| This study takes the contradiction between the revised hierarchical model and the interpretive theory as the starting point. The model proposes that the translation from A to B is a conceptual link while that from B to A is a lexical link. It can be understood that the translation is meaning oriented in one direction while it is form oriented in the other.However, the Paris school insists on interpreting from B to A. According to the interpretive theory, during the deverbalization stage from comprehension to production,interpreters should totally forget the form and only remember the meaning of the source language.The interpretation from B to A should be based on the meaning. At the same time, according to the personal observations of this writer, the interpreters have different preferences toward different directions. As the comprehension and production processes of mother tongue and a foreign language are normally different,the simultaneous interpreting from A to B and from B to A may involve different processes, thus leading to different results. Therefore, the writer is interested in exploring the processing mechanism behind each interpreting direction. Does there exist an asymmetry between the two directions as the revised hierarchical model proposes?As Bao Gang (2005) pointed out, deverbalization is an information processing activity of interpreters. This study takes the deverabaliztion as a theoretical perspective to explore the processing mode of interpreters. According to the previous definitions of deverbalization, in the dynamic deverbalization process, the study will observe to which degree the interpreters maintain the language form, whether they forget the form totally; in the static result, the study will observe whether the interpreters take the meaning-oriented or form-oriented mode.There have been few empirical study based on language materials, still fewer on the study about the directional role in the simultaneous interpreting process. But with the popularization of A-B interpreting, it's necessary to know the characteristics of directionality in interpreting. By reviewing literature, the writer finds that the interpreting direction has influence on the cognitive process. Although the interpretive theory insists that the deverbalization has nothing to do with language pairs, the existing studies tell us that the language pair is an indispensable factor in studying interpreting directionality.Therefore, this study will explore the processing mode in four different interpreting directions of two language pairs, specifically the English and Chinese pair and the English and Spanish pair.The study of the asymmetric processing mode of the source language in both directions should be based on the acceptable interpreting quality. Therefore, the study will observe another important variable, which is the interpreting quality in order to explore the relationship between different processing modes and interpreting quality.The result shows that the interpreting direction and language pair exert obvious influence on the source language information processing modes,specifically, the deverbalization process and its product. And there exists an asymmetry between the two directions. The point of the interpretive theory that the interpreters should totally forget the form during deverbalization is not born out by the observation of this writer. This occurs to the two language pairs, especially in English-Chinese direction. The more memory of the source language form, the better deverablization performance in the production. Secondly,the theory proposes that interpreters should express the source language information in target language without being interfered by the source language form. This point is supported. In two language pairs, the deverbalization degree of B-A is higher than that of A-B, confirming that the tradition of the interpreting direction of B-A has its reason.However, in different language pairs, there exists obvious differences in B-A deverbalization degree. This disproves the point of the interpretive theory that the deverbalization has nothing to do with language pairs. In interpreting studies, we should take into consideration the language factor. Besides, both pairs show that the processing modes exert obvious influence on the interpreting quality. |
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