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【Abstract】：Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson put forward Relevance Theory， and Ernst-August Gutt applied it to translation. He regards translation as a special form of communication between two languages which is also an inferential process. The translator should deduce information from the context， and pursue optimal relevance between source language and target language. The thesis intends to apply Relevance Theory to the analysis of culture-loaded words in The Three-Body Problem and endeavors to make some constructive suggestions for the employment of appropriate translation strategies so as to achieve the optimal relevance in the process of translating culture-loaded terms.
【Key Words】： Relevance Theory; culture-loaded words; The Three-Body Problem; translation strategy
1. Relevance Theory and Translation
Relevance Theory， appeared in the 1980s， has made a strong impact on many disciplines， especially translation. So many scholars successively apply the theory to translation studies. It can be assumed that previous achievements in this field have proved the importance of relevance theory to translation.
In the traditional studies of translation， since translation has long been considered as an inter-lingual activity rather than an intercultural communication， more attention has been paid to the linguistic analysis and textual comparisons than the cultural aspect. Nevertheless， in recent years， researchers have begun to attach more and more
importance to the subtle influence of culture on translation. In 1999， Bassnett and Lefevere pointed out that the linguistic theories of translation “have moved from unit to unit， but not beyond”. But they are opposed to the comparison between originals and translations since it neglects the influence of the cultural environment on the original text and the corresponding translation. They placed great emphasis on the cultural factor in the translation study by analyzing how translation influences the development of the culture of a country， how one culture is transplanted into another one， how two cultures are integrated， how culture affects translation and how to surmount the cultural impediment.
2.Review of The Three-Body Problem
Now the studies on The Three-body Problem are mainly from the perspectives of literature and translation. Lin Pin （2011） tried to find the relationship of modern science fiction literature and the development of science and technology in the works; Liu Zao （2013） tried to use the feminist perspective to novel deconstruction; Yang Chen （2013） tried to clarify the inner feelings and contradictions tension of the novel; Hu Ming （2011） tried to describe Liu Cixin’s gradually mature trajectory from the trilogy. These efforts are beneficial to understand The Three Body， to understand Liu Cixin and to understand science fiction literature. As for the studies on translated version The Three Body Problem， there are several master’s thesis in 2015. Lang Jing （2015） analyzes how the subjectivity of translator Ken Liu is reflected in his translation and how he managed to rewrite the original text in a feminist way in the process of translating in her article “On the Translator’s Feminist Translation Strategies in The Three Body Problem”; Li Linqian （2015） discussed the science fiction translation principles in the article “On Chinese to English Science Fiction Translation with the Three-Body Problem as an Example”; Chen Ziyue （2015） explored the science fiction translation from a specific translation theory in the article “On Science Fiction Translation from the Perspective of Chesterman’s Translation Norms--A Case Study of the English Version of Santi”. Besides， there is one journal article “On Subjectivity of Translator from George Steiner's Hermeneutics--Translation of Science Fiction The Three Body Problem”. Therefore， we can see recent studies on the translation of The Three Body Problem are mainly from the translation theories and standards. So far there is no any research on the translation of The Three Body Problem from any linguistic or pragmatic perspectives. The author of this paper provides a new perspective， relevance theory， to investigate the translation of science fiction The Three Body Problem.
3. Conclusion
Translation is a very complicated process. In order to produce a good translation of the original text， the translator should not only know about the language and its culture very well， but also need to consider the cognitive environment of the TL. The translator should take the contextual effects and the purpose of the target text into consideration as well. Consequently， the translator may have to meet with many different considerations in the one single situation， which will make it difficult for him to choose or decide which consideration is prior. For example， the translator’s attempt to retain the concise style of the original text may be in contradiction with the attempt to make the source language term more clear to the target language readers. For such kind of conflicts， traditional translation theories have offered some explanations to some extent. However， they are not convincing enough to explain all of the conflicts since there are controversies among themselves. Recently， because of the development of cognitive linguistic， many scholars have come to recognize the cognitive nature of human communication. Relevance Theory has provided the scholars with a new perspective to study the translation process. The principle to decide whether the translated text is successful or not is the optimal relevance.
In a word， the present research is only a tentative study of the translation of culture-loaded words in The Three-Body Problem from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Although the conclusion made is based on large amount of example collections and analyses from The Three-Body Problem， there still remains something to be done in the future.
【Key Words】： Relevance Theory; culture-loaded words; The Three-Body Problem; translation strategy
1. Relevance Theory and Translation
Relevance Theory， appeared in the 1980s， has made a strong impact on many disciplines， especially translation. So many scholars successively apply the theory to translation studies. It can be assumed that previous achievements in this field have proved the importance of relevance theory to translation.
In the traditional studies of translation， since translation has long been considered as an inter-lingual activity rather than an intercultural communication， more attention has been paid to the linguistic analysis and textual comparisons than the cultural aspect. Nevertheless， in recent years， researchers have begun to attach more and more
importance to the subtle influence of culture on translation. In 1999， Bassnett and Lefevere pointed out that the linguistic theories of translation “have moved from unit to unit， but not beyond”. But they are opposed to the comparison between originals and translations since it neglects the influence of the cultural environment on the original text and the corresponding translation. They placed great emphasis on the cultural factor in the translation study by analyzing how translation influences the development of the culture of a country， how one culture is transplanted into another one， how two cultures are integrated， how culture affects translation and how to surmount the cultural impediment.
2.Review of The Three-Body Problem
Now the studies on The Three-body Problem are mainly from the perspectives of literature and translation. Lin Pin （2011） tried to find the relationship of modern science fiction literature and the development of science and technology in the works; Liu Zao （2013） tried to use the feminist perspective to novel deconstruction; Yang Chen （2013） tried to clarify the inner feelings and contradictions tension of the novel; Hu Ming （2011） tried to describe Liu Cixin’s gradually mature trajectory from the trilogy. These efforts are beneficial to understand The Three Body， to understand Liu Cixin and to understand science fiction literature. As for the studies on translated version The Three Body Problem， there are several master’s thesis in 2015. Lang Jing （2015） analyzes how the subjectivity of translator Ken Liu is reflected in his translation and how he managed to rewrite the original text in a feminist way in the process of translating in her article “On the Translator’s Feminist Translation Strategies in The Three Body Problem”; Li Linqian （2015） discussed the science fiction translation principles in the article “On Chinese to English Science Fiction Translation with the Three-Body Problem as an Example”; Chen Ziyue （2015） explored the science fiction translation from a specific translation theory in the article “On Science Fiction Translation from the Perspective of Chesterman’s Translation Norms--A Case Study of the English Version of Santi”. Besides， there is one journal article “On Subjectivity of Translator from George Steiner's Hermeneutics--Translation of Science Fiction The Three Body Problem”. Therefore， we can see recent studies on the translation of The Three Body Problem are mainly from the translation theories and standards. So far there is no any research on the translation of The Three Body Problem from any linguistic or pragmatic perspectives. The author of this paper provides a new perspective， relevance theory， to investigate the translation of science fiction The Three Body Problem.
3. Conclusion
Translation is a very complicated process. In order to produce a good translation of the original text， the translator should not only know about the language and its culture very well， but also need to consider the cognitive environment of the TL. The translator should take the contextual effects and the purpose of the target text into consideration as well. Consequently， the translator may have to meet with many different considerations in the one single situation， which will make it difficult for him to choose or decide which consideration is prior. For example， the translator’s attempt to retain the concise style of the original text may be in contradiction with the attempt to make the source language term more clear to the target language readers. For such kind of conflicts， traditional translation theories have offered some explanations to some extent. However， they are not convincing enough to explain all of the conflicts since there are controversies among themselves. Recently， because of the development of cognitive linguistic， many scholars have come to recognize the cognitive nature of human communication. Relevance Theory has provided the scholars with a new perspective to study the translation process. The principle to decide whether the translated text is successful or not is the optimal relevance.
In a word， the present research is only a tentative study of the translation of culture-loaded words in The Three-Body Problem from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Although the conclusion made is based on large amount of example collections and analyses from The Three-Body Problem， there still remains something to be done in the future.