Study On The C-E Consecutive Interpretation From The Perspective Of Theme-Rheme Theory

Currently, the researches on the application of Theme/Rheme theory tointerpretation are mainly about studies of simultaneous interpretation and interpretingteaching, while only few scholars applied this theory into consecutive interpretation inChina, and there is no systemic analysis of such formal consecutive interpreting casesas press conference. The thesis attempts to conduct researches on the application ofTheme/Rheme theory to consecutive interpretation.The object of the thesis is C-E Consecutive Interpreting scripts of the pressconferences. These Chinese scripts are from the real and authoritative press conferencesby Chinese leaders, and the English version is interpreted by the leading professionalinterpreters, so the study into which would be of great value and practical significance.From the perspective of Theme-Rheme, this thesis adopts qualitative approach toconducts a contrastive study of C-E thematic system on clausal and textual level withregard to the press conference C-E consecutive interpreting scripts, which is designed tofind out the similarities and differences between C-E thematic structures and thematicprogression patterns, disclosing hidden interpreting principles and methods leading to anatural and fluent interpretation.The major findings are as follows:1. On Clausal Level: There are similarities and differences between these twolanguages. In terms of similarities, both English and Chinese edition of these selectednews conference scripts constitutes textual Theme, interpersonal Theme and topicalTheme. These three kinds of Themes are not required to occur simultaneously, but thetopical Theme is a must in one sentence, which is a boundary marker of Theme andRheme. If all of them occur as the Theme, the sequence order is textual＾interpersonal＾topical. In the aspect of the differences of these two languages,“pseudo-Theme” like“it” and “there” exists in the English language, while this phenomenon does not exist inChinese. Due to the difference resulting from subject-prominent and topic-prominent, itis different to decide whether a theme is marked or unmarked in Chinese and Englishclause.2. On Textual Level: As far as textual level is concerned, the thesis make acontrastive study on thematic progression pattern of Chinese and English texts, andattempts to help the interpreters determine whether to maintain, adjust or abandon theoriginal thematic progression pattern as well as interpreting strategies.To maintain the original thematic progression pattern:1) When a Chinese sentencefollows the typical SVO structure, the interpreter can choose to maintain the originalthematic pattern, and select the strategy of literal interpretation.2) When the Chinesesentence is subjectless or lack of conjunctives, interpreters can adopt the strategy ofaddition by adding the missing subject or adjunction, thus maintaining the originalthematic progression pattern.To adjust and abandon the original progression pattern:1) One difference betweenChinese and English resulted from the structure of parataxis and hypotaxis. Chinese text is loose in structure with less or no conjunctives, while English text puts muchemphasis on cohesion and structure. Therefore, in this case, interpreters have to makeadjustments to make the covert connection in Chinese text overt by combining Chineseloose clauses into a complex sentence, adjusting Part of the Original Patterns ofThematic Progression.2) Chinese is a topic-prominent language, whereas English asubject-prominent language, which means Chinese focuses its attention on the topic,while English appreciates much of the Subject, and usually takes Subject as the themeof its sentence, so the Chinese text adopts topic as its theme, interpreters should beready to abandon the original thematic progression pattern and reform a new suitablepattern by converting the topic into the subject.3) When the Chinese text consists ofcomplex sentences with intensive-loaded information, under the high pressure oflimited processing capacity, interpreters adopt the strategy of adding some wordswithout actual meaning or splitting long sentences for processing the core information,leading to adjusting and abandoning the original thematic progression patterns.The author hopes that this tentative study of Theme/Rheme theory in consecutiveinterpretation can provide a new perspective for consecutive interpretation study.