Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In The Scholars From The Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

As the basic unit of language, words weigh much in translation; it is especially true for the culture-loaded words which have unique cultural connotations peculiar to a particular culture. One of the difficulties in translation is to translate such words. The techniques used to translate such words may be introduced in many papers. However, there is no guideline or principles provided in their papers as to in what way the translation of culture-loaded words should comply with to select translation strategies or techniques.Within the framework of relevance translation theory, translation is firstly regarded as a dual inter-lingual ostensive-inferential process that involves three participants, i.e., the SL writer, the translator and the TL readers. It focuses on the information processing mechanism that human brains endure in the communication of translation. Optimal relevance is not only what the translator strives for but the criterion the version is judged by. Therefore, the translator is supposed to make the expectations of the TL readers in agreement with the intention of the TL writer. From the perspective of relevance translation theory, this thesis makes attempts to explore the strategies and principles to translate culture-loaded words in Yangs'English version of The Scholars, in the hope of arriving at some universal conclusions to guide the translation practice of culture-loaded words in literary works.The whole thesis is composed of seven parts:In the part of introduction, the author lists such contents as the significance and purpose of research, methods of research and creative work of the paper.In Chapter One the relative literatures are reviewed to get a basic command of the previous studies on this field.In Chapter Two the author makes a brief survey of the relevance theory, which is believed to be the mother theory the relevance translation theory developed from. The relevance-theoretical views on communication and some other crucial notions in relevance theory are briefly introduced so that it provides the precondition for a precise understanding of the relevance translation theory which will be dealt with in the following chapter.In Chapter Three the author makes a detailed account of the relevance translation theoretical viewpoints, including the nature of translation, principle of translation, direct translation and indirect translation, etc. It lays theoretical foundation for the case study.In Chapter Four the author introduces the subject of the research—culture-loaded words. The definition and classification of culture-loaded words are given in details. Besides, the relevance translation-theoretic approach to the translation of culture loaded words is offered.In Chapter Five the author makes a case study of culture-loaded words in the English version of The Scholars from the perspective of relevance translation theory. Through in-depth analysis of numerous concrete examples, the author points out the legitimacies and inadequacies of the version in choices of translation strategies under the guidance of optimal relevance principle.The last part is conclusion. It is pointed out that, in translation of culture-loaded words, whatever strategies the translator adopts, the ultimate goal is to seek optimal relevance. Therefore, the translator is expected to follow the principle of optimal relevance, making a correct assessment of the differences of cognitive environments between TL writer and the TL reader. Only in this way can the translator adopt the proper translation strategies, either direct translation or indirect translation, to translate correctly the culture-loaded words, improving the quality of translation literature and serving better for the external exchange of thoughts and culture between our country and the outside world.