ABSTRACT
An application of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) to the theory of humour translation is presented. The GTVH is presented as a theory that allows us to relate perceived differences between jokes to six hierarchically ordered Knowledge Resources (parameters), namely knowledge concerning Language; Narrative Strategies; Target(s); Situation; Logical Mechanism(s); Script Opposition(s). The GTVH’s contribution to theory on humour translation is the metric of joke similarity, which allows the translator to evaluate how much a translated joke differs from the source joke. Some strategies for applying the metric heuristics to translation are provided. Finally, the issue of the translation of puns is taken up and it is argued that humorous translation cannot be absolutely guaranteed in all cases. 1
