A C-E Translation Report On Myths And Legends Of The Bai(Excerpt)under The Guidance Of Relevance Theory

Based on Relevance Theory,this thesis explores the translation of some excerpts of Myths and Legends of the Bai edited by the Office of the Folk Literature Integration of Yunnan Province.The translation of such literature is conducive to the dissemination and development of Chinese ethnic minority culture,and is of great value in promoting the translation study of Chinese ethnic minority literature.Myths and Legends of the Bai records a large number of myths and legends with ethnic characteristics and research value,which is closely related to the Bai’s social environment,customs and religious beliefs.In current studies,Relevance Theory is rarely used to analyze the translation of Chinese ethnic minority literature.Under the guidance of Relevance Theory,this thesis aims at exploring the translation of Myths and Legends of the Bai(excerpt)from the language and cultural level through case study and comparison.According to Relevance Theory put forward by Sperber and Wilson(1986),verbal communication is an ostensive--inferential process,and every act of ostensive communication communicates the presumption of its own optimal relevance.In order to achieve successful communication,the hearer requires making effective processing effort and obtain sufficient contextual effects in order to achieve optimal relevance.Gutt(1991)first applies Relevance Theory to translation,advocating that translation is an ostensive--inferential process as well.In translation,the translator needs to understand the author’s communicative intention and translate the text in combination with the cognitive environment of target readers to achieve optimal relevance of the target text.It is found that under the guidance of Relevance Theory,various translation methods can be adopted to convey the author’s communicative intention in the language and cultural level of the translation of Myths and Legends of the Bai(excerpt).Target readers will gain adequate contextual effects through effective processing effort and the optimal relevance can be achieved in the translation.This thesis discusses the translation of some excerpts of Myths and Legends of the Bai,which can provide reference for the further translation study of Chinese ethnic minority literature from the perspective of Relevance Theory.