A Study On Anticipation In Simultaneous Interpreting From A Combined Perspective Of Redundancy AndSchema Theory

Following the conclusion of Chernov:the necessary and sufficient condition for simultaneous interpreters in comprehending the Source Language message is the language redundancy, the author further studied the anticipation in Simultaneous Interpreting (SI) from a combined perspective of redundancy and Schema Theory. The author proposes three assumptions through theoretical analysis and aims to empirically prove them.Assumption One:a successful anticipation or prediction has three conditions, namely, all information of a sentence should appear as early as possible; the listener should have relevant schemata; and the speaker should speak instead of reading the text, and his speech should be articulate, at least logical. Assumption Two:a positive correlation exists between anticipative ability and SI performance. Assumption Three: when disequilibrium occurs, altering the new input is an alternative to accommodating the existing schema.As by-products in research and experiment, topics such as "possibilities and risks", "a shared world" and "word-guessing" are discussed and a model of an evaluative mechanism is presented. Besides, suggestions for the study and practice of SI are also proposed in the thesis. According to Uncertainty Reduction Theory, only information needs to be processed in the brain. Therefore, a thorough pre-interpreting preparation can significantly increase the redundancy-to-information ratio and thus improve interpreters' performance. Meanwhile, interpreters should maintain their anticipative ability to stay active to improve their comprehension efficiency and be confident in what is heard to avoid altering the new input.The research is derived from the interest of the author on anticipation and comprehension in SI, whilst touching on multiple disciplines including Translation Studies, Cognitive Psychology, Information Theory, Schema Theory and Mathematical Statistics.