On Dealing With Difficulties In Chinese Verb Interpreting From The Perspectives Of Verb Center Theory And Interpretive Theory

The purpose of this paper is to address the difficulties in Chinese verbinterpreting. According to the verb center theory, verbs play a very important role inChinese language. It exists between starting word and ending word, governing thewhole sentence. So an appropriate interpretation of Chinese verbs is a basicrequirement for effective Chinese to English interpretation.Due to the tremendous difference between the two languages, both linguisticallyand culturally, it is certain that the interpreter will encounter many difficulties duringChinese verb interpreting. Under the framework of verb center theory, the authorproposes five difficulties in Chinese verb interpreting: the difference between Chineseand English verbs in terms of tense and aspect, no verb phenomenon in Chinese, theobscurity of transitive and intransitive verbs in Chinese, failure in word-to-wordequivalence and the interpretation of把structure in Chinese language.Apart from verb center theory, this thesis is also written under the guidance ofanother theory: interpretive theory proposed by Marianne Lederer. According to it,word-to-word interpretation is not advisable under, if not all, many circumstances.Based on the comprehension of the original text and with the help of cognitiveknowledge, the interpreter will try to grasp the sense of the original text throughde-verbalization. During the process of de-verbalization, a sentence is divided intoseveral sense units and the interpreter tries to achieve sense equivalence instead ofword equivalence under most circumstances during Chinese verb interpretation.Under the guidance of interpretive theory, the author seeks to overcome the fivedifficulties in Chinese verb interpreting.