A Study On English And Chinese Translation Of Humor From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

People in daily communication are exposed to humor habitually. It is a reflection of people's life attitudes, emotions and values. As an important part of language, humor pervades every corner of human society. However, few can comprehend the mystery in humor. Humor demonstrates the wits of writers and speakers but the highly culture-embedded humor with distinct linguistic features really brings a big headache for translators.Based on former research on relevance translation, this thesis attempts to study the translation of humor, specifically the joke, from the perspective of relevance theory, applying its principles and methods to the recreation of humor. Chapter â…  is literature review discussing about some basic concepts in relevance theory, such as ostensive-inference process, context as well as optimal relevance, and a review of the studies on relevance translation at home and abroad. Based on Sperber and Wilson's ostensive-inferential model, it is relevance that plays an indispensable role in the reproduction of linguistic humor, as relevance easily connects expectedness with unexpectedness, and the audience can still catch the humor in the new unity of the two opposites. Chapter â…¡ and â…¢ give a general survey of humor in respect of its definition, features, functions and different humor from different cultures. It points out that different cultures result in difficulties in humor translation, but a comprehensive study of these cultural differences can avoid the dilemma in humor translation. In Chapter â…£, by discussing the process of humor translation within the framework of relevance theory, the author proposes a series of principles to achieve the humorous effects, and provides techniques in humor translation in order to realize the original author's intentions and recreate the laughter for the audience. The final part is the conclusion of the whole thesis, which sums up the thesis and puts forward the major findings as well as limitations.It is hoped that this research will contribute to the humor translation, and people with different cultural backgrounds can appreciate different senses of humor from the effective translation.