功能对等理论于英语言语幽默翻译的应用研究
英语言语幽默的翻译工作对于翻译者来说是一大考验，因为在翻译的过程中可能由于语言和文化等原因幽默的效果没有被完全保留。奈达在其功能对等理论中提出了“读者反应”的翻译理念，为言语幽默的翻译提供了科学的理论指导。因此，本课题旨在探究在功能对等理论的引导下如何翻译英语言语幽默，对于英语语言的欣赏以及翻译都具有一定的参考价值。行文上，本论文将先分别介绍研究课题概念和理论，然后结合两点进行探讨。同时为充实课题的内容，在举例上将着重于时效性，多样性，使本课题的研究更具相关性。
关键词　英语言语幽默，功能对等理论, 应用

Contents
1  Introduction    1
2  A General Study of English Verbal Humor    1
3  Functional Equivalence Theory    3
4  Application of Functional Equivalence Theory in the Translation of English Verbal Humor     5
4.1  Translation of General Verbal Humor    8
4.2  Translation of Verbal Humor Related to Rhetoric Devices    9
4.3  Translation of Culture Related Verbal Humor    11
Conclusion    14
Acknowledgements    15
References    16
1  Introduction
In today’s world, cultural exchanges between different cultures and countries are becoming more and more frequent at a speed that has never been seen before. In that process, the need for translation is also growing at a breath-taking speed. It is because that the need for communication among people of different social and cultural backgrounds and countries are also growing fast. Humor, as an important part of human beings’ communicational behaviors, also needs to be translated. The translation of humor thus becomes an important subject that has attracted a lot of attention of many scholars and researchers. In the process of translating English verbal humor in cross-cultural contexts, there emerged a lot of troublesome problems for translators. Different theories have been put forward to solve these problems. In order to translate the English verbal humor and retain its original humorous effects intended by the original author, many researches and studies have been made concerning this topic.
To the readers of the target language, especially to those who don’t know about English language, the translated version of English verbal humor is their only way to understand the theme of the humor intended by original author, which means the quality of the translation of the original version of the English humor is extremely important for their understanding to the story they want to know about and a completely different foreign culture.   
In this paper, the author intends to explore translating English verbal humor on the application of functional equivalence theory. The researcher hopes that the study will contribute useful and inspiring ideas for the translation of English verbal humor.
2  A General Study of English Verbal Humor
    In order to go on with the research of this subject, some questions should be asked first. First we should make clear the very essence of humor. Different researchers and scholars hold different opinions as to the definition of humor. There have been a lot of arguments concerning about the definition of humor. Though it is difficult to define humor without causing a lot of dissentions, we still can not avoid the important issue. From Wikipedia we can trace back the origin of the word “humor” in Latin, meaning fluid or moisture. After a very long time, the meaning of the word “humor” changes into that it is a kind of disposition, which is characterized by sensitivity to ludicrous, absurd, or comical events. (Baker, 2013) To take a look at the more recent explanations in dictionaries, and some refer to the thing, idea, or event as humor, some regard humor as something existing in our mind rather than in the real world, some see humor as a human faculty that functions in the perception of humor(Tan,2004). However ordinary it is in everyday’s life, humor seems to be very elusive and unable to pin down as a theoretical concept. However, this has not stopped scholars of various disciplines to probe into the topic of humor. The problem is that in defining humor, an all-embracing definition of humor seems impossible to be formulated.
    In fact, the definition of what humor is relies on the purpose for which it is used. Attardo (1994) holds the opinion that we should make a clear distinction as to the definition of humor. While linguists have often been content with vague definitions, claiming that whatever evokes laughter or is felt to be funny is humor, i.e. that humor can be confirmed from its effect. However, laughter is not necessarily a condition for humor. Bearing this in mind, Attardo believes that humor is whatever is intended to be funny, even if it might not always be perceived or interpreted as such. This definition does have its problems, since judging intention is never easy; yet it is useful because it categorizes humor a social phenomenon whose forms vary greatly in different cultures. Pocheptsov (1981) divided humor into two types，one is situational humor, the other is verbal humor. Bergson (1988) points out humorous effects are mainly generated by ways of language, and he classifies (two kinds of humorous effect: one is expressed by language, which is translatable, and the other way is created by language, which is not translatable). Liu (2012) holds the opinion that humor is the generic term for verbal humor, situational humor, etc. Besides verbal humor can be subdivided into general verbal humor, culture related verbal humor, etc. Even though definition of humor varies from different individual and from different culture, some ideas seem to apply universally. Depending on how the humorous effect is achieved, Verbal humor is when the humorous effects are achieved by using the language itself, while situational humor involves concepts or ideas that are thought to be humorous without using the inner funny characters, such as structural or phonic ambiguity, of the language itself.
3  Functional Equivalence Theory
It is widely acknowledged that Dr. Eugene. Nida contributed greatly to the theory of translation. He treats the study of translation in a scientific way. His achievements in translation theories rank prominently in world translators.
The functional equivalence theory, mainly developed in the 1970s, is very much focused on the translation concept of so-called viewer’s reaction. It requires the translator to translate the deep structure of the source language into surface structure of the target language. In other words, it aims to indirectly translate the connotation of the manuscript with the counterparts in the target language. This theory has provided guidance for the scientific study of humor translation.
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