A Study On Interpretation Of Discourse Markers In Diplomatic Interpreting In Light Of Relevance Theory

Discourse markers,which function as cues or guides to the audience's interpretation,has attracted the attention of some researchers studying interpreting.Regrettably,research efforts have largely concentrated on the relationship between discourse markers and interpreting performance.As for pragmatic functions and interpreting strategies,researchers have mainly focused on only one specific type of discourse markers or certain aspects of these linguistic markers.This study,therefore,aims to present a more comprehensive picture of the interpretation of discourse markers in diplomatic interpreting by comparing their quantitative features in the source language and the target language,analyzing their pragmatic functions and identifying effective interpreting strategies.To achieve these aims,a corpus-based discourse analysis was conducted with transcripts selected from the Chinese Premier's Annual Conference from 2015 to 2017.Specifically,the present study adopted Ran Yongping's categorization of discourse markers and conducted the analysis with reference to Sperber and Wilson's relevance theory to illustrate the interpreters' working process and coping strategies to achieve the pragmatic functions of discourse markers.Both quantitative and qualitative results were presented.Results showed that discourse markers in the source language generally outnumbered those in the target language,sometimes as many as two times,which could be largely attributed to the difference between paratactic Chinese and hypotactic English.In terms of pragmatic functions,discourse markers present textual functions,like signaling shift of topic,discourse development,logical relationships between speech segments,and further elaboration on previous information,which contribute to discourse coherence.They could also fulfill interpersonal functions,like signaling the speaker's attitude,engaging the audience,and projecting a reliable persona,which serve to convey the speaker's communicative intentions.By constraining the context,discourse markers could help the audience achieve optimal relevance in their interpretation of the speaker's messages.Effective interpreting strategies to facilitate optimal relevance include reservation,addition,omission and reformulation.This study hopes to fill the gap in existing literature on discourse markers within the context of interpreting and complement previous research on diplomatic interpreting.It also enables interpreters,particularly trainee interpreters,to increase their awareness of these seemingly insignificant yet meaningful devices,based on which they can review and reflect on their interpreting performance and employ useful strategies to integrate these items into their output,thus seeking to help the audience achieve optimal relevance and bridging the gap between the speaker and the audience.