| Hoping to explore and probe into humor translation under the guidance of Relevance Theory, the author makes a detailed analysis of many issues about humor in several aspects in the thesis. Relevance Theory, proposed by Sperber and Wilson in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition in 1986, has been widely used in many different fields. Their follower Gutt developed their theory and published his famous work Translation and Relevance combining Relevance Theory with translation together in 1991. Relevance Theory proposes that communication is an ostensive-inferential process, in which both the speaker and the hearer aim at optimal relevance. As it is, translation is also a type of communication activity between different language-users. In recent years, Relevance Theory has been widely applied to translation study. Humor, a ubiquitous phenomenon, can bring many benefits which can not only make people laugh and keep them in good mood but also relieve stress and improve interpersonal relationship. Humor is the essence of human language, representing human wisdom. But due to the differences shared by English and Chinese, the translation of humor may sometimes go into a dilemma. In spite of a great many studies and researches from various angles, there are still many humor translation problems waiting for being further refined. So the thesis is a tentative study of humor translation from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Within the framework of Relevance Theory, humor translation can be regarded as an ostensive-inferential communication, an inter-lingual interpretive use of language, a dynamic process of seeking for the optimal relevance and a brainstorming process. During the process of translating, it is quite important to retain the humorous effects of the original.The thesis is composed of six chapters within the framework of Relevance Theory. Chapter one is a brief introduction to the thesis, presenting a brief outline of the purpose, the scope and the general structure of the thesis. Chapter two lies on the literature review mainly about humor and humor theories study. Chapter three is around the humor differences between English and Chinese. Chapter four discusses the humor understanding and humor translation under the guidance of the Relevance Theory. Chapter five introduces some new findings during my thesis writing, including a little further development on Relevance Theory, humor, language learning and teaching which may make some contributions to language and translation. The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole paper, summing up the central theme that humor translation should be accomplished under RT and that the application of Relevance Theory to translation can greatly improve the development of translation. Relevance Theory can fulfill the goal so that people with different cultural backgrounds can share emotions, attitudes and senses of humor expressed by the authors in the original works, which will benefit human communication and cultural heritage a lot. |
