A Study Of Press Conference Interpreting Process With Relevance-adaptation Theoretic Approach

With the accelerating economic development and deepening of reform andopening up, China has witnessed frequent international exchanges in politics,economy and culture, which contributes to the rising status of China in theinternational arena. Interpretation, serving as the leading force in the implementationof reform and opening up and the communication bridge among nations, has playedan increasingly important role in cross-cultural exchanges. As a communicative act, ithas naturally received wide attention from scholars in different research fields. Pressconferences held by the Chinese government serve as a platform to present China tothe world and represent an essential channel through which the world gets acquaintedwith China. Therefore, the significance of press conference sets a higher standard forinterpreters to accomplish successful communication between the original speakerand the target audience including Chinese and foreign media as well as other relevantparticipants. This thesis resorts to the combination of Relevance Theory(RT) andAdaptation Theory(AT) to explain the interpreting process during the pressconferences from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics with an aim to guide futureinterpreting practices.Under the framework of RT and AT, Press Conference Interpreting is anintegrated process with comprehension, choice-making and contextual adaptabilityintertwined simultaneously.Relevance Theory advanced by Sperber and Wilson castslight on the internal working mechanism in comprehending the original utterance,while the Adaptation Theory proposed by Verschueren provides theoretical reasoningfor the choice-making process in the target language.In essence, as the mediator between the original speaker and the targetaudience,the interpreter first endeavors to mobilize his cognitive resources available to choosethe correct contextual assumptions in the hope of capturing the speaker’s intention inline with the search of optimal relevance. And then, the interpreter is supposed to takeinto deliberate consideration the specific on-site contextsand conduct the dynamicprocess of choice-making at every level of the utterance-building languageingredients. Thus, the real intentions of the speaker can be conveyed in an accuratemanner while achieving the best contextual and communicative effects. This thesis attempts to offer a Relevance-Adaptation Theoretic Approach toexplain the interpreting process in press conferences from the angle ofcognitive-pragmatics. It is with sincere hope that this thesis will serve as anenrichment of the related theoretic research on Press Conference Interpreting andrender some constructive guidance in facilitating the efficiency of interpretingpractices.