Abstract

With dramatic economic development, more and more literary works have been introduced into China. Therefore, the quality of the translation of those books is of great importance. According to relevance theory, a good translated work should make sure that the readers correctly understand the original author's implicit message without unnecessary processing efforts. In such process, explicitation will inevitably be used to explain the expressions that contain cultural connotation and that cannot be understood when they are translated directly. According to Vinay, explicitation refers to the process of adding detailed information in the translation in order to clarify some complex words or phrases. The thesis studies the explicitation in Zhu Shenghao, Liang Shiqiu and Fang Ping's translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream respectively. And the thesis chooses some English expressions that have cultural and grammatical and semantic differences with Chinese and analysed their translation from a relevance-theoretic perspective. For a play, its translation should be conveyed to audiences quickly and correctly because there is no chance for audiences to review or reread the book. For this reason, a qualified translation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is particularly important. After analyzing the similarities and differences in those three translations, the thesis draws the conclusion that explicitation on grammatical and semantic level is necessary to a correct understanding while the explicitation in the translation of culture-loaded expressions has become somehow less important because Chinese people now know better about western cultures and customs.

Key words: relevance theory; explicitation; translation
 
摘  要

近年来，中国经济发生了翻天覆地的变化，人民对与外界的文化交流需求显得日趋迫切及重要，越来越多的文学作品被介绍到了中国。因此，好的翻译作品尤为重要。因为它对读者准确理解原文作者的意图起到了至关重要的影响。根据格特的关联理论，好的翻译作品能够让读者在阅读作品时不花丝毫多余的努力便能准确理解原著的精神。而要达到这个效果，翻译中的显化策略必不可少。根据维纳的观点，显化指的是在译文中在原文的基础上添加信息以助读者更好的理解原作者想要表达的内涵意义。戏剧作为一种舞台表演形式，其译文对于翻译质量的要求则更加严格。戏剧剧本的翻译必须在保持原文语言风格的基础上，让台下观众在极短的时间内理解演员的台词以及该台词的情感色彩及暗示信息。作者从关联理论的角度分析比较了《仲夏夜之梦》三个中文译本中由于文化差异和语法及句法差异而导致的显化翻译的异同点，认为由于中英文语法或句法导致的显化翻译对于读者正确理解原著必不可少。而随着日趋频繁的对外交流活动，部分较为常见的文化负载表达已经不需要显化翻译。

关键词：关联理论；显化策略；翻译