英语高级翻译专业优秀论文样本

1、Translation of Verbal Humor in "Friends " -A Perspective from the Relevance theory 从关联理论看老友记中言语幽默翻译Abstract :Humor is an indispensable ingredient of people's daily life and also a practical tool for intercultural communication and mass entertainment. This enables Sitcoms, especially Am

2、erican Sitcoms to win surging popularity worldwide. Nevertheless, the translation of their humorous subtitles is no easy work given the cultural differences and the constraints of the screen. This essay applies the frame of Relevance Theory, one of the most authorized ones in the cognitive research,

3、 to examine the translation of verbal humor in the famous American Sitcom “ Friends”. Meanwhile, to make the evaluation more comprehensive and convincing, Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humor and Gottlieb's subtitle translation strategies are also employed. Part 1 is a brief introduction

4、 to the topic and the research question. Part 2 mainly elaborates the main standpoints of Relevance Theory and how it is applied to translation studies. Then, together with the General Theory of Verbal Humor and translation strategies of subtitles, a general guidance for translating humor in the sub

5、titles of Sitcoms is offered, which is the basis for the case study afterwards. Part 3 is the brief introduction of " Friends" and the case study of different kinds of humor translation in it, aiming at judging their cognitive effects under the previous guidance. Part 4 is the conclusion w

6、hose main purpose is to reprove the effectiveness of Relevance Theory in guiding humor translation and to appraise the humor translation in“Friends” from the general perspectiveKeywords: Relevance Theory; optimal relevance; Humor; Friends ; Translation摘要:幽默是人们日常生活中不可或缺的元素,在跨文化交流及大众娱乐中发挥着重 要作用。这使得情景喜

7、剧,特别是美国情景喜剧一直广受全球观众亲睐。但,由于荧幕限制 及各地区文化差异, 其中的幽默话语翻译面临诸多挑战。 本文将从认知学研究领域最权威的 理论之一关联理论视角出发,评价著名的美国情景喜剧老友记中的幽默话语翻译。 同时, 为使评价更全面, 更具说服力, 阿塔多的文字幽默总论以及哥特列布的字幕翻译策略 也将作为参考指标。文章第一部分为文章主题及研究内容简介。第二部分阐述关联理论的主要观点及其对 翻译研究的指导意义, 并结合文字幽默总论及字幕翻译策略, 提出情景喜剧中幽默话语的字 幕翻译的基本原则, 奠定下面的案例分析的基础。 第三部分是 老友记的简介及其中各类 幽默话语翻译的案例分析,

8、意在根据上文原则评价其所达到的认知效果。 结论部分则再次强 调关联理论在指导幽默翻译方面的作用并对老友记中的幽默话语翻译进行总体评价。 关键词:关联理论;最佳关联 ; 老友记 ;翻译1. IntroductionIn recent years, foreign TV series and films have been introduced to China by leaps and bounds, especially the Sitcoms. Sitcoms(abbreviation for situational comedy, featuring flooding jokes in t

9、he dialogues of the same characters in different amusing situations(Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, enjoy great popularity among Chinese audience and helpto enhance cultural bonds between China and foreign countries. Meanwhile, the translation of their subtitles also becomes a m

10、atter of heated discussion in the academic field. This essay will look into the translated humor in the subtitles of the famous Sitcom “Friends " to find out whether or how it, from the perspective of Relevance Theory, manages to achieve similar cognitive effects on Chinese audience2. The backg

11、round knowledge and theoretical frameBefore we come to the case study section, it is essential to clarify the main standpoints of Relevance Theory and its guidance towards translation. Meanwhile, to better present the verbal humor on the screen, the general principles of humor and subtitle translati

12、on should also be taken into consideration2.1. Relevance Theory and TranslationRelevance Theory, making its debut by the publishing of Sperber and Wilson's book, Relevance: Communication and Cognition(2001, marks a fresh era in analyzing human discourse and cognitive process. Based on Grice'

13、s assumption that utterance itself is able to raise expectations which lead the audience to understand its meaning(368-72, Sperber and Wilson go deeper into human psychological mechanism and propose the "ostensive- inferential "model of communication (62.According to this model, the commun

14、icator first picks ostensive conduct with necessary inferential clues to convey his communicative and informative intentions. Then, the audience, following the clues, would infer and recognize them(Sperber and Wilson 60-63. Thus, the newly-presented information will interact with his existing contex

15、tual environment and the expected cognitive effects could be achieved. Moreover, following Grice's assumption about utterance's capability to arise expectations, Sperber and Wilson manage to figure out that this ability actually comes from the catalytic agent of this whole process-Relevance

16、within the ostensive stimulus, because only after the audience recognize the Relevance will they start information-processing. To be directly perceived, Relevance could be regarded as a function of processing effort and cognitive effects(Sperber and Wilson 29. The less processing effort is needed to

17、 achieve the expected cognitive effects, the more Relevance the ostensive conduct generates. Furthermore, they also propose two basic principles of Relevance Theory:The Cognitive Principle of Relevance: human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance to achieve the cognitive effe

18、cts.The Communication Principle of Relevance : Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its own optimal relevance(Sperber and Wilson 260According to the Cognitive Principle , the audience would seek for the greatest efficiency when processing the communicator's ostensiv

19、e stimulus. When he thinks his inference is enough to reach a cognitive effect, he just stops processing(ibid 262. Then, sharing its claim, Communication Principle further indicates that the communicator, at the very beginning, has also provided the greatest convenience he could suppose -"optim

20、al relevance"- the most relevant one that is compatible with the communicator's ability and preference and also worth the audience's effort to process it(Sperber and Wilson 270.In 1991, Gutt applied Relevance Theory to the study of translationin his book: Translation and Relevance: Cogn

21、ition and Context. In his opinion, Relevance Theory has unprecedented capability for explaining different translation phenomena and theories so as to set a unified principle and then to lay down criteria for successful translation.Translation, in his opinion, is the inter-lingual interpretive use of

22、 language, just like any other communicative activities(Gutt 94. That is to say, translation can also be interpreted as an ostensive-inferential process from the perspective of Relevance Theory, in which target audience still seek for the optimal relevance, keeping the processing efforts at the lowe

23、st level. However, what is special here is the involvement of the translator as a mediator between the original communicator and the target language audience. His job is to faithfully present all of the original thoughts and intentions in a different language. Therefore, translation here is actually

24、 a double ostensive-inferential process, in which the translator's precise transference of the optimal relevance is crucial to the final success(Wang 41. To achieve this, Pro Dongfeng WANG explains that the translator first must stand in the original audience's place and communicate with the

25、 communicator. Whether this process can be successful is mainly determined by the translator's competence in understanding the linguistic properties and cultural background of the original language. In other words, if the translator manages to be one of the expected audience of the communicator,

26、 he would have more chance to recognize the communicative clues and then infer the intentions thoroughly. After that, he also needs to communicate with the target language audience. This time he needs to formulate target language equivalents of all the communicative clues to make sure that the optim

27、al relevance is completely transferred.However, this process can be full of obstacles, especially at the second stage, because Relevance Theory maintains that "there is a casual interdependence between stimulus, context and interpretation”(Gutt 136, which means that a stimulus only functions as

28、 a clue in one context. If there is a large difference between the context of the original and the target language, some of the intentions the communicator conveys may completely lose their functions in the target language context. Therefore, the translator, in order to transfer the optimal relevanc

29、e, must have the precise presupposition of the target language audience's contextual environment and then employ flexible measures to achieve adequate contextual effects with small processing efforts.2.2 Humor and Humor TranslationHumor is an indispensable ingredient in people's daily commun

30、ication and also an efficient catalyst for literary works as well as for films and TV series. The study of it has a long history that can date back to ancient Greece. Since then, numerous attempts have been made to work out its essence. According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, humor is the

31、quality in something that makes it funny or amusing; the ability to laugh at things that are amusing. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language defines humor as the satisfied feeling of people when they laugh at themselves as well as social structure created by them.From a linguistic perspective, one o

32、f the soundest theoretical models is General Theory of Verbal Humor proposed by Attrado(173. Its core idea is that a joke is highly associated with the knowledge resources from the following six aspects: script opposition which means that a joke must involve two opposing scripts; logic mechanism whi

33、ch refers to the twisted logic that often occurs in a joke and also situation , target , narrative strategy and language . These aspects are arranged in a descending order of importance with script opposition as the most important one(Attrado 181 .General Theory of Verbal Humor could offer practical

34、 guidance to humor translation. First, it can let the translator understand more explicitly what the essence of humor is and how it is organized. Thus, he is able to check in his translated work whether these key elements areadequately presented.2.3. Subtitle and Subtitle TranslationSubtitles are th

35、e printed statements or fragments of dialogue appearing on the screen between the scenes of a silent motion picture or appearing as translation at the bottom of the screen(Webster 1175. From the linguistic perspective, they are classified into intra-lingual subtitles and inter-lingual subtitles, whi

36、le translation studies mainly deal with the second kind. The inter-lingual subtitle is the special written translation of the original dialogues in the target language. It is regarded by Gottlieb as “two dimensional jaywalks from source language speech to target language writing"(104 with the m

37、ain aim of helping the target audience better understand the story. Nevertheless, even when a TV series or film applies this kind of subtitles, the soundtrack would not be altered. That is, the audience's acoustic system would deal with the original sound while his visual system processes the pi

38、cture and translated subtitles. Therefore, to provide the best audio-visual enjoyment, the translated subtitles must be in close coordination with the original dialogues and pictures, as Gottlieb explains in his article:Subtitling: Diagonal Translation , “these translators must process the musical e

39、ar of the interpreter, the stylistic sensitivity of a literary translator, the visual acuteness of a film cutter and the aesthetic sense of a book designer"(104.Due to the special features of screen display, constraints are almost everywhere, among which the time and space are most serious. The

40、 space constraint mainly refers to the fixed size of the screen where "only one or two lines with an average maximum of 35 characters "(Gottlieb 245could be contained. As for the time, the subtitles must change synchronously when a different picture shows up or another dialogue begins.Base

41、d on all these requirements and constraints, it is proposed that the translation of subtitles should follow 5 types of synchrony which are synchrony of time, space, content, phonetics and character(Mayoral, Kelly and Gallardo 359.To sum up, Relevance Theory is recognized as one of the most authorize

42、d theories in the field of cognitive research. Unlike the traditional coding-decoding process, it provides a more convincing and dynamic ostensive-inferential model of human communication. Also, its application to translation studies contributes to the fresh understanding of the whole translation pr

43、ocess, with the translator's role being more explicit and the results being more evaluable. Therefore, when accompanied with the General Theory of Verbal Humor and subtitle translation strategies, it could offer proper guidance in the translation of humor in those Sitcoms subtitles. That is, fro

44、m the relevance perspective, the translator should, based on their in-depth understanding of the contextual environment of Chinese audience, apply flexible measures to interpret the knowledge resources within the humor in order to transfer the optimal relevance successfully, also with the 5 types of

45、 synchrony for subtitle translation taken into consideration 3. A Case Study of Translation of Verbal Humor in "Friends ""Friends" is one of the most popular Sitcoms produced by the Warner Bros. It's about 6 friends living in Manhattan: Monica Gallar, a chef in an outstanding

46、 restaurant with a morbid fear of getting dirty or disordered; Rachel Green, a formerly spoiled and selfish girl who escapes her marriage and decides to start over; Chandler Bing, a computer programmer with a dry sense of humor. Joey Trribiani, an unlucky actor who always makes a fool of himself; Ph

47、oebe Buffay, a masseuse with quite unique character; Also, Monica's Brother, Ross Gallar, a nerdy paleontologist whose former wife leaves him for another woman. The Sitcom successfully displays their career,love and friendship in common everyday scenarios. With flooding typical American humor, i

48、t has won the preference of over 60 million fans worldwide ever since its debut on NBC in 1991. These six “friends" are now friends of people all over the world.Generally speaking, the humor in "Friends" could be classified into 3 major categories: linguistic humor(e.g. puns; cultural

49、 humor(e.g. the ethnic jokes and universal humor(e.g. the unexpected scenes (Raphaelson-West 130.3.1. Cultural HumorThese jokes are ingrained in the specific cultural environment. In other words, the knowledge resources within them are only capable of sending effective stimuli to the original audien

50、ce. For example, in "Friends" , lots of jokes are centered on American celebrities as well as special western customs. However, in the contextual environment of Chinese audience, much of their functions would elude them. Therefore, the translator must, according to his presupposition of th

51、e audience's cognitive ability, either find cultural equivalents of those knowledge resources that contain similar relevance or try to, by means of explanation or illustration, present the original intentions to Chinese audience.Example1:Monica: So you wanna tell us now, or are we waiting for fo

52、ur wet bridesmaids?所以你是打算现在告诉我们发生了什么,还是等伴娘们来了再说?Rachel: Oh God. well, it started about a half hour before the wedding.婚礼前半小时发生了变数。I was in the room where we were keeping all the presents, and I was looking at this gravy boat. This really gorgeous Lamauge gravy boat.我在堆满礼物的房间,拿着一个船型肉汁盘看。那个肉汁盘真漂亮!When

53、 all of a sudden.I realized that I was more turned on by this gravy boat than by Barry!突然,我意识到这个肉汁盘都比巴瑞更能点燃我的激情!And then I got really freaked out, and that's when it hit me: how much Barry looks like Mr. Potato Head.我自己都吓了一跳,然后我越看巴瑞越觉得他长了个土豆脑袋。At this moment, Rachel has just escaped her wedding

54、ceremony and is now explaining to her friends whats going on. She says that she decides to escape because s he suddenly finds her fiancé Barry bears a resemblance to Mr. Potato Head , which totally freaks her out. Mr. Potato Head is a famous cartoon figure in America. Originally, it was a toy c

55、onsisting of a plastic model of a potato which can be decorated with a variety of attachable plastic parts such as ears and eyes to make a face. Later, because of its surging popularity, this funny character began to appear in film and on television and also acted as spokes potato for several cases

56、1(Wikipedia.Nevertheless, this well-known cartoon figure is quite alien to the majority of audience in China, which poses an obstacle for the translator. Luckily, in Chinese similar expression“长了个土 豆脑袋” could be found which also bears the implication that someone looks funny. Thus, the Chinese audie

57、nce could recognize this knowledge resource and the optimal relevance easily. In this way, typical American humor is successfully localized in the Chinese contextual environment. Example2Chandler : Ready?准备好了吗Phoebe : (nervously Okay.(面露羞涩好了Chandl er: Okay.我们走吧Phoebe : Oh wait, oh no. Wait.不,等等(She

58、takes off the coat she was wearing over her wedding dressChandle r: Wow! Aren't you gonna be cold?哇!这样你不觉得冷么?Phoebe : I don't care. I'll be my something blue.我不在乎,我冻成冰棍正好做自己的新娘宝物(通常为蓝色,象征新娘纯 洁高贵This is at Phoebe's wedding which, because of the snowstorm, is set on the street outside

59、the Cafe which they always visit. At this moment, Chandler is about to walk Phoebe down the aisle when Phoebe suddenly takes off her coat and only wears the thin wedding dress in such cold weather. “Something blue” is one of the items that western brides usually carry in their wedding ceremony as go

60、od-luck tokens. In western people's mind, blue symbolizes love, modesty, and fidelity, just as the proverb "Marry in blue, lover be true" goes.As a result, Phoebes “Ill be my something blue” means that if her skin looks blue because of the coldness, she will have herself as this specia

61、l token. However, due to the large cultural gap, most Chinese people seldom hear about this, neither could a cultural equivalent be easily found. So the translator uses the approach of adding brief explanatory notes to keep this key knowledge resource. If audiences are watching online or on DVD, the

62、y can pause and learn. It does contribute to Chinese English learners expansion of knowledge about western customs. If watched live on TV, however, due to the synchronic requirement, i.e., the rolling of subtitles is in synchrony with the flow of dialogues or changes of screens, then, compared with

63、the original version, the translated one is too much longer. Audience could hardly take in the whole information before it is replaced by the next. Therefore, the translation could be changed into “ 我 不在乎,有情饮水饱” , which wont damage the transference of the original intention, emphasizing love and the

64、 relevance.Example 3Monica : Oh wait, you know what, I got it, I got it, pretend like you just woke up, okay, that will throw her off. Be sleepy.我知道!假装你刚睡醒, 这样你就可以摆脱她了!记得假装刚睡醒。 Rachel : Yes, and grumpy.对,而且脾气暴躁!Chandler : What are you, stop naming dwarves!你们在干吗?别数小矮人的名字!Chandler here is stuck in a t

65、rouble with his girl friend Janice and feels quite desperate. Then Janice, who has already threatened to leave him forever, gives Chandler an unexpected call, which makes him at a loss what to do. Monica and Rachel are trying to calm him down and offer him suggestions. "Be sleepy" actually

66、 means pretending to be tired and not in the mood fortalking. And "grumpy" means being bad-tempered because of slight anger or disappointment. However, by coincidence, "Sleepy" and "Grumpy" also happen to be among the Seven Dwarfs in the well-known story “Snow White&quo

67、t; . So, Chandler, being nervous and losing his bearings, misunderstands them as the dwarfs' names. And, the original audience, who also grow up with the story, could be stimulated easily. However, most Chinese audience have no idea who “Sleepy” is. Thus, this genius joke in American contextual environment cou