On The Norms Of Interpreting Metaphors In Diplomatic Settings

The term ‘norm’ was initially a sociological concept and then introduced into the field of Descriptive Translation Studies(DTS),being considered as one of the shaping factors of translational decisions and strategies.Interpreting,as a social and cultural activity,is also governed by norms.That is,there is a set of internalized rules and standards in interpreters’ minds which guides their performance and choices of strategy.Diplomatic setting is one of the special interpreting settings that exert high requirements on interpreter’s competence and choices of strategy.How to deal with metaphors is a common problem in the interpretation of diplomatic discourse,bringing greater challenges to diplomatic interpreting task.The current study investigates the norms of interpreting metaphors in diplomatic settings based on the qualitative analysis of the Chinese-English consecutive interpreting corpus of 2015,2016 and 2017 Chinese Foreign Minister Press Conferences.A comparative textual analysis of the ST and TT indicates that four types of interpreting strategies are often adopted by the diplomatic interpreter to deal with metaphors in on-site consecutive mode,namely,the strategy of the additive type,the strategy of the reductive type,the strategy of the substitutive type and the strategy of the faithful type.Adequacy of information,economy of expression,explicitation of implicit meaning and retention of rhetorical effect respectively serve as the norms guiding the four types of strategy.This thesis is innovative in the following aspects: different from traditional interpreting studies which often focuses solely on the cognitive aspects of interpreting activities,this thesis investigates the social,cultural and communicative aspects of interpreting in the study of ’norms of interpreting’;this thesis employs the research paradigm of Descriptive Translation Studies(DTS)to make comparisons between ST and TT in order to identify the interpreting strategies involved in producing the TT,marking an innovative attempt at employing the research method of DTS in interpreting studies.