背景知识对英汉同声传译效果地影响.pdfVIP

Chapter Two Theory Review and Previous Studies 2.1 Theory Review 2.1.1 Theories on Interpretation The Comprehension Equation It has become a well-established fact among interpreting instructors, theoreticians and practitioners that comprehension, one of the two essential processes involved in SI, goes beyond the simple recognition of words and linguistic structures. Daniel Gile, in his book Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training (1995: 78), puts forward a comprehension equation. According to him, the comprehension of a speech should be attributed to the interaction of three elements: knowledge of language, extralinguistic knowledge and analysis. He expresses the relationship in the following way: C = KL + ELK + A In the equation, C stands for comprehension, KL for knowledge of the language, ELK for extralingusitic knowledge, and A for analysis. “=” does not mean equality, but refers to the result of the interaction between KL, EKL and A. “+” means interaction. From the point of Gile (1995: 85) , extralingusitic knowledge can be broken down into two subcategories: preexisting knowledge (background knowledge) and knowledge acquired from the text itself (contextual knowledge). Gile (1995:79) also points out that “the basic relation shown in the equation is complementary between KL and ELK: the higher the level of each component, the better the resulting comprehension”. But the contribution of KL to comprehension levels off at a point where better command of the language does not help much. Unlike KL, however, the contribution of ELK does not level off at a certain point. When doing conference interpreting, the more the interpreter knows about the situation (more ELK), the more likely he understands