A Skopos-based Approach To Interpreting Strategies Of Culture-loaded Expressions

In recent years,cross-cultural communication activities among countries have become increasingly frequent,and interpretation plays a more and more important role in these activities.One of the biggest difficulties for interpreters is the transformation of Chinese culture-loaded expressions including idioms,proverbs,colloquialisms,poems and allusions,which contain rich cultural information.In addition,interpreting has the characteristics of immediacy requiring the interpreter to quickly grasp the meaning of these culture-loaded expressions and interpret them accurately.All of these factors have brought great challenges to interpreters.After reviewing the previous studies,this thesis attempts to study the interpreting strategies adopted by interpreters to deal with the culture-loaded expressions in Chinese leaders' speeches on international occasions from the perspective of Skopos theory.The materials selected in this thesis come from the speeches delivered by Chinese leaders at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia from 2014 to 2018.In these speeches,there are two main types of Chinese culture-loaded expressions.One is the words and expressions that are unique to one culture but have lexical vacancy in another;the other is the words and expressions that exist in both cultures and have the same or similar cultural images and associative meanings.The author adopts a text analytical method,sorts out and classifies the Chinese culture-loaded expressions in the speeches,and discusses their interpretation based on the coherence rule of Skopos theory i.e.intratextual coherence and intertextual coherence.Through qualitative research,the author draws a conclusion that for the two different types of culture-loaded expressions in the speeches,interpreters often adopt such methods as literal interpreting,free interpreting,explanatory interpreting and communicative interpreting to achieve intratextual coherence.Intertextual coherence,which is subordinate to the intratextual coherence can be realized by using the methods of literal interpreting,free interpreting and adaptation.It is hoped that the conclusions of this study can provide some enlightenment and reference for the interpretation of Chinese culture-loaded expressions,and help interpreters better promote Chinese culture to the world.