A Comparative Study Of English Translation Of Yuan-yang’s Language In Three Versions Of Hong Lou Meng Based On Relevance Theory

Hong Lou Meng, as one of the four major classical novels of China, has long beenstudied by scholars from home and abroad. A lot of studies concerning Hong Lou Meng’sEnglish translations are published in recent years. Among the four hundred characters CaoXueqin has created in the novel, the protagonists including Wang Xifeng, Jia Baocha andLin Daiyu are the most intensively studied by scholars. Besides the protagonists, thehumble servants, who are just as attractive, are seldom studied. The thesis attempted tostudy the language of the maid Yuan-yang, one of the most important servants in themansion, in the three complete English versions of Hong Lou Meng based on the relevancetheory. In recent years, lots of scholars have studied Hong Lou Meng’s translation frommany different perspectives. But when searching for the academic work concerning HongLou Meng’s translation, the author noticed that among the studies, most of them have takenYang Hsien-Yi’s translation (Yang’s) and Hawks’ translation (Hawks’) as source material.Bonsall’s translation (Bonsall’s), the first complete translation known to us up to now, isseldom studied. The thesis tried to compare Yuan-yang’s language in the three versionsusing relevance theory.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter1introduces the purpose, background,research method and significance of the thesis. Chapter2introduces the research results ofHong Lou Meng’s translation in the past years. Chapter3gives a brief introduction to theinception of relevance theory. The important concepts relating to relevance theory are alsospecifically introduced in this chapter. In Chapter4, the author compares Yuan-yang’slanguage from the perspective of relevance theory, trying to analyze if the authors haveunderstood the original text specifically and achieved optimal relevance in their translations.Chapter5is the conclusion of the thesis. The author summarizes the major findings andinsufficiencies of the thesis and gives out suggestions for further researches.