On Humor Translation Of Chinese Text

This paper tries to apply the General Theory of Verbal Humor(GTVH) to analyze the humorous effect of Mo Yan’ s work. The GTVH and Skopos Theory will be combined to analyze the translation of Howard Goldblatt’ s English version Shifu, You’ ll Do Anything for a Laugh. The research objects are about 162 verbal humor texts extracted respectively from Mo Yan’ s Chinese work and Goldblatt’ s English version. The research methods are briefly summarized as follows: 1.Collecting the valid data, and establishing the Chinese-English parallel database. The original works and the translated version serve as source of data collection. Six parameters proposed in the GTVH are marked in each humorous instance. 2. The collected data is divided into two categories, namely, humorous text without rhetorical device and humorous text with rhetorical device. The analysis of the humorous effect of texts are carried out based on the GTVH. As for these two different kinds of texts, the GTVH and Skopos Theory will be combined to analyze the translation methods of humorous texts in the database. The research field mainly covers six parameters, joke similarity, the de-normalized type and normalized type(proposed by Ge Lingling and He Yuanjian), the relative application of Skopos Theory in the process of humor translation.The main content of the research are concluded as follows: firstly, collect and integrate the domestic and overseas research situation of humor, humor translation and Mo Yan’ s work; secondly, introduce the main concepts of GTVH and Extended Theory as well as the clear illustration of the application of GTVH and Skopos Theory in humor translation; lastly, apply the GTVH to analyze how the source text produces the humor and whether the target text successfully maintains the humor of source text; the combination of GTVH and Skopos Theory will be carried out to analyze whether the translation methods are effective and whether the function of humor is realized.The major findings are summarized below: 1. In the Chinese-English parallel database, humorous texts with rhetorical devices make up the major part. 2. The joke similarity is suitable for comparing and contrasting the similarity between the original works and its translated version. 3. In the translated version, the translation methods adopted by Howard Goldblatt are ranked in the descending order: literal translation, paraphrase, omission, combination and substitution. 4. According to Skopos Theory, the process of realizing the function of humor involves two major factors, namely, adopting the expression that is familiar, understandable and acceptable for TT readers; using a general sentence or a rhetorical device. In conclusion, the translated version Shifu, You’ll Do Anything for A Laugh by Howard Goldblatt successfully conveys the humorous effect in the source text, hence, fulfills the essential function of humorous texts.