A Comparative Analysis Of Pauses In English-Putonghua And English-Cantonese Consecutive Interpreting

The national strategy of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA has broadened the market for English-Cantonese interpreters.For students who aspire to become professional interpreters,the training in the senior undergraduate years is the foundation and avoiding unnecessary pauses is one of the keys to improving interpreting.In this thesis,20 senior undergraduates from SISU and SYSU who have received English-Chinese consecutive interpreting training were divided into English-Putonghua(E-M CI)group and English-Cantonese(E-C CI)group according to their first language,with 10 students in each group.Duration and frequency of the different types of pause are counted.The conclusion is there are more total pauses in E-C CI than that in E-M CI,especially in the duration and frequency of silent pauses.Overly dependence on notes,difficulty in decoding when encountering abstract nouns,and mediocre first language expression are the common features that lead to pauses in E-M and E-C CI.Filled pauses can be caused by spoken Cantonese.The interference of Putonghua in E-C CI causes silent pauses since it indirectly functions as the interlingual language;in E-M CI,trainee interpreters are accustomed to using pauses to take more time to think.Suggestions are raised based on these features.