A Study Of English Translation Strategies For Chinese Dish Names In A Bite Of China From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Chinese cuisine culture has a long history and is well known both at home and abroad.With the increasing international exchange and communication,more and more foreigners want to deeply understand the profound Chinese culture,especially the unique cuisine culture.Chinese cuisine culture occupies an important position in Chinese cultural system.Therefore,it plays a pivotal role in the cultural communication between China and foreign countries.The English translation of Chinese dish names contributes to the promotion of Chinese dishes as well as to the spread of Chinese cuisine culture.However,since the cultural differences between China and the West,it has become a challenging translation task which must not only preserve Chinese cultural characteristics of the dishes to spread Chinese culture,but also conform to the Western expression habits to integrate into the Western cuisine culture and evoke foreigners' interest and appetite.A Bite of China is a food documentary broadcasted by CCTV since 2012 which shows the cooking processes of Chinese cuisine,and also introduces the stories and Chinese culture embedded in them.The dish names mentioned in A Bite of China not only reflect the dishes'ingredients,cooking methods,forms,colors,tastes,and aromas,but also contain much cultural information like inventors,original places,stories,best wishes,etc..The proper English translation of these dish names is conducive to the publicity of Chinese culture.The documentary has received widespread praise and strong influence in China,and its English version also has had a strong response overseas.In recent years,there have been more and more studies of English translation of Chinese dish names in China from different perspectives such as Skopos Theory,Schema theory,Eco-translatology,intercultural communication,etc..Nevertheless,there are few studies of it from the perspective of Relevance Theory.Translation is a cognitive activity as well as a communication activity.Relevance Theory is the foundation of cognitive pragmatics.If it is applied to translation,it will have strong explanatory power to translation.It was first put forward by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson in their monograph Relevance:Communication and Cognition which was published in 1986.Under the framework of Relevance Theory,communication is regarded as an ostensive-inferential process.Its essentially important concept is relevance.In order to make the communication successful,the communicators must be consistent with the principle of relevance,that is,seeking optimal relevance between their utterances and their contextual effects.On the basis of Relevance Theory,Ernst-August Gutt extends the research scope to translation.He considers that,in Relevance Translation Theory,translation should also follow the principle of relevance to pursue optimal relevance.This thesis tries to take Chinese dish names in A Bite of China as examples to analyze their English translation strategies under the guidance of Relevance Theory.It comprises six chapters.Chapter one is an introduction to the study which involves background of the study,significance of the study,research methodology and structure of the thesis.Chinese cuisine culture is broad and profound,and becomes more and more famous around the world.The translation of Chinese dish names is like a window which can be offered for foreign friends to appreciate rich Chinese cuisine culture.Chapter two is the literature review which firstly discusses Chinese cuisine culture briefly from two aspects:features of Chinese cuisine and categories of Chinese cuisine,and then makes a review of previous studies of the translation of Chinese dish names and of the Chinese dish name translation in A Bite of China.Chinese cuisine has a long history.Through the long-term practice of Chinese people,its features have been formed gradually in terms of materials,cutting methods,cooking methods,tastes and dish names.Meanwhile,due to the diversity of the climate,resources,geography,customs,and cultural traditions,Chinese cuisine has developed and formed a variety of styles.By consulting many relevant materials to review previous studies,the author finds that an increasing number of scholars have begun to pay attention to the translation of Chinese dish names and do many researches on this topic from different perspectives.However,the studies of Chinese dish name translation in light of Relevance Theory are very few.Chapter three is the theoretical framework which explains the basics of Relevance Theory and Relevance Translation Theory in detail.In Relevance Theory,communication is an ostensive-inferential process involving two aspects,namely,the ostensive process and the inferential process.The ostensive process means the communicator needs to make his/her intentions manifest to the audience.And the inferential process indicates that the audience needs to infer the underlying intentions provided by the communicator.Its core concept is relevance consisting of two relevance principles:maximum relevance and optimal relevance.Based on Relevance Theory,Relevance Translation Theory holds that translation is a dual ostensive-inferential process.In this process,the translator plays dual and vital roles.The ultimate goal of the translator is to pursue the optimal relevance in order to make the original author's intentions meet with the target reader's expectations.Chapter four analyzes Chinese dish names in A Bite of China.According to the naming methods,the author divides these dish names in A Bite of China into two groups:realistic dish names and artistic dish names.Realistic dish names are further categorized into the following sub-groups:names after places and ingredients,names after raw materials,names after cooking methods and ingredients,and names after flavors and colors.Artistic dish names are also classified into four sub-groups including names related with allusions,names related with metaphors,names related with auspicious words,and names related with folk festivals.Chapter five is the prime body of this study.The author analyzes and summarizes the English translation strategies for Chinese dish names from A Bite of China under the guidance of Relevance Theory.During the preparation process,the author looks up a larger number of materials to know the comprehensive information of dishes like their ingredients and condiments,cooking methods,original places,inventors,and the cultural factors contained in dish names,etc.so as to better explore the specific translation strategies for Chinese dish names.These strategies are analyzed and concluded from two aspects:strategies for realistic dish names from the perspective of a dual ostensive-inferential communication and strategies for artistic dish names from the perspective of optimal relevance.Chapter six summarizes and concludes the major findings of the study.Meanwhile,the limitations of the study are presented and some suggestions for further study are proposed.Through this study,it can be proved that Relevance Theory has a strong explanatory power to the translation of Chinese dish names and it can be utilized to guide the translation of dish names.Simultaneously,several frequently-used translation strategies are pointed out,such as literal translation,transliteration,free translation,free translation with explanation and so forth.Since the dishes mentioned in A Bite of China are very representative,this thesis takes them as examples to explore the English translation strategies for Chinese dish names,which can provide some references for related translation practice.The author selects Relevance Theory as the theoretical guidance to hope it can broaden the research direction of studies on Chinese dish name translation and enrich the studies guided by Relevance Theory.In addition,Chinese cuisine culture is an integral part of Chinese culture.Therefore,this study can not only promote Chinese dishes to the West,but also spread Chinese cuisine culture and even Chinese culture.