Abstract: According to Quine and others,the indeterminacy of meaning and the inscrutability of reference result in the indeterminacy of translation.However,by approaching the issue from the perspectives of relevance theory by Sperber and Wilson and theory of adaptation by Verschueren,factors of the indeterminacy of translation can be better examined in translators’ cognitive process while reading the source text and in the process of their choosing target language while translating the text.The discussion of the indeterminacy of translation is significant because it offers us a better understanding of the nature of translation as an activity,which in turn will promote the activity.