Dynamic Equivalence And Translation Of Humor In O. Henry's Short Stories

The present study aims to explore the application of Nida's dynamic equivalence theory to the translation of humor in O. Henry's short stories in terms of translation methods and evaluation.This study is based on the classification of humor made by J. R. Schmitz (2002). According to his theory, humor can be divided into three types: 1) universal humor; 2) cultural humor; 3) linguistic humor.Universal humor, also called reality-based humor, mainly refers to some humorous situations or incidents which can be understood by people from many cultures. Cultural humor refers to the humor which is related to the cultural background information, including history, social customs and institutions, etc. Culture provides established forms for humorous production and expression. Through established forms and cultural values, culture has a strong influence on humor in terms of what to laugh at, how laugh is provoked and accepted, why to laugh under certain occasions, etc. People can not understand the cultural humor without some cultural background information. Linguistic humor refers to the humor produced by many linguistic factors and rhetorical devices, etc.The theoretical basis of this study is dynamic equivalence put forward by Nida (1964), which contains the following two aspects of meaning: 1) The target text should be the closest natural equivalent to the source language text; 2) Translation should produce the same effect on the target language readers as the original text has done on the source language readers. In terms of reproducing the style of the original, Nida (1969) argues that"it is functional equivalence which is required, whether on the level of content or on the level of style".The study discusses how to apply dynamic equivalence to the translation of humor in O. Henry's short stories in respect of translation methods and evaluation. As for the translation methods, the discussion focuses on literal translation, adaptation, literal translation with annotation and literal translation combined with adaptation. With respect to the evaluation, the study focuses on the translation of universal humor, cultural humor and linguistic humor.This study suggests that Nida's dynamic equivalence theory can be best applied in humor translation and dynamic equivalence can be achieved both in content and in style.