Abstract:Humor which bears quite a strong communicative function has become an important part of our daily life. Along with the globalization, an increasing number of western teleplays and movies have been introduced into China. How to achieve appropriate translation of English teleplays successfully becomes an urgent task for translators. As a pragmatic theory of interpreting communication, Relevance Theory (RT) proposed by Sperber and Wilson has provided theoretical basis for translation with communicative characteristics and it is practically applicable to the verbal humor translation in situation comedies (sitcoms). 

From the perspective of RT, this thesis has conducted a comprehensive and detailed study on translation methods of verbal humors in the America sitcom the Big Bang Theory which are translated by YYeTs Film Group. It aims to illustrate RT’s interpretive power on verbal humor translation.

Keywords: Relevance Theory  E-C translation  the Big Bang Theory  verbal humors

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 The Significance and Purpose of the Thesis-1

1.2 The Structure of the Thesis-1

Chapter Two Relevance Theory-3

2.1 Ostensive-inferential Communication-3

2.2 Contextual and Cognitive Environment-4

2.3 Principles of Relevance-4

2.4 The Development of RT in Translation-5

Chapter Three Features of Verbal Humors in Sitcoms and Its Interpretation-6

3.1 Introduction of the Big Bang Theory-6

3.2 Features of Verbal Humors in Sitcoms-6

3.3 Verbal Humor’s Interpretation under the Guidance of RT-7

Chapter Four Methods of Verbal Humor Translation from the Perspective of RT-9

4.1 Direct Translation-9

4.1.1 Literal Translation-9

4.1.2 Literal Translation with Annotation-10

4.2 Indirect Translation-11

4.2.1 Addition-11

4.2.2 Paraphrase-12

Chapter Five Conclusion-13

5.1 Summary-13

5.2 Limitations-13

References-14