Chapter One Introduction
1.1Research Background
Previous study at home on pun mainly focuses on those aspects, such as definition,classification, its applications, especially in advertisements, the comparison betweenEnglish pun and Chinese pun or between other languages. They also made researches onpun from a pragmatic view, using such theories as the relevance theory andconversational implicature etc. to analyze puns in ads. In abroad, much attention hasalso been drawn to the classifications of pun and its applications in different literaryworks such as Shakespeare's works and so on.As for homophone-switching, it is a new term firstly mentioned by Du Shihong(2003). It is a notion created by imitating code-switching in sociolinguistics, whichrefers to a linguistic phenomenon in communication and appears when the addresser orthe addressee deliberately shifts from the surface meaning to an implicative meaningwith the switching from the surface context into another context through a sound whichis polysemous or ambiguous in nature. Such kind of switching is usually adopted todistract participants* attention for particular purposes. Seeing from this definition, muchsimilarities between homophone-switching and pun can be found. According to ChenWangdao (2002)， (A Dictionary ofModem Chinese, 2003) From these traditional definitions, we can find that pun isusually produced by the addresser and always has two potential meanings, but this is notthe whole case. Sometimes "the so-called pun" can also be created by the addressee onthe basis of homophones. For example, in daily conversation，one student says that “少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲”，another student responds it like “没事，不用担心，你是老二的嘛”.Thus, the classic definition of "pun" is undoubtedly not suitable for the realcase. According to the definition of homophone-switching，it includes both situations,namely，puns provided by addressers and the so-called puns by addressees. While, so far,the phenomenon has not received public attention. The only research that has been doneby Du Shihong (2003) studies the relevance features of homophone-switching duringconversation on the basis of Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory. Therefore, furtherinvestigations on homophone-switching should be done in the near future.
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1.2 Research Questions
n order to make the study plausible and easy to operate, the present thesis aims toanswer the following questions.
1)Why we can translate a pun with a homophone-switching? What are the waysand advantages of translating puns with homophone-switching?
2)What kind of model can be provided in translation of English pun? Is it feasiblein real practice?
3)How can we know whether a translation of a pun is good or not? What is thestandard? How to compare the different translations of puns and what findings we may achieve? What versions we can provide to compensate the relatively goodish ones byemploying homophone-switching in punning translation?
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Pun
Pun is a common language phenomenon in both English and Chinese, combining“formal similarity” and "semantic dissimilarity" together. According to OxfordAdvanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary，pun is “the clever or humorous use ofa word that has more than one meaning, or of words that have different meanings butsound the same.” (Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary. 2005) TheChinese definition of pun is that, “双关，用词造句时表而上看一个意組，而暗中隐藏着另一个意思。” “运用双关修辞方式构成的话语就叫做双关语。” (A Dictionaryof Modem Chinese, 2003) Chen Wangdao puts that，“ 双关是用了一个语词同时关顾着两种不同事物的修辞形式。”（Chen Wangdao，2002)From the above definitions, we can see pun possesses the following properties.Firstly, it belongs to a figure of speech. People use it to achieve some special effect，such as humor and satire. Secondly, it has, at least, two different meanings: superficialmeaning and implicative meaning, which cause ambiguity. Besides, the intendedmeaning of the author or speaker is hidden and uneasy to catch. But once you catch it, itwill leave you a lasting impression.
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2.2 Homophone-switching
Homophones refer to words which sound alike but are written differently and oftenhave different meanings.(Liu Runqing, Wen Xu, 2006) Homophone-switching is a newterm firstly mentioned by Du Shihong (2003). It is a notion created by imitatingcode-switching in sociolinguistics. Homophone-switching refers to a linguisticphenomenon in communication and appears when the addresser or the addresseedeliberately shifts from the surface meaning to an implicative meaning with theswitching from the surface context into another context through a sound which ispolysemous or ambiguous in nature. Such kind of switching is usually adopted todistract participants' attention for particular purposes. The Chinese definition is that, From this definition, we can find the following characteristics of it. First, it usuallyoccurs during a conversation. Then, it is produced on purpose. Next, it can be producedboth by the addresser and the addressee, especially the latter. Last, that is the core of thedefinition，the addresser or addressee shifts from one sound to another which has theidentical or similar sound with it. The shift of sound, as a matter of fact, is the shift ofmeaning and context from the surface ones into another.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework...........15
3.1 Nida's Functional Equivalence........15
3.2Translatability of Pun........15
3.2.1Identical Cognitive Referent........16
3.2.2Similar Thinking Mod........17
3.2.3Similar Languages........19
3.3Possibility of Translating Pun with Homophone-switching........20
3.3.1Rich Homophones in Chinese........20
3.3.2Monosyllable Words in Chinese with Higher Compositionality........22
3.4A Model of Translation of English Puns from the Perspective........23
Chapter Four A Case Study of Punning Translations ........25
4.1Brief Introduction to the Corpus Selected........25
4.2The Standard of Good Translations of Pun........27
4.3Comparison of Five Translations of Puns in Alice in Wonderland........30
4.4Summary........34
Chapter Five Conclusion........49
5.1Summary of the Study........49
5.2Limitations of the Present Study........50
5.3Suggestions for Future Study........50
Chapter FourA Case Study of Punning Translations in FiveTranslations of Alice in Wonderland
4.1 Brief Introduction to the Corpus Selected
The present thesis will adopt the children's literature novel Alice in Wonderlandand its five translations as the study text. But why I choose this novel but not others And why it is these translations not others since there are many renderings of it? Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) is the pen-name of the author Charles LudwidseDodgeson. He was educated at rugby school and Christ church, Oxford where he taughtmathematics. During his teaching, he wrote numerous pamphlets on oxford politics. Hedidn't get married in his whole life, but children have always been his interest. In 1865,he published his masterpiece Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland, which has made himknown to the whole country. And six years later, he published another book Through theLooking-glass which has usually been seen as the second part of Alice 's Adventures inWonderland, These two books are originally written for the daughter of the dean of hiscollege, Alice Liddell. After the publication of the two books，he became the mostfamous children's writer at that time. In addition to these two books, he also publishedsome other works such as The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and so on. Since he is verygood at mathematics, many of his works are books of puzzles or language games andare of high interest and humor.
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Conclusion
As we all know, pun is a critical rhetorical device in both English and Chinese. It iswidely used in many fields, so literary work is no exception. The thesis has managed tointroduce homophone-switching to English-Chinese punning translation. It has firstpresented the key terms of the study, such as the definitions, classification of pun andhomophone-switching. Then it also introduced the background of the study, that is thestudies both at home and in abroad, showing that the present study is a new attempt. Asfor the abroad studies, this paper has mainly focused on Delabastita's theory，and theresearches at home are made up of achievements of many scholars. Nida's FunctionalEquivalence theory convinces us that functional equivalence can be achieved betweenthe target text and the source text through different cultures. Thus, it has been used toserve as the theoretical basis of the study for it provides an explanation for thepossibility of punning translation. The kernel of the thesis is the new model provided fortranslation of English pun from the perspective of homophone-switching. To be exact,translating puns with dynamic punning. Since it is possible for us to translate punsbetween different languages，the penman of the paper chose Alice in wonderland as theresearch material which contains two books: Alice s Adventures in Wonderland andThrough the Looking-glass because there are large quantities of puns in them. Based onthe four norms that have adjusted from the three terms of functional equivalence,namely naturalness of the translated language, equivalence of the content, equivalenceof the form as well as the equivalence of the effect of pun, the present paper has made adetailed comparison of the five translations and has tried to provide new versions withhomophone-switching.
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