Interpreting Quality Evaluation In The Light Of Peter Newmark's Text Classification And Translation Methods

Corpus-based observation or comparison between transcription of the original speech and the target output is considered to be the methodology most frequently applied at the early stages of interpreting quality assessment researches. Many scholars have applied this product-oriented approach to the assessment of the interpreting quality. This thesis attempts to observe and analyze some discourses on various interpreting occasions by experienced interpreters in the light of Peter Newmark's text classification and translation methods.Based on the observations and the analysis, the author has the following findings. When dealing with discourses with expressive function, interpreters do pretty well by applying semantic interpreting, keeping as many language and cultural elements as possible so as to arrive at a faithful reproduction in the target language. Concerning discourses where language performs informative and vocative functions, interpreters take communicative interpreting as the underpinning and are granted more freedom in the rendering. On the whole, the interpreters who handle the samples are observed to have done their jobs well though there are some slips in grammar, wording and sometimes even listening comprehension, which are allowed and cannot be avoided in such time pressing events. The interpreting of the seven speeches as shown in as many samples can be considered as successful examples of using Newmark's translation methods.Therefore, the author concludes that it is constructive to evaluate the quality of an interpreting event using Peter Newmark's text classification and translation methods. On an interpreting occasion, if the interpreter watches out for language functions or, to be more specific, the functions of a particular sentence or paragraph or discourse at large, and then adopts the appropriate interpreting methods, i.e. semantic or communicative interpreting, the output will turn out to be satisfactory, at least in terms of the equal communicative value of the speech and its interpreting.