On The C-E Interpretation Of Culture-loaded Words On Press Conferences From The Perspective Of Cultural Schema Theory

Interpreting is a cross-cultural communication.Interpreters deal with cultural transfer as much as linguistic transfer at their work.The success of the cultural transfer in interpreting is often realized through the quality of the translation of culture-loaded words.It is a big challenge in that different cultures reflect different cultural schemas which are made up of generalized collections of the knowledge stored in long-term memory through experiences in our own culture.According to cultural schema theory,the matching pattern of cultural schemas between the source language culture and the target language culture could be divided into three groups,namely,coincidence of cultural schema(A-A pattern),overlap of cultural schema(A-B pattern)and default of cultural schema(A-Zero pattern).Coincidence of cultural schema occurs when two schemas from two cultures are exactly the same.Overlap of cultural schema happens when two schemas from two cultures are similar in meaning.Default of cultural schema occurs when a schema from one culture is absent in another culture.The study is an attempt to explore the interpretation of Chinese culture-loaded words from the perspective of cultural schema theory.The research material embraces some segments extracted from Premier Li Keqiang's speeches and the transcript of the on-site interpretation.These segments with Chinese culture-loaded words reflect specific cultural schemas.The author divides all segments into the three categories,namely,coincidence of cultural schema,overlap of cultural schema and default of cultural schema.In general,many scholars have studied the interpretation of Chinese culture-loaded words cited at press conferences,yet few of them have verified whether the interpretation is understood by native English speakers whose feedback on the interpretation could be collected for reference.Thus the author established a sample of thirty native English speakers' feedback on the interpretation.The study sheds a light on how to effectively interpret Chinese culture-loaded words and explores why sometimes the interpretation isn't understood by English speakers.The study is done based on a survey.The author first designed a questionnaire which includes the interpretation of Chinese culture-loaded words,choice questions and open questions.It's sent to the 30 native English speakers who were chosen from high school students,undergraduates and postgraduates because the research material is overall too difficult for those who just complete primary school education.They read and filled in the questionnaire,sharing their confusion or suggestions and sending it back to the author in three days.The author then analyzed the interpretation of Chinese culture-loaded words on the basis of their feedback.It's found that the interpretation is not always understood by native English speakers for three reasons.First,sometimes the interpretation is awkward and they think better words should be used.Second,some metaphors and Internet buzzwords are too abstract for them,thus they have no idea what they mean in the context.They also point out that some words shouldn't be used in a positive or negative context.The following conclusions are drawn from the study.To effectively interpret Chinese culture-loaded words,interpreters should not only deal with cultural transfer,but also make sure the interpretation is understandable for TL receivers.It's usually necessary to paraphrase Chinese culture-loaded words because of cultural schematic differences between the source language culture and the target language culture.In other words,interpreters need to activate the cultural schemas known by the TL receivers.Otherwise,it's hard for TL receivers to understand the interpretation because they lack relevant cultural schemas.Besides,interpreters need to rely less on the linguistic form of Chinese culture-loaded words and focus on meaning transference in case confusion and misunderstanding are caused among TL receivers.The author also concludes that literal translation,paraphrase,transliteration,borrowing and amplification are the strategies to interpret Chinese culture-loaded words at NPC and CPPCC press conferences.