The Empirical Study Of The Functions Of Background Schemata On The Anticipation Of Simultaneous Interpretation

Simultaneous Interpretation, SI for short, is also called simultaneous translation and simultaneous interpreting. It is a kind of interpreting way of translating continually to the audience without interrupting the speaker. One of the biggest features of SI is its high efficiency. It can make sure the continuity of a speech. The speaker’s speech and his or her thoughts may not be interrupted. And it also enables the audience to understand the whole speech in a comprehensive way. SI has now become the most popular way of translation. At present, especially most of the international conference adopts simultaneous interpretation. At the same time, SI requires high technicality. Therefore, a simultaneous interpreter must pose high professional qualities.SI’s timeliness requires an interpreter to anticipate the content and style of the speech before interpretation. Anticipation refers to the translation technique that the interpreter grasps the main idea of the speech before the speaker finishes; meanwhile, the interpreter uses related background information and main theme to judge and reason the following speech and proceed interpreting. Anticipation based on background schema activates related brain patterns of the interpreter. And pre-SI activities based on discourse analysis enables the interpreter to make reasonable anticipation. Through theoretical discussion and empirical study, this thesis reveals the relations between anticipation and interpreting results. This thesis sets interpreting class as the experimental subject, compare the different translation versions by interpreters who have conducted background schema as anticipation and who have not, then analyze the results and summarize the functions of background schemata on the anticipation of simultaneous interpretation, hoping to provide some help for the future interpreting learners.