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Abstract： This paper will analyze the humorous language in advertisement and their English to Chinese and Chinese to English translations from the pragmatic perspective. Some pragmatic theories including the Relevance Theory， the Cooperative Principle， and the Speech Acts will be introduced to discuss how the humor effects and how to translate it efficiently， i.e.， achieving the equivalent effect in the context. The aim of the paper is to comprehend the humor and to analyze how to translate the humorous language in advertisements from the perspective of pragmatics.
Key words： Pragmatic theories；translation skills；humorous language； advertisement.
1. Introduction：
Once humor is used in the language of the advertisements cleverly， the audience may laugh and take in the advertisement unintentionally. And the business aim of the advertisement can be achieved as well. This paper will analyze the humorous language in advertisement from the pragmatic perspective and study how to translate them. By analyzing some advertisements with the theories including the Relevance Theory， the Cooperative Principle， and the Speech Acts， some practical translation skills will be provided and discussed.
2. The Relevance Theory
Based on the Relevance Theory， every single word could be understood from different angles. In 1997， in the Pragmatics and English Learning， He Ziran concluded that to understand the right meaning of the natural language， people should find the relevant information in accordance with the context and reason out the very meaning. People may communicate between each other because they are able to reason out the in-depth meaning of people’s action and language.
Here is an advertisement of a translation company：
Translator gets 400 words to translate.
Client： How long will it take？
Translator： About a week.
Client： A whole week for just 400 words？ God created the world in 6 days！
Translator： Then just take a look at this world and afterwards take a look at my translation.
In this dialogue， the client uses the story that God create the world in six days from Holy Bible to satirize the translator. However， the clever translator compares the world made by God with the translation work by him. The translator actually wants to say， “My work is better than God’s. You should give me more time so that I can fulfill a sound job than God who create a relatively unsatisfactory world hastily.” The humor effects as the people in western country are familiar with the story of Holy Bible. It means people who watch the advertisement understand the context， so that they could easily find the relevant information， that is， the client thinks it is six days that God take to create the world but the translator needs a week to finish the job. The client complains the translator uses too much time. However， the translator regards that it is six days that God use to create the world so that the world is not so perfect. The translator insists on the view that the quality is better than the speed. The language in the advertisement is concise， and the company dose not claims their excellent services by using many words but utilizes the Bible story to create the context and relevant information. As a result， through reasoning， the audiences get the idea by themselves in a humorous way.
Applying the Relevance Theory， to translate the humor equivalently into Chinese， we should recreate the same context that people in China could understand. Here is an example：
译者距离交稿还有四百字。
客户：还要多长时间才能完成？
译者：大概一个礼拜吧。
客户：一个礼拜！上帝创造这个世界只用了6天，比你还少用一天！
译者：不可同日而语他的作品和我的作品哦。
The translated text is not a word-to-word translation， but reproduces the context comprehended by the People in China. The word“礼拜” reminds the audience the advertisement is in a western-culture climate. And “上帝创造这个世界才用了6天，比你还少用一天” is a free translation. “比你还少用一天” is the meaning behind the source language， but it is presented directly in the target text to fill the culture gap since some Chinese audience may not know the Bible story. And the answer of the client followed is another free translation to guide the people to the right meaning of the advertisement.
According to Sperber and Wilson （1986， 1995）， the central factor that makes communication succeed is the pursuit of optimal relevance on the part of both the communicator and the addressee. An utterance is optimally relevant （a） when it enables the audience to find without unnecessary effort the meaning intended by the communicator and （b） when that intended meaning is worth the audience’s effort， that is， when it provides adequate benefits to the audience. These benefits are psychological in nature； they consist in modifications of a person’s knowledge and are referred to technically as “positive contextual effects”. The function of optimal relevance in communication is captured in the principle of relevance， which is believed to be an innate constraint in our human psychological make-up.
So， whenever a person sets out to communicate something， he automatically communicates the presumption that what he is going to say is believe to be optimally relevant to the audience. In accordance with the optimal relevance， the translation has fulfilled the （a）， i.e， it helps the speaker to express what he wants to express， （“比你还少用一天！”）. And it also satisfy the （b）， i.e， creating the “positive contextual effects”， （ “礼拜”and the last sentence used the free translation.） With the help of pragmatic theory， the target audience obtains the information and the humor as much as the source audience. To sum up， based on the relevance theory and optimal relevance in pragmatics， when translating the humorous language in advertisement， translator should both understand the source text and recreate the similar context as well as the optimal relevance in the target text.
3. The Cooperative Principle
In 1960’s， Grice points out a concept named Conversational Implicatures.（1975： 45） These are“essentially connected with certain general features of discourse”， which arise from the fact that if our talk exchanges are to be rational， they must consist of utterances which are in some way connected to each other. What guarantees this connection is called the Cooperative Principle： “Make your conversational contribution such as is required， at the stage at which it occurs， by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.”（1975：45）
Grice’s Cooperation Principles consists of four categories， which are：
A. Maxims of quantity （concerning the amount of information to be conveyed）：
1） Make your contribution as informative as is required （for the current purposes of the exchange）.
2） Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
B. Maxims of quality： Try to make your contribution one that is true. More specifically：
1） Do not say what you believe to be false.
2） Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
C. Maxim of relation： Be relevant.
D. Maxims of manner （concerning not so much what is said as how it is said）： Be perspicuous. More specifically：
1） Avoid obscurity of expression.
2） Avoid ambiguity.
3） Be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）.
4） Be orderly.
5） And there may be others.
It is in cases of the fourth type， when， as Grice （1975：49） puts it， a maxim is being exploited， that conversational implicature is most characteristically generated. However， it is also possible to generate implicatures from cases in which no maxim is being violated and from cases in which a maxim is apparently violated because of a clash with another maxim.
Also， to create humor in advertisement， violating the four maxims above is usually applied. By violating these four maxims superficially， such as the lack of information or the repetition of a sing word， the indirect way to express the meaning behind the word， and exaggeration etc， the humor is finally produced in these ways above. 3.1 Maxim of Quantity
Perfection in the wink of an eye.
Perfection in its formula.
Perfecton in its brush.
Perfection in a look.
This advertisement is the one violating the Maxim of Quantity typically. It repeats the word “Perfection” four times， which aims to give the customs the deep impression of how delicious and delicate the ice cream is. In a normal condition， the Maxim of Quantity is emphasized in order to make people not speak the abundant word. However， to produce the humor and strengthen the tone of language here will attract the customs to buy it and not forget it. So， repetition here is necessary.
Once the translator is informed with the knowledge of Maxim of Quantity and the humor that could be created by violating the principle mentioned， he could apply the theory as well into his translation. Here is the translated text of the advertisement：
工艺之精巧，
口味之纯正，
原料之优良，
过目之不忘。
In the translation， the repetition in the source text is embodied as the repetitive sentence structure. And “之”is a classical word in Chinese together with four similar sentence forms， which is used here to present the good quality and nice taste in the source language. As a result， humor is recreated again in the Chinese version by violating the Maxim of Quantity.
With regard to the codes of Chinese language， the repetitive words in language are accepted usually， especially when people want to stress their moods and thoughts. In the translated text， translator did not copy the way （varying type fonts） in the source advertisement， but completing all sentences in the translation including all the omitted elements in the source text， such the subjects and verbs. In this way， humor is also represented in translation and the effect could work efficiently in the advertisement.
3.2 Maxim of Quality
The maxim of Quality in the Cooperation Principle requires the information is correct and objective provided by both communicators. However， in order to cause the humorous effect in the language， people disobey the rule on purpose. Take the humor in the advertisement as an example， the irrational words and specific contexts are created for transferring the humor which exists in an ambiguous way. As a result， the audience are be attracted by the humorous language so to find out the meaning of the joke in the advertisement. To achieve it， the adpersonin disobeys the Maxim of Quality by making use of exaggeration， metaphor and irrational ideas in their works. There are some examples about the humor in advertisement caused by violating the Maxim of Quality in the term of exaggeration：
某黏合剂广告：它能黏合一切，除了一颗破碎的心。
某饺子铺广告：无所不包。
某印刷公司广告：除钞票外，承印一切。
The words in the advertisement are all exaggerative. In the first one， it means that the glue’s quality is so good that it can stick to everything in the world except a broken heart. As we know， a broken heart has to be the most unrepaired object in the world， and it cannot be fixed by any kind of glue since a broken heart meaning someone is deeply hurt by another one. In this way， the adpersonin uses the very item to create the exaggeration to disobey the principle， and the humor is produced as well.
In the second advertisement， it employs a four-word idiom in Chinese to indicate the diversity of the dumplings in the restaurant. Apparently it is impossible that a dumpling restaurant cannot sell all kinds of dumplings at the same time， but the adpersonin applies the four-word idiom to exaggerate for the purpose of attracting the customs.
The third one is quite much same as the other twos. It is the common sense that money cannot be printed by the individual； otherwise it would break the law. The language in the advertisement indicates that the business range of their company is extremely wide. People always would be attracted by the irrational action and ideas. By taking a glance， the audience will be allured and have the desire to think what kind and how many categories of things the company can print. From the three examples， we could get the idea that by disobeying the Maxim of Quality， the humor can be produced in a unique way.
Applying the Maxim of Quality to translate them can also achieve the equivalent effect in the English version. However， in the second advertisement， the dumpling is particular to China. When rendering it to English， to let the western audience understand the context and get the humor， translator should use another way to transfer it. Here are the examples of the translations of the three advertisements above：
An ad for a kind of glue： It can fix anything， except a broken heart.
An ad for a dumpling restaurant： You could find all kinds of dumplings in our restaurant.
An ad for a printing company： We can print everything but money.
In the translations， the exaggerations have be kept in the English version to the largest extend. Yet in the second translation， the four-word idiom fails to remain in the translated text. In order to recreate the similar context， a free translation is applied here. As we can see， the disobeying of the Maxim of Quality can cause the humor not only in the Chinese context but also in the English one. 3.3 Maxim of Relation： Be relevant.
Try to relate the utterance to the going conversation is the core of Maxim of relation. However， disobeying the principle deliberately actually creates the language which is informative and meaningful in the term of hiding the in-depth meaning in the literal meaning. Here is an interesting example about producing the humor by violating the Maxim of Relation：
Pity the pickpockets！
It is an advertisement of the clothes with the safety pocket. Literally， the advertisement has nothing related with the product， but in fact， it is the safety pocket that protects the belonging from stealing by the thief. Once reasoning out the meaning of the advertisement， the humor can be achieved.
The translated text is “可怜那三只手啊！”， which is a word-to-word translation. It is obvious that the translator understands the meaning of the source text and recreates it in translation so that the target readers could have the same information as the source readers.
3.4Maxims of Manner
Humor may also be created by disobeying the Maxims of Manner. With regard to the principle， people should avoid the obscurity of expression， the ambiguity and unnecessary prolixity and should be orderly as well when communicating. However， by violating the rule， the abnormal repetition and mismatched meaning superficially may bring the unexpected humor； especially the humorous ambiguity may attract the audience to reason out the specific meaning in the language.
Here is an example of humor produced by causing the ambiguity in sound：
Sign in New England travel agency promoting a Colorado vocation：
“You’ve worked too hard， you deserve a little west.”
In the advertisement， “You deserve a little West” indicates that “You deserve a little rest， so please go to the west for your Colorado vocation. From this example， the humor could be produced by causing the ambiguity in sound， so that the audience obtains two different interpretations.
And in Chinese the humor may also be produced by causing the ambiguity in meaning. For instance：
In a cloud classroom， a professor said， “Students， order！”
The students answered， “Beer！”
The translation is：
在一个乱哄哄的教室里，教授喊到，”同学们，你们吆喝（要喝）什么？”
学生答：”啤酒！”
In the example， the word “order” has two meanings： “秩序”and “点单”in English，which causes the ambiguity in the language together with the humor. The reason is that the naught students disobey the Maxim of Manner on purpose so that the tense mood in the classroom would be eased. To sum up， in this section， the humor in advertisements could be produced by disobeying the Cooperation Principles consisting of four Maxims deliberately or unintentionally. When translator understands the reason that caused the humor， they could adopt the proper method to translate the humorous languages in advertisements. The best way to transfer the humor in the advertisement is to find the equivalent expression in the target language， with recreating the similar context as well. However， as we know， translation is sometimes impossible. So， the translator has to search for the most equivalent way functioning as the source text does to render the information according to the relevant pragmatic theories， such as the Cooperation Principles.
4. The Speech Acts
John Langshaw Austin （1955）， the founder of the theory of Speech Acts， holds the idea that “the words do things”. It means when people utter the words， they actually focus on the reaction of the listeners， which is named the Speech Act by Austin. It is an essential issue of Pragmatics， i.e.， studying the relationship between the language and the phatic function. Austin thinks that the languages appearing in terms of enquiring and giving directions are actually doing： a. locutionary act， illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Once the utterance begins， the three acts are all going unintentionally.
The section will discuss the Speech Act is applied in the advertisement to cause the humor and how people comprehend it and translate it as equivalently as possible.
Here is an example of a kind of shampoo：
Are you going gray too early？
Literally， it is a question for the customs. However， the in-depth meaning of the advertisement is to ask the audience to purchase the product in an indirect way. In accordance with the Speech Act， the three acts of the principle in the advertisement have been embodied. The question is a superficial way to transfer the meaning in the ad by the grammar and the vocabulary.
Usually， according to this theory， the words in an advertisement are to focus on the feelings， the thoughts and the actions of the customs for the purpose of attracting the customs. And it is how the “locutionary act” works. Next， the in-depth meaning in the ad is to suggest the customs to choose their product. It is called “illocutionary act”， which means the in-depth meaning that the utterance wants to express. Then， in the advertisement above， the aim of the question is to influence the acts of the audience to buy the shampoo. Everybody cares about their hair quality undoubtedly. The advertisement gives the customs a warning in term of a question， suggesting the advertisement cares about the customs’ hair quality as much as the customs do. As a result， the advertisement arouses the buying desire of the customs， and it achieves the effect. It is how “perlocutionary act” works. The communication between the seller and the buyer is successful. And the Speech Act has been accomplished completely. Also， the humor in the advertisement is created based on the Speech Act. To be honest， the seller cannot care the benefits as much as the buyers. Yet in the ad， the ad speaks as one friend of the audience， which is different from the previous advertisements.
In the same manner， when translating the advertisement above applying the Speech Act， the translator should learn the strategy as a reference. Take the advertisement as example， translators may render it directly because the effect could be achieved in the Chinese context as well based on the Speech Act.
5. Conclusion
When humor is applied in the advertisement， the wonderful effect would be achieved unexpectedly. The humorous advertisement would attract more customs than the ordinary one obviously. This paper， by discussing the humor produced in accordance with some pragmatic theories including the Relevance Theory， the Cooperative Principle and the Speech Act， mainly analyzes how to comprehend the humor in the advertisement from the prospective of pragmatics and how to translate it as equivalently as possible. All in all， in this way， translators may create more beautiful surprises in the language and the world of advertisement.
References：
Guit， Ernst-August. Pragmatic Aspects of Translation Some Relevance-Theory Observations）. In Hickey （Ed.）， The Pragmatics of Translation （pp. 43-44）. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
Hickey， Leo. （Ed.）. The Pragmatics of Translation. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
He， Ziran. Pragamatics and English Learning. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 1997.
He， Ziran. A survey of Pragmatics. Changsha： Hunan Education Press. 1987.
He， Ziran & Ran， Yongping. （Ed.）. Pragmatics & Cognition： Relevance Theory. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2001.
Malmkjaer Kirsten. Cooperation and Literary Translation. In Hickey （Ed.）， The Pragmatics of Translation （pp. 29-30）. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
Peng Zeng’an. Yuyong， Xiuci and Wenhua. Shanghai： Xuelin Press. 1998.
作者简介：
第一作者：屈亚媛，1985年生，女，陕西咸阳人，硕士，第四军医大学基础部外语教研室助教，研究方向为翻译技术。
通讯作者：周玉梅，第四军医大学基础医学院外语教研室主任、教授、硕士研究生导师。研究方向：医学英语翻译。
Key words： Pragmatic theories；translation skills；humorous language； advertisement.
1. Introduction：
Once humor is used in the language of the advertisements cleverly， the audience may laugh and take in the advertisement unintentionally. And the business aim of the advertisement can be achieved as well. This paper will analyze the humorous language in advertisement from the pragmatic perspective and study how to translate them. By analyzing some advertisements with the theories including the Relevance Theory， the Cooperative Principle， and the Speech Acts， some practical translation skills will be provided and discussed.
2. The Relevance Theory
Based on the Relevance Theory， every single word could be understood from different angles. In 1997， in the Pragmatics and English Learning， He Ziran concluded that to understand the right meaning of the natural language， people should find the relevant information in accordance with the context and reason out the very meaning. People may communicate between each other because they are able to reason out the in-depth meaning of people’s action and language.
Here is an advertisement of a translation company：
Translator gets 400 words to translate.
Client： How long will it take？
Translator： About a week.
Client： A whole week for just 400 words？ God created the world in 6 days！
Translator： Then just take a look at this world and afterwards take a look at my translation.
In this dialogue， the client uses the story that God create the world in six days from Holy Bible to satirize the translator. However， the clever translator compares the world made by God with the translation work by him. The translator actually wants to say， “My work is better than God’s. You should give me more time so that I can fulfill a sound job than God who create a relatively unsatisfactory world hastily.” The humor effects as the people in western country are familiar with the story of Holy Bible. It means people who watch the advertisement understand the context， so that they could easily find the relevant information， that is， the client thinks it is six days that God take to create the world but the translator needs a week to finish the job. The client complains the translator uses too much time. However， the translator regards that it is six days that God use to create the world so that the world is not so perfect. The translator insists on the view that the quality is better than the speed. The language in the advertisement is concise， and the company dose not claims their excellent services by using many words but utilizes the Bible story to create the context and relevant information. As a result， through reasoning， the audiences get the idea by themselves in a humorous way.
Applying the Relevance Theory， to translate the humor equivalently into Chinese， we should recreate the same context that people in China could understand. Here is an example：
译者距离交稿还有四百字。
客户：还要多长时间才能完成？
译者：大概一个礼拜吧。
客户：一个礼拜！上帝创造这个世界只用了6天，比你还少用一天！
译者：不可同日而语他的作品和我的作品哦。
The translated text is not a word-to-word translation， but reproduces the context comprehended by the People in China. The word“礼拜” reminds the audience the advertisement is in a western-culture climate. And “上帝创造这个世界才用了6天，比你还少用一天” is a free translation. “比你还少用一天” is the meaning behind the source language， but it is presented directly in the target text to fill the culture gap since some Chinese audience may not know the Bible story. And the answer of the client followed is another free translation to guide the people to the right meaning of the advertisement.
According to Sperber and Wilson （1986， 1995）， the central factor that makes communication succeed is the pursuit of optimal relevance on the part of both the communicator and the addressee. An utterance is optimally relevant （a） when it enables the audience to find without unnecessary effort the meaning intended by the communicator and （b） when that intended meaning is worth the audience’s effort， that is， when it provides adequate benefits to the audience. These benefits are psychological in nature； they consist in modifications of a person’s knowledge and are referred to technically as “positive contextual effects”. The function of optimal relevance in communication is captured in the principle of relevance， which is believed to be an innate constraint in our human psychological make-up.
So， whenever a person sets out to communicate something， he automatically communicates the presumption that what he is going to say is believe to be optimally relevant to the audience. In accordance with the optimal relevance， the translation has fulfilled the （a）， i.e， it helps the speaker to express what he wants to express， （“比你还少用一天！”）. And it also satisfy the （b）， i.e， creating the “positive contextual effects”， （ “礼拜”and the last sentence used the free translation.） With the help of pragmatic theory， the target audience obtains the information and the humor as much as the source audience. To sum up， based on the relevance theory and optimal relevance in pragmatics， when translating the humorous language in advertisement， translator should both understand the source text and recreate the similar context as well as the optimal relevance in the target text.
3. The Cooperative Principle
In 1960’s， Grice points out a concept named Conversational Implicatures.（1975： 45） These are“essentially connected with certain general features of discourse”， which arise from the fact that if our talk exchanges are to be rational， they must consist of utterances which are in some way connected to each other. What guarantees this connection is called the Cooperative Principle： “Make your conversational contribution such as is required， at the stage at which it occurs， by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.”（1975：45）
Grice’s Cooperation Principles consists of four categories， which are：
A. Maxims of quantity （concerning the amount of information to be conveyed）：
1） Make your contribution as informative as is required （for the current purposes of the exchange）.
2） Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
B. Maxims of quality： Try to make your contribution one that is true. More specifically：
1） Do not say what you believe to be false.
2） Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
C. Maxim of relation： Be relevant.
D. Maxims of manner （concerning not so much what is said as how it is said）： Be perspicuous. More specifically：
1） Avoid obscurity of expression.
2） Avoid ambiguity.
3） Be brief （avoid unnecessary prolixity）.
4） Be orderly.
5） And there may be others.
It is in cases of the fourth type， when， as Grice （1975：49） puts it， a maxim is being exploited， that conversational implicature is most characteristically generated. However， it is also possible to generate implicatures from cases in which no maxim is being violated and from cases in which a maxim is apparently violated because of a clash with another maxim.
Also， to create humor in advertisement， violating the four maxims above is usually applied. By violating these four maxims superficially， such as the lack of information or the repetition of a sing word， the indirect way to express the meaning behind the word， and exaggeration etc， the humor is finally produced in these ways above. 3.1 Maxim of Quantity
Perfection in the wink of an eye.
Perfection in its formula.
Perfecton in its brush.
Perfection in a look.
This advertisement is the one violating the Maxim of Quantity typically. It repeats the word “Perfection” four times， which aims to give the customs the deep impression of how delicious and delicate the ice cream is. In a normal condition， the Maxim of Quantity is emphasized in order to make people not speak the abundant word. However， to produce the humor and strengthen the tone of language here will attract the customs to buy it and not forget it. So， repetition here is necessary.
Once the translator is informed with the knowledge of Maxim of Quantity and the humor that could be created by violating the principle mentioned， he could apply the theory as well into his translation. Here is the translated text of the advertisement：
工艺之精巧，
口味之纯正，
原料之优良，
过目之不忘。
In the translation， the repetition in the source text is embodied as the repetitive sentence structure. And “之”is a classical word in Chinese together with four similar sentence forms， which is used here to present the good quality and nice taste in the source language. As a result， humor is recreated again in the Chinese version by violating the Maxim of Quantity.
With regard to the codes of Chinese language， the repetitive words in language are accepted usually， especially when people want to stress their moods and thoughts. In the translated text， translator did not copy the way （varying type fonts） in the source advertisement， but completing all sentences in the translation including all the omitted elements in the source text， such the subjects and verbs. In this way， humor is also represented in translation and the effect could work efficiently in the advertisement.
3.2 Maxim of Quality
The maxim of Quality in the Cooperation Principle requires the information is correct and objective provided by both communicators. However， in order to cause the humorous effect in the language， people disobey the rule on purpose. Take the humor in the advertisement as an example， the irrational words and specific contexts are created for transferring the humor which exists in an ambiguous way. As a result， the audience are be attracted by the humorous language so to find out the meaning of the joke in the advertisement. To achieve it， the adpersonin disobeys the Maxim of Quality by making use of exaggeration， metaphor and irrational ideas in their works. There are some examples about the humor in advertisement caused by violating the Maxim of Quality in the term of exaggeration：
某黏合剂广告：它能黏合一切，除了一颗破碎的心。
某饺子铺广告：无所不包。
某印刷公司广告：除钞票外，承印一切。
The words in the advertisement are all exaggerative. In the first one， it means that the glue’s quality is so good that it can stick to everything in the world except a broken heart. As we know， a broken heart has to be the most unrepaired object in the world， and it cannot be fixed by any kind of glue since a broken heart meaning someone is deeply hurt by another one. In this way， the adpersonin uses the very item to create the exaggeration to disobey the principle， and the humor is produced as well.
In the second advertisement， it employs a four-word idiom in Chinese to indicate the diversity of the dumplings in the restaurant. Apparently it is impossible that a dumpling restaurant cannot sell all kinds of dumplings at the same time， but the adpersonin applies the four-word idiom to exaggerate for the purpose of attracting the customs.
The third one is quite much same as the other twos. It is the common sense that money cannot be printed by the individual； otherwise it would break the law. The language in the advertisement indicates that the business range of their company is extremely wide. People always would be attracted by the irrational action and ideas. By taking a glance， the audience will be allured and have the desire to think what kind and how many categories of things the company can print. From the three examples， we could get the idea that by disobeying the Maxim of Quality， the humor can be produced in a unique way.
Applying the Maxim of Quality to translate them can also achieve the equivalent effect in the English version. However， in the second advertisement， the dumpling is particular to China. When rendering it to English， to let the western audience understand the context and get the humor， translator should use another way to transfer it. Here are the examples of the translations of the three advertisements above：
An ad for a kind of glue： It can fix anything， except a broken heart.
An ad for a dumpling restaurant： You could find all kinds of dumplings in our restaurant.
An ad for a printing company： We can print everything but money.
In the translations， the exaggerations have be kept in the English version to the largest extend. Yet in the second translation， the four-word idiom fails to remain in the translated text. In order to recreate the similar context， a free translation is applied here. As we can see， the disobeying of the Maxim of Quality can cause the humor not only in the Chinese context but also in the English one. 3.3 Maxim of Relation： Be relevant.
Try to relate the utterance to the going conversation is the core of Maxim of relation. However， disobeying the principle deliberately actually creates the language which is informative and meaningful in the term of hiding the in-depth meaning in the literal meaning. Here is an interesting example about producing the humor by violating the Maxim of Relation：
Pity the pickpockets！
It is an advertisement of the clothes with the safety pocket. Literally， the advertisement has nothing related with the product， but in fact， it is the safety pocket that protects the belonging from stealing by the thief. Once reasoning out the meaning of the advertisement， the humor can be achieved.
The translated text is “可怜那三只手啊！”， which is a word-to-word translation. It is obvious that the translator understands the meaning of the source text and recreates it in translation so that the target readers could have the same information as the source readers.
3.4Maxims of Manner
Humor may also be created by disobeying the Maxims of Manner. With regard to the principle， people should avoid the obscurity of expression， the ambiguity and unnecessary prolixity and should be orderly as well when communicating. However， by violating the rule， the abnormal repetition and mismatched meaning superficially may bring the unexpected humor； especially the humorous ambiguity may attract the audience to reason out the specific meaning in the language.
Here is an example of humor produced by causing the ambiguity in sound：
Sign in New England travel agency promoting a Colorado vocation：
“You’ve worked too hard， you deserve a little west.”
In the advertisement， “You deserve a little West” indicates that “You deserve a little rest， so please go to the west for your Colorado vocation. From this example， the humor could be produced by causing the ambiguity in sound， so that the audience obtains two different interpretations.
And in Chinese the humor may also be produced by causing the ambiguity in meaning. For instance：
In a cloud classroom， a professor said， “Students， order！”
The students answered， “Beer！”
The translation is：
在一个乱哄哄的教室里，教授喊到，”同学们，你们吆喝（要喝）什么？”
学生答：”啤酒！”
In the example， the word “order” has two meanings： “秩序”and “点单”in English，which causes the ambiguity in the language together with the humor. The reason is that the naught students disobey the Maxim of Manner on purpose so that the tense mood in the classroom would be eased. To sum up， in this section， the humor in advertisements could be produced by disobeying the Cooperation Principles consisting of four Maxims deliberately or unintentionally. When translator understands the reason that caused the humor， they could adopt the proper method to translate the humorous languages in advertisements. The best way to transfer the humor in the advertisement is to find the equivalent expression in the target language， with recreating the similar context as well. However， as we know， translation is sometimes impossible. So， the translator has to search for the most equivalent way functioning as the source text does to render the information according to the relevant pragmatic theories， such as the Cooperation Principles.
4. The Speech Acts
John Langshaw Austin （1955）， the founder of the theory of Speech Acts， holds the idea that “the words do things”. It means when people utter the words， they actually focus on the reaction of the listeners， which is named the Speech Act by Austin. It is an essential issue of Pragmatics， i.e.， studying the relationship between the language and the phatic function. Austin thinks that the languages appearing in terms of enquiring and giving directions are actually doing： a. locutionary act， illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. Once the utterance begins， the three acts are all going unintentionally.
The section will discuss the Speech Act is applied in the advertisement to cause the humor and how people comprehend it and translate it as equivalently as possible.
Here is an example of a kind of shampoo：
Are you going gray too early？
Literally， it is a question for the customs. However， the in-depth meaning of the advertisement is to ask the audience to purchase the product in an indirect way. In accordance with the Speech Act， the three acts of the principle in the advertisement have been embodied. The question is a superficial way to transfer the meaning in the ad by the grammar and the vocabulary.
Usually， according to this theory， the words in an advertisement are to focus on the feelings， the thoughts and the actions of the customs for the purpose of attracting the customs. And it is how the “locutionary act” works. Next， the in-depth meaning in the ad is to suggest the customs to choose their product. It is called “illocutionary act”， which means the in-depth meaning that the utterance wants to express. Then， in the advertisement above， the aim of the question is to influence the acts of the audience to buy the shampoo. Everybody cares about their hair quality undoubtedly. The advertisement gives the customs a warning in term of a question， suggesting the advertisement cares about the customs’ hair quality as much as the customs do. As a result， the advertisement arouses the buying desire of the customs， and it achieves the effect. It is how “perlocutionary act” works. The communication between the seller and the buyer is successful. And the Speech Act has been accomplished completely. Also， the humor in the advertisement is created based on the Speech Act. To be honest， the seller cannot care the benefits as much as the buyers. Yet in the ad， the ad speaks as one friend of the audience， which is different from the previous advertisements.
In the same manner， when translating the advertisement above applying the Speech Act， the translator should learn the strategy as a reference. Take the advertisement as example， translators may render it directly because the effect could be achieved in the Chinese context as well based on the Speech Act.
5. Conclusion
When humor is applied in the advertisement， the wonderful effect would be achieved unexpectedly. The humorous advertisement would attract more customs than the ordinary one obviously. This paper， by discussing the humor produced in accordance with some pragmatic theories including the Relevance Theory， the Cooperative Principle and the Speech Act， mainly analyzes how to comprehend the humor in the advertisement from the prospective of pragmatics and how to translate it as equivalently as possible. All in all， in this way， translators may create more beautiful surprises in the language and the world of advertisement.
References：
Guit， Ernst-August. Pragmatic Aspects of Translation Some Relevance-Theory Observations）. In Hickey （Ed.）， The Pragmatics of Translation （pp. 43-44）. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
Hickey， Leo. （Ed.）. The Pragmatics of Translation. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
He， Ziran. Pragamatics and English Learning. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 1997.
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He， Ziran & Ran， Yongping. （Ed.）. Pragmatics & Cognition： Relevance Theory. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2001.
Malmkjaer Kirsten. Cooperation and Literary Translation. In Hickey （Ed.）， The Pragmatics of Translation （pp. 29-30）. Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2001.
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作者简介：
第一作者：屈亚媛，1985年生，女，陕西咸阳人，硕士，第四军医大学基础部外语教研室助教，研究方向为翻译技术。
通讯作者：周玉梅，第四军医大学基础医学院外语教研室主任、教授、硕士研究生导师。研究方向：医学英语翻译。