Shifts Of Cohesive Devices In C-E Consecutive Interpreting

Cohesion is a very important standard of interpreting output. Cohesive devicesplay a critical role in achieving textual cohesion. Shifts in cohesive devices aredeemed as a kind of universal in language mediation. As most previous studies onlyanalyzed the practices of professional interpreters in this regard, this study is designedto focus on the shifts of cohesive devices used by trainee interpreters in consecutiveinterpreting. This study explores reasons behind the shifts by trainees and analyzeshow the shifts of cohesive devices are mode-specific in consecutive interpreting.In this study, cohesive devices are narrowed down to conjunctions. First, anexperiment is carried out on14trainee interpreters. Based on Cohesion Theoryproposed by Halliday and Hasan, the author shows the forms of shifts and distributionof types of conjunctions in each form of shifts. Then through the stimulated recall andsemi-structured interview to trainee interpreters, this study probes into reasons behindthe shifts. Last, from the perspective of consecutive interpreting, the author discusseshow features of consecutive interpreting affect the shifts of conjunctions.Major findings of this study are as follows. First, there are three forms of shifts,namely omission, substitution and addition. Types of conjunctions are distributeddifferently in each form. Second, there are three reasons leading to the shifts. Thepredominant reason is the nature of conjunction as cohesive device and its differentusages in English and Chinese. The second reason is the limited processing capacity.The third reason is the linguistic characteristics of interpreting. Shifts of cohesivedevices are affected by the features of consecutive interpreting and conjunction is alsoused as a kind of communication strategy by trainee interpreters.