On The Prototypicality In The Translation Of Six Chapters Of A Floating Life: A Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The thesis aims to make an analysis of the translation of Six Chapters of a Floating Life by Lin Yutang from the perspectives of relevance theory and prototype theory. It explores the significance of prototype in the achievement of optimal relevance during the translation process.Relevance theory, with communication and cognition as its core, lays emphasis on the role that cognitive environment plays in the audience's inference of the communicative intention of the communicator. Translation is double ostensive-inferential communication within the theoretical framework of relevance theory. At the stage of understanding the source text, the original author as the communicator makes his informative intention manifest to the translator as the audience. Based on the understanding of the prototypical cognition of the original author and the principle of relevance, the translator can understand the communicative intention of the source text and then obtain the optimal relevance. Later in the process of translation, the translator as the communicator is supposed to consider the prototypical cognition in the cognitive environment of target readers as the audience. Taking this element into account, the translator can help target readers achieve the optimal relevance of the source text by adopting flexible translation strategies. The appropriate understanding of cognitive environments from both the original author and target readers are vital in translation process.Cognitive environment is inseparable from the understanding of prototype in one's mind; therefore, prototype theory should be introduced to promote further study on cognitive environment. If a translator understands the prototypical cognition of the original author incorrectly, he will have difficulty in obtaining the optimal relevance of the source text; if he has an inappropriate evaluation of cognitive environment of target readers, he can not match the communicative intention of the source text with target readers' expectations. There are both master's stroke and failures in Lin Yutang's translation, and one of the important criteria for judging translation is the transference of the optimal relevance of the source text. To achieve optimal relevance in target readers' cognitive environment, the flexible and variable translation strategies should be applied. The detailed analysis of the translation examples in Six Chapters of a Floating Life by Lin Yutang shows that a translator shoulders the responsibilities of a reader and a recreator. The combination of the two theories helps to demonstrate more clearly how a translator tries to convey the optimal relevance of the source text to target readers.