Functional Equivalence In Humor Translation

With the rapid popularity of western sitcoms in China, subtitle translation becomes more and more important. As an important mean of verbal communication in those sitcoms, humor often expresses its far-reaching significance in the unity of opposites through exaggerated, antiphonal, pun, satire and other witty and interesting ways of expression, so as to allow readers to laugh deeply and deeply aftertaste. However, due to the differences of language, culture, history, geography and thinking in Chinese and Western languages, humorous translation has always been a major difficulty in literary translation. American linguist and translation theorist Nida proposed the functional equivalence theory based on reader 's reaction in 1964. He advocated

Nida proposed a new concept of translation in his theory of functional equivalence, which is "reader reaction". It requires that the translator should make the reader of the translation work responding equally to the source reader. This notion is accordant to the purpose of humorous language translation in Friends. The purpose of humorous translation is to retain the humorous effect of the source language text to the same extent in order to enable Chinese audiences to enjoy the same amusement and sensory experience as the American audience and other English native speakers. According to this correspondence,Nida 's functional equivalence theory can provide scientific theoretical guidance for the verbal humorous translation of Friends.
In 1993, China 's first sitcom, I Love My Family, was born when the family-based sitcom Growing Pains in China caused ratings frenzy in China was still lasting. People who familiar with the history of American television can easily find that the creation of I Love My Family is greatly influenced by the American sitcom "All in the Family." In fact, one of the most important ways to create a cinematic sitcom is to draw directly on the similar works in the United States. Yingda, the director of I Love My Family, himself bluntly said: "Now

His functional equivalence theory is different from the traditional translation theory, paying more attention to the translator 's reaction. He pointed out that translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style. Nida 's functional equivalence theory has practical significance in guiding the translation of humorous language in sitcoms. As we all know, the effect of humor is to entertain the atmosphere of public activity, as long as the target language readers can feel the same humor effect, then the translation is successful. Therefore, functional equivalence theory is very feasible to guide the translation of humorous