A Pragmatic Approach To The Translation Of Pun-From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

This thesis begins with the definition of pun.Pun is a humorous linguistic,social and cultural phenomenon,a communicative policy as well.It exploits the sound and meaning to convey two meanings,literal and implicit meaning for fun or satire.Pun translation is not simply to switch codes,but also to take the communicative and cultural elements into consideration.How to maintain either humor or satire in target language?Not a few scholars study it from different approaches,for instance, Rhetoric Approach,Relevance-theoretic Approach,Semantic Approach,Semiotics Approach and Socio-semiotics Approach etc.On the basis of the past findings,the author,guided by the theory of adaptation by Jef Verschueren,tries to explore more. According to Adaptation Approach,variability,negotiability and adaptability are three basic properties of language.Variability and negotiability are the foundation,and adaptability is the result,which enables the pun translator to make negotiable linguistic choices from a large range of possibilities as to reach the communicative intentions.Making contextual correlates of adaptability is the core of pun translation. The pun translator tends to make proper linguistic choices to adapt to either source or target text,or even both.From the intra-lingual and extra-lingual aspects,the author elaborates the process of adaptation while translating pun,and puts forward some techniques for pun translation.