关联理论视阈下《爱丽丝漫游奇境记》文字游戏的翻译补偿研究

A Study on the Translation Compensation of Wordplay in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

摘要: 《爱丽丝漫游奇境记》中的文字游戏在跨文化交际中极易导致“关联断裂”与不可译困境。为突破传统对等翻译的局限，本研究基于关联理论与翻译补偿理论，选取赵元任与王永年两个经典汉译本作为对比语料，深入探讨译者如何帮助目标语读者重构认知推理过程。研究发现，文字游戏的翻译本质上是译者在不同认知环境与阅读期待之间寻求“最佳关联”的动态博弈：赵元任偏向重构幽默的语境效果，依托种类补偿降低读者即时处理努力，同时借助异位补偿从宏观文本层面弥补翻译流失的幽默效果；王永年则偏向扩充读者的认知环境，主要运用注释补偿策略以原汁原味地保留异国情调。两者路径虽截然不同，但均在各自的翻译目的下成功重塑了最佳关联，为儿童荒诞文学的双关语翻译提供了有益的理论解释与实践启示。

Abstract: The wordplay in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland easily leads to “relevance loss” and untranslatability in cross-cultural communication. To break through the limitations of traditional equivalence translation, this study, based on Relevance Theory and Translation Compensation Theory, selects two classic Chinese versions translated by Zhao Yuanren and Wang Yongnian as comparative corpora to explore how translators help target readers reconstruct their cognitive inferential processes. The study finds that the translation of wordplay is essentially a dynamic game in which translators seek “optimal relevance” between different cognitive environments and reading expectations. Zhao Yuanren tends to reconstruct the humorous contextual effect, adopting compensation in kind to reduce readers’ immediate processing effort, and employing displaced compensation to recover the humor lost in translation at the macro textual level; conversely, Wang Yongnian leans towards expanding readers’ cognitive environment, primarily utilizing explanatory compensation to preserve the original exoticism. Although their approaches differ completely, both successfully reshape optimal relevance under their respective translation purposes, providing valuable theoretical and practical insights for the translation of wordplay in children’s absurd literature.