A Practical Study Of The Syntactic Linearity Strategy In English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

Simultaneous Interpretation is one of the most widely used ways of interpretation in political, economic and cultural conferences in the world, as well as a major concern of interpretation studies. Because of its instantaneity, multitask operating and heavy-loaded processing, the English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation exerted great pressure on interpreters in terms of short-term memory and information processing. The Syntactic Linearity Strategy discussed in this thesis requires interpreters to follow the meaning groups and pauses of the source language and to avoid big structural adjustments, so as to make it easier for interpreters to fulfill their tasks. The strategy plays a significant role in simultaneous interpretation.The thesis, based on the Theme-rheme Theory, analyzes the similarity between English and Chinese in their theme-rheme sentence structures and information development patterns, so as to prove the possibility of adopting the Syntactic Linearity Strategy in English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation. Then the thesis presents four specific techniques to realize the practical application of this strategy, including pause by the theme-rheme structure and meaning groups, syntactic linearity, supplement and repetition. Together with a number of practical examples, the thesis shows that the Syntactic Linearity Strategy is achievable in English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation.