从目的论角度分析情景喜剧_生活大爆炸_中幽默语的翻译.docx

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1、从目的论角度分析情景喜剧生活大爆炸 中幽默语的翻译 Analysis of Humor Translation in Sitcom The Big Bang Theory in Light of Skopostheorie 学科专业：外国语言学与应用语言学 研究生：王佳 指导教师：贾欣岚副教授 天津大学文法学院 二零一零年六月 独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作和取得的研究成果， 除了文中特别加以标注和致谢之处外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果， 也不包含为获 得 天津大学 或其他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工 作的同志对本研究所

2、做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。 学位论文作者签名： 签字日期： 年月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解 天津大学 有关保留、使用学位论文的规定。特授权 天津大学 可以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，并采用影印、缩 印或扫描等复制手段保存、汇编以供查阅和借阅。同意学校向国家有关部门或机构送交论文 的复印件和磁盘。 (保密的学位论文在解密后适用本授权说明） 学位论文作者签名： 导师签名： 签字日期： 年月日 签字日期： 年月日 幽默植根于语言和文化中，在不同的语言和文化中都占有重要的地位。目前 对幽默的研究大都是从文学、艺术、心理学等角度，

3、从翻译的侧面对幽默的研究 极少。而且由于幽默有着内在的文化特性，幽默翻译的不可译性显而易见，有些 学者甚至认为幽默是不可翻译的。 随着中外文化交流的不断加强，越来越多的国外影视作品出现在中国的荧 幕上，其中情景喜剧就是一种重要的影视类型。在情景喜剧作中幽默起着至关重 要的作用，而幽默语的翻译对目的语观众观赏整部喜剧起着决定性作用。 本文以功能翻译理论的核心一目的论为理论依据，对时下非常受欢迎的美 国情景喜剧生活大爆炸中的幽默语言进行了个案研究，分析译者在翻译生 活大爆炸中幽默语时所采取的具体策略及其得失。本文认为在幽默语的翻译过 程中，译者应该以再现原文中的幽默效果为首要原则，并根据目的语观众

4、的期望， 顺从目的语语言文化习惯， 选用恰 a 的翻译策略，将幽默的效果再现于译语，使 目的语观众理解原语中的幽默。 关键词：目的论；幽默语；情景喜剧 Abstract Humor is not only rooted in language and culture, but also an important part of different cultures and languages. Nowadays, the study on humor is mainly carried out from the perspective of literature, arts, and psyc

5、hology. There is very little study on humor from the angle of translation. Furthermore, because humor in different languages or cultures possesses particular rhetorical and cultural characteristics, the translatability of humor is controversial, and some researchers even claim that humor is untransl

6、atable. With the deepening communication between China and the Western world, more and more foreign movies and TV plays are shown on Chinese screen, among which are sitcoms. As a special audiovisual genre, English sitcom is featured by humor. Undoubtedly, the translation of humor plays a decisive ro

7、le in creating the desired effect of the comedy in target language audience. Based on the core theory of functional translation approaches - Skopostheorie, this thesis presents a case study of the humorous language in the popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory by analyzing the strategies that t

8、he translator adopts when translating the humorous language in this sitcom. It is suggested in this thesis that the translator should take the reproduction of the humorous effects of the source language as the chief principle and choose adequate translating strategies so as to make the target audien

9、ce perceive the humor of the source language in accordance with their expectations and the cultural customs of the target languages. Keywords: Skopostheorie; Humorous Language; Sitcom II Contents m . i ABSTRACT . II Contents. Ill Introduction . 1 Chapter I English Humor and Translation . 5 1.1 The D

10、efinition of Humor . 5 1.2 The Classification of Humor . 6 1.3 Humor and translation . 7 1.4 Humor in sitcoms . 8 Chapter II Translation in Light of Skopostheorie . 10 2.1 A Brief Introduction to Skopostheorie . 10 2.2 Basic Concepts of Skopostheorie: Aim, Purpose, Intention and Function. 12 2.3 Thr

11、ee Rules and Their Relations . 13 2.3.1 Skopos Rule . 13 2.3.2 Coherence Rule . 14 2.3.3 Fidelity Rule . 15 2.3.4 Relationship of the Rules . 16 Chapter III Humor in The Big Bang Theory and Translation Strategies . 18 3.1 An Introduction of The Big Bang Theory . 18 3.2 Classification of Humor in The

12、 Big Bang Theory . 19 3.2.1 Linguistic Humor . 20 3.2.2 Cultural Humor . 23 3.2.3 Universal Humor . 25 3.3 Analysis of Translation Strategies of Humor in The Big Bang Theory in Light of Skopoetheorie . 27 3.3.1 Analysis in Light of Skopos Rule . 27 3.3.1.1 The Intended Text Function . 27 3.3.1.2 The

13、 Addressees . 28 3.3.1.3 The Medium . 30 3.3.1.4 The Motive . 33 HI 3.3.2 Analysis in Light of Coherence Rule . 33 3.3.3 Analysis in Light of Fidelity Rule . 40 Conclusion. 45 Bibliography . 48 Acknowledgements . 51 IV Introduction Introduction Humor is a pervasive feature of human life which crosse

14、s racial, cultural, sexual and class barriers and plays an indispensable role in different cultures and languages. It is the ability or quality of people, objects or situations to evoke feeling of amusement in other people. Life would be dull and colorless without humor. In various disciplines, such

15、 as philosophy, aesthetics, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, a lot of research related to humorous language in literary works as well in movies and TV series has been conducted. Three traditional theories of humor find the essence of humor in three aspects: superiority, incongruity and relie

16、f from restraint. Some linguists, in recent years, have shown increasing interest in humor phenomenon. However, they are confronted with difficulties in their research on humor from the perspective of the linguistics or discourse analysis, the reason for which are two-fold: firstly, its difficult to

17、 categorize humor due to the various language aspects that humor touches upon; secondly, its far from sufficient to fully explain humor simply through the linguistic approach. Despite the difficulties, more and more researches the linguistic approach has shed some light on humor research and constit

18、uted a theoretical foundation. Compared with the fruits yielded from linguistics, research of humor from the translation approach lags far behind. Not much can be found of research of humor in this aspect from both domestic and foreign academic journals. Nevertheless, the connection between research

19、 on humor and research on translation gradually draws the attention of some western humor researchers and enlightening outcomes emerge. In 1928, Henry Bergson distinguished the humor expressed by language. However, it is not until the ends of the 1980s researchers in this field have agreed on the te

20、chniques of translating humor. In 1989, some translators and teachers made a great contribution to this issue. Alkin Van Crugten considers the nature of humorous writings and translation strategies on the basis of his exemplifying “the type of l Introduction adaption with reflective and inventive ef

21、forts”（ Crugten, 1989: 32). Detra S. Raphaelson-West holds that similar to poetry translation, in which the form of the translation is an integral part of its original appeal, it is supposed that the translator should distinguish three types of humorous writings: linguistics, cultural and universal

22、with increasing translatability, and the corresponding translation approaches from direct translation to “take the idea and write a target-culture from scratch” (Rapheal-West, 1989:134). Peter Newmark touches upon the problem of pun translation by saying that pun are most easily translated if they a

23、re based on Graeco-latinisms that have near-equivalents in the source and target languages. (Newmark, 2001:29). He also states that “The translation of pun is of marginal importance and of irresistible interest”. (Newmark, 2001:29) Interests in and development of this topic in the Chinese academic c

24、ircle, on the other hand, somewhat need further and harder inputs as few scholars have attempted to explore humor using a translation approach (Quyang, 2002:49). The on-line search on with the key word “humor” in December of 2008 reveals that there are 2630 published papers from the year 1995 to 20

25、08, the topics of which are varied. Further search based on the previous one with the key word “translation” presents only 78 papers. Liu Miqing, in his book Style and Translation says that “language is a complicated thinking and communicating tool. Humorous and punning language can hardly be transl

26、ated because humor comes from the witty use of words, and the wit easily vanishes in translating process”.（ Liu Miqing, 1998: 33) Sun Yifeng believes that translating humorous utterances requires consideration and the psychological expectation of the target language readers. Translators need to comb

27、ine the expectation with culture, syntactic and rhetorical manipulation in the target language so as to reproduce the humor (Sun Yifeng, 2000:58). Quyang Lifeng considers that the aim of humor translation is to make the target language text achieve the humorous effect identical to that of the source

28、 language. He studies humor translation mainly from the perspective of functionalist translation (Quyang Lifeng, 2001). 2 Introduction A sitcom or situational comedy, originally devised for radio but today typically found on television, is a special genre of comedy. It usually consists of recurring

29、characters in a format in which there is one or more humorous story lines centered on a common environment, such as homes or workplaces. The humorous effect of a sitcom is often achieved with various devises in its daily chat between different characters, such as one-liners, wordplay, exaggerated fa

30、cial expressions etc. in which humorous language remains the main devise which produce laughter in the audience. However, verbally expressed humor is among the most difficult to translate. Translators are often faced with the seemingly impossible task of translating verbal humor while keeping as muc

31、h its informational and pragmatic content as possible and, at the same time, producing a similar effect as it would provoke in the source language culture. A potent translation theory is needed to guide the translator in conveying the humor in the source text. Skopostheorie which emerged in Germany

32、in 1970s is one part of the school of function-oriented approach to the theory and practice of translation. The Skopostheorie states that the aim of translation is the prime principle determining any translation process. Under the Skopostheorie, the aim of translating humor in sitcoms is to enable t

33、he audience of the target language to recognize and appreciate the humor in the source language. If the translation falls to fulfill the humorous effect, it should be regarded as a failure. The Skopostheorie allows the same text being translated in different ways according to the purpose of the targ

34、et text Under the Skopostheorie, the translators have more freedom to decide the appropriate translation strategies instead of being limited by the concept of reproducing the source text. The principles of the Skopostheorie are discussed in this article, and then they will be applied to make a compa

35、rison between the humorous language in The Big Bang Theory and its Chinese version. A descriptive-contrastive methodology is adopted in this thesis. The examples concerned are taken from the video material downloaded from the Internet. The thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters and a con

36、clusion. The first chapter gives the brief introduction to the theory of humor, including 3 Introduction the definition and classification of humor, the relationship between humor and translation and finally, the features of humor in sitcoms. The second chapter serves as the theoretical bases of thi

37、s thesis, the Skopostheorie, including a brief introduction to Skopostheorie, the basic concepts and three rules of Skopostheorie. The third chapter is the main part of this thesis. In this chapter, firstly a brief introduction to the sitcom The Big Bang Theory is given and a classification of the h

38、umor in this sitcom is made. After that a detailed analysis of the strategies the translator adopted in translating the humorous language in light of the three rules of Skopostheorie in this sitcom are made. Lastly, the author gives a conclusion of this thesis, restating the significance of the pres

39、ent study and pointing out its limitations. Suggestions for future studies are also given in this paper. 4 Chapter 1 English Humor and Translation Chapter I English Humor and Translation Humor is an everyday phenomenon and has been studied for hundreds of years. Yet there is still no agreement on th

40、e definition and classification of humor. The origin of the term derives from the humeral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which stated that a mix of fluids known as humors controlled human health and emotion. Studies on humor can be traced back to Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, through Hume and Kant to the recent Bergson and Freud. Notable studies of humor have come from the pens of