A Study Of Humor In The Translation Of Wei Cheng From Perspectives Of General Theory Of Verbal Humor And Functional Equivalence Theory

Humor and humor translation are eye-catchers for scholars.Wei Cheng,written by Qian Zhongshu and translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao,is full of humor in quantity and quality,making it an ideal material for the study of humor translation.This thesis decodes humor structures in Wei Cheng and Fortress Besieged respectively,and then compares their similarity,to explain the relationship between humor structure and humorous effect,lastly,translation strategies will be proposed accordingly.This thesis applies general theory of verbal humor and functional equivalence theory as guidance.According to the former theory,humor structure requires six parameters—scripts opposition,logic mechanism,situation,narrative strategy,target and language to create humorous effect.After examining humor in Wei Cheng and comparing humor structures in source text and target text,this thesis concluded that when target text reproduces humor structure of source text,target readers can have a taste of humor as original readers,in this sense,literal translation is applicable.Suppose target text omits some parameters of humor structure,humorous effect cannot be delivered.Free translation,literal translation,addition and substitution are used to restore six parameters,for the sake of delivering humorous effect to target readers.This thesis,adopting general theory of verbal humor to explain humor structure and functional equivalence to guide translation process,provides a new perspective for the study of humor translation.