Interpretation Of Chinese Four-Character Phrases In Press Conference

Since the implementation of the reform and opening up policy in late 1970s, China has made frequent exchanges, both economic and political, with foreign countries. Interpreting, as an oral communication tool, serves as a bridge to facilitate the exchanges between parties who speak different languages. Therefore, in these broad exchanges, interpreting plays an important role. During the annual meetings of NPC and CPPCC and many other important international affairs both at home and abroad, many press conferences are held and conference consecutive interpreting is a necessity.In the press conference context, the instantaneity is a big challenge for interpreters. Worse still, in Chinese-English press conference interpreting, the irregular appearance of Chinese four-character phrases and idioms makes it more difficult for interpreters to fulfill their tasks. These four-character phrases always pose a great obstacle in both translation and interpreting due to their condensed meanings and connotations. It may be a little too harsh to request the interpreter to render faithfully both the intended meaning and the rhetorical effect in a few seconds. However, many government officials and public speakers have a special favor to use Chinese four-character phrases in their speeches in order to achieve a terse, vivid and rhythmic effect. In this sense, interpreters have to cope with the difficulty in effective ways.Previous scholars mainly focused on practice in interpreting Chinese four characters and rarely explored its theoretical foundation. This thesis attempts to explore some useful strategies and principles of interpreting Chinese four-character phrases in press conference context on the theoretical basis of the combination of Relevance Theory and Adaptation Theory.The thesis begins with a brief introduction to interpreting and the characteristics and classification of Chinese four-character phrases. Then from the perspective of communication, the interpreting process is modeled as a communication process. Afterwards, two major theoretical frameworks for the thesis are introduced: RT and AT, based on which a tentative Relevance-Adaptation principle for interpreting is put forward. Finally, some practical coping strategies of interpreting Chinese four-character phrases in press conferences are summarized and illustrated, such as literal translation, generalization, borrowing, etc.This thesis has achieved the following findings. First, from the angle of communication, it proposes a Relevance-Adaptation principle for interpreting based on RT and AT. To be specific, the interpreter in interpreting Chinese four-character phrases should render faithfully the speaker's communicative intention while taking into consideration the acceptability level of the target audience. This RA principle can shed light on the interpreting evaluation. Second, in exploring some strategies to simplify the interpretation of Chinese four-character phrases in press conferences, the research can be of some guidance to the interpreters to improve their performance and mitigate their psychological pressure.