Font Size: a A A

Translation Of Chinese Culture-Loaded Words From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Posted on:2013-01-09Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:J Y QianFull Text:PDF
GTID:2255330425994629Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Translation practice, as a kind of communicative act, not only deals with theconversion of two languages, but also promotes the exchanges between two cultures.In recent years, cultural translation, especially the translation of culture-loaded words,has been a controversial issue for the translators. The Border Town is an excellentnovel depicting folkways in modern Chinese literature, in which Shen Congwenemploys plenty of culture-loaded words to vividly illustrate the life and stories in thatparticular period. Therefore, the author of the thesis aims to discuss the translation ofChinese culture-loaded words under the guidance of relevance theory, taking GladysYang’s English version of The Border Town as a case study.First put forward by Sperber and Wilson in1986, relevance theory is a pragmatictheory explaining human communication and cognition. However, later Guttcombines this theory with translation study. In his doctoral dissertation Translationand Relevance: Cognition and Context, Gutt proposes the concept ofrelevance-theoretic translation, which offers a powerful and systematic theoreticalaccount for explaining the translation practice. Under this relevance-theoreticalframework, translation is regarded as a special kind communication with dualostensive and inferential process. The pursuit of optimal relevance between thecognitive environments of both source text author and the target text reader is thecriterion for making a successful translation. The translator should take a greatresponsibility to choose suitable and appropriate strategies to guarantee the adoptionof optimal relevance to the target text reader.The author of this thesis offers a detailed analysis on the translation of Chineseculture-loaded words under the guidance of relevance theory. The major methods andapproaches for the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words are formulatedaccording to the principle of optimal relevance. By illustrating the two strategiesbased on relevance theory in the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words in TheBorder Town, a new perspective for translating such words is provided. This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one briefly introduces the wholethesis, including research background, research objective and significance, researchmethodology and thesis structure. Chapter two makes a brief survey on the translationof culture-loaded words and relevance theory at home and abroad. Chapter three is atheoretical framework of the thesis, formulating the theoretical foundation of thethesis. It discusses several important concepts of relevance theory and translationstudy under the guidance of relevance theory. Chapter four, the core part of the thesis,further explicates application of relevance theory in translation of culture-loadedwords in Gladys Yang’s English version of The Border Town. Chapter five draws aconclusion, summarizing not only the major findings and limitations of this thesis, butalso pointing out some suggestions for further studies.It has been found that with a systematic analysis, relevance theory can effectivelyguide the translation of Chinese culture-loaded words. Based on relevance theory, theselection of translation strategy in cultural translation should be in accordance withthe pursuit of optimal relevance. Thus, a translator need to take the source textauthor’s intention and the target text reader’s cognitive environment into full accountand guarantee the adoption of optimal relevance in translating culture-loaded wordsso as to make the translation acceptable to the target text reader.
Keywords/Search Tags:relevance theory, Chinese culture-loaded words, The Border Town, optimal relevance, cognitive environment
PDF Full Text Request
Related items