A Study Of Translation Of Verbal Humor From The Perspectives Of Equivalence Theory And Skopos Theory

The paper firstly carries on a study on the definition of humor only to find definitions vary with different schools for different purposes of study. With numerous variant definitions, humor could therefore be reckoned as a term of taxonomy free. For the purpose of study, and according to the relationship between humor and language, the paper gives a basic classification of verbal and nonverbal humor; and according to the features of verbal humor and its translatability, it is further separated into universal, cultural and linguistic ones. Through the comparison of English and Chinese humor, they are found to share with each other the same cognitive mechanism. Principles to produce disparity to mislead and intrigue humor are similar in the general way between English and Chinese humor. This proves the translation of humor across English and Chinese is basically possible. The comparison also reveals that differences between English and Chinese humor definitely pose great predicament for the translation. Humor though primarily is translatable; translatability witnesses its less possibility in linguistic and cultural ones, which has dominated much of the humor research of the paper.The comparison of the functions of humor across English and Chinese is also carried out since in the study of humor, importance has always been attached to its functions as the core consideration. Humor across English and Chinese turns up to express the same idea in different ways, but have the same psychological and sociological functions. The same function constitutes a precondition to translatability. Functional equivalence is expected since the universal psychological and social functions of English and Chinese humor overlap. Guided by the Skopos Theory, in the translation activity of humor, different cases are assessed within the social cultural framework of the TL with emphasis on the expected effects and functions. For the most challengeable linguistic humor, it may play with lexical ambiguity (as in puns), or make use of linguistic deviation like ill-formedness. Together with the creative application of rhetorical devices, humorous effects are intrigued. However, the deviation and rhetorical devices used innovatively are often hard to reproduce directly. In order to convey the message maximally and at the same time retain much of the function of the SL, the translator often turns to the semantic approximation in the TL with the same notion but different forms of expression. In this way, the translation strategy of adaptation is applied, finding substitutions in the target language and culture to fill in and compensate for which is lost.A lack of cultural background or an insufficient evaluation of the target recipients'linguistic ability, aesthetic consuetude, and cultural liability would render the translation unacceptable though conveying the message. Skopos Theory again offers a noticeable perspective, since it considers translation as a kind of communication with the practice of comparing, introducing, and absorbing the new aspects of another culture. Thus, for the translation of cultural humor as well as those playing with specific background knowledge, annotating and introducing the totally different and fire-now cultural background knowledge hold true.For the translation of universal humor, literal translation in the most cases is sufficiently to fulfill the skopos of achieving the same function.