Relevance Theoretic Analysis on College Students’ Mistranslation

Abstract

The cultivation of College students’ translation ability is of great importance, and it is necessary to probe into the causes of mistranslation. From the perspective of relevance theory, the main reason for students’ errors in the translation process is their failure to take enough processing effort and achieve the optimal relevance. Their insufficient language competence and contextual knowledge reserves should be one factor, while the effects of negative transfer of the first language can not be ignored. Furthermore, lacking pursuit for preciseness, adopting a halfhearted attitude and absolutely seeking for the smallest effort can also explain the phenomenon.