An Analysis of Humor Translation in the Subtitle of The Big Bang Theory in the Light of Cooperative Principle

Abstract

In recent years, various types of American TV series have become prevalent among Chinese netizens. Situation comedy, one of the typical genres of American TV series, is specifically popular, owing to its unique element of humor, daily life based plot and short duration of each episode. Therefore, great demand for Chinese subtitles has been stimulated. With this background, subtitle translation has become an important field of study among translators. However, for various reasons, the translation quality of most of the subtitles is far from satisfactory. Translation errors appear more frequently when it comes to humor translation in the subtitles of situation comedies, which would not only hinder the audience from appreciating the episodes, but also lead to their misunderstanding of exotic languages, cultures and customs. Researches of humor translation have long been the focus of translation studies both home and abroad, whereas it is relatively hard to find translation studies which focus on humor translation in subtitles. This thesis takes The Big Bang Theory, one of the most popular situation comedies, as the object of study. In the light of Cooperative Principle, the author discusses the deficiencies of the translated text from four aspects: the maxims of quantity, quality, relation and manner, after a thorough analysis of humor translation in the subtitle and then offers his revised version. Finally, he draws the conclusion that the guiding function of the Cooperative Principle may well be applied to the humor translation in subtitles and certain model significance in optimizing the humor translation in the subtitles of English films and television programs can be achieved.

Keywords: subtitle translation, humor, the Cooperative Principle