On The Observance Of The Cooperative Principle In Government Press Conference Interpretation

As a vital channel to know policies and performances of Chinese government,government press conference is closely followed by media from both home andabroad. Foreign media mainly learn Chinese policies with the help of an interpreter atpress conference. The interpreter, as a message sender and facilitator ofcommunication, is required to convey the spokesperson’s meaning correctly. His/herperformance is worth paying attention to, as it matters effective communication inforeign affairs with great political sensitivity. Therefore, it is of significance toconduct research on interpretation at government press conference.The Cooperative Principle is applied in the thesis. And the interpreter’sobservance of the CP is discussed. Discussions on the nature of the CP combined withthe features of government press conference interpretation and roles the interpreterplays prove the reasonability of observing the Cooperative Principle. With PremierWen’s press conference during the “Two Sessions” in2011being study material, agreat many examples are present, further proving the importance of its four maxims ininterpretation. In other words, the interpreter subconsciously observes the quantitymaxim, the quality maxim, the relation maxim and the manner maxim in order toachieve successful communication.With theoretical analysis and case study, the author reveals what motivates theinterpreter to observe the CP and its four maxims. In the process of interpretation,such factors are considered, as language issues, audience consideration, translationskills, and policy issues. Each maxim is explained by right examples. It is found thatrelevant means are used for better communication, such as free translation, omissionof redundancy, addition of connective words or elements, reorganization of sentencestructure, substitution, etc. Means and techniques in this thesis prove to be of guidingimportance in interpreting practice.