On the Translation of American Talk Shows from the Perspective of Skopostheorie

By

Zhang Ya

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes first to my supervisor Mr. Xia Yang, who gave me many valuable suggestions in the academic studies. From the very first day of writing this thesis, he has been restlessly helping me on choosing the study theme and polishing the form, the thesis structure and the language. Being taught and helped by my patient supervisor, I improved a lot, and without him, this thesis would be nothing.

I would also like to thank my classmates, it’s them who gave me support and encouragement when I was low and was about to quit. Last but not least, I want to thank my caring family for their faith on me and for their unconditional support.

On the Translation of American Talk Shows from the Perspective of Skopostheorie

Zhang Ya

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: As one of the most popular TV programs, American talk show is of great research significance, and the great attraction of talk show lies in its humor and satire language. A translator often is faced with translation difficulties in culture, linguistics and cognition aspects when it comes to talk shows translation. Based on Skopos theory, this thesis made an analysis on the factors and rules that decide the quality of a talk show translation from the perspective of Skopos theory, and brought forward some suggestions on choosing translation strategies.

Key words: talk show; humor and satire; Skopos theory

摘要: 美国脱口秀节目在中国越来越受欢迎，在翻译脱口秀中，译者往往会遇到幽默讽刺语言上的翻译困难，这种困难主要有来自语言学层面，如修辞方面的困难，还有因为文化差异造成的困难。因为这些困难，美国脱口秀的汉译常常会失掉原来的幽默，甚至让读者无法理解原文的意思及用意。本论文以弗米尔的目的论为基础，收集实例，通过对脱口秀中幽默讽刺语言的分析，探索了决定脱口秀翻译质量的影响因素和方法，从翻译目的论角度提出了关于选择翻译策略和方法的建议。

关键词：脱口秀；幽默；目的论

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 A Brief introduction to American talk shows 1

1.2 Research background 2

2. Literature review 3

2.1 Domestic studies on humor translation 3

2.2 Overseas studies on humor translation 3

3. Theoretical framework: Skopostheorie 4

4. Humor in American talk shows and it's translation 5

4.1 A Brief introduction to humor language 5

4.2 Three types of humor in American talk shows translation 6

4.2.1 Universal humor 7

4.2.2 Linguistic humor 7

4.2.3 Cultural humor 8

5. Skopostheorie applied to American talk shows translation 8

5.1 Limitations on translatability of humorous language 8

5.2 Three principles of humorous language translation under the guidance of Skopostheorie 9

5.2.1 The humor effect 9

5.2.2 The readability 10

5.2.3 The main meaning 10

5.3 Translation strategies applied to different kinds of humor languages guided by Skopostheorie 11

5.3.1 Literal translation applied to universal humor translation 11

5.3.2 Substitution applied to linguistic humor translation 12

5.3.3 Annotation applied to cultural humor translation 13

6. Conclusion 14

References: 14

1. Introduction

Being a carrier of laughter and culture, talk show won its popularity in China. The earliest talk show known in China is Dong Feng Zhi Bo Shi (东方直播室). From the early Dong Feng Zhi Bo Shi to today’s Luo Ji Si Wei (逻辑思维), Chinese talk shows have been improved a lot in heated market competitions and won a huge number of audience. However, compared to American talk shows, Chinese talk shows still have room to improve on hosting styles and programming varieties. Therefore, American talk show is of great research significance, and here in the following sections, I will make a brief introduction to American talk shows.

1.1 A Brief introduction to American talk shows

Usually speaking, the form of a talk show is host monologue plus guest interview. During the first section, the host will make a news report, and the news is ranged from politics, sport, and court cases to celebrities’ anecdotes. In the guest interview section, the host will hold a 15-30 minutes conversation with the invited guest, and they will talk about the project which is to be promoted to public in later days, like a new movie, a book, a music recording, a sport game and even a political policy. The guest could be an actor, a singer, an athlete or even a president. American talk shows can be divided into three main categories according to broadcast time, and they are breakfast talk shows(also named breakfast chats), day time talk shows and late time talk shows. Among them, late time talk show is the most popular one, and it owns more entertainment styles, for instance, the Saturday Night Live consists of musical performance, news report and sketch comedy.

The host is seen as the soul of a talk show. To attract more audience, a talk show often is funny, interesting, and it can be popular only hosted by an experienced charming host who is highly professional. Different hosts have different hosting styles, for example, Ellen from the Ellen Show has a sweet, light and warm hosting style, Conan O'Brien from The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien hosts in a playful and elegant way, while Jon Stewart from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart prefers cynicism and prefers to offer his insights in a humorous way.

1.2 Research background

With so many kinds of talk shows blooming on American TV screens, and seeing our favorite idols sitting there and talking about themselves, it’s tempting for us Chinese audience to figure out what is going on and to share their information and joy. Some major Chinese portal websites sensed this business opportunity and bought the copyright to air some American shows in China. With so many audiences out there, it is necessary to make a research on the translation of American talk shows.

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