Cultural Elements In Interpreting And Cross-cultural Consciousness Of Interpreters

Since the 1980s, the economic and cultural exchanges of China with the outside world have become ever more frequent with the deepening of the opening-up. And interpretation, as the bridge of cross-cultural communication, has played a significant role. On the whole, the process of interpretation is not simply a language activity but also a cultural one, a cross-cultural communication process; as a result, cross-cultural differences play a fundamental part in interpreting.Taking that into account, it is of great importance for the enhancement of interpreting theory and practice to analyze and study interpretation from the cultural difference.Firstly, this thesis makes a discussion on the current study of interpretation from cross-cultural perspective and the significance of doing this. Then it probes into the inter-relationship between culture, language and interpretation, pointing out that the deep-seated activity of interpreting is cultural exchanges. Different kinds of cultural concepts and social customs are a very important reason for diversified language usages and language habits. Different thinking patterns, beliefs, values and attitudes of different nations often lead to pragmatic and understanding failures in cross-cultural communication, and also are hard nuts to crack for interpreters. To clearly realize these differences and admit the existence of cultural barriers is the prerequisite of handling these problems successfully. After that, the author attempts to classify the cultural differences in cross-cultural communications according to their different representing forms, while providing detailed explanations on the reasons and characteristics of each kind with plenty of examples. At the same time, after summarizing the negative effects of cultural factors, the author proposes that a good interpreter should possess and apply cross-cultural consciousness in interpreting, and analyzes the significance of cross-cultural consciousness on both the interpreting theory and practice. At last, the thesis put forward the theoretical framework of dealing with cultural differences in interpreting, deverbalization presupposition of the interpretive theory, and tentatively gives some interpreting strategies and techniques on minimizing the negative effects of cultural differences. With all the above aspects considered integrally, the author gives advices of his own to interpreters on how to better play the role of cultural mediators and transmit cultural images, so as to optimize the interpretation effect and enhance the cross-cultural communication.