Abstract：Since 1990s, information technology and globalization have developed rapidly, and with their development, the speed of cultural communication accelerates greatly. Plentiful western films and television works pour into China and are welcomed by Chinese audiences. American sitcoms, which are short but close to life, reflecting all aspects of life, and full of witty humor, have won a huge group of fans. Modern Family is just one of them. Therefore, subtitle translation is in urgent need, and humor translation in subtitling becomes the new object of translation research.

From the view of relevance theory, the paper explores humor subtitle translation taking the American sitcom Modern Family as the example. Besides, the thesis explores how to achieve the optimal relevance during translating. In addition, the paper analyzes the strategies and methods for humor translation in sitcom subtitling on the basis of abundant examples taken from Modern Family, hoping to offer some help to future studies.

Keywords:  relevance theory  humor translation  Modern Family

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background and Significance of This Study-1

1.2 Structure of This Thesis-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Previous Studies on Humor Subtitle Translation-3

2.2 A Brief Introduction to Relevance Theory-4

2.2.1 Ostension-inference and Context-4

2.2.2 Maximal Relevance and Optimal Relevance-5

2.3 The Relationship between Relevance Theory and Translation-5

Chapter Three The Relevance-theoretic Account of Humor Translation in Modern Family-7

3.1 Introduction to Modern Family-7

3.2 Introduction to Humor-7

3.3 Humor in Modern Family-7

3.3.1 Linguistic Humor-8

3.3.2 Context Humor-8

3.3.3 Culture Humor-9

3.4 Application of Relevance Theory to the Translation of Modern Family-9

3.4.1 Direct Translation-10

3.4.2 Indirect Translation-11

Chapter Four Conclusion-13

4.1 Major Findings of the Study-13

4.2 Limitation of the Study-13

References-14