A Comparative Study On Chinese Translation Of Verbal Humor

Humor often brings people happiness.It is both witty and funny;both self-deprecating and ridicule.Indeed,humor is a subtle expression,which helps to eliminate hostility,to ease friction and to prevent escalation of contradictions.Nowadays,humor can even motivate staff morale and improve productivity.With the development of economic globalization,various languages are constantly blending.Humorous language undoubtedly becomes a major obstacle in language communication.Therefore,the study of verbal humor is an essential part of linguistic study in our society.Based on the General Theory of Verbal Humor and its Extended Theory,the research has established an English-Chinese bilingual parallel database with Oscar Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Ernest,Yu Guangzhong's version Bu Ke Er Xi and Chang Numfung's version Ren Zhen Wei Shang.Through the database retrieval,quantitative analysis,qualitative analysis and case study,the author tends to explore the following questions: 1.What is the characteristic of Wilde's humor? 2.What are the similarities and differences between the two Chinese versions in translating verbal humor? 3.Is the original humor effect successfully transferred to the two versions? Which one retains better? 4.What is the relationship between different transformation models of rhetorical device and the retention of humor?Through a series of studies,it is found that the rhetorical device is an important factor in the generation of verbal humor for Wilde;irony and paradox are most commonly adopted by Wilde to realize satirical humor effects,pun has been used greatly in the name of characters in the comedy,hyperbole,oxymoron,metaphor and antithesis are frequently used rhetorical devices;Target Text 1 and Target Text 2 both use different translation methods for different humorous types,humor generated by irony,paradox,hyperbole and metaphor adopts a large number of literal translations,and more free translations are used in puns,but the most effective one is substitution,antithesis more often uses synthesization;the two Chinese versions have basically retained the humorous effects of the source text,TT1 reserves better than TT2,especially the retention of pun;the model of transforming with the same device and with other device both has achieved all the humorous effects in the ST;while the model of transforming with no device has failed.In humor translation,no matter what translation methods have been used,the retention of the parameters should be firstly taken into account to ensure that the remaining of humor.