Translation Of The Address Terms In Hong Lou Meng

This thesis studies the translation of address terms in Hong Lou Meng from the perspective of relevance theory. The examples of different kinds of address terms are compared and analyzed. It is hoped that principles for translation of address terms as well as the criteria for their evaluation can be found.Relevance theory is the most influential pragmatic theory in western countries these years. The key point of the relevance theory is cognition and communication. It focuses on the effect that the cognitive context has on the inference of the communicator's communication intention. It claims that the nature of communication is ostensive-inferential process. In relevance theory, context is a set of psychological constructs, a subset of the reader's assumptions about the world. Context is not given but chosen. In the process of the reader's inference, the reader chooses those more manifest or accessible contexts.Relevance theory considers translation as an ostensive-inferential process. It explains the intention of the author, the cognitive environment of the target reader and the strategy taken by the translator reasonably. Translation is regarded as an interlingual communication which includes two rounds of communications. The translator connected the source writer and the target reader by acting as both the communicator and the audience. In the first round, a translator functioned as the audience. He tries to get the right intention of the source writer. In the second round, he acts as the communicator who interpreted the source writer's intention to the target reader through proper translations.Hong Lou Meng is regarded as an encyclopedia of both Chinese language and culture. It is a story mainly about the process of a feudal family going from prosperity to decline. A few hundred figures portrayed in the story reveal countless but complex interpersonal relationships with the employment of various addressing terms. From this perspective, the kinship terms in the novel have become important linguistic signs to reflect the complexity of human relationships and culture features of the time. Therefore, translators and translation researchers should pay enough attention to the effective transmission of Chinese cultural values.Address terms are an indispensable part of people's daily life and literary works. Owning to different languages, cultural backgrounds and social structures, there are pronounced distinctions between English and Chinese address terms. Chinese address terms are descriptive. They can indicate the addressee's sex, age and consanguinity clearly. The address terms in English are classificatory. They are general.In this thesis the address terms in the collected examples are divided into six groups. They are neutral terms, honorific terms, modest terms, fictive kinship terms, nicknames and abusive terms. Their translations are compared and evaluated from the angle of cognitive context and intention with the guidance of relevance theory. In neutral terms'translation, the neutral terms that have no equivalents in English are mainly discussed. The neutral terms that have equivalents in English are mostly translated literally. However, some neutral terms in Hong Lou Meng show the speakers'strong emotions. When translating, the translator may pay attention to it and choose the best words to translate them. There are numerous modest terms in Chinese, while there are few in English. Literal translation of modest terms may cause confusion to the target readers. A free translation is better. Honorific term exist in both Chinese and English. When translating, the translator needs to choose the words that have the closest meaning to the original one. It is common to use fictive kinship terms in Chinese. It only happens under religious circumstance in English-speaking countries. The intention of fictive kinship terms is to shorten the social distance between the communicators. Some animals have different cultural images in Chinese and English. This should be considered in translation of nicknames. The addressee's typical should be shown in the translation of nicknames. Different associative meanings of the same word affect the translation of abusive terms. Abusive terms are used to insult the addressee. If this is expressed in translation, it will be better.When translating address terms, the translator should take it into consideration. While evaluating the translation of an address term, no matter what kind of term it is, we should see whether it communicates the intention of the original term and whether it costs unnecessary processing effort. While translating an address term, a translator is supposed to make the intention of the source writer meet the expectation of the target readers. He should recognize the source writer's intention of the use of the term, assess the cognitive context and the expectation of the target reader, and finally express his interpretation of the source writer's intention in appropriate translation, which should not cost unnecessary processing effort.