An Analytical Study Of The Application Of Adaptation Theory In Interpreting

Along with the economic and cultural globalization in the 21st century and the flourishing of international academic communication, there are greater demands for more qualified interpreters. Interpreting, which serves as a very important means and bridge in international exchange and cooperation in different fields, is now playing a vital role. Interpreting research and teaching have developed by leaps and bounds. Researches on interpreting have become more and more cross-disciplined, integrating with pragmatic, psychological, cognitive, linguistic and translational studies.Interpreting is generally regarded as translational activity, as a special form of 'Translation'. Interpreting is an ancient human practice which clearly predates the invention of writing and (written) translation. Within the conceptual structure of translation, interpreting can be distinguished from other types of translational activity most succinctly by its immediacy; in principle, interpreting is performed 'here and now' for the benefit of people who want to engage in communication across barriers of language and culture. Kade (1971:12) defined interpreting as a form of translation in which—the source-language text is presented only once and thus cannot be reviewed or replayed, and—the target-language text is produced under time pressure, with little change for correction and revision.In the process of interpreting, an interpreter will precisely convey the speaker's attempt and information to the listener(s) if only he could adapt himself to the context and choose the right words and expressions. These choices can be made at any level of linguistic forms: phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical or semantic with the consideration of contextual and cultural factors.Although interpreting is an ancient human practice, it appears that, through the ages, up to the twentieth century, it was usually considered too 'common' and unspectacular to deserve special mention. One reason is that interpreting is a form of translation in which a first and final rendition in another language is produced on the basis of a one-time presentation of an utterance in a source language. Nevertheless, there is some fascinating evidence of the role and status of interpreters in both history and the present world. In the early twentieth century, the first major wave of professionalization of interpreting took shape.This dissertation is an attempt on the study of interpreting from the perspective of Theory of Adaptation initiated in 1987 and then developed in the 1990s by Jef. Verschueren, the head of Belgium Pragmatics Association, in his book Understanding Pragmatics. Adaptation Theory claims that language use consists of the continuous making of choices, consciously or unconsciously. Verschueren views language production and language comprehension from a new perspective and adopts an approach to language that takes into account the full complexity of its cognitive, social and cultural functioning. It aims at providing a systematic and all-round interpretation for the dynamic process of language use from the angle of adaptation. Linguistic choices, according to Verschueren, are generated in the correlation of mental, social and physical worlds and the utterers may make adaptive choices at various levels in order to satisfy their communicative needs and achieve their communicative ends.The reason why language users are able to make continuous and appropriate choices in the communication process is that language itself has three properties: variability, negotiability and adaptability.Variability is 'the property of language which defines the range of possibilities from which choices can be made' (Verschueren, 1999). Verschueren maintains that the range of possible choices cannot be seen as anything static or stable, it is constantly changing. In the process of communication, language users may rule out alternatives or create new ones for particular purposes.Negotiabilityis 'the property of language responsible for the fact that choices are not made mechanically or according to strict rules or fixed form-function relationships, but rather on the basis of highly flexible principles and strategies' (Verschueren, 1999). That is to say, the continuous making of linguistic choices is driven by highly flexible principles and strategies for purposes of communication.Adaptability is 'the property of language which enables human beings to make negotiable linguistic choices from a variable range of possibilities in such a way as to approach points of satisfaction for communicative needs' (Verschueren, 1999). The choices may be made in accordance with pre-existent circumstances, and circumstances also get changed by, or adapted to, the choices that are made.These three interrelated properties, Verschueren argues, serve as a conceptual tool to come to an investigation for and understandings of linguistic pragmatics.In the dissertation, the author has made an effort to explore and analyze the application of adaptation in both the linguistic and non-linguistic contexts of interpreting in light of the three language properties put forward by Verschueren.As Malinowski(1993) suggests that utterance "becomes only intelligible when it is placed within its context of situation." Interpretation in essence, a communicative activity, only takes place in a special context. Due to its extemporariness, interpretation is more dependent on the context and the study of relations between contextual adaptation and interpretation should gain its due attention.This dissertation attempts to analyze the contextual adaptation in interpreting from the perspective of Theory of Adaptation. First of all, the dissertation explores the analysis of linguistic adaptation, In interpretation, interpreters have to take into account the linguistic context, by choosing appropriate expressions in line with the requirements of phonetics, semantics and grammar in order to convey precisely the information to the listeners. Secondly, the dissertation focuses on the analysis of adaptation of non-linguistic context, including mainly the cultural, mental and physical (situational) context. Interpreting is not only an inter-lingual activity, but also a process of cultural exchange, i.e. a kind of intercultural communication. Therefore, interpreters are expected to possess a profound knowledge and awareness of both oriental and occidental cultures to adapt their interpreting to various cultural contexts by the application of different strategies. Interpreters need to adapt to a great variety of situational contexts because interpreting is also an activity of high situational context and covers a wide area of professions. The author of this dissertation tries his hand at proving the fact that adaptation theory has a strong bearing on translation and particularly interpreting, and the making of language choice and language adaptation are inseparable. Interpreting is a continuous process of making choices. The selection of the appropriate words and expressions of the interpreted language must adapt to certain cultural, mental and physical aspects for the sake of attaining the highest equivalents between source language and target language.This dissertation analyzes questionnaires, interviews and on-spot interpreting tests according to the concepts and principles of Adaptation Theory and intends to probe into the contextual adaptation in interpreting. This dissertation also expounds some specific cases with qualitative and quantitative study methods and finds out that the subjects consciously or sub-consciously apply strategies of adaptation theory in their interpreting and the more advanced the language learners, the more frequently they count on the application of adaptation theory.In summary, this dissertation has made an effort in the exploration of the application and the evaluation of adaptation theory in interpreting from the pragmatic and cross-discipline angles. This dissertation has provided a new arena for the research on interpreting theory and the included case study deserves some merits in the research and instruction of interpreting.