A Study On Adjustment Of Subject In Interpretation Of Premier Li Keqiang’s 2018-2020 Press Conferences From The Perspective Of "Theme-Rheme" Theory

This paper uses the interpretation of Premier Li Keqiang’s 2018-2020 Press Conferences as a case,trying to discover the reason and related tactics behind the different choice of subject during interpretation from Chinese into English.The author takes the “Theme-Rheme” theory of functional grammar as the guidance,as well as other scholars’ findings,including Charles N.Li and Sandra A.Thompson’s“subject-topic” and studies on non-subject sentences between Chinese and English.This paper discusses five situations involving adjustment of subject.And then each one is divided into two small categories except the ones that involve voices change.They are those that:1.Changing from personal subject:1.1 from personal subject to impersonal subject,1.2 from personal subject to non-subject;2.Changing from impersonal subject:2.1 from impersonal subject to personal subject,2.2 from impersonal subject to non-subject;3.Changing from non-subject:3.1 supplementing the subject,3.2 remaining non-subject;4.Changing from a sentence:4.1 from a sentence to a clause,4.2 from a sentence to a noun structure;5.Changing from active voice to passive voice;6.Changing from passive voice to active voice.The tables and figures are below in the introduction,which can make it clearer for readers.The author mainly focuses on questions like the differences between the choosing of subject between Chinese and English and when and how should voices be dealt with.Most of the sentences in the interpretation of the press conferences do not change order,so the author noticed the changes and determined to study these phenomena.The reason why the author put 3.2 remain non-subject as a special is because that Chinese and English have different non-subject structure.During the study,the author found that the concept of “subject-topic” has its limitations which will be discussed in the introduction.The major findings are as below: Chinese has a tendency of using active voice while English has a tendency of using impersonal subject;most non-subject Chinese sentences follow the principle of supplementing the subject;When the subject of a Chinese sentence is a sentence,besides interpreting as a sentence,there are two ways of tackling: The first is to turn it into a clause,and the second is to turn it into a noun structure;Non-subject sentences are widely used in English,no matter the Chinese sentence starts with personal subject,impersonal subject or non-subject.These tactics are very useful and can help make interpretation more acceptable and natural to native speakers.But meanwhile,they are not always foolproof,so the interpreters need to take heed and adjust their interpretation according to the situation.