On The Subjectivity Of The Interpreter In Conference Interpreting In The Light Of Interpretive Theory

According to the traditional interpretation study, the mission for an interpreter is toset up a bridge between two parties that belong to different language. The interpreterwill faithfully and exactly convey the ideas of both sides to make sure that the twoparties can know each other’s opinion precisely and completely. Therefore, theinterpreter will be the key link. Faithfulness and precision are not only the standard tojudge the quality of the interpretation, but also show whether the interpreter maintainsobjective.This theory is literally right. But, how can we define the idea of faithfulness andprecision? Is it faithful or precise to put all the words and sentences from the sourcelanguage into target language?The Interpretive Theory from ESIT views the interpretation in another way. Thecore of the Interpretive Theory divides a speech into two groups: the linguistic meaningand the non-verbal sense. The priority for an interpreter is to convey the non-verballanguage instead of the linguistic meaning. That means the essence of communication isembodied by the words, phrases or sentences, not the words, phrases or sentencesthemselves.(Ke Ping Translation Theory of the Interpretive Theory2008). Therefore,as an interpreter, how to realize the non-verbal sense of the speaker on the backgroundof consecutive interpreting will serve as a theoretical basis for this thesis on thesubjectivity of an interpreter in a conference.According to the analyzes of plenty of discourses and interpreting of President HuJintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping on occasions of conference,the author suggests that if the linguistic meaning doesn’t equal the non-verbal sense, andthen the interpreter should be “semi-invisible”. It means the interpreter shall make someminor correction on the base of better convey the true idea of the substance. The authorcalls it the major unification of the substance and form. If the linguistic meaningcontradicts the non-verbal sense, then the interpreter should shall make some majorcorrection to truthfully convey the essential idea of the source language speaker. Theauthor calls it the partly unification of the substance and form.