On The Translating Of Humorous Malapropism-Alice's Adventures In Wonderland As A Case Study

The author gives a descriptive study on the translation of malapropism, in the hope of providing some guidance for the translation of the particular text. Malapropism refers to the comic misuse of language. As a kind of rhetorical device, it first appeared in Shakespeare's works, but did not gain its formal name until 1775, when Mrs. Malaprop, a comic figure, appeared in Richard Sheridan's comedy The Rivals. Up till now, few scholars have studied the special rhetorical device, let alone its translation. People use to regard it as a negative linguistic phenomenon. However, as the device is applied in more and more works and the satisfactory effect is achieved, more and more scholars become interested in this figure of speech. As a result, how to retain the rhetorical effect of the malapropism in the target text becomes hard nut to crack for the translator.The author uses the Skopostheorie and GTVH as the theoretical framework for the research topic. Firstly, Skopostheorie can guide the translator to reproduce the humor in the target text. namely, the Skopos of malapropism's translation is to use an instrumental translation to reproduce the functional units of malapropism's humor. Secondly, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) can help translator locate its functional units. Then the author adapts the mechanism of GTVH into a simplified model which is more suitable for the analysis of malapropism. In the adapted model, Script Opposition, Situation, Logical Mechanism, and Language are hierarchically arranged in the order of importance. The theme of this model is that translators should reproduce or create an acceptable Logic Mechanism to reproduce the similar Script Opposition within certain Situation, even though Language might be altered. In order to illustrate and prove the applicability of this model, the author selects some examples from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as case studies.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to this study, including its background and methodology. Chapter 2 reviews relevant studies on the translation of both malapropism and humor. Chapter 3 illustrates the theoretical basis of this thesis-Skopostheorie and GTVH, and the adapted model based on these two theories. Chapter 4 carries out case study to illustrate how far this model will go in the translation of malapropism. Chapter 5 is a conclusion of the thesis. Also, the limitations of the research and suggestions for future studies are pointed out.