The Role Of Extra-linguistic Knowledge In B-B Business Negotiation Interpretation

Scholars and experts in this field have made significant achievements by applying some theories and viewpoints from relevant disciplines, such as linguistics, translation theories, pragmatics, and so on. However, most of the researchers focus on summarizing experiences from business interpretation but not from the perspective of extra-linguistic knowledge.In the future, an increasing number of international business negotiations will be held more frequently as the world becomes more like a global village. Therefore more attention should be given to the role of extra-linguistic knowledge in interpretation. The main reason is that many cases have shown misunderstanding and faults even when interpreters speak perfect languages because many interpreters fail to realize that they are not only working between two languages. It’s hard to pass on the message exactly without a good command of extra-linguistic knowledge. Therefore it is vital for interpreters to be in possession of extra-linguistic knowledge such as relevant economic and trade laws, international conventions, business etiquette and cross-cultural knowledge.The objective of this thesis is to discuss how to perfect B-B business negotiation interpretation by looking at how extra-linguistic knowledge works mainly in comprehension, reproduction and cross-cultural communication.This paper is composed of four parts. Chapter One describes the background of the interpretation project. Chapter Two puts forward the definition and features of business interpretation and extra-linguistic knowledge, and brings the relations between extra-linguistic knowledge and business interpretation. In chapter Three, the role of extra-linguistic knowledge is explained from the aspects of comprehension, reproduction and cross-cultural communication. ChapterFour gives assessment of the project and suggestions for future studies.