Янко Слава (Библиотека Fort/Da) || slavaaa@yandex.ru || http://yanko.lib.ru || Icq# 75088656

the natural-language counterpart of a concept = the lexical entry [11. P. 85].

"The encyclopaedic entry of a concept contains information about the objects, events, or properties that instantiate it" [12. P. 702]. It is an open-ended representational information or a set of assumptions which determine the context in which an assumption is processed, whereas the logical entry is the computational information or a set of deductive rules for assumptions concerning the associated concept. The logical entries of a concept determine the content of an assumption contained therein. Both, representation and computation, are two formally distinct and complementary processes neither of which can exist without the other; both are necessary for comprehension (cf. [11. P. 88-89]). "The address of a concept, when it appears in the logical structure of an assumption, gives access to these three types of entry" [12. P. 702].

2. What's the good of relevance theory?

Relevance theory as a communication theory is "relevant" whenever text, discourse and communication are at issue, e.g. language teaching, language acquisition, translation as interlinguistic communication, intercultural linguistic studies, humour theories etc. Two of these areas have been investigated by the author by means of two studies, one on translation theories [9] and the other one on humour theories [10].

2.1. Translation studies and relevance theory

With regard to translation studies, the author discussed a relevance-based translation theory developed by E.- A. Gutt [7] on the basis of two text, namely a legal and a literary text.

2.1.1. Legal text

The legal text under analysis was the Quadripartite Agreement (or: Viermächte-Abkommen) which was entered into by the Governments of the USSR, the United Kingdom, the French Republic and the United States of America in order to facilitate communication between the Western Sectors of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. This agreement exists in four copies in three different languages (English, French, Russian) and three German versions, namely one prepared by the Federal Republic of Germany, one by the (at that time still existing) German Democratic Republic of Germany, and an official version negotiated by the two German states as a text binding for both states. The latter two texts are available; unfortunately all efforts have failed to get hold of the inofficial version prepared by Western Germany.

2.1.2. Literary text

As literary text, two excerpts from "Light in August" by William Faulkner (1897-1962) and their translation into German were chosen. (As to the plot, see A. Lass 1966 [1], for instance). At issue in the analysis of the literary translation were, in addition to extra-linguistic problems on account of cultural distance (cf. [2]):

-words since in English words of Latin origin have another status than in German. Polysyllabic Latinate diction in English is in clear contrast to the short, familiar words of Germanic origin but both are equally common in the English language;

-coined compounds mean the use of new or unusual compounds; they are a typical feature of Faulkner's prose;

-repetitions: W. Faulkner's strategy of repetition serves the purpose of punctuation or production of a "leitmotif effect";

-suggestive naming which plays an important role in W. Faulkner's writings and which may lead to considerable translation problems due to cultural distance;

-links between text and biblical names in the form of allusion and suggestive naming;

-plays on words are a common difficulty and not always as easy to overcome as in ...where he broke only the law: never his word due to the collocation of break/brechen with word/Wort as well as with law/Gesetz in English and German;

-antithesis (or polar imagination), another common feature in W. Faulkner's diction;

-oxymoron and synasthesia: do not merely indicate oppositions, as polar imagination does, but indicate the simultaneous existence of poles.

Extra-linguistic problems will be encountered when there is a cultural distance. In the case of W. Faulkner, this cultural distance is particularly felt, apart from suggestive naming, in the field of flora, of buildings, clothing and food.

2.1.3. Result

Linguistic issue relevance-theoretic explanation may include different characteristics. The analysis of the linguistic issues lead to the following results: the usage of collocations (they require

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Текст и дискурс: традиционный и когнитивно-функциональный аспекты исследования= Рязань, 2002. - 236 с.