On Allusion Translation In Yang's Version Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Pragmatic Presupposition

This thesis aims at studying allusion translation by analyzing pragmatic presuppositions in Hong Lou Meng and translation methods used by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang to deal with pragmatic presuppositions of allusions in Hong Lou Meng. Hong Lou Meng is one of the greatest literary works in China in which a large number of allusions are used. Those allusions contain quite a lot of Chinese historical, literary and social cultural knowledge which makes the language of this novel much richer and the characters in this novel much more lively and vivid. Because allusions are embedded in specific cultures, they are succinct in form but full of connotations. Writers can express abundant of meanings by using allusions in their works. However, the historical and cultural knowledge contained in allusions becomes the key problem in allusion translation since the target language readers who are in a different cultural context with the ST writer hardly have such knowledge. Thus, it arises difficulties for the target language readers to understand the connotative meaning of the allusions.According to the study of the allusions in Hong Lou Meng, the author of this thesis found that allusions in Hong Lou Meng contain a lot of Chinese historical, literary and social cultural information which is actually the pragmatic presuppostions of allusions assumed to be shared by readers when the writer used the allusions. Such information is only appropriate in Chinese cultural context. Presupposition is an important concept in linguistics. It refers to the omitted information that the speaker assumes to be shared by the listener. Linguists study presupposition from semantic and pragmatic views. Semantic presupposition which is often triggered by linguistic items will cause few problems in translation since English and Chinese have much in common in words and structures.Pragmatic presupposition is usually defined as felicity conditions, the speaker's assumption about the speech context or the mutual knowledge shared by the speaker's assumption about the speech context or the mutual knowledge shared by the speaker and the listener. It is connected with context and culture. (He Zhaoxiong, 2000:281-283) Therefore, the author of this thesis holds that the pragmatic presupposition is an important factor to cause difficulties in allusion translation. Appropriate transference of pragmatic presuppositions can help the target readers understand the connotative meaning of allusions while retaining their cultural flavor, so that it can make the TT faithful to the ST and promote the exchange and spreading of cultures.This thesis studies the different translation approaches used by Yang Xian and Gladys Yang to translate allusions in their English version, A Dream of Red Mansions, and found that most allusions in this version are successfully translated. The main reason is that the pragmatic presuppositions of those allusions are transferred into the TT appropriately. For those allusions that fail to transfer enough presupposition information are also difficult to understand.This thesis concludes that pragmatic presupposition should be taken into account in allusion translation besides some other factors. For allusions whose pragmatic presupposition is shared by the target readers, literal translation is the best approach. This method can retain the cultural flavor of the allusions to the most extent but sometimes can not convey the connotative meaning. For allusions whose pragmatic presupposition is unshared by the target readers, adjustment should be added to transfer enough pragmatic presuppositional information of the allusions so that it helps the target readers understand the allusions connotatively and helps retain their cultural flavor.