Direct Translation And Indirect Translation In Gutt's Relevance Translation Theory And The Translation Of Hong Lou Meng

Ernst-August Gutt's relevance translation theory is based on relevance theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson. In his theory, translation is regarded as an instance of interlingual interpretive use of language. Gutt believes the two translating methods—direct translation and indirect translation constrained by interpretive resemblance and the principle of relevance from relevance theory -give a unified account of translation and theoretically guarantee the faithfulness of translation. Indirect translation purports to share all the explicatures and implicatures with the original while direct translation all the communicative clues. The two translating methods essentially take into consideration the translating of both the lexical meanings and contextual implications of the original.Since the translating of contextual implications of an utterance is taken into consideration in both of the two translating methods, it is hoped that Gutt's relevance translation theory would give an excellent account in the translating of cultural content in literary works, In this thesis, we discuss on the application of the two translating methods in the translating of the cultural content conveyed in the Chinese expression Yi Hong Yuan in the classical novel Hong Lou Meng (known as A Dream of Red Mansions or The Story of the Stone). Unfortunately, Gutt's relevance translation theory fails to include the translating method employed by David Hawkes, which purports to share all the implicatures of the original while neglecting its explicatures. Consequently, it is necessary to re-define indirect translation in Gutt's theory to include this translating method.A modification of indirect translation is proposed in the thesis: in indirect translation, a translation purports to share all the explicatures and implicatures with the original, or shares all the implicatures with the original on the condition that the speaker-intended assumptions of the original are principally interpreted by its implicatures and it is...