On The Translation Of Some Rhetorical Devices In Hong Chai From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Given children’s special cognitive characteristics,the translation of children’s literature is always a challenging job.Relevance Theory elaborates on human communication from the perspective of cognition.Under the guidance of Relevance Theory,translation can be regarded as a dual ostensive-inferential process in which the translator takes significant responsibility to convey the communicator’s intentions correctly.The goal of translation is believed to achieve optimal relevance.The explanatory power of Relevance Theory towards translation has been recognized by academia.It is feasible and effective to explore the translation of children’s literature based on this theory.Hong Chai,a popular animal novel written by Shen Shixi,tells a story of a jackal and a wolf pup living together.Under the guidance of Relevance Theory,this thesis studies the translation of some rhetorical devices in this book.By means of qualitative study,this research focuses on how optimal relevance is achieved in the translation.It is found that the translator makes full use of the information in her context to infer the original writer’s intention.Besides,she takes into consideration target language readers’ cognitive environment,linguistic capability,reading interests,and expectations.By adopting the methods of addition,adaptation,and omission,the translator managed to convey the writer’s intention accurately and enabled the target language readers to appreciate the beauty in the translation.This thesis aims to remedy the deficiency in studies on the translation of Hong Chai.It is hoped that this study could offer some enlightenment for relevant studies in the future.