探究英汉互译中的停顿现象

basically focused onconsecutive interpreting (CI) or simultaneous interpreting (SI); few gave attention tosight translation (ST). Besides, those studies tended to analyze pauses in one-wayinterpreting production, usually from interpreters’ active language to passive language,and seldom made an analysis from two ways. Last but not least, scholars in the pastusually regarded pauses as a negative factor in interpreting process, and thereforeemphasized too much the side effect of pauses and tried to explore approaches toreduce pause frequency. Yet the author believes pauses sometimes can have tacticaluses, and their positive value is deserved to be mentioned.Due to the importance and insufficiency of the issue analyzed above, this studyaims at exploring the factor of pause in two-way Chinese and English sight translationand tries to provide some useful implications in Chinese and English interpretingteaching and training.Interpreting tasks always involve more than one language, and directionality couldbe an affecting factor through the performance. It is necessary to explore pauses intwo ways, source-to-target and target-to-source. Therefore, this thesis looks at pausesin two-way English and Chinese sight translation, which is new and different fromprevious researches in the field of interpreting studies, since those studies were eitherfocused on CI or SI, and most of them only examined pausing patterns in one-wayinterpreting delivery. Moreover, this present study will give a comprehensiveexploration of the three pause parameters and try to find out the differences andsimilarities between interpreting from A to B language and that from B to A. Last, thestudy will investigate the positive functions of pauses together with its side effects insight translation.

1.3 Research Questions

Referring to the previous study, the author has raised three research questions:1) Try to examine the three parameters, namely pause duration, pausefrequency and the distribution of pauses in the subjects’ interpretingproduction.2) Does directionality exert an impact on interpreters’ pause patterns in sighttranslation?3) Do pauses have any communicative values or strategic uses during theprocess of sight translation?Through examining both filled and unfilled pauses in two-way English andChinese sight translation, the present study is aimed to categorize pause duration,pause frequency and distribution of pauses, identify the impact of directionality andexplore some positive effect of pauses in sight translation.With regard to the three research questions, this study tries to identify twohypotheses.Hypothesis one: The directionality between interpreters’ active and passivelanguages will influence pause duration, pause frequency and pause distribution insight translation performances.Hypothesis two: Except regarding pauses as obstacles in interpreting delivery,pauses have their communicative value or positive functions, such as provide time forinterpreters to arrange on-line planning and remind the audience to pay attention tonew and important information.Bearing the three research questions and two hypotheses in mind, the author willconduct this empirical study to explore the proper answers.

1.4 Definition of Key Terms

The definitions of all the key terms used in this thesis are listed below so as tohelp the readers get better comprehension of the results of this research.Simultaneous Interpreting (SI), a mode of interpretation which involves listeningto source-language remarks and then transferring and delivering output intarget-language in a synchronized manner (P chhacker, 2004).Consecutive Interpreting (CI), a mode of interpretation which involves listening toremarks in source-language, producing written notes accordingly, and then deliveringinterpretation with the help of the notes while original speaker halts the flow ofspeech (P