Pragmatic Failure In C-E Business Interpreting

The present study was intended to investigate the occurrence of pragmatic failure in business interpreting, to find out the different failure pattern between students of different proficiency level and find out the causes of pragmatic failure from the perspective of Adaptation theory.The participants in this study were 25 senior English majored Chinese students from GDUFS learning interpreting and 8 first year postgraduate students who were formerly students of GDUFS who pursued their study in the same university right after graduation. The instrument of the present study was a questionnaire containing 30 questions with multiple choices.Results of the data collected revealed the following major findings:1．Some interpreters tent to interpret by applying Chinese language pattern. Interpreters are influenced by Chinese traditional culture. Under such culture background, interpreters tend to interpret by applying Chinese language pattern. As they are modest, they like use some vague words like"也许","或许","可能","大约","大概","差不多". If translating them into maybe/ perhaps/ probably/ about/ almost, it will puzzle foreigners by thinking Chinese people are ambiguous, insincere and cause some communication breakdown.2．Some interpreters know some practices in English, but they don't know the appropriate use or use it in a wrongly context.3．Some interpreters tend to translate full sentences word by word in order to be precise. Sometimes interpreters needn't translate the full sentence word by word. By doing so, it give hearer an impression that the speaker is showing impatience.4．Some interpreters use formal language in informal context or informal language in formal context. Mismapping the language and context will give illocutionary meaning to the hearer and may cause misunderstanding between parties and lead to communication breakdown.Finally, measures to avoid or reduce pragmatic failure are proposed, and implications and limitations of the present study are also proposed.