A Study On Humor Translation In Subtitling Of The Big Bang Theory In Light Of Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory

With the accelerating development of science and technology as well as the increasing integration of world economy, more and more foreign audiovisual products, especially American sitcoms, have flooded into China and have gained widespread popularity from Chinese people. American sitcoms, aiming at provoking laughter among the viewing audience every half a minute, is heavily involved with the frequent production of humor through the creation of comic conflicts in addition to funny dialogues created by characters of sitcoms. Consequently, it’s very natural that humor translation plays a decisive and critical role in creating and appreciating the general effects of sitcoms. As the quality of humor translation in subtitling has crucial influences on the audience’s apprehending and appreciating the humor in the source text and even determines the ultimate success or failure of the audiovisual products, it is of profound importance to enhance the quality of humor translation in subtitling and humor translation in subtitling should receive as much attention and concentration as it deserves.This thesis attempts to probe into humor translation in subtitling of the popular English sitcom entitled The Big Bang Theory under the guidance of Verschueren’s adaptation theory, aiming at exploring some feasible translation methods for humor translation in subtitling. Since humor in sitcoms is characterized with the dynamic combination of audio and visual elements instead of being static in the traditional sense, adaptation theory with dynamic context adaptability standing at the core, exhibits more theoretical advantages. This thesis is composed of five parts. Besides introduction and conclusion, the thesis includes three parts. The introduction part presents the research background, significance, methodology as well as the thesis structure. Chapter one provides a systematic analysis of humor translation and subtitling. This part points out that being culture bounded, humor frequently makes itself a tangible problem for translators due to various cultural barriers, different thinking patterns and language differences which are unavoidable. In audiovisual products, coupled with the temporal and spatial bottlenecks imposed on humor translation by audio and visual channels, translators take on the severe task of presenting the subtitled versions on the screen within limited time. Therefore, humor translation in subtitling of audiovisual products proves to be confronted with great difficulties and challenges. Chapter two introduces adaptation theory proposed by Verschueren as a theoretical framework for the development of the later chapter. According to adaptation theory, language use is a dynamic process along with continuous choices and adaptation, which is made by language users, either consciously or unconsciously. In chapter three, adaptation theory is applied to the analysis of humor translation in subtitling of The Big Bang Theory from the following two aspects:adaptation to context and adaption to structure. In order to realize the maximum transmission of the humorous intention in the source text, this thesis explores several applicable translation methods, including literal translation, annotation, substitution, addition,omission and modulation, etc. The conclusion part starts with a summary of major findings for this study. The limitations are revealed. In the end, the thesis comes up with some feasible suggestions for further researches.On the basis of the case study, this thesis finally reaches the conclusion:In the process of humor translation in subtitling of The Big Bang Theory, subtitlers should continuously make choices and adaptation, flexibly adopt applicable translation methods so as to reproduce the original humor effects of The Big Bang Theory and make the target audience eventually get the same or similar humor effects as viewers in the source text do.