浅析英语言语幽默的特点及其翻译

浅析英语言语幽默的特点及其翻译(8600字)
摘 要： 言语幽默以其特有的逻辑，修辞，文化特征一直以来被视为难题而被列入不可译类型。本文根据翻译学实证研究中的描述性研究方法，从翻译研究的角度出发，试图描述英语言语幽默中的双关语，夸张法，突降法等修辞手法和其文化特征，并针对上述特征对言语幽默的可译以及不可译成分加以探讨。同时指出随着人们对翻译本质的认识的加深和新理论的产生，我们应该重新审视言语幽默的不可译性的问题。随后应用目的论和变译理论为指导，对英语言语幽默的汉译策略加以探讨，提出了补偿翻译等翻译策略。
   
关键词：言语幽默；特点；翻译

A Tentative Study of the Features
of English Verbal Humor and Its Translation
Abstract: Translation of verbal humor has been regarded despairing as a result of the difference in logics, rhetoric and culture of source and target languages. This paper, discussing verbal humor from translation aspect on the basis of a descriptive study, attempts to brief on the rhetorical devices such as pun, hyperbole, anticlimax etc. and cultural elements involved in verbal humor, and studies the classification of the transferable and untransfereable categories among these elements. Meanwhile, with the change of people’s translation ideology and the emergence of new theories, we have reason to say the translatability of verbal humor is much higher than we have thought. It discusses the translation strategies of verbal humor with the Skopos theory and Translation Variation Theory as the guiding theories, and summarizes the translation strategies such as compensation translation.

Key words: Verbal humor; Features; Translation

Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………1
Key words……………………………………………………………………………………1
Introduction…………………………………………………………..………………………2
1 A survey of humor……………………………..................……………..……………….…4
1.1 Evolution of the meaning of humor……………………………………………………...4
1.2 Definition of humor …………………………………………………………………….. 4
1.3 Classification of humor …...….….….….…..…………………………………………….5
1.4 Functions of humor…………………………………………………………………...….5
1.4.1 Social function..……………………………………………………………………...…6
1.4.2 Psychological function……………………………..……..………………………..…..6
1.5 Major western humor theories………………………………………………………...….7
1.5.1 Superiority theories……………………………………………………………….……7
1.5.2 Incongruity theories……….……………………………………………………….…...7
1.5.3 Psychoanalytic theories………………………………………………………..……….7
1.5.4 Linguistic theories.…...………………………………………………………..…….…8
2 Features of English verbal humor………….…..……………………...............…..…….…8
2.1 Rhetorical features of verbal humor………..……....……………………………….……9
2.1.1 Pun………………………………………………………………………………….…..9
2.1.2 Parody…………………………………………………………………………………10
2.1.3 Hyperbole……………………………………………………………………….…….10
2.1.4 Anti-climax ………………………………………………………………………...…11
2.1.5 Syllepsis and zeugma …..………………………………………………………..…...11
2.1.6 Malapropism, spoonerism and hypallage……………………………………………..11
2.1.7 Various figures…………………………………………………………………..…….12
2.2 Cultural features of verbal humor………………………………………..……..............12
3 Translatability and untranslatability of verbal humor……………………………............14
3.1 Untranslatability………………………………………………………………………...14
3.2 Translatability…………………………………………………………………………...15
3.2.1 Traditional translatable categories………………………………………………….....15
3.2.2 Translatability of the untranslatable…………………………………………………..17
4 E-C translation strategies of verbal humor………………………………………………..18
4.1 Literal translation……………………………………………………………………….18
4.2 Compensation translation……………………………………………………………….19
4.2.1 Annotation…………………………………………………………………………….19
4.2.2 Substitution……………………………………………………………………………20
4.2.3 Recontextualization…………………………………………………………………...20
4.2.4 Splitting………………………………………………………………………….…….21
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..21
Notes………………………………………………………………………………………...22
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………23
Acknowledgements………….……………………………………………………………...24