Translation Analysis Of Military Terms In Zizhi Tongjian From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As important carriers of Chinese traditional culture,classics bear rich cultural connotations,thus the English translation of classics is an important way to spread Chinese traditional culture.It's valuable to study the translation of military terms in classics,for the translation of military terms of ancient China can transmit military culture of China to the whole world.However,there are a few studies on the translation of military terms in current researches,and the research texts are relatively limited.With great historical value,Zizhi Tongjian is deemed as the first historic book in a chronological style in China and reputed as a masterpiece of Chinese historiography.Therefore,the study on English translation of military terms in the book can promote the spread of ancient Chinese military culture to some extent.The paper has selected the abridged English version of Zizhi Tongjian as the research text which is translated by a famous Sinologist,Rafe de Crespigny.Taking Dictionary of Ancient Chinese Military Culture and Military Terms as references,the author classifies military terms in Zizhi Tongjian into six categories,including armaments,geography,operation,organization,command and communication,and logistics.The thesis mainly has three research purposes.One is to analyze the translation strategies employed by the translator in translating different categories of military terms within the framework of relevance theory.The second one is to judge whether the translation of military terms in the English version has achieved optimal relevance.The last one is to test whether relevance theory has the explanatory power on the translation of military terms in Zizhi Tongjian.This paper takes relevance theory as the theoretical framework and optimal relevance as the criterion of translation.In order to achieve optimal relevance,the translator needs to consider two factors in the translation process,including contextual effects of the translation and readers' processing efforts.Based on the study of military terms in Zizhi Tongjian,this paper has found most translation of military terms has reached the optimal relevance,but some still need to be improved.Therefore,the author puts forward some suggestions for revision under the guidance of relevance theory.In addition,this thesis has summarized translation strategies employed by the translator in the translation of military terms,including literal translation,amplification,transliteration and free translation.Among them,literal translation has been used at a high frequency.The reason is that literal translation can preserve cultural images of terms and convey the original writer's intentions when readers can correctly understand meanings of terms according to their cognitive abilities.Therefore,readers can spend effective efforts to obtain adequate contextual effects and the translation will achieve optimal relevance.However,when readers are unable to understand military terms by their own inferential abilities,the translator flexibly employs other translation strategies to ensure readers can correctly understand the cultural connotations of military terms.