ABSTRACT

American sitcoms are popular among Chinese youth for its humorous effect, fast-moving plots and different culture. However, the humor which teems in American sitcoms can not be understood very well by Chinese viewers owing to the large differences in culture. Audiences in China may not laugh and can not understand the plots if humorous subtitles are not translated appropriately. American sitcoms make sense only when the target audiences laugh where American audiences laugh. This is in accordance with Nida’s Functional Equivalence. That’s why this thesis studies, by taking Modern Family as a case study, the humor translation in the subtitles of American sitcoms guided by Nida’s Functional Equivalence. By analyzing some examples, this paper classifies humor in American sitcoms into universal, linguistic and cultural humor. Guided by the theory of Nida’s Functional Equivalence, this paper holds that in order to properly convey the humorous effect in the subtitles. Functional equivalence should be achieved at universal, linguistic and cultural level. We hope this analysis will be helpful for the further study of the humor subtitle translation.

Key words：American sitcom; humor translation; subtitle; functional equivalence

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-2

2.1Previous Studies on Subtitle Translation-2

2.2 Previous Studies on Translation of Humor-3

Chapter Three HUMOR IN AMERICAN SITCOMS-5

3.1 The Significance of Humor in American Sitcoms-5

3.2 Classifications of Humor-5

3.2.1 Universal humor-5

3.2.2 Linguistic humor-7

3.2.3 Cultural humor-7

3.3 Difficulties of Humor Translation in American Sitcoms-8

Chapter Four FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE THEORY-9

4.1 A Brief History of Functional Equivalence Theory-9

4.2 Main Content of Functional Equivalence-9

4.3 The Significance of Functional Equivalence Theory-10

Chapter Five A CASE STUDY OF MODERN FAMILY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE-11

5.1About Modern Family-11

5.2 Classifications of Humor in Modern Family-11

5.2.1Universal humor-12

5.2.2Linguistic humor-12

5.2.3Cultural humor-14

5.3 The Application of Functional Equivalence to Translate Humor in Modern Family-15

5.3.1Equivalence of humor at word and above word level-15

5.3.2Equivalence of humor at syntactic level-17

5.3.3Equivalence of humor at cultural level-18

Chapter Six CONCLUSION-20

WORKS CITED.21