A Comparative Study Of English Translation Of Irony In Two Versions Of Teahouse From The Perspective Of Cognitive Context

Irony is a figure of speech frequently used in literary works. It’s a prominent linguistic feature in Teahouse. In literary field, irony can be classified into different types according to different standards. The most accepted classification of irony is verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony which are all represented in Teahouse. Lao She successfully applies this literary technique irony to characterize typical figures in this play, enabling the readers to get the writer’s intended meaning on the basis of irony interpretation as well as expanding the readers’ understanding of ironical utterances. As irony is identified through the contextual information, its meaning and form should be reproduced in English versions of Teahouse for the purpose of enabling the readers to obtain the same ironical effect.From the perspective of cognitive context, this thesis firstly analyzes the similarities and differences in English versions of Teahouse by Ying Ruocheng and Howard on translation of verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony. Then this thesis points out that the translator’s cognitive context will influence irony translation. As translators have different interpretation of irony, they will adopt different translation strategies and methods to translate ironical utterances. A translator’s encyclopedic knowledge, logical information and lexical information restrict the interpretation of irony and production of irony translation. In order to reproduce irony to the largest extent, translators mainly adopt literal translation, free translation and transliteration in English versions of Teahouse. What’s more, the translator creatively translates irony to enhance the ironical effect.Through a comparative study of irony translation in English versions of Teahouse, this thesis analyzes the translation methods for irony translation from the angle of cognitive perspective. The translator should largely obtain contextual effects of irony through their own efforts so as to convey the original writer’s intended meaning to the target readers with optimal translation and meanwhile, the target readers should acquire equivalent contextual effects of irony so that they can truly understand ironical meaning.