On Translation Of Humour From The Perspective Of Dynamic Equivalence

The first four chapters of Boomsday written by Taylor Buckley are selected as the translated part.Buckley is an American political satirist who is called as "America's greatest living political satirist".Many of his works become bestsellers which are very popular among readers.His works have an obvious feature of humour in language which is produced by using different ways.On the basis of Nida's equivalence theory,the thesis attempts to explore the translation of humour in the first four chapters of Boomsday.After an analysis of translation of humour in the novel,it can be concluded that the key to translating humour is to achieve functional equivalence between the original and target text.It means that the translation must be able not only to convey the meaning of the original text accurately,but also to produce humorous effect as the original text.The thesis analyzes linguistic humour in the novel from three levels:lexis,rhetoric and syntax.In the process of translating humour at the three levels,there are different translation difficulties.Nida's equivalence theory focuses on equivalent response of readers of the translation and original text.In order to achieve the effect,different translation methods should be adopted.As for the translation of humour at the lexical level,literal translation plus annotation is used;as for the translation of humour at the rhetorical level,either free translation or literal translation is adopted;as for the translation of humour at the syntactical level,literal translation is sometimes a good choice.Whatever translation methods are adopted,the purpose is to make readers of translation feel the humorous effect of the original text.The equivalence theory has great significance for guidance of humour translation.Sometimes,being faithful to the original text and producing the humorous effect can't be achieved simultaneously in the process of translating humour.Therefore,a balance should be kept between both of them by using translation methods flexibly from the perspective of dynamic equivalence.