英汉同声传译译员轮换与译语质量

Interpreters' turn-taking and output quality in English Chinese simultaneous interpreting

译员轮换交接是同声传译的一个重要环节,轮换对译语质量的影响是个重要却易被忽视的理论及实践问题。本研究对20组中国市场职业英汉同声传译员的同声传译轮换录音片段进行转写,并从轮换点、连贯性、完整性、正确性和流畅性5个角度对译语语料进行标注与分析。分析发现,轮换对译语质量有较明显影响。译语的正确性和流畅性最受影响,其次是连贯性。英译汉,正确性最受影响,其次是连贯性和流畅性。汉译英,流畅性最受影响,其次是正确性和连贯性。部分译员在轮换时使用了一定的策略。研究认为,同声传译教学中应设计专门的轮换教学内容,以减轻轮换对同传译语质量的影响。

Interpreters' turn-taking is an important part of simultaneous interpreting(SI) process and its implication for output quality is,though often ignored,of great theoretical and practical relevance.The paper collects and analyzes the audio recordings of 20 simultaneous interpreting episodes involving interpreters' turn-taking from Chinese professional conference interpreters with regard to 5 parameters:turn-taking point,consistency,completeness,correctness,and fluency of output.The analysis shows that turn-taking in SI is highly relevant to the output quality with correctness and fluency affected the most,followed by consistency.In English-to-Chinese interpreting,correctness is most affected followed by consistency and fluency,while in Chinese-to-English interpreting,fluency is most affected followed by correctness and consistency.Some interpreters adopt turn-taking strategies.The paper concludes that turn-taking should be part of SI teaching process so as to cut its footprint upon output quality.