Humor Translation:A Case Study On Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence Theory

The Merchant of Venice is the most socially ironic part of Shakespeare's early comedy,dating from 1596 to 1597.The theme of the play is to celebrate love,friendship and love.It also reflects the contradiction between the early commercial capitalist class and the usurer in capitalism,and shows Shakespeare's humanistic thinking on money,law and religion in bourgeois society.Zhu Shenghao is one of the earliest and most influential translators in China.He is well known for his unique translation quality and style.His translation attitude is serious.His aim is to maintain the charm of the original work within the maximum possible range.Based on the functional equivalence theory advocated by Nida,this thesis is intended to analyze the Chinese translation of the humor in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Zhu Shenghao's version as the case in the analysis.The core concept of Nida's theory is “functional equivalence.” Functional equivalence means that the translation does not seek the rigid correspondence of the surface of the text,but achieves functional equivalence between the two languages.There are four representative figures of speech to be chosen as the research objects of the humor translation.The translation strategies used by translators are analyzed,namely literal translation,literal translation with annotation,free translation and domestication.It is discovered that Zhu Shenghao's translation with the target readers' reaction as its core is functionally equivalent to the original work.Hopefully there may be further researches on the Chinese translation of the English humor in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice so as to have a deeper understanding.