JOKES AND TRANSLATION

Abstract

This study applies the Skopos Theory and Christiane Nord's functionalist approach, as well as the Hallidayan methodology to humour translation. The analysis highlights the cultural component in joke translation. The theories appear to be excellent for an analysis of the linguistic and cultural coordinates that need to be rendered in a target text in order to make for a successful translation of jokes. The study examines concrete jokes in the English-Romanian language pair and looks at the strategies open to translators for successfully transferring both the linguistic and cultural information embedded in the source texts to the target language.