A study of the use of discourse particles in English-to-Chinese simultaneous interpreting by trainee interpreters
Discourse particles are known to be of significance to discourse management and organization. Much work has been devoted to understanding the use of discourse particles in Chinese spontaneous speech (SP). However, in the field of simultaneous interpreting (SI), they have remained under-researched. This thesis sets out to fill this gap and to investigate differences in particle usage between Chinese SP and English-to-Chinese SI. Literature on discourse markers, pragmatics, information processing, and interpreting studies is reviewed with an attempt to provide a holistic view of the research framework of the present study. A pilot study was first carried out to find any different tendencies in the use of discourse particles between SP and SI. The main subject population was interpreting students at Newcastle University. In my mixed-method approach of the main study, data was collected and analyzed through on-line parser, interviews, a mock-conference, and questionnaire surveys. Both the frequency count and the qualitative analyses were carried out to explore the reasons behind the different tendencies in use initially found, and the effects of using the surveyed discourse particles for perceived fluency in Chinese
Wang, Dawei
A study of the use of discourse particles in English-to-Chinese simultaneous interpreting by trainee interpreters. Discourse particles are known to be of significance to discourse management and organization. Much work has been devoted to understanding the use of discourse particles in Chinese spontaneous speech (SP). However, in the field of simultaneous interpreting (SI), they have remained under-researched. This thesis sets out to fill this gap and to investigate differences in particle usage between Chinese SP and English-to-Chinese SI. Literature on discourse markers, pragmatics, information processing, and interpreting studies is reviewed with an attempt to provide a holistic view of the research framework of the present study. A pilot study was first carried out to find any different tendencies in the use of discourse particles between SP and SI. The main subject population was interpreting students at Newcastle University. In my mixed-method approach of the main study, data was collected and analyzed through on-line parser, interviews, a mock-conference, and questionnaire surveys. Both the frequency count and the qualitative analyses were carried out to explore the reasons behind the different tendencies in use initially found, and the effects of using the surveyed discourse particles for perceived fluency in Chinese
study use discourse particle english chinese simultaneous_interpret trainee interpreter discourse particle know significance discourse management organization much work_devote use discourse particle chinese spontaneous_speech however field simultaneous_interpreting remain_under researched set fill_gap investigate_difference particle usage chinese_english chinese literature discourse_marker pragmatic information processing interpret study review attempt_provide holistic view framework present_study pilot_study first carry different tendency use discourse particle main subject population interpret student newcastle university mixed_method main study data_collect analyzed line parser interview mock conference questionnaire_survey frequency count qualitative_analysis carry explore reason_behind different tendency use initially find effect use discourse particle perceive fluency chinese