On The Role Of Filled Pauses In Quality Assessment Of C-E Consecutive Interpreting

Consecutive interpreting (CI) has long been taken as a complicated event for its multi-task nature. Therefore, according to Effort Models, interpreters, even professional ones, may get deficient in energy arising from problem triggers that an interpretation task may entail. In consequence, speech errors are unavoidable during interpreters' performing of the challenging work of interpretation, especially filled pauses (FPs), which is one kind of speech errors typical in CI. However, on the other hand, as CI is a vital channel of communication, it should be conducted in conformity with communication principles so as to effectively bridge the gap among communicators who are from different speech communities.In such circumstances, whether FPs affect listeners' comprehension becomes the concern of this thesis. To probe into this field, the author made an observational study to explore the role of filled pauses in listeners' evaluation of CI quality in terms of the criteria of "faithfulness", "fluency" and "speediness". The materials selected for this study are three extracts of C-E CI, with the similar setting, press conferences held by the State Council Information Office in 2004 and 2005, and yet covering a different issue from one another. Most importantly, the three passages contain distinctly different levels of filled pauses.This thesis leads to three findings. First, FPs in CI function more as noise than as a facilitator in the communication. Second, although listeners show appreciation for the interpreters' stressfulness in the interpreting task, they hope FPs resulting from the challenges to be lessened to the least possible extent, since they always hamper listeners' comprehension of the interpretation. Third, as FPs are always associated with delay and tardiness, they have an effect on listeners' subjective assessment of "faithfulness" in CI. These findings indicate that the listeners consider FPs mainly as a major dysfluency marker, resulting in a negative effect on their assessment of CI, and are explicable in the light of Effort Models as well as Communication Theory reviewed in the thesis.