On Ying Ruocheng’s Uncle Doggie’s Nirvana From The Perspective Of Relevance Translation Theory

The present thesis focuses on the translated works of Uncle Doggie’s Nirvana by Ying Ruocheng from the perspective of relevance translation theory. The thesis is put forward with the hypothesis that relevance translation theory can serve as significant theoretical guidance for drama translations.Gutt puts forward relevance translation theory on the base of relevance theory. Relevance Translation Theory emphasizes the importance of cognitive environment in information processing. It regards translation as an ostensive-inferential process, the principle of relevance determines which information is considered as optimal relevance by both parties of communication. Relevance depends on two factors:contextual effects and processing effort. It is the responsibility of translators to make the intention of the original author meet the expectations of the target readers.Optimal relevance requires sufficient relevance by the ostensive stimulus, i.e. the stimulus is worth the processing effort of the hearers. And the ostensive stimulus corresponds with the preferences and the ability of the communicators.Hearers do not expect to spend unnecessary effort getting contextual effects. Relevance translation theory emphasizes the effect of translation. The high degree of flexibility is consistent with drama translations which put emphasis on stage effects.With the dual nature of literary texts and stage performances, drama translations have been considered to be trapped in a "maze" by translation scholars. Drama performances are open to audiences from all walks of life. And since no annotation is allowed, drama texts must be refined language with high aesthetic value. Meanwhile, translators should take cultural factors, the intention of the original author and the reactions of the audience into consideration.As a director, actor and translator of dramas, Ying Ruocheng focuses on the direct effect of drama translations, his translational works have always been popular with audiences. And therefore studies on the translation strategies and thinking patterns of Ying Ruocheng’s translation can serve as significant theoretical basis for drama translation, especially for Chinese drama translation studies.Based on the characteristics of dramas (brevity, speakability, graspability and performability), the thesis explores the translational strategies and thinking patterns of Ying Ruocheng in Uncle Doggie’s Nirvana from the perspective of relevance translation theory. With simple corpus-driven quantitative analysis, this thesis summarizes some of the successful translation strategies in Uncle Doggie’s Nirvana, and proves the hypothesis that relevance translation theory has strong explanatory power for drama translations.