A Study Of The Violation Of The Cooperative Principle In Government Press Conference Interpretation

With China's rising international status, the Chinese government's domestic and foreign policies are followed closely by the international community. Government press conference serves as a vital channel for foreign countries to follow Chinese policies. At present, foreign media mainly learn Chinese policies with the help of the interpreter at press conferences. In this process, the interpreter plays an essential role and any mistake will mislead foreign media. This requires the interpreter not only to transfer the meaning of the spokesperson exactly, but also to be full of political sensitivity. Therefore, it is of great significance to conduct research on interpretation at government press conferences.At present, studies of interpretation are interdisciplinary, such as from the perspectives of psychology, physiology and cross-culture communication. The Cooperative Principle, proposed in 1967 by Grice, an American linguist and philosopher, belongs to the category of pragmatics and becomes an important principle for speakers in communication.Through studies of the process of interpretation, the author demonstrates that the interpreter should also abide by the Cooperative Principle so as to facilitate the successful communication between the addresser and the addressee at government press conferences.Discussions on the nature of the Cooperative Principle combined with the features of government press conference interpretation and the roles the interpreter plays in such situations prove the reasonability of violating the Cooperative Principle in government press conference interpretation. Meanwhile, the Effort Model proposed by Gile justifies the unavoidability of violating the Cooperative Principle in government press conference interpretation.The case study of Premier Wen's press conference during the "Two Sessions" from 2003 to 2010 displays the violation of the Cooperative Principle in various situations. It is found that the interpreters violate the quantity maxim, the quality maxim, the relation maxim and the manner maxim with the consideration of cultural, political and language factors at government press conferences. Therefore, the reasonability of violating the Cooperative Principle is verified. In addition, the difficulty of government press conference interpretation calls for the unavoidability of the violation of the Cooperative Principle by the interpreter. Meanwhile, some tactics utilized by the interpreters are found in this study, which will be contributive to the study and research on interpretation strategies.