The C-e Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In Fortress Besieged In Light Of Relevance Translation Theory

China is getting more and more attention as an emerging power and hers rapid development has urged cultural exchange between China and Western countries. As a prominent way to bridge different cultures, the translation of culture-loaded words deserves more attention than ever.As Chinese culture-loaded words reflect the nation’s unique culture, the translation of them can never be an easy job. Different translation strategies and methods have been suggested by scholars, but there is a fundamental question:when these strategies and methods can be adopted? Relevance theory, although initially proposed to describe cognition communication, has provided a reasonable principle for translators to follow.Relevance theory, since emerging in19807s. has influenced a. number of fields and ha.s reshaped the view of language and the way it operates. As a theory concentrating on cognition and communication, relevance theory can also be applied to translation because translation is also a. kind of communication, involving the original author, the translator and target audience. Relevance theory views communication a.s an ostensive-inferential process, with the assumption that every ostensive communicative behavior ha.s the optimal relevance, i.e. the audience can get through context effect with some proper effort when they try to understand the utterances. Relevance theory exert powerful influence in translation as it deals with cognitive problems in practical translation, such as the communicative intention of the source text writer, the cognitive context of the target text readers.+JAs far as culture-loa.ded words translation is concerned, the translator should deal with the codes according to the source text writer’s intention and target text readers7cognitive environment and enable target text readers to find the optimal relevance between the translated version and their context.+JThis thesis studies the translation of culture-loaded words in Fortress Besieged by employing qualitative analysis under the guidance of relevance theory. After analysis, the author proposes that in culture-loaded words translation, the options of their counterparts are consistent with the search for optimal relevance. The translator should take the target reader’s cognitive environment and acceptance into fullconsideration. The translation strategies that the translators can adopt include literaltranslation, extratextual gloss, free translation, substitution and omission. Finally, thisthesis comes to the conclusion that translators’ priority is to transfer the originalauthor’s communicative intention; when the information intention and thecommunicative intention can not be realized at the same time, the translator shouldkeep the communicative intention.