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The Use of Compression Strategy in Chinese and English Simultaneous Interpreting
Tue, Feb 14th 2012, 15:29 Under Category Useful Information for the Public by actc

Simultaneous interpreting (SI) has always been a challenging work due to its constraint of time and large requirement for excellent bilingual proficiency of simultaneous interpreters. However, besides its difficulty, SI is considered to be a highly technical work, which involves a lot of translation strategies.  From the theoretical standpoint, compression in SI is extensively used as a labor-saving device with regard to redundant or repetitive information. So, what are the contents of speech can be radically omitted because it unfold many words per minute yet entail very little information? Based on our rich experience in handling SI jobs, we would like to share with you our own summaries and conclusions.

1/ Omission of expressions of public opinions, omitting these expressions can still realize the communicative act and achieve the effects of sense for sense translation, therefore, it is acceptable as a way of compression. E.g.

 

was believed that

 

大家都觉得

 

We are aware that…

 

我们都知道

 

You can see that

 

你也看到

 

you know that

 

你知道

 

since we know that

 

我们知道

 

it is a common view that

 

大家都知道

 

Our general impression is that

 

普遍的印象是

 

The fact is that

 

事实上

 

 

2/ Omission of expressions of speakers personal views. These information can be omitted as they are not the focus of the message. E.g.

 

I think

 

我想,我觉得,依我看来

 

I hope

 

我希望

 

I believe

 

我相信

 

I know that

 

我想告诉你

 

As I said yesterday (several times)

 

我昨天讲过,我讲过很多次

 

You can see that

 

你也明白,你可以看到

 

 

3/ Substituting an abbreviation or Acronym for the full name or a phrase, this method can be adopted in order to compress the length of the sentence and catch up with the speaker. E.g.

 

the Pearl River Delta Region

 

珠三角 (√)    

 

珠江三角洲(χ)

 

执行总裁

 

CEO (√) 

 

the Chief Executive Officer(χ)

 

香港特别行政区

 

SAR(√)

 

the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(χ)

 

中小企业

 

SEMs(√) 

 

small and medium enterprises(χ)

 

尽快

 

ASAP(√)  

 

as soon as possible(χ)

 

 

 

From the above examples, it is found that compression is an important skill and device in Chinese and English SI. The strategies of compression in Chinese and English SI include abbreviation, omissions of expression of speakers personal habit as well as omission of expressions of speakers public opinion. From the above study we can see that these strategies are flexible solutions of condensed structure and information in Chinese which can be taught in interpreting. Proper omission of words or phrases that do not affect the transmission of senses in certain situations and contexts and deletions of redundant linguistic components can be used as effective strategies in interpreting.

 


 

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