A Functionalist Approach To Interpreter’s Creativity

Whether interpreting is a creative process or not, is a controversy long existing inthe academic circle. It is with the purpose to probe deeper into the topic that theauthor conducts a qualitative research based on collected materials by answering thefollowing three questions:1. Is interpreting a creative process?2. If yes, how isinterpreter’s creativity displayed?3. What strategies can the interpreter adopt to becreative?As interpreter’s creativity is not only a new topic in China, but in theinternational academic circle and not much could be taken as references from existingresearches, the author tries to approach interpreter’s creativity with previousexperiences on the translator’s subjectivity, then proceeds to analyze the interpretingprocess with functionalist translation theories and finally proposes some strategies forthe interpreters to be creative under the guidance of functionalist translation theory.In answering to the three initial questions, the author concludes:1. Interpreter’screativity is essential due to the existing cultural differences, different ways ofthinking, linguistic differences and cases of untranslatability.2. The interpreter iscreative in that s/he is the first audience of the speaker and the coordinator amongdifferent parties thus having to display creativity in the process of understanding andcommunication. Besides, the interpreter is also an overall evaluator who evaluateshis/her work and reproduces the ST in TT through intertextuality, through whichcreativity is demonstrated;3. In order to realize the functions of interpreting to thelargest extent, the interpreter can choose from such creative strategies as substitution,adaptation, paraphrase, addition, deletion, condensation, explicitation. But in spite ofall these creative roles and strategies, the interpreter can never exert his/her creativityfreely; the exertion of interpreter’s creativity should be strictly guided by the fourrules of functionalism.