A Study Of Skills In Transformation Of Parts Of Speech In C-E SI Under The Principle Of Syntactic Linearity

Simultaneous Interpretation(SI) is a complicated communicative activity in which interpreters have to complete listening, analyzing, memorizing the source language(SL) and producing the output nearly at the same time. For the purpose of reducing the burden on the brain, ensuring timely and accurate output, interpreters usually need to follow the principle of syntactic linearity. Due to the simultaneity of SI, interpreters should try the best to choose concise expressions to save time when adopting a linear interpreting, which can be achieved by transforming parts of the SL sometimes. Besides, English and Chinese differ in various aspects, which brings difficulties to linear interpretation. Conducting transformation of parts of the speech is conductive to solving these difficulties.This report focuses on student interpreters' application of skills in transforming parts of speech in C-E SI training. Materials to be analyzed are some Chinese speeches selected from A Course Book of Simultaneous Interpretation. The author chose and transcribed the recordings of five second-year MTI students' interpretation, hoping to analyze the application of skills of transformation in the recordings, and to find out their influences on SI performance.Through analyzing and comparing recordings, the author found out that, transforming parts of the SL in C-E SI not only saves time but also ensures a better performance of liner interpreting. The author generalized four skills of transforming parts of speech which are mostly frequently applied in C-E SI: the transformation of Chinese verbs(including the transformation of Chinese verbs into English prepositions, participles and nouns), the transformation of Chinese nouns(including the transformation of Chinese nouns into English verbs and adjectives), the transformation of active mode into passive mode, and the transformation of noun structures into clauses or sentences. It's hoped that this report would offer some constructive guidance and suggestions to SI learners.