A Comparative Analysis of Human Translation and AI Translation in Humorous Subtitles: A Case Study of Her Story
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has developed rapidly in recent years, and it has also been applied in the aspect of translation. But humorous expression remains a difficulty because of its high dependence on language and culture. In this research, Functional Equivalence Theory serves as an important reference for translation, and General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) also offers crucial theoretical support for humorous effect’s analysis. This research focuses on part of the subtitles in movie, Her Story, in order to analyze the differences between human translation and AI translation from the respects of general humor, linguistic humor and cultural humor. Through the comparative analysis, it is obvious that human translation shows its irreplaceable value in cultural sensitivity and creative expression. In contrast, AI translation still has limitations in dealing with humorous expressions, manifesting in contextual negligence, cultural differences, language structure error, communicative inadequacy. These translations can preserve only the literal meaning but lack the capacity to understand and decode deeper meanings, which will result in the loss of humor during the translation. At the present stage, AI is still considered as the auxiliary tool for human translators, supporting translators performing better in coping with profound expression.
Author: Fan Zhang
Institution: Shanghai International Studies University
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4413183172