An Analysis Of Omission In Simultaneous Interpreting

Omission occurs constantly in simultaneous interpreting (SI). Although somescholars have done researches on omission in SI, such researches are far from enough.So far, there seems no agreement on whether omission is an error or a strategy in SI.Moreover, no specific criteria for judging the acceptability of omission in SI havebeen put forward. Therefore, this paper chooses omission in SI as its research subjectand attempts to carry out a systematic study in this regard. The aim of this paper is toprovide an objective understanding of the role of omission in SI and to suggest waysof its proper use.This paper first introduces basic theories of SI and previous studies on omission,and then probes into the causes of omission in SI on the basis of Gile’s Effort Modelsand the Economy Principle of Language. The causes of omission justify theunavoidability of omission in SI. Therefore, the emphasis of this paper is placed onhow to make proper use of omission in SI rather than how to avoid it. Through anobservational study, this paper summarizes nine major types of omission in SI. Adeeper analysis shows some of them are acceptable while others are not. The specificcriteria for judging the acceptability of omission in SI are then discussed. This paperholds that the omissions leading to significant information loss and deviation from theoriginal meaning should be considered as errors. In the end, this paper suggests sometraining tips for using omission in SI.