A Study of Pun Translation in The China Post: Comic Strips as Examples

• Main Author: 林妍君
• Other Authors: Michael Tanangkingsing
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/51849015013783891045

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 跨文化研究所翻譯學碩士在職專班 === 105 === The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomena of pun translation in comic strips in the China Post and examine their translation strategies. Because comic translation is the combination of text and pictures, both non-verbal signs（pictures）and verbal（puns）are essential factors that need to be considered when translating. In consideration of the constraints, the translation approaches applied for pun translation in comic strips to achieve the function of entertaining the readers are worth investigating. Pun-related samples were extracted from comic strips together with Chinese translations posted every day in the China Post dated from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016（160 tokens）.The study was organized into three perspectives, including homophones, homonyms, and footnotes（translator’s notes）. The aim was to observe the difficulties in the translation process and the factors that affect the translators’ decisions in adopting different strategies. It is concluded that probably due to the English-Chinese format of the comic strips, translators mostly adopt literal translation to be faithful to the source text. Pictures of the comic strips are often ignored and therefore the humorous effects sometimes vanish. In addition, footnotes（translator’s notes）were added to explain or compensate for the ambiguity, which the target texts could not present. Finally, the study concludes with some workable suggestions of translation strategies, and possible future research related to pun translation of comics.