Addition In C-E Consecutive Interpreting

This thesis explores the phenomenon of addition in Chinese-English consecutiveinterpreting (CI). Interpreting can be seen as a problem-solving process whendecisions are made consciously or unconsciously at all levels of target text production.Addition, as an outward expression of this process, is found in many language pairsincluding Chinese and English. The elaboration of this topic could shed light oninterpreters’ behavior during the on-line task of interpreting.The author combines both quantitative and qualitative analysis after conductingan experiment on eighteen student interpreters divided into three groups. Theexperiment consists of a Chinese to English consecutive interpreting task followed bya questionnaire. Data collected from those procedures are used to identify types ofaddition found in C-E CI, features of addition regarding number and distributionamong three experimental groups and the triggers of additions.The major conclusions of this research can be summarized as follows: first, sixtypes of addition are found in the experiment including pronoun, qualifier,interpretation adjuncts, relationship, elaboration and explicitation addition. Pronounaddition is the most common type while qualifier addition the most infrequent.Second, the number and distribution of addition display different patterns from thehigher-level group to the lower-level group. Third, the major triggers of addition aresituational and cognitive contexts, textual coherence, interpreters’ conscious behaviorto seek more time for reproduction, etc. The author gives an explanation of thosefindings based on cognitive compliments theory, redundancy theory and interpreter’sinteractive role.