Relevance Theory

Relevance theory regards translation as a kind of cross-language communication in two rounds. In the
first round, the author of the original work and the translator constitute the two sides of
communication, and the translator forms the cognitive psychological picture of the original work
through relevance inference. The second round: the translator and the target reader constitute another
communication party, and the translator communicates with the target reader through the cognitive
schema he has formed.

Translation puts the act of translating before relevance theory. Before the emergence of relevance
theory,

translation theories mostly adopted the method of static description to construct their own translation

theories, ignoring the role of brain information processing, and translation was regarded as a binary
process between author and translator of the source text. Dualism ignores the cognitive structure and
process of readers.[6] Under such circumstance, Gutt combines the relevance theory with translation.

Gutt (1991) in Venuti (2000:337) notes that the translation is an activity of interpreting the text and
transferring it into other relevant media or at least appropriate with the communication situation. In
other words, the translation is an activity in the field of language use in practice.

Gutt offers three key words in the concept of translation, those are:

a. Interpretation

Interpretation means that translation is recommended to examine various possible meanings and
interpret the best equivalence for communication purposes.

b. Optimal relevance

Optimal relevance for communication includes the interests, goals, socio- cultural background, content,
and others.

c. Minimal effort

Minimal effort means that the translation must be easy for the reader to understand because that is the
main aim of the translation, so if the translation result cannot be understood by the reader it means that
the aim of the translation itself has failed.

Vernay (1974) followed by Gutt (in Venuti, 2000:387) add that the translation is an act which transfers
information from language A to language B so that a number of relevant information received in the
language 3 will be identical to the language A.

Gutt (1991) in Hatim and Jeremy (2004:57) explains that the equivalence study to be considered is a text
or text fragments, or equivalence concepts which are supported by a dynamic and pragmatic or a textual
which then becomes a text-based Cognitive linguistic analysis of the translation process has shifted its
focus from text to mental process. Translation viewed as a specific example of the wider communication
concepts and the decision formations of it related to the coherence of cause and effect. This relation
supports the interfencing process, cognitive activities are carried out as the center of communication
activity and it is essential in any acts or reading activities or translation.