Dear Stefan, dear all,
(I am addressing this to all, since there have been other inquiries
regarding "communicative clues".)
As far as I am aware, the notion "communicative clue" in the
relevance-theoretic context goes back to the first edition of my book
"Translation and relevance" (1991, Oxford: Blackwell - for references see
index "clues, communicative"; also in the 2nd edition, St. Jerome:
Manchester).
The most important facts about the notion "communicative clue" (as used by
me) are the following:
a) "this concept does not have any theoretical status of its own" (1991:164;
2000:172)
I introduced it in ch. 6 of my book primarily for expository purposes to
develop the concept of 'direct translation', but showing in chapter 7 that
direct translation can be accounted for without any reference to
'communicative clues':
"As it turned out, we were able to [provide a technical definition of direct
translation] without reference to 'communicative clue', since this concept
does not have any theoretical status of its own but is, in fact, derived
from the notion of 'interpretive use'." (loc.cit.)
That is why there is no precise definition of this concept - nor need there
be one since it is not needed to account for the phenomena of interlingual
interpretive use (or any other form of ostensive-inferential communication
that I am aware of).
b) However, as already anticipated in 1991 (loc. cit.), a number of
translation people have found this concept helpful for practical purposes -
Jutta Muschard being one of them. While I agree from experience that it can
help translators, the danger is that they lose sight of the purely auxiliary
status of this notion and begin to focus on it - rather than on the intended
interpretation. I have tried to caution against this in the article "Textual
properties, communicative clues and the translator". Transcultural
communication: pragmalinguistic aspects. M. P. Navarro-Errasti, R. Lorus, S.
Murillo and C. Buesa. Zaragoza, ANUBAR Ediciones: 2000:151-160. (You can
read/download a pre-publication version from the net at
http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ - just search for "Gutt" under author, and
it will be among the papers coming up.)
For anyone interested, here are references of others who have applied this
notion:
Folgado, V. L. (2000). The role of italics in translation: A pragmatic view.
Transcultural communication: pragmalinguistic aspects. M. P.
Navarro-Errasti, R. Lorus, S. Murillo and C. Buesa, unknown: 91-98.
Navarro-Errasti, M. P. (1993). Communicative clues and the cost/benefit
balance in translation. Drunk with words: Perspectives on the English
lexicon. M. P. Navarro-Errasti and J. Martin. Zaragoza, Universidad de
Zaragoza: 75-88.
Navarro-Errasti, M. P. (1995). Communicative clues in 'Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight'. Historical pragmatics: pragmatic developments in the history
of English. A. H. Jucker. Amsterdam, John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Navarro-Errasti, M. P. (2001). "Transferring communicative clues in
translation." REVISTA ALICANTINA DE ESTUDIOS INGLESES 14: 137-150.
I trust that this helps to clarify the matter. Sorry for the belated
response but I was away for the last two weeks.
Best regards,
Ernst-August Gutt
_____
From: owner-relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk
[mailto:owner-relevance@linguistics.ucl.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Stefan Malmberg
Sent: 16 May 2005 18:09
To: relevance list
Subject: RT list: RT List:Communicative clues
Hi all,
I wonder if any of you can give me a precise definition of what
communicative clues
are in the context of RT? In her thesis Relevant Translations:History,
Presentation, Criticism, Application (Peter Lang 1996) Jutta Muschard
writes:
' On the whole, the notion of communicative clues seems somewhat vague,
insofar as by now it was only said that they are, at least in part,
determined by
the logical entries of the concept it contains and not by the
context-dependent
encyclopaedic entry.'
Looking forward to hearing from you
Stefan
Stefan Malmberg
Måsvägen 3A1
22100 Mariehamn
Åland
Finland
Tel:358 18 13902
Mobile tel:358 457 3428807
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