Multimodal Resources In Videoconference Interpreting

The development of modern communication technology gives birth to remote video conferencing,which enables people to communicate in a more convenient and efficient way.And in the context of economic globalization,transnational communication has become commonplace.Interpreters,as the bridge of communication between different languages,inevitably need to adapt to the current communication technology and understand the characteristics of remote video conference interpreting,so as to better ensure the performance of interpreters.As early as in the last century,people have realized that language is just one of the semiotics systems,and multiple semiotics systems would constitute social meaning both independently and jointly.These semiotics systems were then defined as modality by scholars,and thus translation studies gradually changed from monomodality to multimodality.In addition,the vigorous development of new media technology has given birth to many different mediums.In remote video conference,speakers can use a variety of different mediums to convey their ideas and knowledge more concretely.With the increasing number of mediums,the modality also become more diversified,and the medium-based semiotics that jointly construct the meaning of discourse are defined as modal resources.At present,both the research on videoconference interpreting and the research on multimodal resources in interpreting are relatively limited in the domestic academic.Therefore,on the basis of simulated videoconference interpreting practice,this report studies the classification,frequency and characteristics of multimodal resources contained in videoconference interpreting,hoping to provide some reference for future research.Based on Franz P?chhacker’s classification of multimodal resources in remote interpreting,this report makes further supplement to the classification,frequency and characteristics of multimodal resources by observing,analyzing and summarizing the multimodal resources in the practice of simulated videoconference interpreting.This report is divided into five parts.The first chapter introduces the background,significance and structure of this report.The second part gives a detailed overview of the practice from three aspects: before interpreting,while-interpreting and after interpreting.In the third chapter,Franz P?chhacker’s multimodal symbol classification is expanded and analyzed,which lays the foundation for the subsequent analysis and summary.The fourth part lists the frequency and detailed data of each multimodal resources,and summarizes its characteristics through case analysis.The fifth section summarizes the major findings and limitations of this report.The study finally found that: there are many multimodal resources existing in videoconference interpreting.In addition to the paralinguistic features,gestures,projected slides and images proposed by Franz P?chhacker,the speaker’s mouse cursor is also a multimodal resource,which is the extension of the speaker’s gestures in videoconferencing.It can help the speaker to point out the main points and explain the logic among them;besides the situational constellation of interactants,the use of a technological medium to enable the interaction,and the mode(s)of interpreting used in mediating the interaction,the technical restrictions and speakers’ personal hobbies will also influence the multimodal resources available in the interpreting scenarios.The interpreters should have anticipation on the possible multimodal resources before interpreting and make adequate preparations.In the process of interpreting,if unexpected situations such as network delay occur,the interpreters could also make use of the multimodal resources to adjust their states to a certain extent.After the interpreting,the interpreters can also use the multimodal resources to review and understand their deficiencies so as to improve the interpreting performance in the future.