A Study On The Correlation Between Lexical Chunks And Accuracy Of C-E Sight Translation

Lexical chunks are word strings with relatively fixed forms bearing the features ofgrammar and lexicon, which make up an important part of language and have a greatinfluence on the accuracy and fluency of language production. Interpretation as a complexlanguage skill for communication has a high requirement on the accuracy and fluency oftarget language production. In recent years, many researchers have begun to focus theirattention on the role lexical chunks play in interpreting. However, most of them stayed onthe theoretical level to discuss their relationship with few empirical supports.The present study tries to examine the characteristics of Chinese English learners’useof lexical chunks, and whether there is any correlation between lexical chunks and theaccuracy of interpretation through analyzing the sight translation (a special kind ofinterpretation) transcriptions of the junior English majors.15junior English majors in class one were chosen as the subjects and two pieces ofC-E (Chinese to English) materials used in CATTI3(The China Accreditation Test forTranslators and Interpreters band3) held in May of2004and2005were chosen in thisstudy. Two indexes were used in assessing the accuracy of sight translation: one was onthe grammatical level (the ratio of the quantity of error-free T-units to the total quantity ofT-units <R1>); the other was on the informational level (the ratio of the quantity ofcorrectly interpreted information units to the total quantity of the information units in thetest material <R2>).Based on the characteristics of lexical chunks appeared in the test and Nattinger&Decarrico’s (1997) classification of lexical chunks, lexical chunks were classified intothree categories (polywords, phrasal constraints and sentence builders) in the study.Phrasal constraints were further categorized into four subcategories on the basis of theirgrammatical structures (Adj.+N., V.+N., N.+N., Pre.+N.). The quantity of lexicalchunks used by the subjects was counted and the characteristics of subjects’ expressionswere discussed in comparison with lexical chunks used in the reference answer of the sighttranslation test.The Pearson bivariate correlation analysis in the software SPSS17.0(statistic package for social science) was utilized to analyze the correlation between quantity oflexical chunks（QLC） and the two indexes （R1and R2）assessing the accuracy of thesubjects’sight translation.Results showed that the quantity of lexical chunks used by the subjects was muchless than in the reference answer. The analysis on the errors of lexical chunks revealed thatthere was obvious interference of mother tongue on the subjects’interpretation and certainlexical chunks were overused. Subjects had better performance on polywords than onphrasal constraints and sentence builders. And the subjects’ mastery of AN (Adj.+N.) andNN (N.+N.) lexical chunks was poor. The correlation analysis of SPSS showed that bothR1and R2had moderate positive correlation with the quantity of lexical chunks, whichindicated that using lexical chunks contributed to the accuracy of subjects’ interpretationboth on the grammatical level and informational level.It is hoped that this study on the characteristics of lexical chunks used by juniorEnglish majors and the correlation between lexical chunks and interpretation could raiseteachers’ and students’ awareness of the importance of lexical chunks in enhancing theaccuracy of interpretation.