翻译实质上是一种跨语言、跨文化的交际行为。关联理论认为,这种交际行为是一个明示-推理的过程,也要遵守交际的一般原则即关联原则。因此,翻译过程实际上是寻找最佳关联的推理过程。文章阐释了关联翻译理论的主要观点,并从该理论对英汉互译中文化因素处理的指导作用进行了初步的探讨。 Translation is essentially a cross-language, cross-cultural communication. Relevance theory suggests that this communicative act is a process of explicit-reasoning, and that it obeys the general principle of communication, that is, the principle of association. Therefore, the translation process is actually the reasoning process of finding the best correlation. The article explains the main points of relevance translation theory and makes a tentative discussion of the guiding role of this theory in handling cultural factors in translation between English and Chinese.