Dealing With Relative Clauses In English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

This thesis addresses the treatment of relative clauses in English-Chinese(E-C) simultaneous interpretation(SI).English and Chinese are very different in word order,a typical case in point is the position of attributes.In English,relative clauses serving as attributes are placed after the word they modify; in contrast,in Chinese,attributes usually precede the word they modify.The difference in ordering might be standing in the way and be a potential problem trigger in E-C SI,which is conductive to failure sequence.As yet,few researches have touched upon the issue of interpreting relative clauses in an interpretation perspective,and it is still uncertain whether there are effective and feasible techniques.In view of this,it is imperative to look into the issue.Based on Daniel Gile's Effort Model of SI and the principle of syntactic linearity,this thesis observes the techniques used in dealing with relative clauses in E-C SI.The SI data for observation and analysis are transcripts of real-time audio / visual SI materials in source language(SL) and in target language(TL).In doing the research,I not only sort out the techniques employed in real-time interpretation,but also expound on the techniques.Below is a summary of the major findings made in the research.First,when dealing with relative clauses in real-time SI,interpreters are apt to employ segmentation(31.58%),waiting(19.05%),paraphrasing(10.71%),fusion(9.80%) and omission (6.72%),except the fact that 22.14%of relative clauses are missed or misinterpreted.Sentences having been segmented with relative pronouns or adverbs as delimiters,techniques such as repetition of the antecedent,omission of the antecedent,rebuilding co-reference,addition of logical connectors and topicalization are frequently used to ensure coherence in Chinese version.Second,segmentation is most often employed to deal with object relative clauses, predicative relative clauses,appositive relative clauses and sentential relative clauses,which are usually long,complex and difficult to anticipate.Waiting is generally used in dealing with subject relative clauses and clauses which are short and simple.Paraphrasing is usually used to deal with object relative clauses.Fusion is frequently used to deal with those relative clauses in which the antecedent serves as subject,including such sentence patterns as "We / They / etc.+ have / see / believe...+NP + relative clause";"This / That / These / Those + be + NP + relative clause";or "There + be + NP + relative clause".Omission is used to deal with those relative clauses which are repeated for emphasis,which are widely known to or superfluous for the target audience,or which carry no essential information.Third,the major reasons or purposes for the use of segmentation,fusion and omission are as follows:1) these techniques preserve the principle of syntactic linearity;2) they help interpreters allocate the finite processing capacity reasonably among Efforts;and 3) they help release relative clauses from the Chinese attribute structure with limited carrying capacity and generate open sentence structures.The major reason for employing waiting and paraphrasing is that they can make the output more coherent,well-knitted and idiomatic,though they require much more processing capacity and may overload short-term memory.Finally,if appropriately employed,the techniques advanced in the study contribute a great deal to improving interpretation performance instead of impairing it.This study opens up a new perspective on the ways of dealing with relative clauses in E-C SI. Proper employment of these techniques would contribute to the amelioration of SI quality and effectiveness.In addition,this study sheds some light on interpretation training and on the compilation of interpretation textbooks.