Viewing Court Interpreting In Civil Trial Proceedings In China And The United States

The study of interpretation has in recent years been given more and more attention and it has now become a hot spot in translation studies. Interpretation may have different classifications according to different criteria. For example, in terms of modes of working, it can be divided into consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting including sight interpreting. It can also be classified into conference interpreting, court interpreting and negotiation interpreting, etc., in terms of the settings. As for the practice and the study of court interpreting, it has in the past few decades become one of the important branches of interpretation studies. In the United States, especially the concerning laws and regulations have been and are still being perfected. However, in China studies in this field are rarely seen.In translation studies there have long been different voices in the discussion of the translator's identity or role. Different scholars have defined the translator's identity from different perspectives. For instance, in their cooperated works Discourse and the Translator, Basil Hatim & Ian Mason hold that "translator is the mediator". It seems that all these studies are reasonable to some extent. However, in court interpreting, scholars have expressed their unique ideas as to the court interpreter's identity in the special background. Gerhard Obenaus (Morris, Marshall, ed. Translation and the Law, P247) thinks that "legal translator is the information broker" while Edwards {The Practice of Court Interpreting, P137) holds that "court interpreter is the expert witness". These studies have emphasized the court interpreter's unique identity as compared with other types of interpreters.This thesis aims to introduce court interpreting in civil trial proceedings in China and the United States. After analyzing the importance of translation in trial proceedings and also the characteristics of legal language, the thesis believes that a court interpreter with multi-identity should have special professional ethics. Whencomparing both practice and study in this field, the author finds that China falls far behind the United States, thus as interpreters we should try to enhance our study in this field.Besides introduction and conclusion, this article is composed of five chapters.Chapter One carries out a comparative analysis of the civil trial proceedings in China and the United States, which bear some differences because of the different historical and cultural background. However, the emphasis is put on the similarities of the two, that is, when any of the civil litigants or litigious participants can not present their claims to the court in the major adopted language, they are entitled by law to work with the help of an interpreter to finish the litigation. This chapter also introduces those trial stages that involve translation, such as court debate, presentation of testimonial evidence, written evidence and audio-visual materials.Chapter Two focuses on the importance of interpreting in civil trial proceedings. It starts with the necessity of court interpreting, and then takes the United States as an example to further illustrate its importance with retrospection to the history of its development. Meanwhile it probes into the present condition of this field in China. By comparison we learn that China lags far behind the United States in both practice and theoretical study and we are facing a crucial challenge.Chapter Three digs into the characteristics of the language used in civil trial proceedings and the major translation approaches. First it briefly talks about the function of language, and then classifies language styles into different categories. By comparative analysis it discusses the characteristics of legal language and the differences and similarities between legal translation and court interpreting. Thus we can have a better understanding about the working language of court interpreting.Chapter Four penetrates into the special professional ethics that court interpreters should abide by. It first analyz...