The Cognition And Translation Of Relative Clauses

The author's translation practice is the first two chapters of The Evolution of Language.One of the most conspicuous linguistic features of this book is the widespread use of relative clauses,which becomes major barriers in the translation process.The thesis,based on the translation practice,describes the pragmatic features and the rhetorical functions of relative clauses and the guidance to the translation process from the perspective of Functional Grammar.This thesis starts with the analysis of the pragmatic features and rhetorical functions with sufficient examples and explains the guidance of the translation grounded on the analysis of logico-semantic relations.In light of the grammatical forms,pragmatic features and rhetorical functions of relative clauses,translation methods for relative clauses at the grammatical and logical levels are proposed by the author of this thesis.At the grammatical level,the methods of translating into a premodifier,or a post-positioned clause,or a simple sentence with one subject-predicate structure,or a coordinate clause by repeating the antecedent are applied to translation.At the logical level,relative clauses are rendered into different clauses within the Chinese complex sentences.In this sense,it is essential for translators to analyze the logico-semantic relations of relative clauses,helping translators not only improve their translation skills of relative clauses,but also enhance their translation competence.