关联理论视角下《红楼梦》中隐喻的翻译_英语论文

An Analysis of Metaphor Translation in Hong Lou Meng from the Perspective of the Relevance Theory

摘要

近年来，在国内外的语言学界和翻译学研究领域逐渐掀起一股“隐喻热潮”。国外语言学界对隐喻的研究已经形成较为完整的理论体系，然而在关于隐喻翻译的研究当中，传统的翻译理论观点认为隐喻只是一种修辞现象。但是隐喻来源于生活，它生动地展现各民族的历史传统，风俗习惯以及心理等特点，蕴含了独特的民族文化内涵。因此在跨文化交际中，对隐喻进行有效的翻译显得尤为重要。

1986年Sperber和Wilson提出了关联理论，在阐释交际与认知的同时，为理解隐喻开拓了新视角,揭示了隐喻本质是一种认知现象。关联理论对隐喻的阐释，不但拓展了隐喻研究，同时也表明隐喻不仅是语言现象，更是一种思维方式。

关联理论认为翻译是一种跨语言的两轮交际活动，第一轮由译者和原作者构成，其中原作者是交际者，译者是接受体；第二轮有译者和译文读者构成，译者是交际者，读者是接受体。可见，译者在翻译中扮演双重角色。在两轮交际中，最佳关联性是交际成功的保证。译者既要付出努力寻找原文的最佳关联，形成对原文的正确理解，又要把自己对原文的理解以最佳关联的方式传给译文读者。因此，传递最佳关联就成了翻译的原则。

本文以中国古典小说《红楼梦》作为个案分析，通过对译文中一系列隐喻翻译的分析，评析了译文中隐喻的翻译质量，阐释了其的不足之处，从而探讨了较为具体的隐喻翻译策略，并得出初步结论，即只要不违反关联原则，保证译文读者和原文读者对统一的隐喻信息做出同样的反应，便达到了最佳关联，便是成功的翻译。 

关键词：隐喻；红楼梦；翻译策略；关联理论

Abstract

In recent years, metaphor has become a heated topic both at home and abroad. The theory on metaphor has become relatively complete, while due attention must be paid to metaphor translation. The traditional translation theory just regards metaphor as a rhetorical phenomenon. While, since most metaphors come from daily life, they can reflect many features of a nation, including history, traditional customs and psychology. Thus, proper translation of metaphor is of great importance in cross-cultural communication. 

In 1986, Sperber and Wilson proposed a theory of relevance, which provided a new way to study metaphor and assumed that the essence of metaphor is cognition. The clarification of Relevance Theory on metaphor not only develops the formal studies, but also points out that metaphor is more importantly a way of thinking than only a language phenomenon. 

It seems that translation is a cross-cultural communication involved with two languages and the conveyance of meaning across two cultures. Relevance Theory, which points out that translation is a double-round communication, where the translator plays the double role of both reader and communicator. Clearly in each stage, optimal relevance from the original text to the target text becomes the translation goal.

Metaphors in the case study all come from Hong Lou Meng, a classic Chinese novel. After the detailed analysis of the translation’s treatments of those metaphors, the quality of them is commented, their inadequacy is pointed out and some translation suggestions are offered. This thesis comes to the preliminary conclusion that this method is valid no matter which strategy is used, as long as the optimal relevance is achieved.

Key words: metaphor; Hong Lou Meng; translation strategy; Relevance Theory