On Humorous Language Translation From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Humor plays an important part in people's life. Containing lots of linguistic and cultural connotations, it has strong national features. Therefore, it is extremely important to explore on humor translation. Nowadays, the study on humor is mainly carried out from the perspective of literature, arts, psychology and linguistics. There is very little study on humor from the angle of translation. Because of the differences of language and culture, there exists great difficulty in humorous language translation. This thesis studies the features, classification and function of humorous language. Through the analysis of the function of humorous language and the expected function of target language, the author thinks that humorous text, containing little information, is intended to amuse and build a harmonious, happy and comfortable atmosphere instead of sending information or expressing feelings. It is reader-oriented and belongs to vocative text. Therefore, the most important purpose of humorous language translation is to reproduce the humorous effects in the target language and the vocative function of the source language.Based on the core theory of functionalist approaches-Skopostheorie, this thesis analyzes humorous language translation. In the process of humorous language translation, the translator should surpass linguistic and cultural barriers to make the target language receiver understand the humor in the source language. While translating, taking the reproduction of the humorous effects of the source language as the chief principle, the translator should choose adequate translating strategies to make the target language receiver perceive the humor of the source language in accordance with the target language receiver's expectations and the cultural customs of the target language. Taking the realization of the expected Skopos and function of the target text as the center, humorous language translation should be the reader-oriented transcultural communicative activity, in which the translator can choose adequate translating strategies.Guided by Skopostheorie, this thesis puts forward three principles of humorous language translation: firstly, the target text should reproduce the humorous effects of the source text; secondly, the target text should conform to the cultural customs of the target language and make the reader perceive the humor; thirdly, the target text should convey the main information of the source text.This thesis suggests that in order to achieve the expected function of the target text, the translator can translate humorous language in the approach of instrumental translation combining the above three principles under the guidance of Skopostheorie. When translating, the translator can translate humorous languages in the way of literal translation, substitution, domestication, adding and annotation.