Subtitling Translation Of Puns In American Tv Plays-a Study From Relevance Theory

Pun has become a widely-used rhetorical feature applied advertising logo,literature and lines with its combination of wisdom and humor by use of conciselanguage. Although it’s easy to understand the nature of pun, which is made up of2layers of meanings, the systematic study on it began since recent years. Especiallysince1990s, as more and more scholars and translators recognized the translatabilityof puns, the research on its application in different forms of writing has gone further.In spite of that, it’s universally admitted the difficulties of translating punsappropriately.During the recent years, American TV Plays have become a popular way forChinese people to entertain themselves, learn English and accept foreign cultures,which put forward higher requirements for subtitle translators. Out of the favor ofAmerican TV Plays and strong interest toward subtitle translation, I notice graduallythat translation of puns in subtitles doesn’t arouse much attention as that of puns inadvertising. Although when watching, I usually find amazing translating, the lack ofsystematic study on that still makes me feel unprofessional and hasty. The translatedversion is either given by the translator accidentally and keeping align with theoriginal language or literal one out of rush and then leading to obscurity of audience.This paper is to carry out the detailed study on puns in American TV Plays, so as toprovide a professional way to interpret them and also a frame of strategies to translatethem into Chinese. These two parts constitute the main body of this paper.The translation theory this paper is based on is Relevance Theory created bySperber. D and Wilson. D in1986, which serves as the golden rule in studying punsowing to its ostensive-inferential process. The cognitive and communicativeprinciples in Relevance Theory are the foundation I rely on when I write this paper,thus making up the theoretical foundation of this paper.