Exploring The Effect Of L2Lexicosemantic Representation On Lexical Switch In Interpretation

The present study investigates the effect of L2lexicosemantic representation by professionals and non-professionals on lexical switch in interpretation through an experimental design. It is an interdisciplinary attempt to conduct translation studies with psychological methodology.The research questions of this study are as follows.Q1. What differences lie in the professionals and non-professionals in terms of L2lexicosemantic representation?Q2. How do the differences in L2lexicosemantic representation affect (different types of) lexical switch in interpretation?Q3. How does the tentative cognitive-psychological model in this study describe and explain the relationship between lexicosemantic representation and lexical switch in interpretation?There are8participants in the present study,4are junior students of English major (translation orientation) from School of Foreign Languages, Yangzhou University. The other4are teachers from several universities in China, who have been interpreting for over6years. All the8participants have Chinese as their native language and English as their only or strongest foreign language. As there are only8participants, the present study would be accounted as a case study.Based on the analyses of results, the major findings of the present study are summarized as follows.The first research question can be answered with the results of the study, and the main features of L2lexicosemantic representation of non-professionals and professionals are stated as follows.1) As a whole, L2semantic associations of both the two groups of participants develop with asymmetrical strength between paradigmatic and syntagmatic knowledge.2) Professionals have a better mastery of paradigmatic knowledge than non-professionals, less-frequently used words and words of specific fields in particular.3) Both the two groups of participants have an unsatisfactory mastery of syntagmatic knowledge, polysemic collocations of "verb-preposition" pattern in particular.The second research question, the effect of L2lexicosemantic representation on lexical switch in interpretation, can be answered with the following findings.4) Concerning the whole process of interpretation, E-C interpretation is conducted faster than C-E interpretation by the two groups, indicating directional asymmetries in interpretation.5) Professionals consume less time than non-professionals in C-E interpretation, whatever the style of SL text is; while both the two groups of participants resemble with each other in E-C interpretation.6) Most L2lexical items of TL produced by the two groups both belong to the category of the most frequently used vocabulary (0～1000); and they prefer to choose single words instead of collocations for selection.7) The access accuracy in E-C interpretation of professionals is higher than that of non-professionals; while the selection accuracy of professionals is higher than that of non-professionals when interpreting texts with economic and political words from Chinese to English.8) With regard to the target language, professionals produce a greater variety of vocabulary than non-professionals, both in Chinese and English.The third research question can be answered by presenting a model (Figure6.1). This model is proposed based on the major findings and discussions to account for the relationship between L2lexicosemantic representation and lexical switch in interpretation.