An Analysis Of The Chinese And Gennan Versions Of A Song Of Ice And Fire: A Game Of Thrones Based On Relevance Theory

In recent years,numerous foreign literary works have been introduced into the Chinese market,enriching people’s lives.A Song of Ice and Fire,one of the masterpieces of American fantasy novelist George R.R.Martin has gained worldwide popularity since its release and won countless awards in various countries.The Relevance Theory,brought up by Dan Sperber and Deidre Wilson in 1986,is one of the most important theoretical frameworks in the western cognitive pragmatics field.It seeks to answer the philosophical questions about human communication from the angle of cognitive activities.Their student Ernest-August Gutt was the first to introduce this theory into translation studies and pointed out that translation is also a kind of language communication,an inferential cognitive process that is closely connected with brain mechanisms.This thesis chooses A Game of Thrones,the first band of the series and its Chinese and German versions as research objects.Based on the differences in contextual information that English,Chinese and German readers have and their different cultural and linguistic backgrounds,this thesis compares and analyzes the translation strategies adopted by the Chinese and German translators to see if they can capture the informative and communicative intentions that the author tries to convey and if they can fully take into consideration the discrepant knowledge reserves and reading habits of the readers and eventually achieve optimal relevance.