Assessment On Consecutive Interpreting Of Premier Wen Jiabao’s Quotation Of Classical Chinese Lines: Linguistic Adaptation And Contextual Adaptation Perspectives

Poetic wisdom of an ancient nation is reflected in the classical lines from ancientpoetry or ancient prose, which are quoted by speakers in speeches to convey his or herideas and feelings in a better way and strengthen appeal of language. The classicalChinese lines from ancient poetry and ancient prose pre-Premier Wen Jiabao quotedin press conference have unique linguistic characteristics and deep implication, whichshow charm of the quotations. In the way to reproduce charm of classical Chineselines in consecutive interpreting, and to realize resonance between speaker andaudience, the interpreter plays a decisive role. Until now, researches on consecutiveinterpreting of quotation of Chinese poetry and prose against the background of pressconference are mainly carried out from the interpretative perspective, which focuseson whether the content of the Chinese poetry and prose is interpreted accurately andappropriately. In accordance with the requirement, the form of Chinese poetry andprose cannot be presented, which would affect realization of consecutive interpretingeffect to a large extent.According to statistics in the research, there are48classical Chinese lines quotedby Premier Wen Jiabao in press conference for ten years (2003-2012), among which21lines are selected as research objects. With the purpose of reproducing charm ofquotation of classical Chinese lines, the standards for assessment of consecutiveinterpreting effect of quotation of classical Chinese lines against the background ofpress conference are put forward. Through analysis of interpretations of the21lines,consecutive interpreting effect of quotation of those lines is assessed.The thesis falls into the following five chapters. Chapter one gives a basicintroduction of the research background, research objectives, significance andmethods of the thesis. Chapter two mainly introduces the characteristics ofconsecutive interpreting and press conference, categorization, unique linguistic characteristics of classical Chinese lines and categorization and functions of quotationof classical Chinese lines, and presents the survey of previous researches on pressconference interpreting and classical Chinese lines interpreting against thebackground of press conference, with deficiencies of the current researches onclassical Chinese lines interpreting included. Chapter three expounds Adaptationtheory including linguistic adaptation and contextual adaptation and its application ininterpreting. In chapter four, from the perspective of linguistic adaptation andcontextual adaptation, the standards for assessment of consecutive interpreting effectof quotation of classical Chinese lines against the background of press conference areput forward. Through analysis of interpretations of the21lines, effect of consecutiveinterpreting of quotation of those lines is assessed. And Chapter five concludes thethesis.The research has three major findings. Firstly, there exists a misleadingorientation in most current researches on Chinese poetry and prose interpretingagainst the background of press conference, which leads to the focus on the contentand ignorance of the form of Chinese poetry and prose. Secondly, in the process ofconsecutive interpreting of quotation of Classical Chinese lines, interpreters shouldmake choices from the perspective of linguistic adaptation and contextual adaptation.From the perspective of linguistic adaptation, interpreters should make linguisticschoices to present musical effect or symmetrical beauty of classical Chinese lines, andfrom the perspective of contextual adaptation, interpreters should adapt to connotationand co-text of the quotations, setting and topic, institutions and culture, cognitivefactors and emotive factors of speaker and audience. Thirdly, the author emphasizesthat with a view to interpreters’ training, improvement of accomplishments ofclassical Chinese lines and translation training of classical Chinese lines cannot beignored.