A Practice-based Study Of The Reformulation Strategy In E-C Simultaneous Interpretation

The multi-task processing model of simultaneous interpreting decides that effective implementation of simultaneous interpreting(SI) strategies is indispensable to the successful completion of SI tasks. Therefore, research on SI strategies is of much theoretical and practical guiding significance to SI teaching and training. To date, research on simultaneous interpreting in the academia at home and abroad has entered into maturity, with fruitful studies on SI strategies. Yet, foreign interpreting research has been generally focused on multiple SI strategies, and there have been not many exclusive studies on a single SI strategy. Domestically, allowing for relieving cognitive burden on the interpreter, research on SI strategies centered on syntactic linearity and omission. Less attention has been paid to the reformulation strategy and even fewer studies refer to the reformulation strategy in E-C simultaneous interpreting. The thesis holds that reformulation characterized by de-verbalization is an effective strategy in E-C SI.Based on classroom practice and under the guidance of the interpretive theory, the thesis adopts theoretical analysis and case study as the methodology and conducts research on the reformulation strategy in E-C SI. It first introduces simultaneous interpreting, the interpretive theory and reformulation, then analyzes the necessity of the strategy in E-C SI from the perspective of linguistic disparities between English and Chinese and the aim of simultaneous interpreting. Next, it analyzes the effectiveness of the strategy to the interpreter and the audience, as well as the circumstances where the interpreter is inclined to employ the strategy. Finally, having divided the concrete application of the reformulation strategy into four means, i.e. alteration of word order, change of part of speech, conversion of voices and merging of information points, the paper makes a casebased analysis of the strategies employed by four MTI second-grade students of X University in their classroom SI practice so as to illustrate and prove the necessity and effectiveness of the reformulation tactic in E-C SI.The study finds that proceeding from the interpretive theory, the application of the reformulation strategy in E-C simultaneous interpreting can effectively realize the function of equivalent message delivery. Because of differences of the two languages, the interpreter ought to constantly break down long and complex sentences to multiple short and easy ones, adjust the word order, change the part of speech and convert the voices as well as integrate several information points. With the reformulation strategy, the interpreter can be freed from the constraints of linguistic forms and deliver Chinese interpretation of the same meaning. On the part of the audience, interpretations produced by virtue of the reformulation strategy sound idiomatic, concise and easy to comprehend. SI trainees ought to adhere to the principle of sense-based interpreting and improve their performance through reinforcing application of the reformulation strategy.