Challenges and Strategies in Subtitling Verbally Expressed Humour (VEH) from English into Chinese — A Study of Vicious

Journal: Arts Studies and Criticism DOI: 10.32629/asc.v7i1.4938

Yuqing Zuo

Anyang Preschool Education College, Anyang 455000, Henan, China

Abstract

This paper investigates the challenges and strategies of translating Verbally Expressed Humour (VEH) from English to Chinese, with the British sitcom Vicious as a case study. Drawing on Schmitz’s humour classification and Nida’s Functional Equivalence, it analyses universal, cultural, and linguistic VEH translation, demonstrating that domestication and substitution efficacy are contingent on humour types. It concludes that Functional Equivalence exhibits limitations and calls for a nuanced cross-cultural VEH framework.

Keywords

Verbally Expressed Humour (VEH), subtitling strategies, translation criteria, sitcom

References

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