A Probe Into The Translation Of Cultural Constitutes From The Relevance Perspective

Translation is regarded as one of the most complex phenomena in the history ofcosmos, and cultural constitutes which are discussed in this thesis are commonlyregarded as the most difficult part to translate. Following an analysis of the cultural differences, this thesis introduces twostrategies for translating cultural constitutes, which are source culture orientedforeignization and target culture oriented domestication respectively. However,different translation theory schools hold different or even totally opposite ideas as forthe problem of choice between the two translating strategies. To domesticate or toforeignize:that has become a long-lasting controversial topic in translation field athome and abroad. Relevance theory is a newly-arising influential cognitive pragmatics theory, onthe foundation of which Gutt has established a translation theory framework which hasbrought a totally new perspective to translation studies. Aiming to apply the newtranslation account to the translation of cultural constitutes, this thesis reanalyzes thewhole process of cultural constitutes translation from the perspective of relevance andattempts to provide the criterion for evaluating the translation quality. The last part of the thesis puts both foreignization and domestication into therelevance translation framework where the two translating strategies find theirunification. According to relevance theory, as a kind of translating strategy, neitherforeignization nor domestication should be taken as a dominant one with the otheracting only as a supplement. The principle of relevance is what a translator shouldabide by in choosing translating strategies. The extent to which domestication orforeignization is used is determined by the correct assessment of the target reader'sexpectation and the context of the translated text.