Abstract:

Desperate Housewives, a currently well-known American TV series, is a comic series with respect to the private lives of Bree, Lynette, Gabrielle, Susan and other homemakers living in Wisteria Lane. And it created spectacular breakthroughs in rapid succession when it broadcasted in 2004. Therefore this comic series is appropriate to be used to do some linguistic research. The television series Desperate Housewives is taken as the research material to study the rhetorical features，such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole and female language features. In order to help the audience have a better understanding of the TV series, some translation strategies are explored too in different context.

Key words: Desperate Housewives; rhetorical features; female language features; translation strategy

摘要：

《绝望的主妇》是当前有名的美国电视剧,该剧讲述的是生活在紫藤巷的家庭主妇们的私密生活。它从2004年播放以来就连续不断地创造出令人吃惊的突破,所以它很适合作为语言学研究语料来使用。本文以热播美剧《绝望的主妇》为素材来研究影视剧中的语言特点，如修辞：明喻、暗喻、夸张等及女性语言特点。为了帮助观众更好地了解该电视剧，本文探索了在不同语境下的适当的翻译方法。

关键词：绝望的主妇；修辞特点；女性语言特点；翻译策略

1.    Introduction
Language means the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication. As we all know, language is a tool to express thoughts, while language features are exercise of language. And it’s an art to express language masterly. Different Languages are based on disparate circumstances, so they impress diverse features. Translation is the spread of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Translation is the transition of language, but it does not mean to transfer one language to another.
This thesis takes Desperate Housewives as an example to analyze language features and its translation strategies. As an introduction, at first, the author is going to give a brief introduction of Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives is an outstanding television series in America. And it is a comedy-drama series produced by Marc Cherry. In 2004, it is broadcast by American Broadcasting Company. It mainly describes the daily lives of four housewives living on the fictional Wisteria Lane. Several mysteries gradually disclosed in the background, following their domestic struggles. The style and mood of the comedy-drama series contain factors of drama, irony, comedy, slapstick, detective story and soap opera. In the first season out, the TV series was nominated for several Golden Globe Awards. And it became an instant breakthrough hit. So the comedy-drama series is suitable for doing linguistic researches.