On Functions Of Context In Interpreting In The Light Of The Sequential Model

Never be a simple code-shifting activity, interpreting is a complex inter-cultural activity. Since many factors are involved in this activity, simply by finding out the linguistic equivalence of the source language can never guarantee the success of interpreting. The functions of context in interpreting have been the focus of many scholars.By studying the Sequential Model proposed by Daniel Gile, the interpreter was enlightened not only by the new perspective of the process of interpreting but also the new conceptions proposed by Gile in this model, for example, the idea of"knowledge base"and"meaning hypothesis".This model gives an ideal path of interpreting and translating from source-language to target language text and it highlights the importance of the knowledge base of the interpreting, then the author finds that different knowledge bases can trigger different meaning hypothesis, and context can play an important role in the choice of the meaning hypothesis. This idea encourages the author of the thesis to explore the function of context from the perspective of the sequential model. According to Gile, the interpreter is doing meaning hypothesis based on the knowledge base, so the different knowledge bases may trigger different meaning hypothesis. So there must be some factors to help the interpreter to do meaning hypothesis. By case studying, the author finds that the context can play an important role in interpreting in the light of the sequential model.In this paper, based on the cases selected from the interpreting contest, the author explores the functions of the context with purposes to find ways to improve the interpreting performance. Conclusions are drawn from the studies. In the light of the several concepts in the Sequential Model, the author finds that context can help decision-making in interpreting: it can help the choice of the meaning hypothesis, anticipate meaning, minimize the risks in comprehension, on the other hand, it can assist the linguistic choices for example, words, phrases and structure, even the interpreting units can be optimized based on the context.