A Translation Report On Records Of Streets And Alleys In Chengdu(Excerpt) From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The source text of this translation report is excerpted from Records of Streets and Alleys in Chengdu,which systematically introduces lots of streets,alleys,towns,and rivers in Chengdu.The author illustrates the history and culture of Chengdu by describing those symbols.The source text not only contains the origin,naming and historical changes of streets,alleys,towns,and rivers in Chengdu,but also introduces celebrities' anecdotes and folk customs.During the pre-translation,the translator read the source text repeatedly,and grasped general content and framework of the source text.To minimize the differences between the source language and the target language in culture,and to convey the author's intention accurately,the translator chose Ernest-August Gutt's Relevance Theory as the guidance and used appropriate translation methods or skills to solve the translation problems in the process of translating.According to Relevance Theory,Gutt defined translation as a kind of interlingual communication.In the dynamic process of ostensive-inferential interpretation of source text,the translators should align their own communicative intentions with the expectations of target readers.While the translators forming their own communicative intentions,they should combine the original communicative clues and the cognitive environment of the target readers to decide on direct translation or indirect translation.So,the target readers can spend the minimal cognitive effort in obtaining themaximum context effect.From the perspective of the Relevance Theory,the translator focused on two important strategies,direct translation and indirect translation,and their applications in the translation process of Records of Streets and Alleys in Chengdu(Excerpt)with the translation methods and skills used by translator,and further explained that Relevance Theory has a strong interpretation to translation.