Abstract

With the development of economic globalization and cross-cultural communication, more and more foreign audiovisual works have been introduced to China over the past years. American sitcoms, an on-site comedy, enjoy high popularity among Chinese people. Two Broke Girls, produced by American Columbia TV Station, is a typical sitcom which employs conversational language with a humorous tone from two characters of vivid personalities. However, different cultures laugh at different things and at different time, posing great obstacles in cross-cultural humor translation. Chinese and American cultures are so distinct from each other; therefore, the translation of sitcoms, a TV play genre typical in America obsessed with US-style humor, is no easy job. Whether Chinese audiences can understand the Chinese version of Two Broke Girls, its humor in particular, deserves further studies. This essay explores the humor translation from the perspective of Nida’s functional equivalence theory so as to interpret it more scientifically and systematically.

Key words: Functional Equivalence Theory; humor translation; Two Broke Girls

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-2

3 Humor translation and Functional Equivalence-3

3.1 Studies on humor translation-3

3.1.1 Studies on humor translation in the west-3

3.1.2 Studies on humor translation in China-3

3.1.3  The categories of humor translation-4

3.2 Functional Equivalence Theory and the Application-4

3.2.1 Definition and development of functional equivalence-4

3.2.2 The application of functional equivalence in humor translation-5

4 A Case Study—Humor Translation in Two Broke Girls-6

4.1 Brief introduction to Two Broke Girls-6

4.2 Humor translation in the Two Broke Girls from the perspective of functional equivalence-7

4.2.1 Translation of general verbal humor-8

4.2.2 Translation of culture-related humor-9

4.2.3 Translation of humor concerning rhetorical device-11

5 Conclusion-13

References-15