A Study On C-E Translation Of Idioms In Gao Xing Under Gutt's Relevance-Theoretic Framework

Jia Pingwa is one of the most outstanding writers in contemporary China.His novels record the real life of those peasants living in Shaanxi with the characteristics of utilizing local dialects.He is an expert at capturing readers' attention by describing ordinary people's life.His novel Gao Xing,published in 2007,is written in the first person perspective.Narrator Happy Liu describes the world of trash collection.Happy's life as a trash picker is not easy but he remains humorous and optimistic all the time.His pursuit of happiness arouses echoes in readers' hearts,both home and abroad.Nicky Harman is a native English translator who has been impressed by the main character and the colloquial style of Gao Xing.She is a professional translator in C-E literary translation and has made great contribution to cross-cultural communication between China and the west.In 2017,completed by Nicky Harman,the English version of Gao Xing(titled Happy Dreams)was published by western publisher Amazon Crossing,available on the website of Amazon.Gao Xing contains a great mount of Chinese idioms,which can be found easily in dialogues and internal monologues of the main characters.Since its English version was published,reviews and researches show interests in idiom translation but little systematic research on idiom translation has been published.This thesis studies the translation of Chinese idioms under Gutt's relevance-theoretic framework.It explores the relation between the properties of Chinese idioms in Gao Xing and their translation and discusses the relation between translation methods and the ostensive-inferential process.According to Gutt,translation is interpretive resemblance between ostensive stimuli in cross-cultural communication.The linguistic code is the ostensive stimulus and communication actually functions in the way of the ostensive-inferential process.Interpretive resemblance is remaining the sum of explicatures and implictures of the ostensive stimulus.Meanwhile,interpretive resemblance is in line with the relevance principle.The relevance principle refers to the sensitivity to contextual effects and the sensitivity to the processing efforts.The translator is the one who deals with the interplay between the ostensive stimulus and the context in consistency to the relevance principle.It is found that there are eight translation methods in the C-E translation of idioms in Gao Xing.They are literal translation,borrowing,substitution,addition,explication,omission,integration and simplification.Firstly,the properties of Chinese idioms are related to the translation of Chinese idioms.Chinese idioms possess semantical,structural and stylistic characteristics.Sematic properties include compositionality and conventionality.When the translator deals with compositionality,literal translation and substitution are commonly employed.As for conventionality,the translator prefers to use borrowing and explication.The structural properties include symmetry and reduplication.When encountering structural properties,the translator would employ explication and simplification.The stylistic properties include reality-oriented feature and colloquial-toned feature.In translating reality-oriented idiom,the translator is more likely to choose literal translation,simplification and substitution.In translating colloquial-toned Chinese idioms,the translator prioritizes borrowing and sometimes utilizes simplification.Secondly,there are three ostensive-inferential strategies in translating Gao Xing.To be specific,literal translation,borrowing and substitution are applied under the strategy of assimilating ostensive stimulus;explication and addition are applied under the strategy of enlarging contextual effects;omission,simplification and integration are applied under the strategy of reducing processing efforts.The contextual effects include the derivation of the contextual implications,the confirmation of the contextual assumptions and the elimination of the contextual assumptions.The management of processing efforts tries to avoid the cost of unnecessary efforts.Last but not least,the translator focuses on the communicative effects.That could testify the findings of the relation between properties of Chinese idioms and their translation.And it also verifies the findings of the relation between translation methods and the ostensive-inferential process.