A Garden Path Model Of Simultaneous Interpreting Anticipation: An Empirical Approach

Interpretation, in particular, simultaneous interpretation, is a special kind oflanguage processing as well as a complex cognitive process. Due to the instantaneityand extemporaneous characteristics of simultaneous interpretation, interpreters oftenface multiple stresses in the process of simultaneous interpretation. Usually, to lightenthe burden, interpreters need to utilize the different interpreting strategies and skills todeal with various problems encountered in the interpretation flexibly. Among them,anticipation, as the fundamental strategy for interpreting, is one of most commonlyused strategies interpreters adopt. This article tries to discuss the process ofsimultaneous interpretation anticipation through the comprehensive analysis of thegarden path phenomenon, for the purpose of establishing a garden-path-model (GPM)of simultaneous interpretation anticipation.First, the article has discussed the necessity and feasibility of the modeltheoretically. Anticipation is an essential and irreplaceable strategy in simultaneousinterpretation. Gile’s Effort Models elaborated the necessity of anticipationmechanism, and in the meantime, Relevance Theory and Schema Theory have laid therationale for the implementation of anticipation. Therefore, anticipation insimultaneous interpretation is necessary as well as feasible. Moreover, according tothe Garden Path Theory of Bever, the author generates the existence of Garden PathPhenomenon in Simultaneous Interpreting. Namely, a sentence could have infinitepossible endings before it finished, just like infinite garden paths. Therefore, theGarden Path phenomenon, which is generated from the classical Garden Path Sentence,exists frequently in simultaneous interpreting. In the simultaneous interpretationprocess, there are many garden path phenomena due to the irregular pauses of thespeaker or linguistic and structural differences between source language and targetlanguage. Through analysis of these garden path phenomena, we can unify it with theanticipation of simultaneous interpretation and realize the analysis of garden pathphenomenon on the basis of simultaneous interpretation anticipation.Second, based on theoretical analysis, this article has conducted certain empiricalstudies, selected61participants to carry on the simultaneous interpretation experimentand grouped them into English related major, Non-English related major andinterpreting students. The material is an excerpt from Press conference of PrimeMinister Wen Jiabao. Through the experiment, the author found that most subjects with no interpreting experience focus on the perusing of promptness and ignore theaccuracy. They gave priority to the synchronization of target language output whileoverlooked the comprehension process. Meanwhile, through the classification andcomparison of the experiment results, it could be discovered that when tackling thesentence with garden path phenomenon, different subjects tend to use and adoptdifferent translation methods that distinguished the experienced subjects from others.Therefore, the author believes that the quality of Interpreting output is not incorrespondence with the language ability or interpreting skills. The core problem liesin the understanding of the source language. Simultaneous interpreting is not theequivalent of interpreting synchronously but comprehending synchronously.Finally, the article draws the conclusion: there are massive garden pathphenomena in simultaneous interpretation. The anticipation will affect the quality ofsimultaneous interpretation to a large extend. Therefore, the author proposes a gardenpath model of simultaneous interpreting anticipation, which is elaborated about theoperation process and method of garden path model in the simultaneous interpretationanticipation.