Relevance Theory And Consecutive Interpreting: Implications For Self-training

With the aim to shed new light on consecutive interpreters’self-training-approach, this thesis, in the light of related exploration of the Relevance Theory(RT) and the exploration of the process and features of Consecutive Interpretation(CI), assumes approaches to enhancing relevance of CI activity. With an attempt to prove those assumptions, the CI in the Conference of the Joint Management Committee of the Cooperative Program Between Central China Normal University and Swinburne University of Technology is taken as the analytical example.RT probes into language communication from the perspective of cognitive science. In order to obtain contextual effect and successful communication, both speaker and hearer complete ostensive-inferential process together by constantly looking for the relevance in the dynamic contextual assumptions. CI, in its essence, is communication. Therefore, ostensive-inferential cognitive process can be reasonably applied to analyzing CI as follows:speaker presents ostensive stimulus, interpreter infers and provides the hearer with ostensive stimulus again. This angle subdivides CI into smaller ostensive-inferential modules, which not only fully reveals interpreter’s double role, and clearly explains and analyzes CI process as well as features, but also throws fresh insight into interpreters’self-training-approach.Part one introduces the background, contents and significance of the research. Part two combines some important concepts of "relevance" and "communication" with CI and then explores both CI process from two aspects:before and during CI, and its features, including various ostensive and inferential manners and interpreter’s double responsibility. Part three is the example analysis:different with the ordinary CI training, in real CI activity, new communication among the speaker, hearer and interpreter may happen and result in the interruption of interpreting order. The author of the present thesis attempts to explain those special phenomenon and further analyzes the various ostensive stimulus and inferential manner, moreover, explores how the interpreter uses non-linguistic, phonetic, syntactic and semantic clues. Being proved by personal practice, theoretical explanation, interpretation contrast, and reading-listening experiment, Part four points out three suggestions on CI self-training:building contextual assumption before CI; overall grasping the communicative clues during CI; clarifying syntactic clues, and manifesting their form and logic by using cohesive markers. Part five is the general conclusion of the whole thesis.