A Pragmatic Study Of Interpreter As Mediator In Dialogue Interpreting

This thesis explores the dialogue interpreters’role from a pragmatic perspective.For a long time, heated discussion has been cast upon the interpreters’ identity ininterpreting studies. There still exists traditional notions that interpreters, viewed astranslation machines or conduits, shall be invisible in interpreting. However, indifferent settings of interpreting activities, especially dialogue interpreting,interpreters just cannot remain completely invisible or neutral. People begin toconsider them as mediators involved in the dialogue process. Therefore, this thesisintends to give a justifiable description of the role of dialogue interpreters.The thesis starts with an overview of the previous studies on the role ofdialogue interpreters in the west as well as in China, and also discuss the contributionsand limitations of earlier studies. Then it goes on to form the theoretical framework ofthe thesis, incorporating relevance theory, inferential-ostensive communication model,and optimal relevance. The author gives the working definition of the dialogueinterpreter’s role as a mediator in this research. This thesis proposes that the dialogueinterpreting process can be viewed as an inferential-ostensive communication activity.The speakers sends the stimulus to the interpreter back and forth. In order to maintainsmooth flow of the process, the interpreter, as the turn mediator, should take control ofthe turns made by speakers. This thesis also argues that the interpreter acts as acultural mediator to bridge the linguistic as well as nonverbal gap between thespeakers. The cases analyzed in this thesis are form the authentic record of dialogueinterpreting events in different settings. By examining the transcriptions of thedialogue interpreting, the thesis proposes specific methods on how the dialogueinterpreter fulfills his/her mediating role.To sum up, this paper finds that the interpreter acts as a turn mediator in theprocess of inferential-ostensive communication, and also a cultural mediator toachieve optimal relevance. By transferring turns, creating turns, and neglecting turns, the interpreter maintain the smooth flow of the interpreting process. To reach optimalrelevance, the interpreter mediates the culture aspects between the speakers in bothlinguistic and nonverbal level. In conclusion, the present study as a whole is intendedto facilitate better understanding and recognition of the interpreter’s position so as toimprove the quality of dialogue interpreting and guide the adoption of interpretingstrategies.