The Translation Of Cultural Elements In Humorous Utterance From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Based on Relevance Theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson, Gutt put forward relevance translation theory as a new perspective for translation. This thesis explores the translation of humorous utterance with cultural elements in light of Relevance Theory.Deeply rooted in different cultures, humorous utterance is loaded with a lot of cultural elements, which not only presents barriers in understanding but also forms challenges to translation. Within the framework of Relevance Theory, translators should reconstruct the optimal relevance relating to culture in the target utterance so that the target audience can have the same response as the source audience. That is to say, the humorous effect in the source utterance should be retained.The thesis illustrates the notion of humorous utterance and the significance of cultural context to humorous utterance, explains the feasibility of applying Relevance Theory to the translation of humorous utterance with cultural elements, and proposes two translation strategies together with five specific translation approaches. Finally, the author applies these strategies and approaches to the translation of humorous utterance with cultural elements in the situational comedy Friends.