A Study Of The Translation Of Chinese Idioms Under The Framework Of Relevance Theory From The English Version Of Hong Lou Meng By The Yangs

As the essence of language and the crystallization of culture, most of idioms are concise in form and rich in meaning. The idioms in this thesis are from the classical Chinese novel Hong Lou Meng and they include set phrases, common sayings, proverbs, two-part allegorical sayings and vulgar expression. As a special text type, idioms have many distinctive features, which make idioms translation still remain a hard nut to crack. Such problems as how to translate Chinese idioms faithfully both in form and content, and how to decide whether to preserve or to abandon the distinctive features of the Chinese idioms in the translating process need to be solved.It is not an easy work to translate Chinese idioms into other languages. Fortunately, the relevance theory (RT) provides a new perspective for idiom translation. Under the framework of RT, translation is a communicative act carried out between two cognitive systems by means of the medium of language. The translator, as the subject of translation, should dynamically select information to be conveyed according to the original writer's communication intention and the expectation of the target language readers in specific communication situation.This paper makes a tentative research on the translation of Chinese idioms under the framework of RT. First of all, the author gives a brief introduction of the classic novel of Hong Lou Meng and one of its English versions by Yang Hsien-yi and Glads Yang, and basing on the investigation of the previous relevant theoretical researches, the author expounds the RT systematically with a brief overview of the important related concepts. And then, the author makes a tentative research on the nature of translation from the perspective of RT and explores the responsibility and the ultimate goal of the translator in the process of translation. With the purpose of making a further research on the Chinese idioms translation under the framework of RT, a detailed analysis of the unique features of idioms in Hong Lou Meng is conducted, followed by a brief discussion of the definition and scope of Chinese idiom. Finally, according to the classification of idioms in this paper, some typical examples are chosen from the Yangs'English version of Hong Lou Meng, which represent the set phrases, common sayings, proverbs, two-part allegorical sayings and vulgar expressions respectively, and a depth and detailed analysis of the chosen examples are made under the framework of RT. Through the detailed analysis on the translation of the Chinese idioms under the framework of relevance theory, the thesis draws the following conclusions: the relevance theory is applicable to the translation of Chinese idioms, the relevance theoretic translation study is very helpful in guiding the translator in the process of idioms translation, and it is the translator's accurate assessment of the target language readers'cognitive environment and processing abilities that decide whether to preserve or to abandon the distinctive features of the Chinese idioms in the specific context.