Contextual Adaptation In Community Interpreting

This thesis introduces the tenets of Adaptation Theory from Verschueren's Understanding Pragmatics to investigate the complexities of contextual adaptation in the process of Community interpreting. Verschueren takes a general cognitive, social and cultural perspective on linguistic phenomena. Adaptation Theory claims that the using language to communicate consists of continuous making of linguistic choices, which is driven by inter-lingual and/or extra-lingual factors.Community interpreting is a way of communication, in which the two interlocutors involved in the communication conduct a conversation with the aid of a community interpreter; it usually takes place in court, hospital police station and so on, so in some extent we can say that it is a kind of public service. In order to get the maximal amount of information recovery from the speaker and make sure a smooth communication between the two interlocutors, community interpreter has to adapt to concrete context and make dynamic linguistic choice so as to get and convey the equivalent pragmatic force of the original meaning expressed in the source text. Grounding on the theoretical framework of adaptation, this thesis expands on key concepts and approaches of adaptation to mental world/context, social world/context, physical world/context in a holistic perspective; and proposes a model for context adaptation community interpreting.There are four chapters in this thesis. Chapter one briefly introduces the definition and classification of interpreting and then focuses on the definition of the community interpreting and its characteristics, working settings, types of events and the development of community interpreting research both at home and abroad. Chapter two is the theoretical frame work of this thesis. In this chapter, the author gives a short introduction of the key notions of adaptation theory and its four angles of investigation. Chapter three and chapter four are the most important parties of this thesis. In chapter three, the author analyzes the examples selected from community interpreting practices from the angle of contextual correlates of adaptability and concludes that in the process of community interpreting an interpreter should make dynamic linguistic choice according to concrete context so as to make sure the target text conveys the equivalent pragmatic force of the original meaning expressed in the source text. In chapter four the author proposes a model for adaptation to context in community interpreting, in which the author illustrates five assessments and five choice-makings according to context with different salience. Finally, the thesis sums up the main ideas as well as the potential limitations of this thesis.