A Study Of Nonverbal Messages In Interpretation-With Focus On Paralinguistic Messages

Drawing widespread attention among many other interdisciplinary areas, nonverbal communication has never been systematically studied in the field of interpretation. As a matter of fact, nonverbal messages including kinesic and paralinguistic messages all play significant roles in the three stages of interpretation including comprehension, memorization and production. Many interpretation researchers, Chinese or foreign, including Gile, Gerver and Liu Miqing have all made special mention of the importance of nonverbal messages in interpretation, and consistently suggested that interpreters, while engaged in interpreting, receive nonverbal messages through two channels---visual and auditory. Kinesic messages are usually received through the visual channel, while paralinguistic messages through the auditory channel.What's worth mentioning is that due to the limitations stemming from certain interpreting situations, more often than not, there's little need for interpreters to transfer kinesic messages. On one hand, under most circumstances, consecutive interpreters will find it unnecessary to imitate the sender's behaviors, since kinesic messages can be conveyed directly between the sender and the receiver through visual means. On the other hand, simultaneous interpreters may often be deprived of the opportunities of reviving and transferring kinesic messages while being isolated in the booth. All these factors lead us to the conclusion that paralinguistic factors play a more important role in the comprehension and transference of messages in interpretation.The author find the studies of nonverbal messages in interpretation still in their infancy, since most of the researches merely touch upon certain related theories, but fail to introduce practical approaches to comprehend and transfer nonverbal messages, particularly paralanguage. This paper starts with an introduction to the relationship between nonverbal communication and interpretation, lays special emphasis on the important roles played by nonverbal factors in different stages of interpreting and intends to conduct an initial analyze on the specific means to transfer nonverbal messages, especially such paralinguistic messages as vocal qualifiers, vocal segregates and vocal characterizers in interpretation based on case studies. In addition, the author summarizes the possible difficulties in the comprehension and transference of nonverbal messages posed by nonverbal messages, and proposes corresponding suggestions in the hope of helping interpreters to eradicate these barriers so as to enhance the quality of interpretation.