A Study Of The Contextual Impact On Note Taking In Consecutive Interpretation

Consecutive notes exert great importance on interpretation. Functioning mainly as clues and memory reinforcers to recall information, notes are put down so as to help improve the quality of consecutive interpreting in the final analysis. Ample evidences have shown that the quality of note taking, even the interpreting performance, is closely bound up with comprehending the context. The context, if not properly instructed or understood, will be one of the disturbing factors that divert interpreter's attention from comprehending the original language, thus jeopardizing the quality of interpreting performance. The purpose of the current paper, based on the analysis of plenty examples, is to put the impact of the context on note taking in the right perspective.For this purpose, the relationship between notes and context is revealed through the application of Paris School's Interpretative Theory of Translation into practical process of consecutive interpretation. Inspired by Paris School's Interpretative Theory of Translation, the author in current paper presents a skeleton figure, the internal mechanism of note taking (figure 1), in Introduction. Sense and deverbalization, core concepts of Interpretative Theory of Translation, are elaborated in Chapter one. Interpreters listen and identify the senses of source language (SL), and then deverbalize sensorial data to bits of knowledge in their brain. Notes serves as hints and clues to recall the divested knowledge.Chapter two is devoted to the discussion of note-taking in consecutive interpreting, which manifests that notes relate to, assist, or intend to assist the memory. After analyzing the SL, interpreters tend to put down senses and links in accordance with principles of economy and individualization. Chapter three is about context in interpretation. In this chapter, the author adopts abundant examples to illustrate that it is crucial for interpreters to comprehend context of different subcategories so as to accomplish consecutive process.The focus of chapter four is the relationship between context and note-taking. Interpreters tend to note down as little as possible in order to put more effort on listening and understanding. Therefore, when they re-express in target language (TL) they have to recall the ellipsis in notes, which is context related. To determine the contextual impact on note-taking in consecutive interpretation, the author introduces a comparative approach, comparing notes by interpreter A (works for the UNDP), interpreter B (from the Foreign Affairs Office of Tianjin Municipal Government) and interpreter C (works for Tianjin Municipal Sports Bureau).