| Translation,which is widely thought as one of the most important methods for international transcultural communication, is always confronted with difficulties when translating the culture and culture-loaded words from one language into another one. The emergence of Relevance Adaption Theory is aimed at providing help in solving such issues. This thesis intends to use the Relevance Adaption Theory to analyze the translation of culture-loaded words through analyzing the translation of culture-loaded words in the three English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji by comparison, so as to study culture-loaded words translation to achieve better cultural communication.This thesis will first of all analyze the definition, classification, characteristics and previous studies done on culture-loaded words. Next, the author will give introduction to the literary work researched in the thesis. Fu Sheng Liu Ji written by Shen Fu of Qing dynasty. Content in this part will also include the three English versions of Fu Sheng Liu Ji and their translators respectively.After finishing all the background information introduction, the author will review Relevance Adaption Theory and its application in translation in the second chapter. By integrating the advantages of Relevance Theory and Adaption Theory. Relevance Adaption is then generated. It employs the relevance theory’s interpretive power and the adaption theory’s descriptive power. In the light of this theory, the translators stand in the central position in cross-cultural communication. During the discourse interpreting communicative process, the translators will communicate with the author and text, trying to explore the author’s intentions and to find the optimal relevance; during the communicating process of discourse-producing, the translators will then communicate with the target readers, make choices to adapt to the target language and ensure cognitive consonance under the light of optimal relevance. In this way, translation has somewhat become a process of seeking optimal relevance and adapting to methods and manners of the target language and culture.As for the content of the third chapter, this thesis will do analysis on both the classification and characteristics of the culture-loaded words included in Fu Sheng Liu Ji, comparative analysis will be done according to the classification of culture-loaded words in this literary work. Examples and analysis will be given one by one on the basis of the classification of culture-loaded words in the following sequence:the material culture-loaded words, the social culture-loaded words, the ecological culture-loaded words, the linguistic culture-loaded words, the religious culture-loaded words and the literature culture-loaded words. The author will then give the major findings of this thesis in the fourth chapter after the introduction, analysis and comparison. It is found through comparison analysis under the light of Relevance Adaption Theory that:Lin’s version has successfully adapted to the source author’s intention, linguistic context, target readers’ context and acceptability and has realized optimal relevance. Shirly M Black’s version has almost achieved complete adaption when trying to get the source author’s intention and adapting to target readers’social context and acceptability. Pratt Lenard and Chiang’s version adopts many notes to explain the culture-loaded words, their co-authored version has basically achieved successful adaption and optimal relevance, but there still exist some incomplete adaptions in it. According to the comparison done by the author in the thesis, all of the three versions have their own advantage and shortness in the translating process if seen from different angles. When translating culture-loaded words in the light of Relevance Adaption Theory, one can only achieve optimal relevance and successful translation if he/she has achieved successful adaption to source author’s intention, linguistic context, target readers’social context and acceptability, etc. |
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