Politeness In Liaison Interpreting

Politeness problem has caught attention from scholars for many years, but it is only recently that interdisciplinary methods, besides linguistics, are widely used in politeness studies. Meanwhile, the fruits of research in this regard are borrowed and adopted in other academic fields, including interpreting studies.With an introduction of some basic concepts regarding politeness and liaison interpreting, and with a systematic approach of politeness in liaison interpreting, both theoretically and practically, from five perspectives, this thesis intends to make a full picture of the phenomenon of politeness in liaison interpreting so as to detect problems of politeness in liaison interpreting and to provide some hints and tips for the interpreters at work and some suggestions for interpreter training.Chapter One is a preparatory part. In this part, definitions of politeness and liaison interpreting are put forward after a brief review of the previous studies of politeness and the studies of interpreting. The historical background of liaison interpreting, the characteristics of liaison interpreting as well as the perspectives from which politeness can be approached in this paper are also included in this part. Besides, a three-level mode of research and some assumptions of the paper are formulated in this chapter to lay a solid foundation for the following research.Chapter Two is devoted to a theoretical analysis of politeness in liaison interpreting. In this chapter, politeness in liaison interpreting is approached from five perspectives: a psychological process, a communicated massage, a mark of power, distance and imposition of ideas, a speech act, and a socio-cultural phenomenon. For each perspective, theoretical analyses will be made and politeness in liaison interpreting will be put into the three-level mode as a parameter that joins in the communication in question. All of the analyses from all the five perspectives will be done theoretically in order to prepare for the coming of Chapter Three.Chapter Three is devoted to the realization of politeness in liaison interpreting in real interpreting activities. The theories of functional equivalence will be adopted in this chapter and the role of interpreters will be the focus. By filling different functions into liaison interpreters that are in accordance to the five perspective angels in Chapter Two, interpreters will be treated and analyzed as an emotional mediator, a communicator, a marker of power, a distance and imposition of ideas, a speech act realizer, and a culture filter. Examples of real liaison interpreting will be given and comment and analyses will be made after the examples in order to check how and why politeness in liaison interpreting, according to the analysis of Chapter Two is successfully or unsuccessfully realized.Chapter Four will provide some hints and tips for the interpreters based on the findings and analyses of Chapter Two and Chapter Three. Suggestion for interpreter training will also be made at the end of this chapter.