Research On The E-C Translation Of Humorous Language From The Rhetorical Perspective

Humor is a universal and indispensable cultural phenomenon in people's daily life. Different countries have different humorous languages and styles, so people should not only know how to appreciate native humor, but also learn how to appreciate foreign humor. Therefore, humorous language translation started to come into being. Thanks to it, people can learn more about foreign cultures and diverse manners and customs. What's more, it also can promote social development and cross-cultural communication.This paper mainly studies humorous language translation from the rhetorical perspective. Figures of speech are the important tools which can help create humorous language. Choosing figures of speech as the research objects of humorous language translation is a practical and valuable study. This thesis chooses one of the famous English writer Oscar Wilde's classical comedies --A Woman of No Importance and its translated version as the aided research texts. Oscar Wilde was an outstanding humorist; figures of speech are the primary devices by means of which he can create humorous language in his comedies. This thesis chooses eight typical figures of speech and some examples as the focal point to analyze humorous language translation and discusses some questions such as translatability, translational methods and humorous styles of humorous language translation.After researching, the author draws a conclusion that in spite of some differences between the Eastern and the Western countries, humorous language is translatable; the humorous style of the source text and the excellent humorous talent of the author can be well kept in the translated version. However, at the same time, the differences of figures of speech between the Western and the Eastern countries will cause some complex problems. So translators should think attentively and take appropriate translational methods to deal with these problems.