On The Translations Of The Analects From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Relevance Theory, raised by French scholar Sperber and British scholar Wilson in 1986, agrees and upholds that translation is communication, a verbal behavior in written form, and an ostensive-inferential process of intra-lingual translation and inter-lingual translation of source language. Translator plays an important role in translation. Translator creates the relation between source text and target text and makes effort to guarantee the implementation of optimal relevance in practice so as to convey the greatest possible context and translation intentions. This thesis is intended to combine the optimal relevance principle of Relevance Theory with the translation of The Analects of Confucius, the most influential cultural and philosophic ancient literature in China. It is aimed to reveal the application of Relevance Theory in translation.Through the description of the Chinese outstanding classic The Analects and its history of English translation, and the detailed comparative study of its three English versions, this thesis concludes that there are multiple interpretations in different versions. The main reason for it is the changed social contexts, such as the time and the development of globalization; and the subjective and objective factors of translators, such as the different historical and cultural backgrounds, their diverse translating purposes, their knowledge and learning, their experiences and their native culture's influences. The world is always changing, which causes the difference of social contexts. The cultural exchange prompts the development of language, so the different versions keep appearing, which is the tendency and the requirement of time. This thesis analyses the translation of The Analects from the perspective of Relevance Theory and applies the principle in practical translation.