Research on the Oral Interpretation from the Perspective of Functionalist Translation Theory: An Case Study of “Premier Lis Press Conference 2014″开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Reasons or Significance： An increasingly powerful China has aroused the attention of the world. China has got heard by the world. Interpretation, as one of the important bridges of cooperation between countries, is more and more significant. However, researches on the interpretation are far fewer than those of translation in a relatively long time, which seems imbalanced. Interpretation is often regarded as a kind of psychological activity, as well as an intuitive and mechanical translation activity. In a very long period of time, the theoretical researches of interpretation are based on the experience of interpreters, which is lacking in scientific researches. In recent years, more and more scholars change their research perspective of translation and contribute to the study of interpretation. But it is a pity that only few of them combine the functionalist approaches with interpretation. Different from the literary translation, the Press Conference Interpretation (PCI) belongs to the category of the diplomatic interpretation. It aims to represent the fundamental interests of most people in China, answer questions on the important issues of domestic development from journalists all over the world, and declare country#8217;s position on major international issues. At the same time, interpretation of some serious political issues directly affect China''''s sovereignty and position as well as the relationships with other countries. It is obvious that the quality of the PCI determines the position of China in the world. But studies of the PCI in the world is far from enough, and most of them are from the perspective of translation strategies rather than translation theories. This thesis conducts a study on the interpretation through Premier Li''''s Press Conference Interpretation, with profound theoretical and practical significance. First, the study on the PCI is more professional. Previous studies focused on the experience of interpreters and rest on the choice of translation strategies. The functionalist approaches regard the PCI study as a kind of cross-cultural translation practice. The PCI study is pushed to a higher, more professional theoretical level. Second, it enriches theories for the PCI study. Recently, studies of the PCI has been paid much attention to at home and abroad, and more of them focus on the interpretive theory, equivalence theory, adaptation theory and some relevant methodologies of the interpretation strategy. The functionalist approaches are in a small proportion in the field of PCI study. But it#8217;s easy to find the importance of #8220;function#8221; literally in the functionalist approaches. The functionalist approach is really appropriate to be applied to the PCI which is a kind of practical writing. Third, research achievements can be applied to other relevant fields of translation studies. The PCI study can not be confined to the object itself. The theoretical research results can be applied to fields including diplomatic interpretation, political essays translation, economic and cultural translation and so on. It represents the wide application field of research achievements.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

Research Contents: This thesis consists of four chapters except the introduction including the research background, purpose and significance. Chapter one is the general description of interpretation, including its definition, classification and characteristics. Chapter two is the introduction of the functionalist approaches, including its origin and development, and core theories applicable to the PCI study. Chapter three is the focus of this thesis. It#8217;s a case study of Premier Li''''s Press Conference Interpretation. It proposes to establish the translation brief, design and analyze the source text, mediate the relationship between the addressor and the audience. This chapter introduces the translation brief under the skopos theory, contents of the source text and puts forward requirements for interpreters. It analyzes the methods of adopting appropriate strategies to mediate the relationship between the the addressor and the audience. Chapter four makes a conclusive summary of the whole article, including the theoretical and practical enlightenment. Key Issues to be Resolved: Different from previous studies, this thesis makes a research on the interpretation from a new perspective of the functionalist approaches, through a case study of Premier Li''''s Press Conference Interpretation. It concludes how the functionalist approaches guide the PCI and the enlightenment for interpreters. What#8217;s more, the research achievements are to be applied to relevant translation practices, such as diplomatic interpretation, foreign affairs translation, political essays translation and so on. It is expected to guide practice from a new perspective. Outline: Introduction Chapter 1 Interpretation 1.1Definition of Interpretation 1.2Categories of Interpretation 1.3Characteristics of Interpretation Chapter 2 The Functionalist Approaches 2.1 The Development of the Functionalist Approaches 2.2 Theories of the Functionalist Approaches 2.1.1 Skopos Theory 2.1.2 Theory of Translation Action 2.1.3 Function plus Loyalty Theory Chapter 3 A Case Study of Premier Li''''s Press Conference Interpretation 3.1 Translation Brief 3.1.1 Translation Brief under the Skopos Theory 3.1.2 The Establishment of Translation Brief 3.2 Design and Analysis of a Source Text 3.2.1Contents of the Source Text 3.2.2 Requirements for Interpreters 3.3 Mediation between the Addressor and Audience 3.3.1 Translation Strategies Led by Cultural Differences 3.3.2 Translation Strategies Led by Personal Linguistic Style of the Addressor Chapter 4 Conclusion 4.1 Theoretical Enlightenment 4.2 Practical Enlightenment 4.2.1 Interpreters 4.2.2 Interpretation

3. 国内外研究现状

Research Actuality at Home and Abroad： PCI belongs to the study of interpretation. The Press Conference is a meeting with the #8220;made in China' label and a platform of China to speak to the world, so it is a kind of Chinese-English interpretation. In the foreign countries, studies on the PCI are relatively few because of the Chinese characteristics. However, studies on the interpretation, even the macro field of translation in the foreign countries walk at the front of the world, which is mainly embodied in the researches of the equivalence theory, interpretative theory, functionalist approaches and so on. Several foreign scholars made great contributions to the research on the functionalist approaches. Early in 1971, Katharina Reiss introduced a model of translation criticism in her book Possibilities and Limits of Translation Criticism, which may be regarded as the beginning for the scientifically study of translation in Germany. According to Reiss, the ideal translation would be one equivalence between the source text and the target text in content, linguistic form and communicative function. She noticed that the practical translation situations show the impossible of ideal equivalence in the real life, for example, when the target text wants to achieve a purposed function other than that of the original. The second landmark figure is Hans Vermeer, who had made a great contribution for bridging the gap between theory and practice. His famous Skopos theory is usually considered as the core concept of functionalist approaches. He broke through the restriction of equivalent theory and considered the skopos as the first principle for translation. The end justified the means. For Vermeer, translation is a form of purposeful human action based on a source text and one of the most decisive factors determining the aim of a translation is the target receiver with specific culture background. Justa Holz Manttari, as a professional translator, goes one step further than Vermeer. Her theory is based on the principles of action theory. In her model, translation was defined as a complex action designed to achieve a particular purpose. Her theory considered translation as communicative activities driven by the aim of initiators, thus gave a priority to the role of translators. The action of translation endeavored to provide a functional communicative text for the target audience. Whether is functionally suitable depended on translators themselves. Nord further developed the functional theory in the early 1990s, that is 'function plus loyalty' aiming at its limitations and translation-oriented model of text analysis in translation in her book Text Analysis in Translation. From theories of such scholars, we can summarize contributions to the study of translation theory abroad. Although there is no direct analysis on the PCI, the object belongs to the macro field of interpretation and translation, then these scholars can indirectly study the influence on the PCI at a macro level. Domestically, the PCI study has aroused much attention through years of efforts. With the development of times, the demand of economic globalization, the requirement for the quality of PCI in our country is higher and higher. The improvement of practice is related to the support of theories. First, the number of domestic articles about interpretation is becoming lager. Second, from the aspect of content, we can see two tendencies of domestic research by online research. The first one is the multi-angle analysis of the functionalist approaches. Some famous scholars in the translation field devoted themselves to the further study of the functionalist approaches and relevant theories, such as Jia Wenbo#8217;s The Function Theory of Pragmatic Translation, Zhong Weihe and Zhong Yu#8217;s The Enlightenment of the German Functional Translation Theory. The other one is the practice research on the functionalist approaches. It analyzes the problems in the practice, combines the functionalist approaches with other relevant theories to guide the practice, and put forward principles and operational strategies. The functionalist approaches are applied more to the non-literary translation and there are many relevant articles, such as Wang Shanzhen#8217;s From the Perspective of the Functionalist Theory to Explore Chinese-English Consecutive Interpretation Strategy. It puts forward the skopos theory and corresponding translation strategies, and proves how the theory guides the translation behavior of consecutive interpretation. Similar articles are more, such as Fang Yuan#8217;s Translation Strategies of Official Press Conference under the Guidance of Relevance Theory and Skopos Theory, Zheng Yiying#8217;s Research on the Press Conference from the Perspective of the Functionalist Theory and Interpretive Theory and son on. Generally, the domestic researches on the interpretation from the perspective of the functionalist approaches are far from enough.

4. 计划与进度安排

The Research Plan of Thesis (Design): January, 2022: collect materials From February to March: complete the first draft and revise the paper April: complete the second draft and revise the paper May: revise and finalize the draft

5. 参考文献

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