An Interpreting Practice Report On Business Negotiation From The Perspective Of The Cooperative Principle

At present,a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in an in-depth manner,and digital transformation has become the general trend.To actively respond to the call of the Plan for Development of the Digital Economy During the “14th Five-Year” Period issued by the States Council,the construction industry,as one of the pillar industries of China,has ushered in a new development philosophy.The in-depth application of digital technology in whole-process consulting will transform and upgrade both services and modes of construction.At the start of the “14th FiveYear Plan”,the construction industry strives towards high-quality development.Against this backdrop,a Dutch construction consultancy Arcadis has set its sights on China’s software companies and has selected several companies,including Dajiangtong,as digital transformation solution providers.In July 2022,the author was commissioned by Dajiangtong,as an interpreter to participate in the technical review of its construction cost big data platform “Zhibiaoyun”.The author was responsible for the road show of the company and product introduction and the Chinese-English and English-Chinese consecutive interpreting for the question session in this business negotiation.Grice’s conversational Cooperative Principle has been used in the study of pragmatics since its introduction in 1967 and has since been gradually developed into fields such as translation.Interpreting event is a special communicative occasion,where the Cooperative Principle is also applicable.It breaks with the traditional view of the interpreter as a mere “converter” and allows the interpreter to add,omit or change the translation.This report demonstrates that the active participation of interpreter,guided by the Cooperative Principle,can facilitate communication and thus help to grasp the direction of negotiation and achieve an agreement.The preparation for this interpreting event was month long,and the author was involved in the entire negotiation process.The report describes in detail the background of this business negotiation and the three stages of pre-interpretation-interpretation-post-interpretation.The author demonstrates,with real examples,the positive effects that observation or violation of the Cooperative Principle brings to the negotiation.According to the case studies,the author concludes that:when interpreting scientific and technical terms,the accuracy of interpreting can be assured by observing the maxims of quantity and quality;meanwhile,when interpreting content that needs to be listed,observing the maxim of manner can strengthen the organization of the presentation,which is conducive to improving the company’s image and professionalism;at the same time,when the speaker’s original text is tedious or incomplete,the interpreter can violate the maxim of quantity when interpreting and make omissions or additions to the translation,thus helping the speaker to control the flow and pace of whole negotiation.The problems and solutions encountered by the author in this report are listed to provide references for future business negotiation interpreters.