| Debarking is selected from a collection of short stories titled Bark whose author, Lorrie Moore, is a famous contemporary American short story writer. It mainly tells a story about a couple who both had a failed marriage. They attract each other at first, but finally break up for various reasons.Humor is one of the main characteristics of Debarking, as well as a difficulty in translation. The thesis first gives a brief introduction of theoretical study about humor and its translation. Then through the analysis of the humor in Debarking, the thesis classifies the humor into three categories: linguistic humor, cultural background humor and contextual humor. Linguistic humor is mainly embodied in vocabulary and rhetoric. There are many homophones, homonyms and polysemous words in English, and the ambiguity caused by these words often can make humorous effects, while rhetoric can also make humor. For example, by deliberately imitating aphorisms, parody can express new ideas through the changing parts and make the serious words with humor. Cultural background humor is always involved in specific culture, habitual expression ways and customs. Due to the differences in Chinese and English culture, this kind of humor is hard to translate. Contextual humor makes humor through the scene built by language. It’s not restricted by culture and language, so it is universal.Based on the study of the translation of these three humors, the thesis summarizes the translation methods towards each kind of humor. Linguistic humor is mainly presented by words’ features and rhetoric, while literal translation often can’t convey the effect of humor. For linguistic humor, shift and addition can reproduce the humor better. Cultural background humor can use literal translation with notes to translate. This method lets target readers understand the background knowledge and experience the original humor. Contextual humor just can use literal translation to show the humor of source text. |
PDF Full Text Request