| This thesis, through the analysis of conference speech from the perspective of text linguistics, intends to explore the significance of interpreters'textual awareness and find some implications for conference interpreter training.With its particular situation of occurrence and specific purpose of exchanging information, conference speech is characterized by its text development procedures. With a view to analyzing the development of a conference speech, Problem-Solution structure by Eugene Winter is applied into the process. It is found that a speech is usually concerned with solutions to a series of linked problems. Hence, the interpreter's awareness of the text structure might facilitate their anticipation of the text development and speed up their information retrieval. Moreover, a welcoming speech is often conventional with set structures and speech patterns the availability of which through practice might be improved under active stimulation. It seems necessary to enhance interpreters'proficiency of such structures and speech patterns in training courses so that interpreters'performance might be improved.Furthermore, texts delivered at a conference often enter into intertextual relationships with the exterior texts as well as the remaining body of texts owing to the topic feature of a conference. A conference text establishes with the exterior texts an intertextual relationship pertinent to handling quotations, allusions, etc. Strategies are proposed for interpreters to cope with such situations. Overlapping is obviously the most pervading as texts are often around the same topic at a conference. Intertextual redundancy, as a result of overlapping, might assist interpreters in their information retrieval and save their energy for new information. Therefore interpreter training course might put some emphasis on the awareness of intertextuality as well as text structure awareness so as to improve the textual competence of interpreters. |
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