Restructuring The Relative Clause In The Chinese Version Of Save Me The Plums(Excerpts) In Accord With Mode Of Communicative Translation

While translating Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir,the present author finds that the rendering of the relative clause is perplexingly challenging.Therefore,she decides to study its mechanics and discuss her translation in this thesis.Although many scholars have explored and delineated E-C translation methods of the relative clause,some of these methods are overlapped and some are based on different criteria.The present author holds that the translation of the relative clause should not be confined to its syntactic structure and superficial function.Instead,translators need to extricate themselves from the original syntactic structure,unearth the semantic-logic relation between the relative clause and the main clause,and show the logic relation in their translation.This view is consistent with the principle of communicative translation,that is,translators are entitled to rearrange the structure of ST to provide a logically more readable TT.Based on her translation practice,the present author sums up eight methods for the translation of the relative clause in consideration of the syntactic structure and semantic-logic function of the relative clause.She attempts to translate experimentally the relative clause into a premodifier,a post-positioned coordinate clause,a prepositive coordinate clause or an independent clause,each according to their specific syntactic structure respectively.From the perspective of semantic-logic function,she converts the relative clause into a compound sentence of causation,a compound sentence of transition,a compound sentence of continuation or a compound sentence of progression in Chinese.As a result,her version proves the applicableness and pertinence of the mode of communicative translation in rendering the relative clause.