The Application Of Relevance Theory In Translation

A Tale of Two Sisters is a popular novella by Zhang Yueran,a famous contemporary female writer of China.It was first published in the magazine Harvest in early 2017 and finally collected in her new book I’m Coming,Guided by the Glow of Fire last autumn.This 35,000-word novella talks about a tragedy that takes place in a family.The elder sister,Qiao Lin,was cherished by her parents,while the younger sister,Qiao Yan,whose birth cost her family’s happiness because of the stringent one-child policy in 1980 s,was expelled from the family.Qiao Yan was brought up by her maternal grandmother and changed her name to Xu Yan.Since they were young,their parents had not stopped petitioning for justice,but never succeeded.After years of separation,the two sisters met in Beijing.Yan tried hard to help her sister as well as her parents,but her sister Lin finally committed suicide and left behind her fatherless baby.In the end,Yan realized the inextricable connection with her sister,deciding to take over Lin’s child and to be a better woman.This thesis consists of two parts: the first one is the report of the translation project,including task description,translation process,case analysis and bibliography;the other one is the outcome of the translation project—an excerpt of the first two chapters of the novella,amounting to about 10 thousand Chinese characters and 7.5 thousand English words,as an appendix to the report.Under the guidance of Relevance Theory proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in 1986,a series of translation techniques,such as amplification,omission,combination,inversion,interpretation,etc.can be applied to this translation project,as long as they can transmit the thoughts and emotions of the novella appropriately to English readers.