Consecutive Interpretation: A Relevance-theoretic Perspective

Interpretation helps overcome language barriers and bridge cultural differences among people speaking different languages and from different cultural backgrounds. With greater integration and more exchange, consecutive interpretation is playing a bigger role in various occasions, and receives attention from scholars in linguistics, psychology, etc. Relevance theory put forward by Sperber and Wilson gives new light for the study of human communication. According to the theory, communication is in fact an ostensive-inferential process, in which the speaker makes manifest his intention and the hearer make inferences according to the information given by the speaker and the context he can find. Consecutive interpretation as a basic form of communication can also be accounted for from the relevance theoretic perspective. This thesis's objective is to introduce relevance theory and apply it to consecutive interpreting process to discuss how to achieve optimal relevance in consecutive interpretation. In order to focus on the interpreter's role and effort in the process, this thesis proposes a modified model– inferential-ostensive model, in which the interpreter first as the hearer infer from the speaker's message and then as the speaker has to convey the original speaker's intention to the hearer. In the consecutive interpreting process of listening comprehension, memory (including mental memorization and note-taking) and expression, analysis is done to see how to realize optimal relevance in each step. Finally, three often employed strategies in translation and interpretation are expounded from the relevance theoretic perspective– anticipation, domestication and foreignization.