A Practice Report On Escort Interpreting In Da Zu Rock Carvings Under The Guidance Of Interpretive Theory

Representing the highest level of cave art in the world from the 9th to 13 th centuries A.D.,the Da Zu Rock Carvings boasts deep cultural heritage.In order to advance the influence of local culture,Da Zu County Government invited an American photography team to film a documentary for Da Zu Rock Carvings.Based on the author’s interpreting practice in Da Zu Rock Carvings for the American Photography team,the report analyzes the escort interpreting process.In the practice process,culture-loaded words posed a great challenge to the interpreter due to their rich connotations and correspondence vacancy in the target language.Thus,it is difficult to interpret culture-loaded words.The report sets out to investigate the interpreting strategies of culture-loaded words and Buddhism-related words in the escort interpreting under the guidance of Interpretive Theory.Interpretive Theory reckons that the process of translation is to convey the sense of source language.That means,the interpreter should escape the limitation of the language shell,expressing the connotation behind the language.It meshes with the feature of culture-loaded words(without correspondence in the target language),as well as that of escort interpreting(flexibility and immediacy).From the perspective of Interpretive Theory,the author analyzes interpreting performance from three stages of the triangle model,comprehension,deverbalization and reformulation.It demonstrates the application of Interpretive Theory in interpreting practice and some interpreting strategies of culture-loaded words are summarized.Three major findings are presented for discussion.From the stage of comprehension,the author should accumulate terminologies and idioms as much as possible to enhance comprehension ability.For unfamiliar concepts,explanatory interpreting and cognitive addition can be used to complement background information and establish the cognitive structure for the audience.From the stage of deverbalization,the interpreter should focus on restructuring the logic of source text and understanding the cultural meaning behind the language shell.Omission and simplification can be used to spare time and energy,ensuring a smooth interpreting activity.From the stage of reformulation,substitution and analogy can be used to fill the correspondence vacancy in different forms.The interpreter should sum up the similarity and disparities between Chinese and English,providing what is more acceptable for the target audience.The report hopes to provide some inspirations for people using Interpretive Theory and serve as a practical reference to people who are interested in interpretation and translation engagement.