A Study of English Translation of Chinese Animal Idioms from the Relevance Theory

王珍 顾亚玲

1.Introduction

Chinese idioms， as one of the most important language structures in Chinese language， are widely employed both in literary works and daily communication. Compared to normal phrases， Chinese idioms are more expressive in some cases. Chinese animal idioms， which have simple structure and profound meaning， are regard as essence and epitome of Chinese culture. Besides， since Chinese animal idioms are founctioned as a kind of cultural load， it is a significant and complicated duty for the translator to correctly and properly transfer the meaning from them. Namely， the translation of Chinese animal idioms demands us to be extremely careful， otherwise， readers will be misled in their understanding. For instance： “狗血淋頭” originally refer to the meaning that one person is been badly cursed. But according to its superficial meaning， it is easily to be translated to “poor dogs blood on”. Therefore， the major rule that must be obeyed is the full consideration of the difference between Chinese and Western cultures while translating then and thinking over the cognitive environment and receptive ability of readers.

2.An analysis of English translation of Chinese animal idioms from the Relevance Theory

2.1 The criterion for successful translation——“optimal relevance”

For exploring optimal relevance， the condition of relevance should be clarified firstly. “The notion of a contextual effect is essential to a characterisation of relevance. We want to argue that having contextual effects is a necessary condition for relevance， and that other things being equal， the greater the contextual effects， the greater the relevance” （Dan sperber and Deirdre Wilson119）. However， Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson made a further research finding an extent-conditions format：

Extent condition 1： an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that its contextual effects in this context are large.

Extend condition 2： an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that the effort required to process it in this context is small. （125）

Taking these two assumptions into consideration， “optimal relevance” can be defined as people getting the greatest contextual effects with the least effort.

Translators are responsible for the optimal relevance in translation， that is， people are always managing to have successful translated text that aims at achieving optimal relevance. In order to reach optimal relevance， it is a duty for translators to bring readers in a certain contexts and completely understand the meaning. Necessarily， the readers are subconscious to accept this information once they glance over them.

Essentially， optimal relevance， as a principle， provides a new interpret for the process of translation. Considering the cognitive environment and acceptable level of the target audiences， translators have more chances to choose more suitable approaches to express the original meaning and to make the expectation of target readers realized.

3.Conclusion

Having discussed the animal idiom translation in light of relevance theory， this paper now is in the position to draw some points of this study.

This paper centers on the basis of the Relevance theory in the process of analyzing translation of Chinese animal idioms. Researches havefound many applications of the Relevance theory in translation， and they help the translators find the optimal relevance in idiom translation. The conclusion of the translation of idioms on the basis of The Relevance Theory can be reached as follow：

On the basis of relevance theory， the process of translation is regarded as a way of language communication， that is to say， an ostensive-inferential communication， and it also has a significant principle——the optimal relevance. Relevance theory believes that all of human communications are finished in the process of reaching for optimal relevance， so that translators and readers are managing to get the most relevance in the course of any intercommunication. In order to express the original meaning and make readers easily understand the translated text， the translators not only have to make correct cognition of the intension of the writer， but take the cognitive environment and habit of the readers into consideration so as to help the readers find the most optimal relevance between the translated version and primary text， and then the readers are able to get theoptimal relevant text without paying much effort， hence the near-perfect communication can be achieved via reading printed forms.

To sum up， this paper， based on the relevance theory， gives a relatively comprehensive discussion of the different methods of translation for achieving optimal relevance in the English translation of Chinese animal idioms.As the research of this paper is limited， while Chinese animal idioms are more complex than what discussed here to some extent. In translating animal idioms， it is also important to analyze the animal image in them （mainly the cultural acceptance of them in the target culture）. Based on the analytic results， various translation methods should be adopted flexibly to transfer the meaning of idioms more accurately so that the optimal relevance can be achieved and the target readers can have a corresponding comprehension.