A Research On The Chinese Translation Of Verbal Humor In American TV Show How I Met Your Mother

Humor is always capable of bringing joy to people,and it is also the symbol of wisdom,self-mockery,ridiculing,and funniness.It is a great means of narrowing the distance among people and promoting the communication between countries.Therefore,humor plays an important role in the daily life.In academy,the relevant studies about humor is everywhere,especially in the field of linguistics.In this research,the English humorous texts from the American TV show How I Met Your Mother and its Chinese translation are used to build an English-Chinese bilingual database;the GTVH and its Extended Theory are applied as the theoretical foundation;the six parameters(LA,NS,TA,SI,LM and SO)are employed to define the humorous texts in the source language and the target language.Thus,a bilingual parallel database with the comparison of the English humorous texts and its Chinese translation is supposed to be established with the artificial annotation.The data collected from the source language(American TV show How I Met Your Mother)and target language(its Chinese subtitles)are studied through quantitative and qualitative analysis.This research lays a significant foundation for studying the humorous characteristics of English sitcoms and the best translation method for English verbal humor.After the analysis and research on this the American TV show How I Met Your Mother and its Chinese translation,it is found that the humor in the subtitles are almost generated by these five rhetorical devices,namely irony,simile,metaphor,hyperbole and personification.Through analysis,metaphor enjoys the highest frequency,and most of the humorous texts which contain metaphor belong to the normalized type,which means that all the six parameters are well preserved,making the humor deliver smoothly.In addition to that,in the Chinese subtitles,there are mainly four translation methods used in the Chinese translated version,and they are literal translation,free translation,substitution,and synthesization.Among them,literal translation occupies the largest proportion,and the preservation of parameters is also the highest,so in the English-Chinese subtitle translation,literal translation is the most appropriate translation method.In this study,it is strongly proven that no matter what kind of translation method is adopted,the aim of translation is usually to keep the humorous effects from the original texts.To reach this target,the six parameters have to be preserved in an appropriate way,especially NS and SO.Only by doing so,the humorous effects from the original texts can be delivered faithfully,and the cross-cultural communication and understanding can be strengthened.