On The Translation Of Puns From English Into Chinese

As a figure of speech, puns are frequently created and used both in the ancient times and at present, both in literary works and in our daily life. They are often employed to add some special effects to texts. Because of the differences of languages and cultures, it is a great challenge to translate puns from English into Chinese. A pun often covers two referential meanings. One is the surface meaning, and the other is the underlying meaning. Besides, it also bears the pragmatic meaning. Generally speaking, it is hard or most of the time even impossible to find the complete equivalent of the original pun in the source language. On this ground, some translators hold that puns can not be translated.As a matter of fact, on account of identity of cognitive referent and the principle of isomorph in different languages, identity of thinking form, similarities in languages and the mutual infiltration of culture, translatability exist in all the languages. Nevertheless, due to the discrepancies of languages and cultures, translatability also has its own limitations. Since puns are related to the original language and culture, the limitations of translatability seem to be much more obvious.According to Catford, translatability is"a cline rather than a clear-cut dichotomy. SL texts and items are more or less translatable rather than absolutely translatable or untranslatable". (Catford 350) His view can be applied in the translation of puns. The translation of most puns causes some losses of the original ones. Nevertheless, some (though very limited number) of the versions of puns can express meanings of original puns without any loss. These versions depend on the coincident correspondence in pronunciation or word meaning between two languages. From the translation examples in this thesis, we can not simply conclude the translation of puns is possible or impossible. It is a matter of translation value. The fact is that just a few of puns can be translated from English into Chinese without much loss, while most puns can not be translated in an ideal manner.According to Nida's maximal definition of functional equivalence,"the readers of a translated text should be able to understand and appreciate it in essentially the same manner as the original readers did". (Nida 2001a, 87) In this sense, a version of a pun should cover both the two referential meanings and the pragmatic meaning. Successfully translating a pun requires a good mastery of both languages and techniques of translation. The embodiment of the linguistic meaning of an original pun, together with the pragmatic equivalent effect of the source language in the form of the same type of pun in the target language, is somewhat the ideal translation that we are supposed to pursue. If we treat the maximal functional equivalence as the standard of translating puns, the degree of the translatability of puns is low due to the discrepancies of languages and cultures of puns which have been referred to above. In many cases, the underlying pragmatic meaning in a pun is hard to retain. Sometimes, even the two referential meanings can not be retained in the version. In this sense, translation is an art of regret.Nida also gives the minimal definition of functional equivalence, that is,"the readers of a translated text should be able to comprehend it to the point that they can conceive of how the original readers of the text must have understood and appreciated it."(Nida 2001a, 87) This is the practical definition which is supposed to be followed in the translation of puns. If the losses in the translation of most puns are inevitable, translators are recommended to try their best to employ some other rhetoric means as compensation for the pragmatic meaning of puns. In this way, while the surface meaning and underlying meaning can be conveyed, the function of puns is also expressed though it is done in another way.Delabastita, a Belgium scholar, has put forward ten methods for translating puns in his books. This thesis intends to analyze the applicability of these methods on the guide of Nida's functional equivalence, and then tentatively puts forward the commonly used methods that are supposed to be adopted in the translation of puns from English into Chinese through detailed analysis.