A Study On The Translation Of Adverbial Presupposition Triggers In David Hawkes' Version Of Hong Lou Meng From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Hong Lou Meng is an encyclopedic literary masterpiece.It has engaged the research interest of scholars in various fields.While its profound historical and cultural knowledge attracts the interest of many cultural scholars,its linguistic art captures the attention of language researchers.Among the linguistic phenomena explored is presupposition,which Hong Lou Meng abounds in.Since the understanding of presupposition directly affects reader's understanding of a text and its author's intention,it naturally becomes an important factor to be taken into account in translation.As a representation of presupposition,presupposition triggers constitute an important foothold to study it.This thesis provides a study on the English translation of adverbial presupposition triggers in the classical novel Hong Lou Meng.Based on the classification of adverbial presupposition triggers by Ji Anfeng in A Study of Presupposition Triggers in Chinese,the writer of this thesis sorted out examples of the five types of adverbial presupposition triggers in the first 80 chapters of Hong Lou Meng and their correspondent translation in its English version by Hawkes.The five types of adverbial presupposition triggers analyzed in the thesis include factive adverbs,repetitive adverbs,progressive adverbs,adverbs as “bai”(?)and “bing”(?)+ negative words.Under the framework of relevance theory,the thesis has studied the methods and strategies applied by Hawkes.Here are some major findings:(1)Relevance theory further shows its great explanatory power for translation.(2)Hawkes paid much attention to adverbial presupposition triggers and his translation retains the presupposition triggered by those adverbs in most cases.(3)Three methods are adopted by Hawkes in translating adverbial presupposition triggers of Hong Lou Meng.First,the translator tends to translate adverbial presupposition triggers in Chinese into presupposition triggers in English;second,some indirect translation strategies including paraphrase or amplification are applied to achieve optimal relevance;third,omission of adverbial presupposition triggers is sometimes adopted.Under the guidance of relevance theory,this research combines presupposition theory with translation to explore the translation of adverbial presupposition triggers in Hawkes' version of Hong Lou Meng from a new perspective.It can not only help us deepen the understanding of the languages of English and Chinese,but also enable us to better appreciate the art of Hawkes' translation,thus making some contribution to the promotion of the Chinese culture.