Culture-loaded Terms Translation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

This thesis is to explore translational phenomena of the culture-loaded terms in A Dream of Red Mansions, Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang's English translation version of Hongloumeng, and to show how they can be accounted for in the relevance-theoretic framework.In 1986, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson proposed relevance theory. The core of relevance theory, as a communication theory, is about the nature and the process of human verbal communication. It can be comprehended in this way. The audience can get many different kinds of comprehension to an utterance. However, it is impossible for the audience to accept all kinds of comprehension equally. In comprehension and interpretation of an utterance the audience is guided by relevance. Hence, the audience should concern about what relevance is. Relevance is defined in terms of contextual effects and processing effort. The greater the contextual effects the audience gains in processing an utterance, the greater the relevance of the utterance to the audience; the greater the processing effort the audience pays, the lower the relevance of the utterance to the audience. Relevance theory holds that human communication intends to search for optimal relevance, i.e. to achieve adequate contextual effects without calling for gratuitous processing effort.As a kind of communication, translation can be accounted for by relevance theory. In 1991, Gutt applied relevance theory to translation studies in his PHD thesis, Translation and Relevance:Cognition and Context. In the relevance-theoretic framework, the process of translation can be divided into two rounds of communications, in which the translator plays an important role because he not only acts as an audience but also a communicator. First of all, as the audience, he needs to recognize the optimal relevance envisaged by the original author and comprehend the original text correctly. Secondly, as a communicator, he needs to express his comprehension to the target readers in a way that is optimally relevant to them. It is obvious that optimal relevance is the principle of successful communication in each round of communication. Therefore, the translation principle is to transfer optimal relevance from the source text to the target text. The success or failure of translation depends on consistency with the principle of relevance.In this thesis the author claims that when translating the culture-loaded terms, the translator should form his own communicative information, i.e. to what degree he intends to keep the original culture-loaded terms, at the same time, he should take into account the target readers' cognitive environments and reform the original culture-loaded terms so that the target readers can achieve adequate contextual effects without expending gratuitous processing effort, i.e. ensure optimal relevance. Whatever method is employed, it is successful when and only when it ensures the optimal relevance.The thesis shows that the Yangs, in most cases, have kept the original meaning in the culture-loaded terms translation. Their communicative intention is obvious, i.e. they aim at introducing Chinese culture to English readers. The translation gives English readers a chance to learn Chinese culture with proper processing effort.By means of studies on the culture-loaded terms translation in A Dream of Red Mansions by the Yangs, this thesis explores the function and significance of relevance theory in guiding the culture-loaded terms translation in classical Chinese novel, which will help translate cultural information, introduce the source text culture and enrich the target language culture.This thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One is the introduction of the thesis. It briefly introduces the research background, research questions and research significance of the thesis.Chapter Two firstly reviews the previous researches on the English translations of Hongloumeng, especially, A Dream of Red Mansions by Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang and then points out the advantages of this research. Chapter Three is the theoretical framework of this thesis. The author introduces basic notions of relevance theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson. Ernst-August Gutt applies relevance theory into translation and puts forward a new framework of translation studies. The process of translation is analyzed in the framework of relevance theory and translation principle is introduced. Translation, by nature a kind of communication, will be successful as long as it achieves optimal relevance.Chapter Four is the core of this thesis. Firstly, the author introduces the definition and classification of culture-loaded terms. Then, a detailed analysis of the culture-loaded terms translation in A Dream of Red Mansions by the Yangs from the perspective of relevance is made.Chapter five is the conclusion of this thesis.