An Analysis On Explicitation In Chinese-English Simultaneous Interpreting

As globalization advances, the international community is getting closer than before. The significance of simultaneous interpreting in international communication and exchanges begins to emerge. Since China’s overall strength rises, the outside world pays more attention to China’s voice. Therefore, the quality of Chinese-English interpreting should be improved so that the messages from China can get across correctly and effectively. Explicitation is a translation strategy in which the implicit information in source text is made explicit in target text. Due to the features of Chinese and English languages and cultures, explicitation is widely used in Chinese-English translation and interpreting. Explicitation studies took off in late 20th century in the West. Domestic scholars only started the research decades ago, and rarely discussed explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting.Against this background, this thesis attempts to study explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting. The author hopes that this research can offer some ideas to the domestic studies on explicitation and interpreting training and practice. This research, with Explicitation Hypothesis, categorization of explicitation and Skopos theory as theoretical framework, attempts to answer the following research questions:(1) whether explicitation exists in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting? (2) What are the major reasons that lead to explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting? (3) What are the major methods applied in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting to achieve explicitation?In order to answer the research questions above, the author adopts qualitative method with quantitative data and analysis in the thesis. The author collects the research results on explicitation and interpreting from home and abroad, and reviews the development of explicitation and interpreting studies. Taking the characteristics of Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting into consideration, the author summarizes the major reasons that lead to explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting based on the previous academic achievements. These major factors include language factor, social-cultural factor, interpreter factor and inherent feature of simultaneous interpreting. The thesis takes the speech Premier Li Keqiang delivered at World Economic Forum the Annual Meeting of New Champions 2015 and its simultaneous interpreting as the case to conduct quantitative analysis. The author transcribes the speech and simultaneous interpreting and identifies explicitation items according to its definition and categorizes these items. Based on the data collected, the author testifies the existence of explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting and summarizes the main explicitation methods applied in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting:amplification, paraphrase, substitution, repetition and elevation. Amplification is the most frequently used method among them.In the thesis, the author discusses explicitation in Chinese-English simultaneous interpreting in a relatively systematic and comprehensive manner. The results of this paper can offer some suggestions for Chinese-English interpreting practice and teaching. After learning some basic knowledge of explicitation, interpreting practitioners can apply explicitation strategy in Chinese-English interpreting strategically. Hence the interpreters can improve the quality of interpreting production and better serve as a linking bridge between the two sides.