A Comparative Study Of Idiom Translation In Three English Versions Of Fu Sheng Liu Ji From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Chinese idioms,as one of the significant components of the language,are rich in ethnic cultural elements and make the translation extremely complicated.Relevance Theory regards communication as a kind of cognitive activity and an ostensive-inferential process guided by the principle of relevance.The course of understanding idioms can also be seen as a process of communication alike,in which the translator seeks optimal relevance between the cognitive context and the cognitive context of the target language.At the same time,as per the Relevance-theoretic Account of Translation,translation is also a kind of verbal communication,which consists of two ostensive-inferential processes: the first process happening between the author of the source language and the translator,and the second between the translator and the target reader.Translation is more a process of obtaining optimal relevance by inference according to the dynamic contexts and under the principle of relevance than that concerning the encoding and decoding of languages.Fu Sheng Liu Ji is an autobiographical story written by Shen Fu who is a literatus in the Qing Dynasty.This book discusses the art of life,leisure and fun,landscapes,art and literature.Almost every page of Fu Sheng Liu Ji contains Chinese idioms.The translation of idioms is not only a conversion of language,but also a transmission of culture.The author takes the Han Yu Cheng Yu Da Quan(a collection of Chinese idioms)published in 2017 as a reference,extracts 139 idioms from Fu Sheng Liu Ji(including 9idioms appearing twice in the text),and divides them according to their practical meanings in the text into three categories: idioms that are understood from the literal meaning,the metaphorical meaning and the extended meaning.Based on Relevance Theory,this thesis compares and analyzes the idiom translations of Fu Sheng Liu Ji in the three versions of Lin Yutang's translation(1936),Leonard Pratt and Chiang Su-hui's translation(1983)and Graham Sanders' translation(2011).What's more,it also conducts the comparative analysis on translation strategies.It turns out that although there is no fixed means for translation,to achieve optimal relevance between the original text and the translation,translating should be performed with comprehensive consideration of the cognitive contexts of target readers and their degree of acceptance,and under flexible application of translation strategies.This thesis consists of seven parts.The Introduction clarifies the background,purposes,significance,methods of the research and thesis structure.Chapter One mainly delivers the reviews of research on Relevance Theory,the English translation of Chinese idioms,and the three English translations of Fu Sheng Liu Ji.Chapter two introduces the basic concepts of Relevance Theory and discussed the relationship between Relevance Theory and translation.Chapter Three mainly presents the characteristics and classification of idioms in Fu Sheng Liu Ji.Chapter Four conducts comparative analyses of idiom translation in Lin Yutang's,Pratt and Chiang Su-hui's and Graham Sanders' translations from the angles of the original contextual analysis,translators' ostensive ways and the contextual assumptions in the target language.Chapter Five analyzes the idiom translation strategies and the similarities and differences of their application in the three translations under Relevance Theory.And the Conclusion clarifies the main findings and limitations of this research and proposes recommendations for future research at the same time.In a word,this thesis has analyzed the translation of idioms in Fu Sheng Liu Ji from the perspective of Relevance Theory,and attempts to provide some experience and reference for future Chinese idiom translation.