A Report On E-C Translation Of Changing China(Excerpts)from The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

The historical text Changing China written by the American Journalist Harrison Forman describes China’s history,territorial divisions,social organization,and economic organization.There is currently no Chinese version.The translation report excerpts Chapters 1,2,18,19,and 20 as the original,which focuses on the overview of China’s dynasties,cities and industries to provide scholars with relevant materials for studying China’s advancements in those fields.In this translation practice,the translator applies relevance theory to discuss appropriate translation methods based on the features of the source text at lexical,logical,and encyclopaedic levels.According to relevance theory,translation is an ostensive-inferential process that guides the translator to deal with lexical information,logical information,and encyclopaedic information which influence the inferential process in the cognitive environment.Therefore,target readers could achieve optimal relevance and comprehend the author’s intentions with adequate contextual effects.There are five chapters in this translation report.The first chapter is an introduction to the project description,the significance of the project,and the whole translation process.The second chapter focuses on the features of the source text at lexical,logical,and encyclopaedic levels.The third chapter is concerned with relevant theory,including the ostensive-inferential process,optimal relevance,and three types of information influencing the inference(lexical information,logical information,and encyclopaedic information).In the fourth chapter,the translator analyzes all the typical cases in detail from the perspective of relevant theory.At the lexical level,extension and idiomatic translation are respectively applied for vague words and proper nouns.At the logical level,there are abundant sentences with implicit logical relations and multiple logical structures,and the translator chooses the methods of addition and restructuring.At the encyclopaedic level,paraphrasing and annotation are beneficial for dual-contextual implications and cultural connotations.The last chapter is a conclusion about the major findings and limitations of the translation report.In the translation practice,three findings have been concluded.Initially,relevance theory points out the function of lexical information in the inferential process,which indicates that vague words and proper nouns should be dealt with to convey accurate semantics.Secondly,the premise and the conclusion are emphasized in terms of logical information,which guides the clarification of implicit logical relations and multiple logical structures to guarantee logical coherence in the translated version.Thirdly,dualcontextual implications and cultural connotations could be analyzed in light of the significance of encyclopaedic information,thereby better compensating relevant knowledge in the target text.With particular translation methods for translating Changing China at the expectation of optimal relevance,the translator hopes the translation report will contribute to future studies on the translation of historical texts.