Study of the Conversation Translation in Novels under the Guidance of Cooperative Principle: Based on Huozhe and To Live by Michael Berry

Abstract

Conversations are one of the important elements in novels for showcasing character traits and advancing the plot, which allow readers to experience the emotions and personalities of characters in a more direct and vivid manner. The Cooperative Principle was proposed by the renowned linguist H. Paul Grice. He suggested that in the process of communication, both parties of the conversation tend to consciously or unconsciously adhere to certain principles to effectively cooperate and complete the communicative task, which he termed the Cooperative Principle. This principle consists of four maxims: the Maxim of Quantity, the Maxim of Quality, the Maxim of Relation, and the Maxim of Manner. This paper uses To Live as the corpus to expound on the conversational implicature arising from violations of these four maxims and, on this basis, examines the translation of discourse producing conversational implicature by Michael Berry. This study finds that when speakers violate the four maxims, the translator primarily employs a foreignizing translation strategy along with literal translations and additions, faithfully conveying the narrative style and linguistic features of the original work while also transmitting Chinese culture to the target readers. This achieves the translator’s goal of allowing readers in English-speaking countries to experience the authentic essence of the work.