翻译理论课件

• “Fore-sight” refers to the linguistic notion (based on it we could think and interpret) and the mode of language application. Linguistic notion itself may bring foreunderstanding to interpreter and the question he is thinking. • “Fore-concept” includes the notion, presupposition and supposition before understanding occurs. It forms the jumping-off point for discovering the veiled and is a necessary condition for understanding.
• The historicity of understanding consists of three aspects first, the existing social and historical factors before the interpreter understands; second, the constituents of the objects of understanding; last but not least, the values determined by the social practice. • The historicity of understanding illustrates the historicity of the subject and object involved iossible for the subject to obtain an absolutely objective understanding. • Translation is not a passive reproduction of the text but creative activity, which shows the value of translational subjects and the inevitable involvement of subjectivity.
Prejudice
• Gadamer holds the view point that understanding and interpretation are inevitably carried out in certain historical conditions and conventions. Different historical periods provide people with different “prejudice”. • Together with historicity of understanding in his philosophical hermeneutics, "fore-understanding”, is considered as the preconditions for the legitimacy of prejudice by Gadamer, who claimed that “it does not necessarily mean a false judgment, but a part of the idea that it can be a positive and negative value. The concept of ‘prejudice’ is actually where we can make a beginning”.
• For Heidegger, every translation is interpretation and all interpretation is translation. • In Heidegger’s Point of view, translation is the transition of the meanings rather than the literal transference between the languages. In order to achieve the meaning transference(意义的转渡）, the first and foremost thing to do is to understand and illustrate all kinds of texts from the perspective of Hermeneutics. • All the interpretation is preconditioned on the foreunderstanding （在先的理解） while this fore-understanding not only holds down but also regulates the interpretation, which may let the interpretation fall into a circle.
• According to Gadamer, ‘‘prejudice” can be divided into two types. The first type is “ legitimate prejudice” or ‘‘ productive prejudice” which is endowed by history and has positive value. • This type of prejudice, which is the heritage of history, makes cognition possible. It constitutes our being and forms the premise of understanding. It’s impossible for human beings to get rid of this sort of prejudice. Instead of fighting off the legitimate prejudice, we should first affirm its existence and make good use of it. • The other sort of prejudice is acquired and wrong. Hence it is called ‘blind prejudice‘ by Gadamer and should be modified or eliminated because this sort of prejudice constitutes the barrier of wrong understanding. And it is a limitless process to correct and eliminate wrong prejudices.
• Heidegger put forward his famous fore-structure of understanding in his theories. • The so-called fore-structure contains three sections: for-having( 先 有 ） , fore-sight （ 先 见 ） and foreconception（先概念）, which are very important in translation. • “Fore-having” refers to the history and tradition existing in a specific community before everybody is born. It is the presupposition for us to interpret texts and to understand our own history, culture and tradition.
• Whenever something is interpreted as something, the interpretation will be founded essentially upon fore-having, fore-sight, and fore-conception. An interpretation is never a presuppositionless apprehending of something presented to us.
Hans-Georg Gadamer(1900-2002)
• Hans-Georg Gadamer(1900 一 2002), today’s most prominent figure in the field of philosophical hermeneutics, inherited Heidegger’s theory and systematically established philosophical hermeneutics by publishing his masterpiece Truth and Method. • In Gadamer’ s hermeneutics , he made further researches on the notions of “historicity of understanding”, “prejudice” and “fusion of horizons” under the enlightenment from Heidegger, Which opened a new path to translation studies.
The Historicity of Understanding