On The Drama Translation Of Lei Yu By Wang Zuoliang And Barnes From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Sperber and Wilson put forward relevance theory in their work Relevance Cognition andCommunication, in which human cognition is on maxim relevance and human languagecommunication on optimal relevance. According to the principle of relevance, anycommunicative act always conveys the best correlate assumption or expectation of thecommunicators. A hearer in communication tends to obtain adequate contextual effects atcosting least cognitive efforts and then to manifest communicative intention of what thespeaker really means.This thesis attempts to apply relevance theory into drama translation, and to regard theoptimal relevance as the ultimate goal of drama translation. According to the features of thedramatic language, namely, its language features are easily understood, suitable for readingaloud, actable, concise, and is consistent in different characters; relatively, then the gooddrama translation should be also like that. Compared with the common conversations, dramais a kind of communicative style based on dialogues, which have the principles different fromthe common ones. However, a drama dialogue also emphasizes “relevance” and needmanifesting and inferring. It is occurred on the basis of cognition of the hearer. The originalinformation of the hearer can be strengthened or erased, or the new information can bepresented to the hearer. That is an association or relevance during the process of the dramatranslation. The translator seeks the optimal relevance from the original author’s ostensivecommunicative act, and then the optimal relevance is transferred to the target receivers. Tomake the target text maximally be fit for the receivers, the target receivers obtain the similarcontextual effects from the target text as the original recipient does from the original text.As for drama translation, on the one hand, it can be appreciated for readers to readbecause of its literariness as a literary text; on the other hand, it can be put on the stage foractors to perform. If the two aspects of the drama nature lose one of them after beingtranslated into another language, it will deviate from the intention of the original text. Thisthesis chooses the English version of Lei Yu-Thunderstorm as a study subject of dramatranslation. It is supposed that the translator should take into account of the drama to show theaudiences watching, and also consider it to these readers who would like to appreciate thedrama as a literary text. Relevance theory is used to analyze and explain the drama translationof Lei Yu both suitable for readers and audiences. Under the guidance of relevance theory, theoptimal relevance as the core point, the present author researches and analyzes the feasibilityof readability and performance in the version of Thunderstorm, and then tries to get thatrelevance theory is likely to have certain guidance for drama translation. During the processof translating, it is also a good theoretical guidance and practical significance.