The Role Of Interpreters In Liaison Interpreting

With the deepening of cooperation between China and foreign countries, the need for interpreters is also increasing, with more people devoting themselves to the job of interpretation. Liaison Interpretation, thus, is the most common one of its kind.Lao Tzu once said,"He who knows others is intelligent; he who knows himself is wise." Interpreters must have a full understanding of their own roles during the interpretation job to do it right. As said by Franz Pochhacker and Miriam Schlesinger,"in a wide and historical sense, an interpreter often presents him/herself as an almighty middle person. More than interpreting, they undertake lots of tasks of complexity." In liaison interpretation, there are more interaction and participation of all parties than other kinds of interpretation. Whether the role is fully played by the interpreter concerns if the interpretation can go on smoothly.Combining theoretical basis and the practice of the author, the thesis explores the role of interpreters in this process.The thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter One is an overview for the researches in history, specifically, about interpretation, liaison interpretation and role of interpreters.Chapter Two discusses the characters of liaison interpretation, including bidirectionality, informality and spontaneity, with examples.Chapter Three explores the roles of liaison interpreter. Liaison interpreters are given all kinds of roles:a conduit or an active participant, from the view of extend of participation; a translating machine, in the view of the social demand; a mediator, from the cultural view.Chapter Four gives the interpreters a responsive plan according to their different roles discussed in the last three chapters, for them to do a better job.Chapter Five is a conclusion of ways in which interpreters can better understand and play their role. It mentions the shortcomings of the research, and brings suggestions to further researches that can be carried out on the subject.