A Comparative Analysis On Two English Versions Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji: A Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

Fu Sheng Liu Ji, with its tragic story,exquisite language as well as ardent emotion,enjoys an eminent reputation in the treasury of Chinese classics.A lot of studies havebeen conducted concerning the novel per se and its translated versions, yetlittleattention has been paid by now to its translations from the perspective of cognitivepragmatics.Relevance theory is one of the most important approaches of cognitive studies.It laysemphasis on the role that cognitive environment plays in the audience’s inference ofthe communicative intention of the communicator, and hasdemonstratedunprecedented explanatory power in translation studies ever since itsintroduction to this domain. From the relevance theoretic point of view, translation isan interpretive use of languages containing two stages of ostensive inference.Accordingly the ultimate purpose of it is to achieve optimal relevance during eachstage.The translator, who responds as the receptor of the original in the first stage,performs as the communicator in the second. For the sake of successfulcommunication, it is the translator’s duty to fully understand the original and to arouseadequate contextual effect in the target readers without putting them to unnecessaryprocessing effort.Taking two of the versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji, i.e. Lin Yutang’s and Pratt and ChiangSuhui’s, as the sample, the author carries out a comparative analysis from theperspective of relevance translation theory, and demonstrates its explanatory power onlexical level, syntactic level and cultural level. Then the thesis revises the relevancetheory by proposing that in translation, optimal relevance is achieved through similarcontextual effect with justifiable efforts. Moreover, the thesis presents somesuggestions for the evaluation and decision-making in translation theory and practice.