An Empirical Study On Trainee Interpreters’ Erroneous Omission In English To Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

Simultaneous interpretation(SI)is a mode of interpretation in which the speaker makes a speech and the interpreter reformulates the speech into a language the audience understands at the same time.In interpretation,the completeness of the meaning of the source language is an important factor in measuring the interpreter’s performance.However,interpreters are likely to omit some information in SI due to time constraints,high information density,and high effort allocation requirements.Such omissions are inevitable for trainee interpreters in the early stages of their SI learning,and most of their omissions can be considered as errors that affect the conveyance of the meaning.In this study,the author investigates trainee interpreters’ erroneous omissions in English to Chinese SI from Corder’s error analysis theory and omission through quantitative and qualitative analyses.The author first defines the erroneous omission and summarizes its classification,including omission of information indicating sequence of events,omission of information indicating comparison,omission of information used for coherence and omission of modifiers indicating the speaker’s attitude.Through the quantitative analysis,the author figures out the most typical type of erroneous omission,and finds out the reasons for trainee interpreters’ erroneous omissions through a questionnaire.Possible reasons include the speaker’s fast speaking rate,the speaker’s unclear logic,the interpreter’s poor listening comprehension and insufficient preparation for an SI task.Based on these reasons,the author puts forward corresponding suggestions.This study is significant for trainee interpreters to effectively avoid erroneous omission and improve their performance in future practices.Meanwhile,it enriches studies of omission,provides ideas for MTI teaching,and contributes to the development of China’s interpreting studies.