The Influence Of Source Language’s Dependency Distance On Trainee Interpreters’ Disfluencies In English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

Attention to the impact of source language’s textual characteristics on interpretation has been insufficient.Studies focusing on the effect of dependency distance on disfluency in simultaneous interpreting are even more scarce.This study aims to explore the influence of source language’s dependency distance on trainee interpreters’disfluencies in English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation,to shed more light on the possible causes of such disfluencies and the coping techniques of trainee interpreters.To this end,this paper examined the fluency of the interpreters’ performance by analyzing the recordings obtained in a controlled experiment.Twelve MTI seniors were invited to participate in an E-C SI test followed by a retrospective interview.A total of 458 disfluencies of four different types were collected.In comparison to earlier research,this study describes the characteristics and distribution of disfluencies in greater depth by encompassing their duration and syntactic position.By comparing the frequency,duration and syntactic position of various types of disfluencies in sentences with different maximum dependency distances,the paper concludes that high maximum dependency distance does have an impact on the disfluencies in E-C SI.First,sentences with high maximum dependency distances lead to more frequent and longer disfluencies.Second,disfluencies in sentences with high maximum dependency distances occur more often after the subject,indicating the cognitive saturation of trainee interpreters at the beginning of the sentences.Maximum dependency distance affects disfluency mainly by 1)increasing the load of listening comprehension and integration cost,2)leading to short-term memory overload,and 3)limiting output techniques.Anticipation,waiting,linearity,deverbalization,and omission are the main techniques trainee interpreters adopted to facilitate production,with anticipation being the most frequently used one for sentences with high maximum dependency distances.