On Verbal Humor Translation

Verbal humor is a prevalent phenomenon of daily exchanges as well as a languageform often used in literary works. With the continuous development of human society andsocial sciences, the study on humor has been expanded greatly. In addition to linguistics,such disciplines as aesthetics, philosophy, sociology, anthropology are involved in verbalhumor. The inextricable link between humor and culture makes humor translation muchmore difficult.Based on the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) proposed by Attardo&Ranskin and Ge Lingling’s Extended Theory of the GTVH, the present research firstextracts humorous discourses from Lao She’s humorous novel Er Ma and the Englishversion Mr. Ma and Son translated by sinologist Julie Jimmerson to compile aChinese-English bilingual database; then it attempts to address the following questionsafter quantitative and qualitative analysis:(1) Is the humorous effect of the original textstransferred to the target text?(2) What is the most frequently adopted translation method intranslating verbal humor?(3) What’s the most effective method of verbal humor translation?(4) What are the transformation models of rhetorical devices?The major findings are as follows:(1) The translation version is successful in a broad sense for the vast majority oftranslations retain the humor effect of the original.(2) Simile and hyperbole are the principal triggers of verbal humor.(3) Literal translation is the most frequently applied means while substitution and synthesization are the most efficient ones.(4) Three transformation models can be found in the translation phase: transforming withthe same device, transforming with other devices and deleting the device.The results testify that the translation of Chinese verbal humor can be proceededunder the guidance of the GTVH and the Extended Theory. In the process of verbal humortranslation, reservation of the parameters should be carefully considered so that the targetreader can also feel the humorous sense, which is the ultimate goal of verbal humortranslation.