Humor Translation In Sitcoms Based On General Theory Of Verbal Humor

As the saying goes in the theatre industry,comedy does not travel well.In the past two decades,however,many popular American sitcoms have been introduced to China via Internet and become a great success.The determining factor for sitcoms to succeed in other cultures is the translation of verbal humor,which is the focus of this research.This research is developed based on the General Theory of Verbal Humor(GTVH)as its theoretical framework.The theory,originated from the Scripted-based Semantic Theory of Humor,proposes six knowledge resources(KRs)or parameters,including Language,Narrative Strategy,Target,Situation,Logical Mechanism and Script Opposition.It could be used as a powerful instrument for understanding translation of sitcom captions from a linguistics perspective.Through the application of the six Knowledge Sources,the author has built up a corpus of humorous texts extracted from 22 episodes of the seventh season of Modern Family,a well-known sitcom both at home and abroad.Humor is preserved to different levels based on the number of KRs is reserved.The research reveals that the main reason for the disappearance of humour is that the script opposition is not preserved in the target text,which is mostly because of failing to preserve the language or narrative strategy parameter.This is often the case when source texts contain English alien sources and rhetorical devices.Therefore,the biggest challenge for translators is the translation of the above two parameters.Due to limited space and time in subtitle translation,literal translation with annotation is the most common and usually the most effective way to deliver humorous effect,substitution is ideal when it's available,while omission always leads to disappearance of humor.