On The Role Of Syntactic Linearity In Simultaneous Interpreting: A Cognitive Psychological And Linguistic Perspective

Simultaneous interpreting (SI) is an essentially complex multi-task activity. Unlike translators of written texts who have enough time to'polish'their translation, interpreters have to listen and speak concurrently, and need to hold the spoken message while simultaneously formulate and articulate the translated message. The past few decades has seen the huge development of Simultaneous interpretingresearch with its wider employment in social settings. In the wake of a fervent pursuit of interdisciplinary research approaches in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, Simultaneous interpreting begins to draw on the achievements from discipline such as cognitive psychology and linguistics.This thesis attempts to prove the principle of syntactic linearity as an effective strategy in simultaneous interpreting form a cognitive and linguistic perspective.Daniel Gile's Effort Model and Eva Paneth's Diagram of the timing of Simultaneous Interpreters in relation to the original speech are applied in explaining the many difficulties and constrains interpreters are faced with and the necessity of syntactic linearity in SI. It also employs Chomsky's Minimalist Program, trying to answer such questions as why the principle of syntactic linearity occurs naturally in simultaneous interpreting. Then, the thesis moves on to explain how the principle of syntactic linearity contributes to the quality of simultaneous interpreting by exploring the thematic similarities and differences between Chinese and English.It is hoped that the thesis could shed some light on how to minimize the burden on simultaneous interpreters, as well as how to improve the quality and efficiency.