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。

communication.

4.2 Pragmatic Approach to Body Language translation

Pragmatics is the study of the purpose for which sentences are used, of the real world

conditions under which a sentence may be appropriately used as an utterance. Hatim believes many pragmatic factors possess the power to influence the fulfillment of the communicative purpose of a text. To illustrate this point, Hatim chooses the concept of speech act and cooperative principle as two major examples.

4.2.1 Speech-act- theoretic Approach to Body Language

Austin first investigated the ability of sentences to perform actions. According to Austin,

sentences themselves can perform actions and these actions may influence the fulfillment of the communicative purpose of these sentences. He distinguished three kinds of actions that are performed when a language user produces an utterance (Hatim B.&Mason, I. 2001:59-60):

(1) Locutionary act: the display of nonverbal signs, such as gestures, postures, etc.

(2) Illocutionary act: the making of a promise, offer, etc. in showing nonverbal signs, by

virtue of the conventional force associated with it, namely, what is done and what is the speaker's real intension by displaying nonverbal symbols.

(3) Perlocutionary act: the bringing about consequences on the addresses by means of

displaying nonverbal signs, such consequences being unique to the nonverbal circumstances.

4.2.2 The Cooperative-principle-theoretic Approach to Body Language Translation

The cooperative principle coincides with the equivalence theory, which focuses on the

effect of the translation on the reader, aiming at achieving the same effect as that of the source language reader. This principle opens to us a new approach to the assessment of body language translation.

(1) The Maxim of Quantity

The maxim of quantity requires that the speaker make his word as informative as what

can meet the current purpose of exchange and that he does not make it more informative than is necessary. In translation process of body language, the maxim of quantity requires the translators to make information transferred to the extreme extent, so as to avoid making the readers in the target language confused. For example,