This document provides an overview of relevance theory as it relates to communication and translation. It discusses key concepts in relevance theory including the inferential nature of communication, semantic representation, context and the principle of relevance. It also provides examples of how discourse markers are translated from English to Persian to convey contextual implications and assumptions. The examples show how relevance theory treats translation as a form of communication and emphasizes deriving implicatures based on contextual factors.

2. Relevance Theory
Zeinab Nasrollahi

3. Table of Contents
Introduction to relevance theory
Inferential nature of communication
Semantic representation
Context and the principle of relevance
Descriptive and Interpretive use
Examples
3

4. Relevance Theory
Approaches communication from the
point of view of competence rather than
behavior
Gives an explicit account of how the
information-processing faculties of our
mind enable us to communicate
Therefor, we are dealing with mental
faculties rather than text or text
production
4

5. Relevance Theory
Is not a descriptive-classificatory
approach
Tries to understand complexities of
communication in terms of cause-effect
relationship
Provides a natural basis for an empirical
account of evaluation and decision-
making
5

6. Relevance Theory in
Translation
Translation is being looked as a part of
communication
Recent models of translation treat
translation as a code model, i.e.
communication as a matter of the
encoding, transmission and decoding of
messages
Translation is best handled as a model of
communication
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7. Inferential Nature of
Communication
The crucial mental faculty that enables
human beings to communicate with one
another is the ability to draw inference
from people’s behavior
Verbal and non-verbal communication
Linguistic communication is the strongest
possible form of communication
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8. Semantic
Representation
Refers to mental representations that are the
output of language module of the mind
Language module of the mind handles only
linguistic data, thus the produced semantic
representations are not fully truth-conditional
and complete
Once a mental representation has been
processed and completed to become fully truth
conditional, it is said to have a propositional
form
Context determines inference of audiences 8

9. Context and the Principle
of Relevance
A context is a psychological construct, a subset
of the hearer’s assumptions about the world, i.e.
cognitive environment
Cognitive environment takes into account
various external factors but places the emphasis
on the information they provide and its mental
availability for interpretation
Cognitive environment comprises a very huge
amount of very varied information, thus
misunderstanding may occur.
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10. Context and the Principle
of Relevance
The effort one makes in comprehension
will modify the contextual assumptions
brought to the communication act
Context modification or contextual
effects, are of three kinds:
Derivation of contextual implication
Strengthening or confirming of assumptions
Elimination of assumptions
10

11. Derivation of contextual
implication
A: Could you have a look at my printer?
B: I’ve got an appointment at 11 o’clock
Assumptions:
There are 5 minutes to 11; the problem needs
to be opened up; and it will take more than 5
minutes
B is not able to take a look at it
Contextual implication as a result of the above
assumptions 11

12. Confirming of
assumptions
A: I have a hunch that gill is looking for a new job.
B: Yeah, she is studying job ads.
Assumption:
Someone reading job ads is probably looking
for a new job
Assumptions can be held with varying degrees of
strength and this strength increases when implied
by additional assumptions
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13. Elimination of
assumptions
A: We have to postpone the meeting because Linda is
not coming
B: No, I just saw Linda coming
When two assumptions contradict each
other, and one found to be stronger than the
other, the device in our mind erases the
weaker assumption
13

14. Relevance Condition
Extent condition 1: an assumption is relevant
in a context to the extent that its contextual
effects in this context is large.
Extent condition 2: an assumption is relevant
in a context to the extent that the effort required
to process it is small
Large contextual effect Small effort
These factors are context-dependent
Relevance is context-dependent
14

15. Optimal Relevance
Expectation on the part of the hearer
Adequate contextual effect
at
Minimal processing cost
These factors are context-dependent
Relevance is context-dependent
An utterance must achieve adequate contextual
effect and put the hearer to not unjustifiable
effort in achieving them
15

16. People do not always say what they mean
Ex: I have a thousand things to do.
Non-literal language allows for very
economical communication
Interpretive resemblance: The relationship
between what we say and what we intend to
communicate
16
Descriptive and
Interpretive Use

17. A thought is a mental representation that
has a propositional form.
Mental representations sharing logical
properties resemble each other, called
interpretive resemblance
Resemblance does not have to be
complete
Jack bought a new Mercedes
For my colleague only the best is good enough
The same contextual implication 17
Interpretive resemblance
between propositional forms

18. To the extent the utterances have
propositional forms, they can be used
either descriptively or interpretively
A: I have poor appetite these days
B: Maybe it’s the Chernobyl accident
A: Do you really think so?
B: Actually, no; but Chernobyl gets blamed for anything these
days
Explicature: Analytic implications which the communicator
intends to convey
Implicature: contextual assumption which the communicator
intends to convey
18
Interpretive resemblance between
thoughts and utterances

19. Natural language can convey information
non-representationally
Hello or Goodbye
Goodbye and bye bye
Relevance is context-dependent thus
interpretations are context-dependent
The main purpose of utterances is to
convey the set of assumptions which the
communicator intends to convey
19
Interpretive resemblance between
utterances

20. 20
Examples in Translation of DMs
from English into Persian
Translation of Drama
(Gharashi, 2013)

21. HOWARD: Sh, for God’s sake!
HIS SON: It’s nine o’clock, Bulova watch time. So I have to go to sleep.
‫هوارد‬:‫هیس‬!‫تورو‬‫خدا‬
‫پسر‬‫هوارد‬:‫شده‬ ‫نه‬ ‫ساعت‬.‫بخوابم‬ ‫میرم‬ ‫من‬
Death of a Salesman (p. 55)
Analysis: In the above example, in the ST a cause-and-
result relationship is signaled in the son’s utterance,
stating that ‘Because it is 9:00, I am supposed to go to
sleep’. In fact, the first statement is a premise to the
second statement, that is the ‘conclusion’. Obviously,
the same relation cannot be found in the TT due to the
lack of an equivalent for the DM, so.
21

22. GUS: […] I hope he's got a shilling, anyway, if he comes. He's
entitled to have. After all, it's his place, he could have seen there
was enough gas for a cup of tea.
‫گاس‬:[...]‫امیدوارم‬‫اگه‬‫میاد‬‫یه‬‫شیلینگ‬‫پول‬‫ته‬‫جیبش‬
‫باشه‬.‫می‬‫گن‬‫که‬‫داره‬.‫از‬‫همه‬‫اینها‬،‫گذشته‬‫اینجا‬‫جای‬
‫اونه‬.‫می‬‫تونست‬‫نگاه‬‫کنه‬‫که‬‫حداقل‬‫واسه‬‫درست‬‫کردن‬‫یه‬
‫فنجون‬‫چایی‬‫گاز‬‫باشه‬
The Dumb Waiter (p. 10)
Analysis: ‘After all’ is here intended to recognize that it
is expected to access a particular set of assumptions. In
fact, ‘after all’ imposes on the intended cognitive effect
and the communicative principle of relevance which
strengthen the assumption that the house is his and he is
expected to act in a certain way. In the same vein, the
TT has followed the same rule and the applied
equivalent strengthens the previous assumption.
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23. YOUNG BERNARD: Birnbaum flunked him! They won’t graduate
him!
LINDA: But they have to. He’s gotta go to the university. Where is
he? Biff! Biff!
‫برنارد‬:‫برن‬‫باوم‬‫تجدیدش‬‫کرد‬.‫بیف‬‫نمی‬‫تونه‬‫دیپلم‬
‫بگیره‬
‫ویلی‬:‫باس‬‫بهش‬‫دیپلم‬‫بدن‬.‫بیف‬‫باس‬‫بره‬‫دانشگاه‬.‫بیف‬!
‫بیف‬‫کجاس‬‫؟‬
Death of a Salesman (p. 80)
Analysis: In the ST, a contradiction exist between the
two segment of the utterance through the interpretation
of the DM, but. Such a contradiction cannot be seen in
the TT text since no equivalence is given for this DM.
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24. THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION