译者在翻译时应时刻保持语境意识。本文把Hatim和Mason提出语境三个层面理论作为理论基础,指导肢体语言的翻译。表面上非言语交际描述的翻译是文本间的翻译,而实质上是两个不同非言语系统之间的转换。本文全面阐述了非言语交际的定义,特征,研究状况并探究了肢体语言翻译中存在的问题：一是缺乏对非言语交际中文化信息的意识;二是忽视了上下文中非言语交际描述的功能。因此,如何提高译者翻译肢体语言时的语境意识是本文的核心。

The body language we use influences, to a large extent, the quality of our communication.

Under modern circumstances, body language becomes increasingly important in cross-cultural communication. Realizing its characteristics mentioned above is good to become conscious of our own and others body language and can help people reduce barriers in communication so as to achieve efficient communication and to avoid misunderstanding.

2.3 Previous Researches on Body Language Translation

The description and translation of nonverbal communication are popular among

researchers of translation theories. This part would provide both foreign and domestic researches on the translation of nonverbal communication, focusing on that of body language.

2.3.1 Foreign Study

Body language has long been a research topic in the West and large quantities of scholars

begin to pay more attention to nonverbal communication including body language and its translation. One collection of papers called Nonverbal Communication and Translation: New Perspective and Challenges in Literature, Interpretation, and the Media, edited by Fernando Poyatos(1997), is the first book, within the interdisciplinary field of Nonverbal Communication Studies, dealing with the specific tasks and problems involved in the translation of literary works as well as film and television texts, and in the live experience of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. Its contributions by translation scholars and professional interpreters from fifteen countries, deal with discourse in translation, intercultural problems, narrative literature, theater, poetry, interpretation, and film and television dubbing.

Another relevant article is “The translation of Gestures in the English and German

Versions of Manzoni s I Promesse Sposi ”written by Pierangela Diadori, who points out that translators often add their own explanations of gestures likely to be unfamiliar to the reader. Alternatively, they substitute functionally equivalent gestures, which the reader would know, or even add illustrations depicting the gestures.

2.3.2 Domestic Study

Scholars at home also have contributed a lot to the translation of body language. Some

scholars (Wang Bingqin, 1995; Lu Jun, 1995; Fan Weiwei, 2000; Zhang Zhiying, 2000) have researched the translation of nonverbal language from some different aspects and perspectives.

Wang Bingqin (1995) states four functions of nonverbal communication and cultural