase using unrelated word The concept in the source language is not lexicated in the target language

Translation by omission Omission of the words which are not vital to the development in the text

Translation by illustration Use of illustrations when the source word lacks an equivalent in the target
language
The two important aspects in
pragmatic equivalence are
coherence and implicature.

8
Cohesión

helps to derive the conceptual relations. The

semantic relations can be clearly understood by
cohesion.
Implicature is achieved through context and the
information about the setting and the participants. It
helps understanding what the speaker means or
implies than what he literally said
 Implicature in pragmatic equivalence.

Grice proposed a well-known distinction between what is said and what is

implicated, distinguishing truth-conditional aspects of meaning as what is said, and
conventional and conversational implicatures as what is implicated. Translation
should be context-dependent. More than finding out the literal meaning it is
important to analyse the implied meaning while translating. Implicature meaning is
totally different from Idiomatic meaning. Idiomatic meaning is conventional
whereas implicature is totally depended on the context. Implicature helps us to
understand the meanings which are beyond literal.

10
 As an illustration of what Grice was talking about, consider the
following sentence (1):
(1) John ate some of the cookies
The sentence (1) expresses the proposition that John ate a
portion of the cookies and is true just in case it corresponds
to the outside world. Intuitively, all of the cookies still
constitutes a portion of the cookies. So the sentence in (1)
is true even if in the outside world John ate all of the
cookies. You might suspect that what the word some really
means is something like a portion but not all, so that the
sentence (1) literally means that John ate a portion but not
all of the cookies.
Let me show you that this is not the case by comparing the
following sentences (2):
(2) a. John ate some of the cookies;
- in fact, he ate none of the cookies
b. John ate some of the cookies;
- in fact, he ate all of the cookies
This inference obtains through a special reasoning process, one
that relies on our understanding of the conventions of
communicative exchanges—or conversations. The addressee
reasons that if the speaker had known John ate all the cookies,
he would have said so. Since the speaker did not say so, then he
must know otherwise. In other words, the speaker must know
that John didn’t eat all of the cookies. So the addressee infers—
from what the speaker said, from what the speaker didn’t say,
and from the way in which cooperative exchanges take place—
that John didn’t eat all of the cookies.
 The Maxim of Quantity:
1) make your contribution as informative as is required for
the current
Conversational maxims purposes of the exchange, and
2) do not make your contribution more informative than is
required

The Maxim of Quality:

1) do not say what you believe to be false, and
The philosopher Paul Grice proposed four 2) do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence
conversational maxims that arise from the
pragmatics of natural language. The Gricean The Maxim of Relation:
Maxims are a way to explain the link between make your contributions relevant
utterances and what is understood from them.
The Maxim of Manner:
1) avoid obscurity,
We distinguish between the following maxims: 2) avoid ambiguity,
3) be brief, and
4) be orderly
 Grice Maxim`s in Harry Potter`s Movies (The Philosopher`s Stone and The Chamber of
Secrets)
The Maxim of Quantity:
Example 1:

Harry: It’s a broomstick!

Ron: That’s not just any broomstick, Harry. It’s a
Nimbus 2000!
Harry: But who...?
.
The Maxim of Quantity:
Example 2:
Mr.: Weasley: Why Well, now. And who are
you?
Harry: Sorry, sir. I'm Harry, sir. Harry
Potter. Good Lord. Are you really? Well,
Ron has told us all about you, of course.
When did he get here?
Mrs. Weasley: This morning. Your sons
flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey
and back last night.
Mr. Weasley: Did you really? How did it
go?
The Maxim of Quality:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Harry: I belong in your world, at Hogwarts. It's the only
place I've got friends.
Dobby: Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?
Harry: Well, I expect they've been.... Hang on. How do
you know my friends haven't been writing to me? McGonagall: Do you think it wise to trust
Dobby: Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Hagrid with something as important
as this?
Dumbledore: Ah, Professor, I would
trust Hagrid with all my life.
 The Maxim of Manner:
Example 1:
Harry: Take care of Ron. Then, go to the
owlery. Send a message to Dumbledore.
Ron’s right...I have to go on.
Hermione: You’ll be okay, Harry. You’re a
great wizard, you really are.
Harry: Not as good as you.
Hermione: Me? Books and cleverness?
There are more important things.
Friendship, and bravery. And Harry,
just be careful.
Example 2:
Harry: I belong in your world, at Hogwarts. It's
the only place I've got friends.
Dobby: Friends who don't even write to Harry
Potter?
Harry: Well, I expect they've been.... Hang on.
How do you know my friends haven't been
writing to me?
Dobby: Harry Potter mustn't be angry with
Dobby. Dobby hoped if Harry Potter
thought his friends had forgotten
him...Harry Potter might not want to go
back to school, sir.
 The Maxim of Relation:

Example 1:

Ron: What are you doing d--? I mean,

what are you doing down here?

Percy (Weasley): I happen to be a school

prefect. You, on the other hand, have
no business wandering the corridors at
this time of night. What are your names
again?
Thanks for attention!

18