A Study Of Translation Of Humor In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

Eugene A. Nida developed Functional Equivalence Theory (FET) in1960s, which has contributed a lot to the translation study. Since then, many scholars began to do researches on translation from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the representative of famous American humorist, Mark Twain. For more than one century, this novel has been listed in the canon of great novels. Works and articles of criticism on this novel have been numerous; yet most of the critics’ preoccupation is on the humor phenomenon. A few of them are on the humor translation. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the humor translation of this book from the perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory.The thesis first studies the humor in the source text with the classification of humor by J. R. Schmitz, namely, universal humor, cultural humor, linguistic humor. And humor effects in the source text were illustrated in details. Then, the thesis attempts to explore the application of Nida’s functional equivalence theory to the translation of humor in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with closest principle and natural principle involved. All the cases are from Zhang Wanli’s translation. According to different types of humor, various methods are suggested, such as literal translation, literal translation plus annotation and substitution.The study suggests that Nida’s functional equivalence theory can be well applied in humor translation. And in translation practice, extensive methods should be used to achieve the closest and most natural equivalence.