Conversion Of Parts Of Speech In Chinese-English Interpreting

There are huge differences between Chinese and English as Chinese uses alarge number of verbs and the usages are very flexible. While in English, there aremany nouns and prepositions and there isonly one finite verb as its predicate in asentence. Due to such differences, in the interpretation between Chinese and English,a correspondence of parts of speech is hardly possible and conversion of parts ofspeech is needed on the premise of faithfulness to the source language.This dissertation makes an analysis of Zhang Lu’s interpretation of Premier LiKeqiang’s remarks by showing the conversions of word classes she adopted duringthe interpretation. She used the conversions for103times in total. Also the authorpracticed this material as well and there were several pauses during the interpretation.Comparing these pauses with Zhang Lu’s version, the author finds that many of thepauses can be addressed by using the conversion of word classes. By adopting thisstrategy, time can be saved and the interpreting performance can be smoother. So inorder to improve interpreting and make the translated version smoother and morecoherent, a research on the conversion of word classes is imperative.The number of conversions used in Zhang Lu’s interpretation shows that themostly used conversions are Chineseverbs converted into English nouns,prepositions and adjectives and Chinese nouns converted into English adjectives andverbs. So this dissertation will focus on these five conversions in an attempt toprovide guidance for future practice.