Text Types And Translation Strategies In Chinese-english Consecutive Interpretation

With the incessant rise of China’s international status, the connection between China and other states has become increasingly tighter than before. As connection means communication, consequently more attention has been paid to interpretation. With regard to consecutive interpretation, the appropriate selection of translation strategies is of great significance. The guiding principle for the interpreter is to first identify the text type of the source language; and then be aware of the style and tone of interpretation in the target language. In this sense, it is the text type that shapes the interpreter’s interpreting approach.This thesis conducts a comparative analysis of experienced and novice interpreters in Chinese-English consecutive interpretation from the perspective of translation strategies, e.g. domestication and foreignization, literal translation and free translation, explicitness and implicitness, on the basis of the Text Type Theory by Reiss, focusing on the similarities and differences between these two types of interpreters in three text types, i.e. informative type, expressive type and operative type. The data under discussion are taken from the interpretation of President Xi’s remarks on Bo’ao Forum and Premier Li Keqiang’s remarks on NPC & CPPCC as samples of experienced interpretation. The samples of novice interpreters’ interpretation are taken from the students’ work.The results indicate that in terms of informative texts, the commonly used translation strategy is literal translation. Both experienced interpreters and novice interpreters seem to deal with this text type smoothly. The difference lies in that experienced interpreters know when to integrate the strategy of free translation to help TL listeners obtain the accurate information of SL, while novice interpreters always adhere to the principle of literal translation, which may not necessarily conducive to TL listeners’ understanding. Regarding expressive texts, the strategy of domestication and foreignizaiton is frequently applied. Experienced interpreters appear to better grasp the aesthetic effect in SL and interpret it to TL listeners. Yet novice students tend to simply interpret the literal meaning of SL, giving little attention to the aesthetic effect which is the primary function conveyed in SL. Besides, considering the ability to increase or decrease the foreignness in TL, experienced interpreters handle the work in a more flexible way. Last but not least, in interpreting operative texts, the strategies of explicitness and implicitness are both applied. Experienced interpreters know when to omit the redundant information and to add the necessary information while novice interpreters have little intention to do so.Based on the results of the analysis, some suggestions are advanced for students as well as for would-be interpreters to choose more appropriate and effective translation strategies to achieve the communicative goal of interpretation.