A Study Of Puns In Walden In Its Chinese Translations

Walden, known as a masterpiece of transcendentalism by Henry Daivd Thoreau, is one of the most influential and compelling books in American literature. One of its language features is the use of puns which offer readers an understanding of its logic relations, an appreciation of its rhetoric features and realization of its transcendental ideas. This thesis intends to give a translation study of Walden between the original text and its Chinese translations from the perspective of puns.The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One discusses the translation of puns representing logical relations in phonetic, semantic and syntactic devices. Chapter Two discusses the translation of puns conveying rhetorical effects from the following aspects: effects of humor, effects of irony and effects of metaphor. Chapter Three discusses the translation of puns which deepen and sublime themes through context, syntactic form and intertextuality.In conclusion, this thesis discusses translation of puns in Walden from respects of linguistic, aesthetic and pragmatical features. According to the principle of relevance theory, the process of translation is to pursue the optimal relevance. Therefore, the translator can adopt various stategies to translate puns that can be summerized as follows: to separate puns, reveal the implication and transform the form of puns in terms of representing logical relations; to shift perspective, reconstruct the surface structure, repeat words or images that are the most effective methods in terms of conveying rhetorical effects; to supplement context, transform the forms and to add notes that are used in terms of deepening and subliming themes.