Study On Anticipation Strategy In Interpretation From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

With the deepening of globalization, interpretation has increasinglybecome a focus of attention. Hence the study on interpretation at the sametime comes to hold a significant position in academic fields. Among thecommon strategies of interpretation that have been summarized byscholars, anticipation is of unique significance. It refers to a cognitiveprocess combining analyzing, logical reasoning and synthesizing. Duringthe process, old information is continually activated and meanwhile newinformation is constantly added to the storage of interpreter’s memory. Inthis way, possible information or intentions that would appear in all thecoming utterances would easily be caught by interpreters in advance.Obviously, anticipation could save a lot of time and energy ininterpretation. This thesis aims to conduct a systematic exploration intothe anticipation strategy in interpretation from the perspective ofRelevance Theory. Relevance Theory, proposed by Dan Sperber andDeirdre Wilson, has been widely applied to the study in many cognitive and pragmatic fields. According to the Relevance Theory, interpretation,as a kind of cognitive and communicative activity, is in essence aninferential process. During this process, the participants should try to seekthe optimal relevance and create contextual assumptions in order to reachthe equivalence of language. In this thesis, Relevance Theory is applied toprove the great role that anticipation plays in achieving the ideal effectsof interpretation. And what’s more important is to explore the specificstrategies of anticipation in practical interpretation activities within theframework of Relevance Theory. Under the category of both linguisticand non-linguistic anticipation strategies, there are various specificstrategies that are proved to be rather useful in interpretation. This thesisalso holds that in order to improve interpreting levels, certain methods forimproving or training the anticipating abilities should be emphasized.They are believed to be important in turning theoretical anticipation skillsinto practical abilities.