A Study Of Interpretation Of Chinese-featured Expressions From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Chinese-English interpreting plays a critical role in exchanges between China and other countries or regions.To interpret Chinese-featured expressions from Chinese to English is challenging for interpreters.This forms the starting point of this research.The purpose of this research is to summarize a number of strategies for interpreting Chinese-featured expressions from the perspective of skopos theory.China’s incumbent Premier Li Keqiang used all kinds of Chinese-featured expressions in his speeches in the press conferences after National People’s Congress(NPC)and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC)sessions.Among these expressions,Chinese-featured colloquialisms accounted for the largest proportion.His interpreter Zhang Lu is an experienced interpreter who is highly praised by the industry.Consequently,her interpreting is worthy studying.Based on the above reasons,this research chooses Premier Li’s speeches and Zhang Lu’s interpretation in the press conferences after CPPCC and NPC as the case to explore Chinese-featured expressions interpreting strategies.Taking full consideration of timeliness,the author collects speeches by Premier Li Keqiang and the corresponding interpretation from Zhang Lu in the press conferences from 2016 to 2018 as the linguistic data.In this research,Chinese-featured expressions are classified into two types.Type one is expressions of general usage which include Chinese Chengyus,Chinese proverbs,Chinese-featured political and economic terms.Type two is Chinese-featured colloquialisms Premier Li prefers to use.These colloquialisms include colloquialisms borrowing Chinese Chengyus or proverbs,metaphorical colloquialisms,Chinese culture-loaded colloquialisms,colloquial phatic sentences and colloquial emphatic sentences.Through analysis of the linguistic data,a number of strategies for interpreting Chinese-featured expressions are summarized based on skopos theory.These strategies include literalism,paraphrasing,omission,addition,substitution,and varied interpreting.The author expects these strategies can be helpful for interpreters.