Comparison Between Interpreters' And Users'perception Of Professional Norms

Norms in interpreting is an important subject of Descriptive Translation Studies.Previous researchers focus on either a certain issue of interpreting norms or norms in consecutive interpreting in diplomatic settings,lacking enough attention to norms in simultaneous interpreting(SI)in common topic-based meetings,as well as differences between major parties' perception of these norms.This thesis,taking norms as the study subject,is aimed at: 1)describing in a relatively systematic manner the professional norms in SI;2)comparing how interpreters and users perceive professional norms differently,and analyzing reasons for such differences.By drawing on Chesterman's norms theory and specific indicators from other researchers,this study has been carried out under the descriptive framework of professional norms in interpreting.Quasi-experiments were conducted to collect interpreters' SI output,based on which professional norms were described.Questionnaires were given out to collect data on scores and marking criteria from interpreters and users respectively.Statistical methods were applied to analyze perception differences between these two groups.Case studies were made to analyze reasons behind the differences.Following are the differences between the two groups' perception.First,interpreters are more aware of and familiar with professional norms than users.Second,interpreters' perception of a certain indicator is free from the influence of other indicators while users' perception is more likely to be influenced by that of other indicators.Third,as for communicative norms indicators,interpreters put most emphasis on communication effect indicators and least emphasis on delivery manner indicators while users believe just the opposite.Fourth,interpreters believe it is their job to deliver both linguistic and paralinguistic information,but users regard only the former as interpreters' job.Fifth,interpreters believe unanimously that they enjoy limited power of interference,and users,on the other hand,hold a more polarized and simplified view.Besides,a higher proportion of users think interpreters should be loyal to them in the first place.Reasons for such differences are as follows:(1)users don't know much about the average of interpreters' ability;(2)users cannot evaluate certain indicators directly;(3)the two groups understand certain indicators differently or their ideas vary during the SI process;(4)the two groups enjoy different habitus,capital and status(Wen Ren,2013)in the field of international conferences.The author,through this study,hopes to contribute to interpreting studies,interpreting training and interpreting practice in the following ways: First,it extends and enrichesstudies on norms in interpreting.Second,it combines the method of corpus-based description with questionnaires,making the research more rigorous and reliable.Third,it attempts to enrich corpus construction by incorporating conference interpreting(SI)data and para-linguistic information annotation.Fourth,it might help with intended efforts in curriculum and course improvement,making students better prepared for entering the market.Fifth,it may also help clarify the perception of interpreting market,by users in particular,thus providing both theoretical and empirical support for future market research.