Chapter One Interpretive Theory
1.1 Literature Review
Since interpreting enters into world stage, experts, scholars and practitioners in the interpreting field have been studied on scientific guiding theory and methodology for interpreting work. In 1970s, several professional interpreters discovered new theories for interpreting through their experiences and reflections. And the Interpretive Theory put forward by Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer has been one of the most influential and symbolic interpreting theories.
In 1968, renowned French expert Danica Seleskovitch published L’Interprète dans les conférences internationals-Problèmes de langage et de communication (Interpreting for International Conferences-Problems of Language and Communication), which was seen as the foundation work of the Interpretive Theory (Gong, 2008: 81). During the following decades, Danica Seleskovitch, along with other researchers, gradually summarized and refined a set of relatively well-developed interpreting theory, known as the Interpretive Theory or the Sense-Based Theory.
In 1984, Danica Seleskovitch and Marianne Lederer co-published the book Interpréter pour Traduire (Interpretation Studies) marking the official establishment of the Interpretive Theory. The 1980s witnessed the important advancements of the theory. During this period, relevant research findings emerged one after another. Researchers expand the scope of theoretical applications from interpreting to translation with the intention of examining the scientific sense of the Interpretive Theory as a general translation theory. In addition, researchers also made great efforts to enrich and improve the theory by way of employing the fruits of other disciplines. In 1994, the publication of La Traduction aujourd' hui - le modele interpretative (Translation-The Interpretive Model) written by Marianne Lederer marked the maturity and completion of the Interpretive Theory.
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1.2 Theoretical Framework
Scholars of the Interpretive Theory school believe that both consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting are conducted with a certain interpreting procedure, which can further be divided into three steps: comprehension, de-verbalization, and re-expression, namely, the triangular model of Interpretive theory (Wang, 2017: 20). It provides interpreting learners with systematic, scientific and practical interpreting methods and training approaches. They deem “translation as interpretation” for interpreting is neither the absolute language behavior nor the simple transition process from one language to another. The attention paid by interpreters lies in the opinions and thoughts that the speakers intend to convey instead of the form of source language. To this end, interpreters are supposed to free them from the formed chains of source language, procure the meaning from what the speaker says, subsequently interpret it to the audience (Zhang, 2011: 74).
According to the triangular model of the Interpretive Theory, the interpreting process can be divided into three stages as comprehension, de-verbalization, and re-expression.
First, the comprehension of source material means that interpreters, through listening to the language information, are able to get valid information in different levels ranging from phoneme, morpheme, phrase, sentence, and passage and digest the information with their cognitive knowledge. The theory acknowledges comprehension as the first step and the indispensable step of interpreting.
Nevertheless, the interpreter’s understanding of source material fails to help the him/her to finish the whole interpreting process. Language transcoding cannot be done without the extraction of sense, namely de-verbalization. Lederer defined it as “The stage between interpreters’ understanding to discourse and re-expression in target language. Besides, the de-verbalization of language symbol of source text is triggered by cognitive sense and emotional sense” (Lederer, 2011: 213). Interpreters are not relying on stenography or reading the note to interpret but to re-process the received information based on their understanding and then convey such message to the audience of target language in an appropriate manner. If the interpreters just know each word’s meaning of source language without deverbalizing it, they would just know the scrappy or detached ideas and the logical connection between sentences would be definitely lost and thus the quality of target language will be lowered.
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Chapter Two Procedural Description of Interpreting
2.1 Before interpreting
2.1.1 Task Description
This report takes an interpreting practice of mock conference made by the present writer as the source material. This mock conference is held by her interpreting teachers and classmates and they play the role of the organizer and audience accordingly. In order to present a real interpreting environment, the working flow from the discussion of the conference theme, identification of conference name and the invitation of speakers to the composition of conference manual is well conducted.
The present writer, also the interpreter, receives the conference manual two weeks prior to the conference. The name of the mock conference is “The development of China’s Environment Protection” and its objective is to discuss the current status, past achievements and future challenges of environmental protection in China. The interpreting mode for this conference is consecutive interpreting.
The information like speakers and their speech titles is listed in the meeting agenda and the interpreter can take it as an important reference. The whole conference contains seven speeches including “Protecting the Nature by Law” delivered by Ge Feng, “Is China Short of Water?” delivered by Wolfgang Kinzelbach, and “Fight for the Blue Skies” by Hao Jiming. They discuss China’s environmental protection from different perspectives based on their research focuses. One thing needs to mention that Mr. Kinzelbach is not a native Chinese speaker but he is able to communicate in Chinese. After asking the organizer of the mock conference, the present writer knows that he will deliver his speech in Chinese. Apparently, his accented Chinese expression has some difficult points such as improper usage of words or phrases that increases some obstacles for the interpreter.
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2.2 While interpreting
The mock conference is held in multimedia classroom at 9:00 am. To make sure everything goes well, the interpreter is required to show up one hour earlier checking the video players, earphones and voice recorder. The objective of this mock interpreting for the present writer is to experience the procedures of real interpreting work and examine her interpreting performance. Thus, the whole conference is recorded for further studies and analysis.
After finishing checking all the devices, the present writer discusses with one of the organizers who is in charge of playing videos. Since this is a mock interpreting, all the videos are prepared as unstopped speeches. In this case, the present writer needs someone to pause the video at about every two to three minutes. In addition, the present writer needs to take out the printed glossary, pens, and notebooks for note-taking.
As all preparations are set up, the mock conference is officially kicking off. Fully mental preparation is necessary for the present writer as the video is starting to play. Due to the special requirements for public speech interpreting，the interpreter should present on the stage together with the speaker facing the audiences with different backgrounds, which means the present writer has to shoulder certain psychologist pressure. To overcome such stress, the present writer uses positive self-suggestion to reduce the tension. With the reference of the notes and her short-memory, the present writer interprets at a moderate speed in a logical and clear manner. Besides, she also observes the response of the audience, which is also a method to check whether the audiences have understood or been satisfied with her performance. Thanks to the thorough preparation in thematic knowledge and interpreting strategies in the early stage, the whole interpreting process goes well.
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Chapter Three Case Studies on Interpretive Strategies ···················· 15
3.1 Analysis of the Source Material ·································· 15
3.1.1 Nature of Source Material ··························· 15
3.1.2 Features and Difficulties····························· 15
Chapter Three Case Studies on Interpretive Strategies
3.1 Analysis of the Source Material
3.1.1 Nature of Source Material
Interpreters may encounter different speech types including introductive, narrative and persuasive speech type in accordance with their structural development and discoursal function. The interpreting strategies is adjusted with the shifting of discourses, especially in listening and memory. These three speakers share their own experience with the projects of environmental protection that they have participated in. In light of the discoursal classification mentioned above, the source material is deemed as introductory discourse for it is proceeded with time, space, or changes of figures including some opening words, plotlines, climax and denouements. Moreover, neither of these three speeches is confined to one category of discourse but bears more than two features of text (Lu, 2009:15).
For an interpreter, interpreting a Chinese speech does not mean that every element in the ST needs to be interpreted directly. Through the process of de-verbalization, the present writer procures the key information of ST and put the word “上诉”in right position, which conforms to the Interpretive Theory. Although in this way the form of ST is changed, its meaning remains. Compared with other modes of interpreting, interpreters have longer time to ingest and process the information in consecutive interpreting, for instance, the addition and subtraction of two numbers. Thus, the present writer calculates the “两个 189 万” into “CNY 3.78 million”, which emphasizes the large amount of legal fee but also clearly conveyed the information in a simplified manner.
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Conclusion
This report is based on a consecutive interpreting practice of mock conference themed with “The Development of China’s Environmental Protection”. The present writer analyzes the nature and features of the original speech, and summarizes the difficulties that she encountered during her interpreting practice such as redundant information, technical terms, culture-loaded words, polysemy an unclear logic. To solve these difficulties, she provides the coping strategies as “simplification”, “cognitive complements”, and “logic-processing” under the guidance of Interpretive Theory.
Major Findings
With the aid of the Interpretive Theory, the present writer is able to procure the meaning of source material through omission and generalization, select the appropriate English expressions of poly-semantic words within the context and proper interpretation of culture-loaded words by cognitive complements, and optimize the repeated expression as well as the unclear logic via reformulation and amplification for logic during the interpreting. In this report, the present writer lays great emphasis on the case analysis combined with the introduction of interpreting strategies and specific skills. Through the case analysis, the guidance of the Interpretive Theory in consecutive interpreting of public speech related to environmental protection have been explained.
Deemed as an effective method for interpreting research and training, mock conference interpreting paves a way for interpreters to experience the work flow of real interpreting work. Through this practice, the present writer deepens her understanding of the knowledge related to environmental protection and how the Interpretive Theory works for the consecutive interpreting in this field.
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