Influence Of Density Of Special Knowledge In The Speech Content On Interpreter’s Deverbalization Performance

The Interpretive Theory of Translation, founded and represented by DanicaSeleskovitch and Marianne Lederer, regards interpreting proper as a means ofcommunication. It focuses on the transmission of “sense”. To reach this goal,interpreters are obliged to interpret the information that the speaker intends to getacross. This interpreting process is facilitated by cognitive complement comprisinginterpreters’ linguistic knowledge, world knowledge, background knowledge of therelated subjects and context knowledge, amongst other elements.The Interpretive Theory holds that comprehension, deverbalization, andreproduction of the intended meaning of the original speaker constitute the wholeprocess of interpreting.“Deverbalization” is the core of it. The crux of interpretinglies in the extent and capacity of deverbalizing the source language and expressing theintended meaning without source language interference in the target language.Simultaneous interpreting, as an arduous, highly technical and multi-task job,requires split of processing capacity within a short period of time. The performance ofinterpreters is affected by various elements. This research focuses on influence ofdensity of special knowledge in speech content on interpreter’s deverbalizationperformance. Based on the understanding of “deverbalization”, the study looks atwhether and how professional interpreter’s deverbalization changes along with thespecial knowledge in speech content.To cross-check the experiment result, the study also looks at two closely relatedelements, namely, the downstream factor interpreting performance and the upstreamfactor background knowledge, and analyzes their correlation with the level ofdeverbalization.Thus, the dissertation forms its three hypotheses: Hypothesis1: A good interpretershould “deverbalize” the source language and express the target language freely withthe premises of loyal conveying of the message. More deverbalization brings about better performance. Hypothesis2: Density of special knowledge in original speechaffects interpreters’ processing. Higher density causes less deverbalization ininterpreting. Hypothesis3: Professional interpreter’s background knowledge about thesubject matter influences his or her comprehension of the source speech and freeexpression. More background knowledge leads to the easier comprehension and moredeverbalization in interpreting output.In a nutshell, the extent of deverbalization is correlated with interpretingperformance; density of special knowledge in original speech and the extent ofdeverbalization vary inversely; and background knowledge facilitates deverbalization.This study defines four categories of deverbalization performance, namely,reformulation, elaboration, connection and innovation.To explore the relation between deverbalization and interpreting quality, thestudy invites three groups of evaluators to score the interpreting performance. Toinspect the relation between background knowledge and deverbalization, a knowledgetest was done to quantify the subjects’ background knowledge in the particular field.With SPSS software used to analyze the data, the following results were reached.Hypothesis1is supported. Extent of deverbalization of the source languagecorrelates with quality assessment. More deverbalization brings about higher scores inquality evaluation.Hypothesis2is not supported. Higher density of special knowledge in originalspeech actually brings about more deverbalization performance.Hypothesis3is partially supported. Professional interpreter’s backgroundknowledge about the subject matter facilitates his or her comprehension of the sourcespeech and free expression only when density of special knowledge in original speechis high.The research results support the Interpretive Theory of Translation in the contextof English-Chinese simultaneous interpreting. It tells that in E-C interpreting,interpreters should adapt themselves into the target language by using moredeverbalization devices, such as reformulation and innovation of expression. Besides,more background knowledge and terminologies in different subject matters are encouraged to accumulate in the learning process. In closing, the paper explains thelimitations of the study and the possible future research points for further research.