用学视角下的国际商务口译

用学视角下的国际商务口译 上海海事大学 SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY 硕 士 学 位 论 文 MASTER’S DISSERTATION 论文题目:语用学视角下的国际商务口译 学位专业:外国语言学及应用语言学 作者姓名:徐慧敏 指导教师:史燕燕副教授 完成日期:二O O九年六月 On International Business Interpreting from the Perspective of Pragmatics By Xu Huimin Supervisor Associate Professor Shi Yanyan A Thesis Submitted to the College of Foreign Languages Shanghai Maritime University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts June, 2009 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Professor Shi Yanyan. She read my first and second drafts of this thesis and provided me with invaluable advice, which I do find stimulating, thought-provoking, and rewarding. It?s my good fortune to study under her guidance. I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to my family and my girlfriend for their invaluable feedback and suggestions, as well as their continued support, patience and understanding. Sincere gratitude also goes to other professors: Han Zhonghua, Wang Dawei, Zheng Lixin, Weng Fengxiang and Yuan Yongfang. Their lectures have a great impact on my way to academic study of the English language, especially interpreting. Furthermore, their individual characteristics impress me so much that the experience of my postgraduate study makes a lifelong treasure. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the authors and the compilers of the relevant literature whose pioneering study has constructed a well-founded road to my exploration. I 摘 要 口译作为跨文化交际的重要手段,在国际交往中发挥着重要的作用。一直以来,虽然口译研究得到了国内外学者的广泛关注,但同西方相比,我国的口译研究才刚刚起步。近几年来,对口译进行跨学科研究已经成为国外口译理论研究的热点领域,尤其是把语用学运用于口译研究更为令人关注,鉴于此,本文试图将语用学与商务口译研究结合起来，深化这一领域的探讨。 美国哲学家格赖斯 ( H.P.Grice ) 在20世纪60年代后期首次提出了著名的“合作原则”(the Cooperative Principle)。合作原则要求每一个交谈参与者在整个交谈过程中 表 关于同志近三年现实表现材料材料类招标技术评分表图表与交易pdf视力表打印pdf用图表说话 pdf 现出合作态度，尽量达到自己交谈的目标和方向。正是交谈者的这种合作使得他们能够持续地进行有意义的语言交际。在实际生活中，为了更有效地表达自己意欲表达的言外之意，引起交际对象的注意，交际中的一方可能会故意在表面上违反合作原则，但谈话参与者的合作关系仍然存在。这时，交际中的另一方就要根据当时的语境，推断出说话人表面违反准则的隐含意义及目的。 国际商务口译中，“合作”是谈判者共同的谈话目的或方向，所以合作原则作为会话交际的基本准则就同样适用于国际商务口译。商务口译与其他翻译一样,是一项跨语言、跨国界、跨文化的交际活动,它不仅是个语言转化过程,还是个大商务形势下推进商务各方理解与沟通的过程,也是发展国际交流与合作的过程，这就对口译员的素质及知识结构提出了更高的要求。 本论文以国际商务语言环境和交往活动为背景，同时以格赖斯 ( H.P.Grice ) 的“合作原则”(the Cooperative Principle)为理论基础，首先对口译的基本知识进行了介绍，并对国际商务口译做了进一步阐述。然后全面详细地介绍了格赖斯的合作原则及其四大准则，并结合所收集的语料将合作原则用于指导国际商务口译，探讨了译员如何主动有效地运用合作原则以帮助双方建立起某种合作关系。最后对译员在商务口译过程中的角色扮演、文化素质及知识结构等方面提出相应的要求。 关键词:国际商务口译 合作原则 口译员 II ABSTRACT With the rapid increase in international exchanges, interpreting, as an inter-lingual and cross-cultural communication mediated by the interpreter, has witnessed a fast and profound development in the past decades. Accordingly, research on interpreting has gained more and more attention. Recently, with the research going on, interdisciplinary studies on interpreting has become a hotspot field both at home and abroad, and special attention has been given to the application of pragmatics in the study of interpreting. H.P.Grice, an American philosopher, firstly put forward his famous “Cooperative Principle” in late 1960s. It is a general principle that all conversational participants are expected to observe according to its four maxims: Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner. However, people sometimes violate them in actual conversations in order to express his/her underlying assumption more effectively so as to arouse the attention of the communicating objects, which leads to conversational implicature. Even so, there still exists a cooperation relationship between the two parties involved. Cooperative Principle is thus applicable to international business interpreting, in that the participants involved also need to achieve their common purpose of “cooperation”. In addition, the interpreter, no longer merely passively playing the role of a messenger enabling mutual understanding, is supposed to get actively involved in the conversation as a facilitator, given the fact that misunderstanding or conflicts out of differing cultural backgrounds and value concepts inevitably take place in the context of international business process. Based on the theory of H.P. Grice?s Cooperative Principle, this paper sets its background under international business language and communicating activities. At the beginning of the thesis, basic knowledge of interpreting is introduced and further elaboration of international business interpreting is provided. Then the author presents Grice's Cooperative Principle and its four maxims in details and applies the CP to guiding international business interpreting with collected data. Suggestions are put III forward accordingly about how interpreters can make effective use of the CP to help both parties in business interactions to establish a certain cooperation relationship. Finally, the interpreter?s role during the international business interpreting and the requirements of an interpreter?s quality and knowledge structure are analyzed in detail. Key words: Interpreter International Business Interpreting The Cooperative Principle IV CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Basic Knowledge about Interpreting ..................................................... 3 1.1 Definition of Interpreting .............................................................................. 3 1.2 Overview of Interpreting ............................................................................... 4 1.2.1 Origin of Interpreting .......................................................................... 4 1.2.2 Interpreting in the West ....................................................................... 5 1.2.3 Interpreting in China ........................................................................... 7 1.3 Features of Interpreting ................................................................................. 8 1.4 Criteria of Interpreting ................................................................................ 10 1.4.1 Accuracy (The closest equivalence) ................................................... 10 1.4.2 Fluency (The proper speed of rendering) ............................................ 11 Chapter 2 Overview of International Business Interpreting ............................... 12 2.1 Definition of International Business Interpreting ......................................... 12 2.2 Main Categories of International Business Interpreting ............................... 13 2.2.1 International Business Negotiation Interpreting ................................. 13 2.2.2 International Business Meeting Interpreting ...................................... 13 2.2.3 International Business Escort Interpreting ......................................... 14 2.3 Features of International Business Interpreting ............................................ 14 2.3.1 Interactiveness................................................................................... 15 2.3.2 Fidelity .............................................................................................. 15 2.3.2.1 Fidelity on Literal Level .......................................................... 15 2.3.2.2 Fidelity on Semantic Level ...................................................... 16 2.3.2.3 Fidelity on Functional Level .................................................... 16 2.3.3 Flexibility.......................................................................................... 16 2.3.4 Professionalism ................................................................................. 17 2.4 Criterion of International Business Interpreting ........................................... 18 2.4.1 Accuracy of Information.................................................................... 19 V 2.4.2 Completeness of information ............................................................. 19 2.4.3 Effectiveness of information .............................................................. 19 Chapter Three Business Interpreting from the Perspective of Pragmatics ......... 21 3.1 Pragmatics and Business Interpreting .......................................................... 21 3.1.1 Brief Introduction to Pragmatics ........................................................ 21 3.1.2 Pragmatic Perspective of Business Interpreting ................................. 22 3.2 The Cooperative Principle (CP) .................................................................. 23 3.2.1 The Framework of Cooperative Principle .......................................... 24 3.2.1.1 The Notion of Cooperative Principle ........................................ 24 3.2.1.2 The Maxims of Cooperative Principle ...................................... 25 3.2.2 Violation of the Maxims .................................................................... 27 3.3 The Application of the CP in International Business Interpreting ................. 31 3.3.1 The Maxim of Quantity in International Business Interpreting ........... 33 3.3.2 The Maxim of Quality in International Business Interpreting ............. 34 3.3.3 The Maxim of Relevance in International Business Interpreting ........ 36 3.3.4 The Maxim of Manner in International Business Interpreting ............ 37 3.4 Interpreting Quality Assessment Criteria in terms of CP .............................. 38 3.4.1 The Maxim of Quantity ..................................................................... 40 3.4.2 The Maxim of Quality ....................................................................... 42 3.4.3 The Maxim of Relation ..................................................................... 44 3.4.4 The Maxim of Manner....................................................................... 45 Chapter Four Qualification Requirements for the International Business Interpreter ............................................................................................................. 48 4.1 The Interpreter?s Role in International Business .......................................... 48 4.2 Qualification Requirements for International Business Interpreter ............... 50 4.2.1 Linguistic Competence ...................................................................... 50 4.2.2 Extensive Professional Knowledge .................................................... 51 4.2.3 Favorable Interpreting Skills ............................................................. 51 4.2.4 Cultural Awareness ............................................................................ 52 4.2.5 Professional Ethics ............................................................................ 52 VI Chapter 5 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 54 5.1 Summary and Findings ............................................................................... 54 5.2 Limitations of the Research......................................................................... 55 5.3 Future Research Directions ......................................................................... 56 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 57 VII Introduction As a cross-cultural verbal communication activity, interpreting is a fundamental communicative tool for people speaking different languages. Lagging far behind written translation studies, interpreting is a relatively new region of study that started only a few decades ago. In the past，interpreting was usually studied from the perspective of real life practice and experiences，but lack of in-depth academic analysis from other disciplines. However，with the fast development of world economy and cultural exchanges, interpreting studies from an interdisciplinary perspective becomes both a necessary trend and a hotspot for researchers. International business refers to all commercial transactions between two or more countries for the purpose of satisfying the need of individuals and organizations with mutual benefits. The Interpreter, bridging the gaps between different languages and cultures, are playing an important role in doing international businesses. In such a complicated information process like international business interpreting, the interpreter is responsible for the exact comprehension of the source utterance and faithfully transferring messages from target to source languages. One inappropriate choice of words or expressions may cause great losses to business interactions. So research of international business interpreting from the perspective of pragmatics is of great significance and may certainly offer some insights to interpreters. In 1967, when giving lectures at Harvard, Herbert Grice formulated his Conversational Implicature Theory in which The Cooperative Principle (CP) and its four maxims were originally put forward. As a key principle of Conversational Implicature Theory in pragmatics, the CP makes great contribution to guiding conversational communication. Undoubtedly, the international business interpreting, a special conversational process mediated by an interpreter, can also be guided with the CP. In the process of international business, “cooperation” is the common purpose of all participants, including the interpreter. This makes CP a general principle that all - 1 - conversational participants are expected to observe. Therefore, it will be of great value and necessity to conduct a systematic study on this matter. In order to get a clear picture of how the CP can be used to guide and evaluate interpretation and how an interpreter applies the CP to the international business interpreting, this present thesis provides the reader with rich resources of useful evidence and examples. To make the reading easier, the author organizes his thesis as follows: Besides the introduction, this dissertation is divided into five chapters. Some basic knowledge of interpreting, including its definition, features, development and criteria are presented in Chapter One. Chapter Two offers an overview of international business interpreting. Before expatiating on its guiding rules, the author gives an introduction to the international business interpreting, including its definition, features and categories. In Chapter Three, detailed discussion of CP and its four maxims are presented. A theoretical framework on how to use it as guiding rules for international business interpreting together with examples are provided. The application of the CP as an interpreting quality assessment criterion is illustrated as well. In the fourth chapter, interpreter?s role and qualifications in international business interpreting are discussed in detail. Then comes the conclusion, which sums up the whole thesis and presents findings and discussions. Additionally, the weaknesses of the thesis are also stated. - 2 - Chapter 1 Basic Knowledge about Interpreting 1.1 Definition of Interpreting Interpreting is a process of translation, converting one language to another so that the target language could convey the intended message in source language. Interpreting essentially is “a service activity with a communication function, performed in a professional setting with a professional aim I mind, and constrained by this setting” (Daniel Gile, 1995:21), and “an extempore oral reproduction, in one language, of what is said in another language” (Zhong Shukong, 1999:1). Compared to translation which is “used when the immediate result of the work is a written text”, interpreting has its outstanding characteristics as being “used when the immediate result is a speech reproduced orally in a language other than that spoken by the original speaker”. (Zhong Shukong, 1999:1). Interpreting takes place when one person translates orally what he or she hears into another language. Many people are confused about the difference between translating and interpreting. It cannot be denied that the study of interpreting always falls into the spectrum of translating studies in a broad sense. No scholars of interpreting can ignore the close relationship between interpreting and translating. However, the difference is quite obvious and simple: a translation is written down whereas interpreting is spoken. Interpreting activity is not mechanically converting the codes of the source language into those of the target language，but rather an active and creative activity that always focuses on exchanging information and meaning. Therefore, interpreting is not a mere linguistic activity which uses only lexical and syntactical meaning as its transformation units, but rather a communication event that takes into consideration lexical meaning, contextual meaning, associated meaning, register meaning, body language meaning, cultural meaning, etc.. So we can say that interpreting is not only a linguistic activity, but also a cultural activity, a psychological activity as well as a social activity. The person undertaking the task of interpreting is called “an interpreter”, whose - 3 - main function is to make possible communication between people who do not speak the same language, and neither speaks the other?s language well enough for the communication. So an interpreter must be bilingual with extensive knowledge and application ability of two languages to explain what each is saying in turn. The interpreter should have something of a pedagogical streak, their work being one of continuous explanation and explication. Selescovitich demands that the interpreter?s target-language utterance must be “geared to the recipient” (1978:130) and describes the interpreter?s job as “grasping the speaker?s intended sense, and expressing it in the verbal form best suited to understanding by the audience” (1978:130). Unlike a teacher, the interpreter does not express their own message; but like a teacher, their task is to make sure that the message is genuinely assimilated by the audience. 1.2 Overview of Interpreting 1.2.1 Origin of Interpreting Due to the lack of historical record, it is difficult to answer such question as “which year did interpreting really emerge and then develop?” However, we can infer that interpreting came into being and developed gradually with the exchanges between people of different languages. In the primitive society, people of various tribes found it necessary for them to communicate with each other for bartering, exchanging information, marriages and etc., thus the primitive interpreting occurred. The earliest interpreting activity appears in a very unprofessional, rough way with lots of gesticulations and there are no interpreting skills involved at all. When people who do not speak a common language come into contact, they have to communicate with sign languages or find someone who happens to speak both languages to help them. Sometimes, the actual interpreting language used to communicate with the other party is the mother tongue + gesticulations + a couple of semantically as well as phonetically similar sentences. No one has ever thought about how to use interpretation to its optimal effect. The situation is somewhat like what is now happening between different African tribes who do not have the same language. With - 4 - limited indirect descriptions of interpreting, it is very hard to present a convincing picture of the interpreting at that time. 1.2.2 Interpreting in the West Interpreting, with a long history, is an ancient social practice of human beings. There is evidence that interpreters have played a key role in Western history. For example, the Romans used the interpreter in their dealings with those they conquered; King of Spain decreed to identify the legal status of interpreting participants in his colony in the 16th century; “Language manservant” from France and Australia played the role of interpreters in Constantinople, taking part in diplomatic activities with Turkish Empire; however, it existed as a non-professional activity in people?s life. Interpreting as a profession in the west, or we say in the international arena is the product of the early 20th century. It was during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that conference interpreting got its start. With the application of simultaneous interpretation, the New Castle Criminal Trial held at the end of the Second World War is regarded as another important milestone in interpretation history. During the break between the First and Second World War, many schools were set up to train interpreters, and the teaching of interpreting was also promoted. J.Herbert, a famous interpretation researcher, published his book MANUEL DE L?INTERPRETE just at that time. In 1953, FIT―FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DES TRADUCTEURS, the first organization of translators was established in Paris. In the same time, international interpretation workers also set up their own organization AIIC—ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DES INTERPRETES DE CONFERENCES in Geneva Switzerland. The Association formally stipulated a series of norms about interpreters? qualifications, language proficiency and professional morals etc. It also put forward rules that interpreters worldwide must abide by. From then on, interpreting, a profession both ancient and young, was formalized and protected. After the Second World War, interpreting study has made some great new - 5 - progress―the study of interpreting theory was enhanced. Having developed for more than fifty years, research on interpreting in the West formed some mature theory systems. According to D.Gile (1994), the development of interpreting research in the West can be divided into four phases: Pre-research period (the 1950s to early 1960s), Experimental Psychology period (the 1960s to early 1970s), Practitioners? period (the 1970s to middle 1980s) and Renewal period (from the late 1980s). Researches on interpreting during the Pre-research period was not theoretical approach, for it mainly discussed personal experience of interpreters, observation and consideration on interpreting behavior, as well as working environment of interpreters. The topics included requirements of language and knowledge to interpreters, difficulties that interpreters encountered, factors affecting the output of target language, etc. With the entering to Experimental Psychology period, some psychologists and psycholinguists began to apply theories of cognitive psychology and psychological linguistics to explore the cognitive problems of interpreting. The influential information-processing paradigm at that time was the very example, which applied the theoretic view and mode of cognitive psychology to study the information transfer between source language and target language. It regarded the grammatical patterns of source language as the key factor that lead to the information processing difficulties. Because researches during this period were mainly done in the lab, the findings were questioned by professional interpreters and interpreting teachers. The Practitioners? period is extraordinarily remarkable. During this phase, interpreting practitioners made theoretical research on interpreting phenomenon, among which the most representative finding was the Interpretive Theory founded by Danica Seleskovitch and M. Lederer from ESIT. It was the first systematic theory of interpreting in the world and once became the dominant theory in this field. This theory has also been used to guide interpreting teaching and practice and the outcomes were quite satisfactory. Since 1960s, the theory has been gradually accepted universally in the world and its technical terms were also acknowledged by most interpreting researches. Furthermore, the theory has also included some principles or criteria of translation that have caught the attention of international interpreters and interpreting researchers - 6 - and is not , therefore, only limited within interpreting study. When it came to the Renewal period, an important interpreting conference held in Trieste University in Italy in 1986 as a turning point marked the interpreting research entering into a new era. With the development of research on relevant subjects, new findings appeared one after another, which made interpreting researchers realize that interdisciplinary research is the only way to explain the law of interpreting activities scientifically and found a system of theory. 1.2.3 Interpreting in China Historically, interpreting was less mentioned than translating in China. Besides the documents exchanged between minority nationalities where interpreting is mentioned, we can only indirectly find some records or rather descriptions of interpreting activities in the historical archives or novels of Ming Dynasty or more recent times. There was also a formal name for interpreters: Tong Shi. In the early 20th century, officials, businessmen, and some overseas-experienced people played the role of interpreters, most of whom were with poor English. During interpreting activity, they either overstated or understated or even misinterpreted what has been said. This rough way of interpreting was improved only after the foundation of People?s Republic of China. In the 1970s, upon the re-entry into the United Nations, China?s simultaneous interpreting has been developed greatly. At that time, Translation Communication(《翻译通讯》)(renamed Chinese Translators Journal in 1983) was issued and became the most important academic journal for translators and interpreters. Most of the important articles on interpreting study were published on it. During the 1980s, senior interpreters like Mr. Li Yue?ran and Mr. Qi Zonghua contributed their excellent summaries on interpreting practice. In the 1990s, there appeared some research on interpreting and many articles were published on translation journals in China. However, up to now, there is still not a set of scientific and systematic theory on interpreting. There have been many books and papers published in China on “translation” but few of them have something to do with - 7 - interpreting. The insufficiency in interpreting study has not been completely solved. With China?s opening to the outside world, people begin to pay more attention to interpreting practice but the field of interpreting theory is still in its initial stage. 1.3 Features of Interpreting Interpreting, realized with at least three people (two speakers of different languages and the interpreter) on the spot, is to render one language form into another through verbal speech. Although it shares quite similar requirements with translating for interpreter?/translator?s knowledge base, a mastery of at least two languages, flexible use of information transfer techniques, etc., the two operations , as a matter of fact, differ a great deal from one another. Compared with translating, interpreting has its own distinctive features as follows: a) Interpreting is extemporaneous. Specifically speaking, interpreting is an unpredictable, impromptu bilingual communication activity. Interpreters are usually called to work without any preparation. Even though they can predicate the theme that a speaker may talk about according to the topic, it is impossible for them to guess what exact words the speaker will use, let alone things unexpected that may crop up. What?s more, since the interpreter is an additional person between the communication parties, the two sides involved usually do not want him to occupy too much of their time. This requires that the interpreter have a high extemporaneous speaking ability as well as fluent expression competence. b) Interpreting is stressful. “Interpreters are faced with pressure from their working environment. Interpreting takes place sometimes in relaxed atmosphere like guide interpreting; but sometimes, in serious atmosphere like conference interpreting. The formal and serious atmosphere will bring additional pressure to interpreters especially to those less experienced ones. Being nervous, they will lose confidence and cannot exert themselves well. In principle, interpreters shall not deliberately change the atmosphere and shall instead exactly transmit it no matter which kind, heated, dull, serious or relaxed. Of course, it does not mean that interpreters will be - 8 - totally buried in the atmosphere and nothing is absolute.” (Mei Deming, 1998:4) c) Interpreting is independent. During the interpreting activities, interpreters have to be self-dependent, for they cannot get any help from anyone or anywhere when encountering with such difficulties as language obstacles, cultural hard knots, technical terms etc.. They are seldom allowed to consult reference books or ask others for help during the interpreting process or frequently ask the speaker to repeat what he/she has said. Interpreters must be responsible for what they have interpreted: they have to choose and use the right words in just a few seconds, and making sure that the original meaning of the speaker not to be misinterpreted. Once the interpreted version is uttered, it will be the final one. d) Interpreting is comprehensive. Interpreting requires interpreters? comprehensive abilities with relation to observing, listening, speaking, writing, reading, etc. “Observing” means that the interpreter should always catch the changes of the speaker?s facial expression, body gestures and even emotions. “Listening” means that the interpreter is supposed to understand different accents. “Speaking” means that the interpreter can fluently speak both his mother tongue and the foreign tongue. “Writing” is essential when the interpreter takes notes in both languages, and “reading” means that the interpreter is supposed to read and understand the messages in sight interpreting. A good interpreter shall be equipped with these abilities apart from his interpreting skills. e) Interpreting is miscellaneous. Interpreting involves a wide range of subjects which requires interpreters equipped with encyclopedic knowledge. In actual interpreting, interpreters face people from different walks of life with their own professional knowledge and language. It is impossible for a person to know everything professionally, but just as Herbert puts it that “a good interpreter should know something of everything, and everything of something”. The stored encyclopedic knowledge by interpreters will facilitate their work. - 9 - 1.4 Criteria of Interpreting Interpreting is different from translating in terms of their respective participants, ways of working, requirements from the customers, and so on, although they both belong to translation and share some things in common. Therefore interpreting shall have its own sets of criteria. In China, the traditional three principles initiated by Yan Fu, namely, faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, have been extensively discussed and widely accepted as the general standards for translation. However, translators are not working in vacuum. They will definitely put in their own cultural value, some of which are restrained fundamentally by the local culture of the target language. Therefore, sometimes the unfaithfulness of translating version is unavoidable. It?s even harder for interpreting activities to obey the above three principles due to the restriction of time. Since the interpreters? function is to transfer messages between the two parties of communication, the basic criterion of interpreting is “accuracy”. Additionally, interpreting is an on-site activity, so another criterion of it should be “fluency”. As absolute equivalence is impossible, accuracy actually means the closest equivalence and fluency the proper speed of rendering. As for “elegance”, it depends on the particular situation. 1.4.1 Accuracy (The closest equivalence) Accuracy is the base line of the criteria of interpreting. It requires interpreters well and truly transmit the message or meaning of the original speech to the receiver of target language. That is to say, interpreters should not only accurately introduce the theme and viewpoint of a speech, but also apply the style of original speech thoroughly to the version. No matter what way of translation is taken, namely, literal translation, free translation or interpretative translation，an interpreter should ensure that the effect on listeners of interpreted version is almost the same with that of original speech. For example: E.g.: There is a mixture of the tiger and the ape in the character of a Frenchman. - 10 - Literal version: 法国人的性格混合有老虎和猿的成分。 Free version: 法国人的性格既残暴又狡猾。 Interpretative version:虎恶狐狡，兼而有之，这就是法国人的性格。 Among the above three versions, the third one embodies the greatest similarity with the source sentence in terms of the content and meaning. Inaccurate interpretation may mislead the listeners, or even cause political contradiction or economic dispute. Therefore, a responsible interpreter should firstly ensure what he or she has interpreted is correct. The interpreter cannot put his/her own subjective guess into the version, either add or delete the content of the original speech at will. 1.4.2 Fluency (The proper speed of rendering) Fluency is another necessary criterion of interpreting, which reflects the characteristics of interpreting. The instantaneous nature of interpreting calls for a proper speed of rendering the message on the part of the interpreter. Failure to render the message in a proper speed may retard, impair and even break off the communication between the speaker and the listener. Therefore, the speed of interpreting is necessarily an important standard for evaluating an interpretation. “Proper” here means easy, steady and reasonably high. An easy speed of interpreting demonstrates the interpreter?s confidence and competence, which helps to remove anxiety, nervousness, embarrassment and restraint, and makes the interpretation a pleasant event to the speaker, the listener and the interpreter himself /herself as well. A steady speed retains the stable and constant flow of speech and keeps the communication proceeding smoothly without long, awkward pauses. A reasonably high speed helps to reduce the length of time for interpreting and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the communication between the speaker and the listener. Indeed, speed is of vital importance to all types of interpreting, especially to simultaneous interpreting. - 11 - Chapter 2 Overview of International Business Interpreting In China, since its reform and opening to the outside world, especially since it entered World Trade Organization in 2001, a large number of joint ventures and foreign-funded enterprises have come into being. In the mean time, more and more people from different countries are also walking out of their nations with big strides and extending their businesses to all over the world. Accordingly, international business activities are sure to take place endlessly, in which interpreters are regularly involved. As an indispensable communication means, English is used in nearly 90% of the business communication all over the world. The need for highly proficient and effective English-speaking interpreters has become urgent. In order to help communicators correctly understand each other and facilitate their communication, a good comprehension of basic knowledge of international business interpreting for the interpreters is quite necessary. 2.1 Definition of International Business Interpreting International business interpreting, as a subclass under the umbrella article of interpreting, emerged with the rapid expansion of international business-related activities, including talks, communication, negotiation as well as business and technology exchanges. It did not enjoy widespread attention or exposure until recent years, which witnesses a flourishing trend of economic globalization featuring a free flow of capital and manpower in a global context. The purpose of international business interpreting is to mediate the communication between businessmen speaking different languages. The complexity of business activities and barriers between languages make it really hard to fulfill sufficient information transmission. In such a case, international business interpreting plays a dominant role in narrowing down the gap between the participants. Nowadays, international business interpreting is a most popularized interpreting mode. - 12 - 2.2 Main Categories of International Business Interpreting As is clear to us all, interpretation can be classified into several categories from different angles, while the most common classification should be simultaneous interpretation and consecutive interpretation. International business interpreting is mostly related to consecutive interpretation, for most of the international business activities are concerned with mutual contact by intermittent communicating, during which the interpreter serves as a bridge. Due to varied situations and different purposes, international business interpreting can be classified into different categories, mainly including international business negotiation interpreting, international business meeting interpreting, international business escort interpreting and international business telephone interpreting. 2.2.1 International Business Negotiation Interpreting As a kind of economic negotiation, international business negotiation usually covers sales of goods, construction contract, technology transfer, and financing negotiation and rapidly develops along with the development of social productive forces, more frequent economic contacts and more complicated economic conflicts. It refers to the process in which different companies or enterprises from different countries come to discuss or bargain on various transaction terms for mutual benefits. International business negotiation interpreting, which belongs to liaison interpreting, defines the situation where two or more business people of different languages discuss business matters through an interpreter. It may take place in a variety of settings from the factory floor to an aircraft, from a plant site to a restaurant. This variety often requires adjustment of interpreting mode and switch of the interpreter from one task to another, from one role to another. 2.2.2 International Business Meeting Interpreting International business meeting interpreting is different from conference - 13 - interpreting in that it mainly consists of two types, whispering interpreting and consecutive interpreting of speeches up to only three-minute long, while conference interpreting also involves simultaneous interpreting in international conferences not only in the business arena but also in international organizations like the UN, the EU and the APEC. Besides, international business meeting interpretation normally involves only two languages for its small scale, while conference interpreting may involve well over five languages for its large number of attendants. For example, in the EU, the languages of all its member states (around 20 languages) are used in conferences. 2.2.3 International Business Escort Interpreting Escort interpreting, also known as ad hoc interpreting, liaison interpreting or community interpreting, defines situations in which the interpreter accompanies an individual or a group in one or more tours and activities and uses two languages to do two-way interpreting for them. In international business, both the two sides would usually make a trip to each other?s company or factory site for a visit, or just for sightseeing. Here calls for the interpreter?s services for escorting or tour guide work. The requirements for an escort interpreter are relatively lower than other forms of interpreting. 2.3 Features of International Business Interpreting International business interpreting is a new occupation which develops with that of the international trade and globalization. As a profession, it shares many similarities with other interpreting, such as interactiveness, faithfulness and so on. From the specific occasions business interpreters working in, such as international business meetings, talks, especially business negotiations, we can see that international business interpreting is really a tough job and possesses its own features. - 14 - 2.3.1 Interactiveness As we known, international business interpreting is communication in real sense. Compared with conferences, in which only one or a few key-note speakers taking the floor and the whole audience listening, business interpreting can be called “two-way communication” (Jandt, 2001:32) mediated by the interpreter as a substitution for channel. What?s more, with strong willingness to cooperate so as to achieve a win-win situation, either side is making every effort to completely and accurately catching the message from the other side and trying to “feedback” in a most appropriate way, which is usually highly interactive. This naturally requires that the interpreter pay extra attention to his/her interaction with the two sides, including both verbal and non-verbal response such as gestures, facial expression, eye contact and body language. 2.3.2 Fidelity Unlike large-scale conference or ceremonial occasion, in which the speakers, more often than not, deliver some ceremonial or introductory speeches which are lengthy and filled with pompous nothings, business activity is information-intensive and message-loaded. Therefore, international business interpreting must be extremely accurate and precise, especially when interpreting those specialized terms, proper names and figures, for misinterpretation will certainly cause trouble or a financial loss for both parties involved. Therefore, fidelity is of paramount importance in this sense. Fidelity can also be judged in the following three aspects from a linguistic point of view. 2.3.2.1 Fidelity on Literal Level Numbers, figures and amounts of capital or investment regarding commercial aspect as well as many quality or technical parameters, benchmarks and indicators regarding technological aspect are frequently mentioned in business activities which - 15 - require that they be directly and accurately interpreted. 2.3.2.2 Fidelity on Semantic Level In international business activities, both parties involved are usually very cautious with their dictions in the speech. Accordingly, the interpreter, in order to display the speaker?s intended meaning faithfully, must be careful with his/her choice of words, too. In addition, he/she also needs to find the appropriate tone in his/her interpretation and try to avoid any under-translation and over-translation. 2.3.2.3 Fidelity on Functional Level Business interpreting is not only a task-oriented communication with an aim to obtain the expected business profitable opportunity, but also a relation-oriented communication with the purpose of building a friendly business partnership which is also an integral part of business interaction (Jia Yuxin, 1997:476). This is also referred to as “phatic communion”, one of the seven fundamental functions of language. “This function refers to expressions that help define and maintain interpersonal relations, such as slangs, jokes, jargons, ritualistic exchanges, switches to social and regional dialects” (Hu Zhuanglin, 2001:15). In international business context, the negotiators make the seemingly meaningless expressions in view to maintaining good relationship and creating a comfortable and harmonious atmosphere to guarantee the smooth proceeding of communication. Therefore, the interpreter is supposed to have a large repertoire of such usages to make apt and stylistically correct interpreting. 2.3.3 Flexibility Generally speaking, the interpreter should not only fully and accurately convey all main points and key words of the speaker, but he/she also needs to be flexible in some cases. Every nation has its own distinctive culture, which may run against the grain of another. In this case, the interpreter should base appropriateness on the culture of the message receiver and flexibly make certain adjustments over the - 16 - original message in the reproduction in the target language, which makes the message better and more easily understood by the receiver. A most common example to illustrate this is a Chinese pet phrase which frequently pops up as toast in dinner banquet: 祝家庭幸福. “A happy family” is a propitious wish considered to convey goodwill and sincerity of the proposer yet rings no bell in the aesthetic psychology of westerners. Therefore, a simple and effective interpretation is “Wish all of you a most pleasant stay” to achieve the pragmatic equivalence. Besides, different people use different approaches or strategies in business communication. For example, the Chinese people prefer indirect but witty approaches when associate with foreigners. Among foreigners, French people favours hard approach; Japanese people appear shifty; American people are loose outside and tight inside. The characteristics of people from different countries can be most obviously shown on international business table. This requires the interpreter a good capacity of adjusting the atmosphere to ensure the business go on wheels. Additionally, either side in international business may stick to their own views in order to seek maximum benefit, in which case deadlock may occur if the interpreter is not flexible in interpreting. To be specific, the interpreter should act as a “filter” when rude or vulgar words appear and play a mediating role to help the two sides reach understanding. 2.3.4 Professionalism International business interpreting is a highly skilled profession, which usually targets at a particular professional field of business involving a great deal of professional knowledge and terminology. A qualified international business interpreter should not only be familiar with interpreting techniques regarding consecutive interpreting, involving memorizing, simultaneous note-taking, summarizing, paraphrasing, sight translation, etc., but also be specialized in international business field, such as import-export, cargo insurance and international commercial transaction and municipal ordinance. Without the subject-specific knowledge, the interpreter will find it difficult to interpret technical words. The following example may tell more: - 17 - (American importer is discussing the floating policy with Chinese exporter in Yantai, Shandong Province.) Importer: Floating policy is of great importance for export trade. In fact, it is a convenient method of insuring goods where a number of similar export transactions are intended, e.g. where the insured has to supply an overseas importer under an exclusive sales agreement or maintains sales representatives or subsidiary companies abroad. Interpreter: 统保单对出口贸易至关重要。 它实际上是货物保险中的一种 便利的办法， 特别适合于分不同的时间出口的一批类似货物，如， 当被保险方根据独家代理 协议 离婚协议模板下载合伙人协议 下载渠道分销协议免费下载敬业协议下载授课协议下载 书向国外的进口方供货，或在国外 委任了销售代表，设立分支机构时用。 (Qin Hong, 2003:10) In the above example, the words and phrases underlined are seemed to be technical terms. Without the subject-specific knowledge, the interpreter will find it difficult to provide a qualified interpretation. 2.4 Criterion of International Business Interpreting From the above review in Chapter One, we can see that the studies of the criteria for interpreting tend to be more specific through different methods and from various perspectives. Some branches of interpreting have aroused the attention of the scholars, such as court interpreting, TV or media interpreting, etc. But the international business interpreting hasn?t been studied as an independent branch of interpreting. Though no criteria were created specifically for the international business interpreting assessment, from what has been mentioned and illustrated, we can see that it possesses distinguished features from other interpreting types in terms of the expectation of the listeners, the role of the interpreters, etc, which makes it possible to create a set of principles to follow in international business interpreting. - 18 - 2.4.1 Accuracy of Information Many interpreters are in pursuit of being natural in the target language in international business interpreting. However, the option for naturalness cannot neglect the goal of accuracy. Accuracy of information not only implies that the transferred information should be in strict conformity with the intended meaning, but also refers to the exactness of certain business information such as time, figures, liability, consequence and commercial terms. Inaccuracy occurs when words, phrases and sentences are understood superficially in their literal meanings. For example, interpreters cannot literally interpret “Dry goods” into “干货”， since its real meaning is “纺织品”. 2.4.2 Completeness of Information Completeness refers to a whole range of messages, which include all necessary facts that the sender wants the receiver to know. Completeness is necessary for several reasons. First, complete messages are more likely to bring the desired results. Second, they can do a better job of building goodwill and thus pave the way for future transactions. Third, complete message can prevent disputes and costly lawsuits. To reach the goal of information equivalence, it is necessary to embrace all the original information desired by the speaker in the target language. By “all”, we mean both verbal and non-verbal, extra and inter, literal and cultural, given and new. This may cause a lot of difficulty to the interpreters, for it is demanding and hardly possible to attend to each and every aspect. But the point is that once an action becomes a habit, it is no longer forced but rather natural. Ignorance of or negligence towards any slight information may bring about embarrassment, difficulty, dispute or even breakdown of the whole business activity. 2.4.3 Effectiveness of Information Effectiveness means using the fewest possible words without sacrificing - 19 - completeness and accuracy. Some people may wrongly assume that the more they talk, the easier it is for listeners to understand. In fact, the most important thing is to speak to the point instead of speaking verbosely. The principle an interpreter should adhere to is “the clearer, the better” rather than “the more, the better”. In modern international business communication, this may be reflective of people?s willingness of improving working efficiency and this has obtained sufficient evidence from the universal preference for the use of modern concise business English. Zhuang Xueyi (1986:66) offers some suggestions which are helpful in achieving effectiveness. 1. Omit trite expressions. 2. Avoid unnecessary repetition and wordy statement. 3. Include only relevant facts with courtesy. 4. Organize effectively. Besides, effectiveness also means keeping the most useful information and dropping the vicious language that may be a hindrance to the progress of business activity. From this viewpoint, we can say that the interpreter sometimes acts as a mediator between two sides. - 20 - Chapter Three Business Interpreting from the Perspective of Pragmatics 3.1 Pragmatics and Business Interpreting 3.1.1 Brief Introduction to Pragmatics Pragmatics, being the youngest branch of linguistic study, is a brand-new field of linguistics that came into being in the 1970s. Looking back over the past decades, it has gone through three stages in development: arising stage in 1970s, forming stage in 1980s, maturing stage in 1990s. In 1938, Charles Morris, a philosopher who defined semiotics as the use of signs governed by syntactic, semantic and pragmatic rules, was the first person linked pragmatics with linguistics. Until 1959, when Rudolf Carnap explained that pragmatics refers to the relationships between signs and their users, the discipline has been developed with enthusiasm by philosophers and linguists alike. It entered an especially meaningful phase in 1962 when J.L.Austin?s contribution to the subject was published under the title How to Do Things with Words, which showed that when using language, people do not just talk or write to one another but rather they perform actions, they do things, usually in contexts that combine linguistic and nonlinguistic elements, part of the context in which they communicate consisting of the knowledge, beliefs and assumptions of all concerned. Following Austin?s work, pragmatics has focused on the conditions which permit speakers and writers to achieve what they want to achieve by bringing about certain modifications in their behavior, knowledge, attitudes or beliefs of others. It studies what language-users mean, as distinct from what their language means, the rules and principles governing their use of language, over and above the rules of language itself, grammar or vocabulary, and what makes some uses of language more appropriate than others in certain situations. However, apart from the basic research on pragmatics which stresses, not so much what language is or how it is structured, as the links between its - 21 - uses and users, developing general approaches to the subject which is seen as “the study of language usage” (Levinson, 1983:5), in practice certain specific areas of interest have become intimately associated with the discipline over the past decades. This is clear from general books on the subject (Levinson, 1983; Leech, 1983; Mey, 1993; Grandy, P. 1995; Yule, G. 1996), specialist monographs (Sperber & Wilson, 1986; Brown & Levinson, 1987) and academic papers that appear in journals (such as Pragmatics or the Journal of Pragmatics). In the book entitled Pragmatics, Yule (2004:3) remarks, “Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). It has, consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves.” According to Yule, there are four areas that pragmatics is concerned with: 1. Pragmatics is the study of speaker?s meaning. 2. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning. 3. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. 4. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance. 3.1.2 Pragmatic Perspective of Business Interpreting Firstly, interpreting itself is primarily a pragmatic notion. From the relevance-theory point of view, international business interpreting, as a specific branch of interpreting, falls naturally under the interpretive use of language: the interpreter is intended to restate in one language what someone else from either side of business communication said in another language. It follows that, as an instance of interpretive use, interpreting will also be constrained by the notion of faithfulness introduced above. In other words, the interpreter will design his interpreting in such a way that it resembles the original closely enough in relevant respects. Another primarily pragmatic aspect of international business interpreting has to do with context. We often encounter that the same utterance can have opposite - 22 - interpreting, depending on the context in which it is processed. The reason for this strong context-dependence lies in the inferential nature of human communication. Against this background, it is easy to understand why a change of context can change the whole meaning of an utterance. When dealing with a problem caused by contextual differences, the interpreter should ask himself whether he could or even should address this problem by amending the interpreted version. This is especially true when the differences in context are extensive. More importantly, without a clear understanding of the nature of communication problems in interpreting, the interpreter may not be aware that significant mismatches in contextual information can not only lead to wrong meaning here and there, but jeopardize the communicability of substantial parts of the original or even of the original as a whole. This problem is not peculiar to international business interpreting, but occurs in all secondary communication situations. The interpreter needs to be aware of it in order to judge the degree of its effects correctly and to look for appropriate solutions. It is hoped that a better understanding of these pragmatic problems will enable interpreters to increase the likelihood of success in their work. 3.2 The Cooperative Principle (CP) Cooperation, as Wittgenstein?s (1958) argument against a private language forcefully shows and as most philosophers of language since have readily admitted, is an inherent basis and feature of all kinds of linguistic communication. The most famous account of what linguistic cooperation amounts to which has emerged from the philosophy of language is Grice?s (1975) account of some of the effects of communicative activity which fall beyond meaning proper. H. P. Grice, the American philosopher and linguist, put forward his famous William James Lectures at Harvard in 1967. In these lectures, he argued that natural languages are just as good as special logic systems for making precise statements; the assumption that natural language expressions diverge from the logical devices is itself faulty and that the faulty “arises from an inadequate attention to the nature and importance of the conditions governing - 23 - conversation” ( Grice, 1975:43). He proposed the Cooperative Principle and its maxims by means of which conversational implicatures can be generated in context to explain how the natural language utterances do not convey the same meanings that their corresponding logical propositions would. Part of these lectures came out in 1975 as a book entitled “Logic and Conversation”, while the second part delivered in 1978 as another book entitled “Further Notes on Logic and Conversation”. 3.2.1 The Framework of Cooperative Principle 3.2.1.1 The Notion of Cooperative Principle Some linguists indicate that a certain utterance in actual situations may have some extra meaning that is not inherent in the words used. As Grice points out, the potential implicature in such utterance is vastly variable with circumstances. He tries to systematize this variability by considering “a certain subclass of nonconventional implicatures” (1975:45), namely conversational implicature, which does not concern what speaker said, but what speaker?s utterance implied. These are essentially connected with certain general features of discourse. If our talk exchanges are to be rational, they must consist of utterances which are in some way connected to each other. What guarantees this connection is called the Cooperative Principle: “Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (1975:45). The Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP, is followed reasonably not compulsory. As Grice claims, if someone cares about the goals or directions set by the participant in a connection or general transaction, he will be expected to have an interest in the matter and participate in further actions. The common interest in a communication is very important. If one side in a conversation lacks interest, while the communication continues, the other side will be misled. - 24 - 3.2.1.2 The Maxims of Cooperative Principle According to Grice, under this principle fall four categories of maxim. The connection with human rationality is highlighted in the selection of categories deduced by Kant as part of what he considered an analysis of just that phenomenon. Grice borrows from the German philosopher four categories, namely, quantity, quality, relation, and manner to make the CP somewhat more explicit. Each category is known as a maxim with several sub maxims. The maxims and principles are the following (Grice, 1975:45-6): (1) Maxim of Quantity (concerning the amount of information to be conveyed): a. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. Grice has some doubts as to the necessity of the second maxim. First, to be over-informative may not be a violation of the CP but merely a waste of time. Second, there is a later maxim concerning relevance, which ensures that no excess of information will be given to or cause any confusion. (2) Maxim of Quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true (the super-maxim). More specifically: a. Do not say what you believe to be false. b. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. Grice himself considers that the observance of the Quality maxims is a matter of greater urgency than that of others. “A man who has expressed himself with undue prolixity would, in general, be open to milder comment than would a man who has said something he believes to be false” (He Zhaoxiong, 2003:372). He believes that other maxims come into operation only on the assumption that this maxim of Quality is satisfied. (3) Maxim of Relation: Be relevant This single maxim is terse. However, its formulation conceals a number of - 25 - problems, including questions about what different kinds and focuses of relevance there may be, how they shift in the course of a talk exchange, how to allow for the fact that subjects of conversation are legitimately changed, and so on. For further illustration of the importance of Relation in conversation, Grice explains with examples, “I expect partner?s contribution to be appropriate to immediate needs at each stage of the transaction; if I am mixing ingredients for a cake, I do not expect to be handed a good book, or even an oven cloth” (He Zhaoxiong, 2003:373). (4) Maxim of manner (concerning not so much what is said as how it is said): Be perspicuous. More specifically: a. Avoid obscurity of expression. b. Avoid ambiguity. c. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolxity). d. Be orderly. The maxim of Manner is about the interlocutors? ways of expression which can be well elaborated by Grice?s statement, “I expected a partner to make it clear what contribution he is making, and to execute his performance with reasonable dispatch” (He Zhaoxiong, 2003:373). Grice himself does believe that there are definitely some other maxims beyond the four listed above. However, when we speak we generally have something like the CP and its maxims in our mind to guide us for effective communication. These maxims specify what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, cooperative way: “they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information” (Levinson, 1983:101-2). Grice?s concept of the CP and its four associated maxims is considered a major contribution to the pragmatic study. It?s the existence of the CP and the conversational maxims that make conversational implicatures possible. Additionally, the CP is a successful example showing how human communication is governed by general principles. Grice?s idea of the CP and its associated maxims have triggered heated discussions, provoked a fold of research and thus becomes the source of many widely - 26 - known pragmatic principles. For example, on the basis of Grice?s theory, Sperber and Wilson (1981) developed their Principle of Relevance; Leech (1983) put forward his Principle of Politeness; and Levinson (1983) formulated his QIM Principle, to name just a few. They all do some complement to the CP in certain degree and provide different theoretical instrument for reading the complex speech implicatures. 3.2.2 Violation of the Maxims As Grice pointed out, the four associated maxims of CP are not always observed in talk exchanges. During the interpreting process, on some occasions the interpreters should obey the maxims, but on the other occasions the interpreters are supposed to violate the maxims to get the interpreting effect according to different situations. One may fail to fulfill a maxim in four ways, which goes as follows. 1. He may quietly and unostentatiously violate a maxim, if so, in some cases he will be liable to mislead. 2. He may opt out from the operation both of the maxim and the CP; he may say, indicate, or allow it to become plain that he is unwilling to cooperate in the way the maxim requires (saying, for example, I cannot say more; I don?t want to talk about it). 3. He may be faced by a clash, the conflict of maxims. For example, one cannot be as informative as is required (refers to the maxim of Quantity) if he don?t have enough evidence (refers to the maxim of Quality). 4. He may blatantly flout a maxim. On the assumption that the speaker is able to fulfill the maxim without violating another maxim, is not opting out, and is not trying to mislead, a minor problem will come to the hearer: how can his saying what he did say be reconciled with the supposition that he is observing the overall CP? This situation is one that characteristically gives rise to a conversational implicature. Among the above ways of violation, the fourth interested Grice most. In the real conversation practice, when speakers convey some messages, they often do not - 27 - deliver in a direct way, but to beat around the bush, wishing to prompt the hearer to look for a meaning which is different from, or in addition to the expressed meaning. For example, if a friend of yours comes to your house and was asked where he was from, he replies “I am from my home without lunch.” His reply contains more information than is required and then you realize that he wants you to treat him lunch. Another example is that you ask your friend if he minds to go shopping with you and he says “I have a terrible headache today.” His utterance is obviously irrelevant to the question, which let you know that he doesn?t want to go shopping with you. Though some maxim is violated at the level of what is said to convey some special meaning, the hearer is entitled to assume that the overall CP is still observed at the level of what is implicated. The communication between the speaker and the listener still can be achieved, for there remains an unwritten cooperative relationship between them. Here gives detailed explanation with a few more examples: Violating the Maxim of Quantity The violation of the Quantity maxim occurs by providing less or more information than is required. For example: A: How did you do your history examination? B: Oh, not at all well. They asked me things that happened before I was born. Actually, it is enough for B to say “Oh, not at all well”. But he adds one redundant sentence to reveal the conversational implicature that he got the bad marks due to the questions? referring to the events happened before he was born. Mother: Who has broken the mirror? Son: It’s not me. In the above conversation, facing with the mother?s question “who has broken the mirror”, the son may really don?t know, or he just don?t want to expose who has broken it. So he just said that he didn?t break the mirror. Obviously, this answer doesn?t give enough information to the mother?s question. Violating the Maxim of Quality The violation of the maxim of Quality is done when the speaker says something blatantly untrue. For example: - 28 - A: It’s rather cold today, isn’t it? B: But the weatherman said it would be warm. He must take his readings in a bathroom. In this example, A and B are talking about weather. Undoubtedly, they both know the weather then well. B uses irony to deride that the weather forecast is inaccurate. Besides irony, other rhetorical devices in conversation, such as metaphor, exaggeration, can be regarded as the violation of maxim of Quality, either. Another way of violating the Quality maxim is to say something lacking of adequate evidence. For example: A: Beirut is in Peru, isn’t it? B: And Rome is in Romania, I suppose. Here B intentionally violates the maxim of Quality to imply that A?s question is ridiculous. Violating the Maxim of Relation In the violation of the Relation maxim, the speaker may not say something that is explicitly related to the topic of the conversation and invites the hearer to seek for an interpretation of the possible relevance, as follows: A: His wife is like an awful bore, don’t you think? B: The roses are lovely, aren’t they? B has blatantly refused to make what he says relevant to A?s preceding remark. He thereby implicates that A?s remark should not be discussed. The conversational implicature in his words should be: “let?s not talk about it here and now.” Son: Mom, can I go to play marble now? Mother: How is your homework getting along? In the above example, the mother gives no answer to the son?s question, but asks him about his homework, which violates the maxim of Relation to remind him that he can go play only after he finishes the homework. Violating the Maxim of Manner The speaker would violate the maxim of Manner by saying something in an obscure manner to the listener, which is not understood by the other present persons, - 29 - so that the conversational implicature which cannot be conveyed to the third person is inferred. For instance: Husband: Let’s get the kids something to eat. Wife: Ok, but I veto C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E. The wife says chocolate letter by letter to avoid being understood by the kids who are fond of it, while her husband can get the implicature for sure. The speaker would also violate the maxim of Manner by intentionally saying some ambiguous sentences arranged deliberately and elaborately for certain intention to produce conversational implicature which can only be inferred by the listener who knows the speaker?s actual condition. For example, a man went to a restaurant where he used to go. It was crowded there, and he saw a familiar waiter whom he wanted to greet with some yearning words: Guest: Hello, you know, I have been here for ten years. Waiter: Please stop your complaining, I have worked as fast as I could. Here the sentence “I have been here for ten years” has two implicature: one is “we are old friends”, and the other is “your working speed is too slow, I can?t wait.” The waiter naturally interprets the sentence as the second implicature under such a tense working condition, which leads to an unsuccessful communication. From what have been enumerated and analyzed above, we come to the conclusion that the existence of the CP and its maxims makes conversational implicature possible, which allows a speaker to convey meaning beyond what is literally expressed. Conversational implicature can produce some rhetorical effects and make people?s daily speech more vivid and lively. The listener can understand a particular conversational implicature presented based on the following data: (1) the conventional meaning of the words used, together with the identity of any references that involved (2) the CP and its maxims (3) the context, linguistic or otherwise, of the utterance (4) other items of background knowledge (5) the fact that all relevant items falling under the previous headings are available to both participants and both participants know or assume this to be the case (He Zhaoxiong, 2003: 377). What?s more, although people often violate one or more maxims of the CP, they - 30 - have the same aim—communication. They walk along this thread and provide information to others. They violate the CP as a result of different reasons, for example, lacking of common background knowledge, failing to abide by the Politeness Principle, weak in linguistic competence, having contextual pressure, etc. Therefore, they failed to cooperate on the surface, despite their true intention of cooperating and carrying on their communication. In general, conversation is a cooperative activity in the Gricean sense. It makes use of the CP with speakers and listeners guided by considerations of quantity, quality, relation and manner. His work plays an important role in systematically examining how hearers work to derive the ultimate message from the words that are actually uttered. With various scholars applying, extending, or attempting to refute his ideas, Grice?s theory of CP and its maxims has become the hub of pragmatics research. 3.3 The Application of the CP in International Business Interpreting It?s widely accepted that Grice?s “cooperation principle” is the fundamental rule guiding conversational communication. However, can the CP also be applied to interpreting activities? We all know that interpreting is communication as well. It is a verbal communication activity that orally transforms a message expressed in one language into another, and a basic communication tool on which our cross-cultural activities depend. The only special feature of it is that this communication activity is not done directly between the speaker and the listener, but done through the help of the interpreter. Therefore, it is beyond question that the CP can be adopted to guide any interpreting activities. Interpreter, the only bilingual person in this special conversation, carries out its application alone. To be more concrete, in an interpretation event, the application of the maxim of Quantity requires that the interpreter not add or lessen information in his/her interpretation; the application of the maxim of Quality requires that the interpreter precisely interpret what speakers say, especially those specialized terms, figures, culturally loaded words, etc.; the application of the maxim of Relation requires that the interpreter make his/her - 31 - interpretation relevant, that is to say, coherent in the context; and the application of the maxim of Manner requires that the interpreter should make his/her interpretation orderly, brief, explicit. Business activity, the most important social activity, is a special kind of interpersonal activities of human beings. With the development of global economic integration, businesses? going out of the country and breaking the barriers of national boundary, language and culture, become more and more complicated. Therefore, international business interpreting is in hot demand now. In an international business event, two parties concerned come to start a contest of wisdom, strength, knowledge and technique. It is a war without smoke. However, the result of it may have a direct impact on the development or even fate of the company. In essence, the process of doing business is actually a process of negotiating. With the participation of the interpreter, the interpreter-mediated international business activities thus constitute a special conversational process. In the process of international business, the two parties concerned represent different benefits and positions. They may sometimes deliberately violate certain maxims in the need of communication or interests, which makes conversational implicature occur. However, the two sides, sharing the same goal of establishing relationships with each other, achieving a measure of cooperation, keeping channels open for further relationships, will always try to work out the implicated meaning hidden under the literal meaning so as to make communication progress in the direction that is in both sides? interests. Since all these should only be done through the interpreter, it is extremely essential for the interpreter to make full use of the CP and its maxims and correctly or flexibly convey conversational implicature in order to ensure smooth communication and thus help both parties establish certain cooperative relationship between them, enhance understanding and finally arrive at a deal. If the interpreter only literally interprets a message from one language into another without taking care of certain conversational implicature, the real communication between the two parties will suffer. For better understanding of how the interpreter employs the CP and its four maxims in international business interpreting, some examples will be given and illustrated in the following. - 32 - 3.3.1 The Maxim of Quantity in International Business Interpreting Case 1 Two sides from America and China are talking about a question contract-related, with A representing the American side and B the Chinese side. A: One thing must be clear: any dispute of whatever nature arising out of or in any way relating to the contract or to its construction or fulfillment may be referred to arbitration? (Interpreter: 有一个问题需要明确:凡有关本合同的制定或执行本合同所发 生的任何争议都可付诸仲裁解决吗?) B: 当然，所有争议都可通过仲裁解决。 (Interpreter: Yes, of course, any dispute of whatever nature, arising out of or in any way relating to the contract or to its construction or fulfillment may be referred to arbitration.) A: What do you mean by that? I don't think we could reach any agreements... (Very angry) (Qin Hong, 2003: 36-37) In this case, improper interpreting almost makes communication to a deadlock. The interpreter wrongly uses a full sentence (the one underlined) instead of the proper reply “Yes, you are right”. It violates the maxim of Quantity ― “Do not make your contribution more informative than is required” with generating a wrong conversational implicature that B is impatient or annoying. Additionally, “of course” in English does not have the equal meaning as “sure” when expressing “当然” in Chinese. Its implicature means “Isn?t it obvious? How can you be so silly to ask such question?”. Case 2 Two companies are talking about product quality, A representing the foreign side, while B the Chinese side. A: What about your product quality? (Interpreter: 请问贵公司的产品质量如何,) B: 关于我们的产品质量，您可以上网查询，我们产品的质量是有口皆碑的。 - 33 - (Interpreter: As for our product quality, please refer to the internet. The quality of our product is praised by all.) Obviously, in this case, it is quite enough for B to answer “关于我们的产品质 量， 您可以上网查询”. However, B purposely provides more information by adding “我们产品的质量是有口皆碑的”. It conspicuously violates the maxim of Quantity which requires the interpreter not to make his contribution more informative. Therefore, one can infer from this redundant sentence that the product quality of company B?s is quite good, which can be proved by quite a lot cooperative enterprises and customers. It is a usual practice in international business for one side (B) to intentionally provide more information so as to let the other side (A) have more knowledge about him, which can enhance trust as well as promoting chances for cooperation. As for the interpreter, he/she certainly recognizes the redundant information, and knows that it is a violation of maxim of quantity. However, it is not hard for him/her to work out the real intention of B?s conversational implicature. In this way, the interpreter, by keeping the redundant information in his/her rendition, follows the CP and helps the two sides establish cooperative relationship. 3.3.2 The Maxim of Quality in International Business Interpreting Case 1 Two enterprises are discussing about terms of payment, A representing the foreign buyer and B the Chinese seller. A: I?m glad we are likely to conclude the first transaction with you soon. We?ve settled all the questions about price, insurance, packing and shipment. Now what about your terms of payment? (Interpreter: 即将与贵方达成一笔交易，我很高兴。我们已经谈妥了价格， 保险，包装盒运输等问题。付款条件怎么样呢,) B:从我们的合同样本中，你可以知道，我们要求货款以保兑的、不可撤销 的、允许分装盒转船、见票即付的信用证支付。 (Interpreter:As you?ve seen from our specimen contract, we require payment - 34 - by confirmed, irrevocable, L/C allowing partial shipment and transshipment, available by draft at sight.)( Zhu Peifen, 1995:114-115) In this case, some specialized terms are mentioned, such as “保兑的”, “不可撤 销的”, “允许分装和转船、见票即付的”, “信用证”. Obviously, the interpreter has a good knowledge of business English and observes the CP and its maxim of Quality. The maxim of Quality requires the interpreter make his\her contribution one that is true by accurately and faithfully interpreting these terms. As having been said above, accuracy is the soul of interpreting. To be more specific, accuracy in interpreting involves accurate topic, accurate argumentation, accurate terminology, accurate grammar, accurate figure, accurate spirit, accurate style and accurate ways of talking. This is exactly what the maxim of Quality demands from the interpreter. Otherwise, the faithfulness of interpreting will be doubted. Case 2 Delegates from foreign company are paying a visit on Chinese enterprise, with A stands for the foreign side and B the Chinese side. A: Would you please give a brief introduction of your company? (Interpreter: 请您介绍一下贵公司的基本情况好吗,) B:我们公司成立于1986年，总部在上海浦东，固定资产总额达32亿元人 民币;我们建立了一支拥有40多艘船舶的船队，共180万载重吨，开辟远洋近 海航线40多条。此外，我们公司的160个车队遍及全国，有7000辆货运卡车和 集装箱拖车。从1986年到2006年底，我们承办的各种贸易和非贸易货运总量达 574亿吨. (Interpreter:Our company was founded in 1986, with its headquarter in Pudong, Shanghai and a total fixed assets of RMB 32 billion. We owns a fleet of 40 ships with a total of 1.8 million tons, over 40 ocean and offshore shipping lines, and 160 fleets of vans of 7000 trucks and container trawlers traveling nationwide. Between 1986 and the end of 2006, the corporation handled a total cargo freight of 57.4 billion tons.) Apart from a good knowledge of specialized knowledge, a precise interpreting of figure is also highly needed in international business. A small figure, particularly - 35 - money-related figure is quite critical for a business transaction, and a wrong interpreting of a single figure may result in big loss. However, figure interpreting constitutes a highly difficult problem for interpreters because Chinese and English have different ways of expressing numbers. In China, we have a series of numerical characters to express particular figures which are the multiples of “十”. But in English, there are no equivalents of “万” and “亿”, and relevant figures have to be converted on the basis of “thousand”, “million” and “billion”. In this dialogue, although quite a lot figures are mentioned, the interpreter correctly converts them from Chinese into English in accordance with the maxim of Quality, which demonstrates not only his excellent interpreting skill but also his observance of the CP. 3.3.3 The Maxim of Relevance in International Business Interpreting Case 1 Two parties are bargaining bout payment terms. A represents a foreign buyer, while B the Chinese seller. A: What ways of payment do you usually accept? (Interpreter: 你们通常接受什么样的付款方式,) B:我们只接受保兑的、不可接受的信用证。 (Interpreter: Well, we only accept a confirmed, irrevocable letter of credit.) A: I see. Could you kindly make easier payment terms and accept D/A or D/P? (Interpreter: 我明白了。您能不能惠予我们较简单的付款方式，接受承兑交 单货付款交单呢,) B:恐怕不行，要求信用证付款是我们的常规，我必须照办。 (Interpreter: I?m afraid not, for it is our customary practice to ask for a letter of credit, I must act on this.) A: Then I?ll be extremely sorry to say that there?s hardly any need for further discussion. (Interpreter: Well, how about having a rest now since we have talked for so long?) - 36 - In this case, A is trying to bargain with B about the terms of payment B demands, as opening a letter of credit with a bank will not only raise the cost of imports but also require a margin. However, B insists on payment by L/C, which quite annoys A. The negotiation seems to come to a deadlock. And a straightforward interpreting of A?s words this time may kill the deal. In order to relax the tense atmosphere, the interpreter suggests a rest instead of interpreting what A complains. Although the two sides are unhappy with each other for the moment, they still wish to cooperate and reach a deal at last. So they would probably both agree to a rest. Here, the interpreter seemingly violates the maxim of relevance of the CP, but he/she actually observes the CP by playing a mediating role and providing opportunities for the communication to move on and succeed. 3.3.4 The Maxim of Manner in International Business Interpreting Case 1 The two sides are bargaining about the price of technology transfer, A representing the foreign seller and B the Chinese buyer. A: As to the price of technology, the minimum generally accepted is 5percent of the net sales price of all licensed items made and sold during the term of the agreement, in addition to an initial down payment of USD100,000. (Interpreter: 关于技术转让费问题，我们除了要10万美元的入门费以外， 凡在协议有效期内生产和出售的许可商品，我们至少还要按净销售价的5%提 成。) B:恐怕这笔提成率和入门费的数目都太高了，肯定会毁了这公司的。我确 信您能够体会开业的最初阶段，公司会经历一段艰难，艰难的时期―产量低，质 量可能也不稳定，再加上开销又大，您想怎么还能每年再承担这么巨大的额外负 担， 你说如何承担,肯定会毁了这公司的。 (Interpreter: I?m afraid both the royalty rate and the initial down payment amount are too high. I?m sure you can understand that the company will have a tough time in the initial stages of operation―low yield, possibly unstable quality, and huge - 37 - expenses. How could the venture bear such a heavy additional load each year? That would certainly break the back of the company.) (Zhu Peifen, 1995:125) In this conversation, B is quite surprised at and dissatisfied with A?s quotation, which makes his speech somewhat prolix and disorderly. For example, three repetitions can be easily found, including “肯定会毁了这公司”, “艰难” and “如何承 担”, which are used to show A?s dissatisfaction and worry. However, a faithful interpreting of all these repetitions surely leads to disorder and illogical, which may otherwise fail to convey B?s feeling. According to the Manner maxim of CP, the interpreter should be a filter in the process of interpreting. Specifically, when the words of speaker fail to express in logic and good order for some reason, the interpreter may not interpret as the speaker said, but rather make them logical and orderly so as to produce fluent and flowing interpreting. Fully aware of the situation, the interpreter flexibly adjusts the order of the expressions by omitting repetitions and prolixity, which well demonstrates his/her observance of the Manner maxim of the CP. 3.4 Interpreting Quality Assessment Criteria in terms of CP From the above examples, we already know that the interpreter can actively employ the CP to help establish cooperative relationship between two parties involved in an international business activity. However, it is more worth mentioning that the CP can be an effective criterion to evaluate the quality of the interpreting according to the CP and its four maxims. Grice?s CP principle provides a very efficient standard in judging the quality of interpreting although there is no consensus on quality criteria of interpreting. As is known to us, accuracy is the soul of interpreting. “The transfer of message must be complete―the interpreter cannot take upon himself to summarize what the client says nor to omit any element contained in the message, no matter how relevant or otherwise the interpreter feels that element to be the situation. Accuracy also means that the impact of that message must be contained” (Gentile, 1996). The interpreter - 38 - listen, analyze and spontaneously state what has been said, conveying the semantic content of the message as well as reflecting the style of the original. To be more specific, the accuracy in interpreting concerns that of discourse, vocabulary especially terminology, numbers, figures, sentences, style, and tone etc. In other words, the interpreting should be loyal to the original message that is, the connotation and emotional tone of source utterance rather than the referential and grammatical meanings, which is also the requirement of the maxim of Quality in the CP. Accuracy also demands the interpreter not to add extra information to the original utterance which shares similarity with the maxim of Quantity in the CP. “All of groups (including humanity, science and technology, and diplomatic group) gave preference to content over form as the main functions of interpreting, and cited detailed content and terminological precision as their top two priorities” (Andrzej Kopczynske, 1994). Therefore, the maxim of Quality and Quantity both could be regarded as criterion to assess the quality of interpreting. During the delivery of message, the interpreter should know what they want to say and say it fluently with most types of clauses which are also executed in a single fluent speech train under one smooth intonation contour. “Smoothness” is another criterion to assess the quality of interpreting. The interpreter restructures source utterance not only at the speed of the spoken word he has carefully chosen but also in accordance with the speaker?s register of language, whether purposely high or vernacular. The maxim of Relation to offer logical connection and the maxim of Manners to avoid obscurity, in consistent with smoothness, could be advocated by the interpreter as criteria. The maxim of manners is also in harmony with the criteria of linguistic acceptability in interpreting, that is, the interpreter is supposed to handle the diction or choice of words very carefully to grasp the implied meaning of speech, then transmit the message that will be immediately understood by the receiver. To put more accurately, the speakers uses or adds words that are familiar to the receiver. Otherwise, the versions reaching the receiver without so many of his frequently-used expressions are not easy for them to understand. - 39 - Elaboration of the above points in detail is given by the following examples. 3.4.1 The Maxim of Quantity The maxi of Quantity can be used to evaluate whether the interpreting provides enough or more information than is required and thus causes unnecessary conversational implicature. Case 1 Two businessmen are greeting with each other and talking about the history of the two countries? friendship, with A from India and B from China. A: Our two countries have established friendship for a quite long time! (Interpreter: 我们两国的友谊真是源远流长啊～) B: 是啊，当年玄奘万里取经，带回了你们国家的古老文化。 (Interpreter:Yes. Eminent Monk Xuan Zang of the Tang Dynasty brought back your ancient culture after braving long journey to your country.)(Li Changshuan, 1999: 76) In this case, instead of talking about business immediately, the two businessmen start a communication by talking about friendship between their countries. In intercultural business communication, people from Asian countries tend to view relationship in long-term perspective, so they often talk about something else including friendship before getting to the point in order to create a friendly and cooperative atmosphere. The person Xuan Zang B mentioned in this conversation is a famous Monk in ancient China, to whom foreigners may be quite unfamiliar. The interpreter here fully command relevant cultural knowledge and adds some annotation about Xuan Zang. Otherwise, A may be puzzled about what B says and thus communication may be blocked. The interpreter violates the maxim of Quantity on surface, but actually obeys the CP by helping the hearer understand the meaning of the sentence and enables smooth progress of communication. Case 2 Two business partners are talking about a bill. A is from western country while B - 40 - from China. A: In your letter you ask us for a special price discount of 5% off the list price. While, quite appreciating your order, we feel we must point out that our list prices have already been cut to the minimum possible, and that our goods are unobtainable elsewhere at our rate. (Interpreter:您在信中要求我方照标价打5%的特殊折扣。很感激您的订单， 但必须指出，列表价格已尽可能减至最低限度，除了本公司以外，您不可能再以 这种价格买到这种产品.) B: (Thinking about the offer, and keep silent.) A: (waiting for answer) OK, you already give me the answer. If you raise your order to 5000 pieces, we are pleased to allow you the requested 5%. (Interpreter: 好吧,你已经回答了我的问题。如果您将订单提到5000台，我们 可以给你5%的折扣。) B: (nodding his head for understanding his meaning) A: (taking for granted that nods head means show agreement) That is fine. A square deal! Our products have been selling extremely well, and we can recommend them to you with confidence. There are very few manufacturers making these special goods, and as we have been receiving a rush of order now, we would advise you not to lose time in placing your order if deliveries are requested to be short. By the way, how about making a deal now? (Interpreter:那好，一笔公平的交易～我公司产品销路很好，我们对该产 品很有信心。生产这种特殊产品制造商很少，目前我方已受到大批订单，所以提 醒您，如想短期交货，请不要错失定购的机会。顺便提一下，现在能签协议吗? B: 现在不行，我们还得研究一下。 (Interpreter: Not now, we need a further discussion.” A: You mean, you doesn't agree with my suggestion? Why do you…..? Obviously, A gets puzzled by B?s last words due to the culture differences between China and western countries. B?s “keeping silent” and “nodding his head” instead of speaking stand for thinking and comprehension respectively in Chinese culture, while A mistakenly regards it as “agreement” by the custom of his own. It?s - 41 - the interpreter?s responsibility to explain them whenever necessary in order to avoid misunderstanding. However, he doesn?t give necessary explanation of these body languages which leads to misunderstanding and even breakdown of the cooperative relationship between the two sides. The interpreter fails to make his contribution as informative as is required, which is a violation to the criterion of the maxim of Quantity. 3.4.2 The Maxim of Quality The maxim of Quality can be used to evaluate whether the interpreting is true to the original speech, and whether the interpreter says what he lacks adequate evidence. Otherwise, the quality of the interpreting may not be guaranteed. Case 1 A foreign business delegate is visiting the general headquarter of a Chinese enterprise. Here A stands for the foreign side, and B for the Chinese side. A: What grand buildings you have! (Interpreting: 你们的大楼真气派～) B:谢谢，我们总部基地办公楼、厂房、员工宿舍、文体活动中心等设施一 应俱全，占地面积约125亩。 (Interpreter:Thank you. With full-equipped facilities of office buildings, workshops, staff quarters and culture & sports centre, our home base has a floor space of about 125 mu, while one “mu” is 0.667 hectares.) A: To work and live here would be of a great pleasure. (Interpreter: 在这工作和生活将是一件非常幸福的事情。) In this conversation, there exists a specific landmeasure of Chinese “亩”. It?s too difficult for the interpreter immediately converts it into the unit of the international standardization. So the interpreter firstly interprets it directly in Chinese way, and then adds some extra information to ensure the understanding of foreign delegate with this notion. It seems that he violates the maxim of Quantity on surface, while actually he does obey the maxim of Quality of the CP to guarantee the smooth communication of - 42 - the two sides. Case 2 Two parties are cooperating to establish a joint power plant, and they are negotiating about whether the foreign side sends experts for supervising B?s project engineering. A represents the chief negotiator, who is an Arabian American, and B the Chinese partner. A: We wanna send some experts to your bower (power) blant (plant). (Interpreter: 我们想派些专家到你们电厂去.) B: 中方的项目工程已处在后期扫尾阶段，工程质量没有问题。 (Interpreter: Our project engineering is almost at the final stage, and the quality is quite good.) A: (Shrugging) I don?d (t) know whad (t) are you dalking (talking) aboud (about), we wanna send any berson (person) in your bower blant. (Interpreter: 我不清楚你们在说什么, 我们想派些人到你们厂.) B: 既然你方没有诚意与我们合作，我们的谈判只好暂时告一段落了. (Interpreter: Since you are not willing to cooperate with us, we have to stop here for a moment.) (Qin Hong, 2003: 120) In this case, there seems nothing wrong with the interpreting although the negotiation falls through. The interpreter does recognize that “want to” is pronounced as “wanna” in informal American colloquialism, and especially notices the different pronunciations in the speech by the Arabian American, as he pronounces “p” as “b” and “„t” as “d”, etc. It is untill A says “I wanna have id (t) becourse (because) my heavy stomachache” to show his dislikes in a dinner that the interpreter understand that “wanna” in fact is “won?t” instead of “want to”. Thus, according to the criterion of the maxim of Quality “do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence”, the interpreter obviously violates it by taking it for granted in his interpreting and makes a big mistake which almost leads to the breakdown of the negotiation. In international business interpreting, an interpreter will frequently meet people from all over the world with various dialects and accents. Therefore, the interpreter is required to be more sensitive to different pronunciations. - 43 - 3.4.3 The Maxim of Relation The maxim of Relation can be adopted to evaluate whether the interpreting is relevant in the context. Otherwise, a sudden shift of subjects or an irrelevant topic may negatively affect the communication. Case 1 Company B from Britain wants to cooperate with Chinese company A in the field with both interests in Chengdu. Before discussing about their cooperation plan, company B is willing to know more about his possible partner. B: How about your annual investment? (Interpreter: 能否说说你们每年的投资额是多少,) A: 要相信我们投资方面是挺慎重的，我们投资领域不只在中国发达地区， 西部等边远地区也有。中国是一个礼仪之邦，很愿意与海外朋友交流与合作，所 以欢迎你来到成都。 (Interpreter: We are always quite prudent in our investment. We not only invest in the developed regions of China, but also in remote areas of Western China. Well, China is a hospitable country, and thus willing to communicate and cooperate with foreign friends. Welcome you to Chengdu. B: (surprised) Well…..Thank you! In this case, when B wants to know more about Company A?s strength by asking for its annual investment, A refuses to give an exact answer by abruptly shifting the topic by talking about friendship and attitude due to commercial confidentiality or other considerations in accordance with the Chinese custom. The interpreter ignores the irrelevancy by interpreting the original words of A without doing any change, which leads to B?s surprise and puzzlement that he does not know how to continue their conversation. According to the CP, the interpreter fails to apply the maxim of relation effectively. In fact, for recognizing that company A shifts topic only to imply that it?s not convenient to tell the concrete figure of its annual investment, the interpreter had better omit the irrelevant sentence and inform B about A?s meaning directly. Only in this way can he both be faithful to A?s speech and be obedient to the - 44 - maxim of Relation. 3.4.4 The Maxim of Manner The maxim of manner can be employed to evaluate whether or not obscurity and ambiguity occur in interpreting and whether or not the interpreting is arranged in an orderly and brief way. Case 1 Two parties are discussing about insurances for their commodities. A is an American importer and B a Chinese exporter. A: What kind of risk do you usually insure against as to this class of merchandise? (Interpreter: 对于这类商品你们通常投保什么险别呢,) B: 一般来说，由你方决定。 (Interpreter: Generally speaking, it depends on you.) A: As you are an experienced exporter, I would rather ask for your advice. (Interpreter: 你们是富有经验的出口商,我愿意听听你们的意见.) B: 海洋运输货物保险条款清楚地说明保平安险或水渍险, 可加保一种或数 种外来风险, 包括诸如偷窃提货不着险、淡水雨淋险、短量险、混杂玷污险、渗 漏险、碰损破碎险、串味险、受潮受热险、钩损险、锈损险和包装破裂险等之类 的外来风险。 (Interpreter: The Ocean Marine Cargo Clauses make it clear that in case of F.P.A. or W.P.A.，one or several kinds of Extraneous Risks may be covered. In addition，including，…Theft，Pilferage，… en … & Non-Delivery Risk perhaps， Fresh and/or Rain Water Damage Risks，Shortage Risk, and possibly Inter..., Intermixture & Contamination Risks，Leakage Risk，well，and…Clash & Breakage Risks，Taint of Odor Risk，…Sweating &Heating Risks, Hook Damage Risk I think， Rust Risk，etc. well，Breakage of Packing Risk should be covered also.) A: (Frowning, turning to the interpreter) Are you sure that you covered all the risks B just mentioned correctly? (Li Xiaochuan, 2002: 83) - 45 - This case is about insurance, which is closely related to business. People in the international trade should have a thorough knowledge of it and the ability to handle its related problems. Thus, to be a qualified international business interpreter, a good knowledge of business law and insurance is also indispensable. However, it seems that the interpreter in this case is not quite familiar with insurance, for he uses many “en”, “and”, “well” and fuzzy words such as “perhaps”, “possibly” in his interpreting, which fully proves his hesitation and uncertainty. Even worse, after finishing with the word “etc.”, he mentions another risk again, which surely arouses doubt from A. Judging by the criterion of the maxim of manner, the interpreting is quite obscure and prolix although the interpreter interprets all the risks that B says. Therefore, the interpreter of international business should get himself well equipped with various kinds of knowledge and make full preparation before a task so as to help establish cooperation rather than hinder communication. Case 2 Two companies are bargaining about sales of goods, A representing a Swiss seller and B a Chinese buyer. A: How much are you going to pay? (Interpreter: 你准备出价多少,) B:如果原材料价格为每吨600法郎，我们就购买150吨。 (Interpreter: If the price of the raw material is 600 Swiss Franc per metric ton, we will order 150 Metric tons.) (Qin Hong, 2003: 121) In this case, one may easily interpret what B says into “If the price of the raw material is 600 franc per ton, we will order 150 tons”. However, there are two obscure points in B?s speech: “吨” and “法郎”. As a system of weight used in the US, 1 long ton =1.016 metric tons, and 1 short ton = 0.9072 metric ton; When used in England, 1 long ton = 2240 pounds; and in the metric system of weight, 1 metric ton = 1000 kilograms. According to the on-site situation, “吨” should be interpreted into “metric ton”. “法郎” is a monetary measure which is used in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxemburg, etc. In this context, Swiss Franc is what B really means. The interpreter absolutely follows the maxim of manner of the CP “Avoid obscurity of expression” - 46 - and “avoid ambiguity”, and gives a precise interpreting that successfully avoids misunderstanding. - 47 - Chapter Four Qualification Requirements for the International Business Interpreter 4.1 The Interpreter’s Role in International Business An interpreter is a qualified specialist in bilingual or multilingual communication, who makes this communication possible between delegates of different linguistic communities at conferences, meetings, negotiations or visits, where more than one working language is used by comprehending the concepts of the speaker?s message and conveying them orally in another language. However, in the notion of interpreting theory, the interpreter does not enter the conversation on his own behalf, but just expressing others? ideas and acting as a loudspeaker or microphone, for he must keep to the original utterance of the speaker and delivers exactly the same message free from embellishment or alteration in another language. The interpreter, being strictly neutral and passive, should not express any opinion or propose any advice concerning the topic under discussion. Only when an interpreter is totally invisible and transparent to a degree that his existence is hardly perceivable by communicator can he be deemed as qualified. Iris Varner & Linda Beamer (2006:56) observed from a client?s perspective that “the interpreter facilitates mutual comprehension and understanding. She is a conduit and does not enter the discussion on her own behalf”. This indisputable theory holds true for professional interpreters in many interpreting modes. However, in the context of international business, if this rule is put into practice in a rigid way without being adapted to the actual situation, this lack of flexibility might lead to the communication ending up in failure. Roy positively pointed out the active role of the interpreter: “The interpreter can manage the flow of talk by adopting appropriate discourse strategies and, together with the primary interlocutors, influences and even decides the direction and outcome of the interaction” (2000:6). Later on, Ren Wen and Jiang Lihua carried on the research findings of Roy and even - 48 - went as far as to conclude that “Interpreting is a three-party communication with the interpreter as a third-party interlocutor” (2006:64). In addition, Chen Mingyao also suggested that “In case of one negotiator blurting out insulting remarks on the spur of the moment, the interpreter shall assume the mediating responsibility by ignoring it, softening the tone or substituting less offensive words in order to ease up the stress. The interpreter is not only accountable for message transmission, but also responsible for assisting both parties to reach a win-win outcome” (2004:32-33). Yin Yaode proposed that “the interpreter is obligated to and responsible for untying the knots and coordinating the bilateral relationship” (2003:25-27). According to the unique features of international business interpreting, it is entailed that the interpreter is no longer merely passively playing the role of a messenger enabling mutual understanding by means of linguistic code-switching, but should also be actively involved in the conversation as a facilitator, given the fact that misunderstanding or conflicts out of differing cultural backgrounds and value concepts inevitably take place in the context of international business process. This involvement ranges from some minor pointes of influencing the communicators with his choice of words, to some major ones of deciding on who takes the next turn of speaking, or breaking the deadlock and launching a new topic at a certain moment. At the time when the communication comes to a standstill or is on the verge of collapsing, the interpreter, as the only one who is in direct dialogue with both sides involved, shall play the role of mediator and facilitator to an appropriate extent and at an opportune moment. As a matter of fact, this just reflects an increasing trend in recent years, which has also been brought to light by some practitioners and researchers of interpreting. Professor Liu Heping (2005:92-93) pointed out that “a multitude of interpreting practices has showed that the interpreter?s role in foreign exchanges is becoming increasingly multifarious”, and “the organizational and communicative capabilities besides linguistic capability are also indispensable to a competent interpreter”. “He can be the project organizer, implementer and interpreter all rolled into one; messenger, liaison person or even negotiator; or a consultant mediating the bilateral relationship in case of cultural conflicts”. Actually, “the - 49 - professionalization of interpreting has been accompanied by this multiplicity tendency.” 4.2 Qualification Requirements for International Business Interpreter Interpreting is a highly demanding and challenging job. To be a good international business interpreter usually requires, apart from the necessary physical and psychological conditions, specialized learning and intensive training in order to cultivate essential qualifications. What an interpreter is possessed of plays a decisive role in whether he can make correct inferences or proper adjustment in his work. So the competence of an interpreter may help attain information equivalence to a considerably high degree. In order to get a more general view of the qualification requirements for the international business interpreter, let us first look at the functions of international business interpreter: (1) Functioning as a bridge of languages for both parties involved; (2) Adjusting communicative atmosphere; (3) Serving as consultant for the party of his or her own side. From this illustration, we can get the general requirements on professional interpreters, such as, linguistic competence, interpreting skills, knowledge of different cultures, sense of professional ethics and good mental qualities, etc. Detailed explanation of these requirements is given as follows: 4.2.1 Linguistic Competence To achieve linguistic competence, one should first possess phonetic competence. The interpreter should know exactly how to pronounce English intelligibly with correct stress and intonation on words and in sentences. A good knowledge of stress not only helps the interpreter to give a good delivery when interpreting, but also helps the interpreter to listen and comprehend better when exposed to native speakers. Another very important component of this capacity is the correct usage of the tones. Different tones show different affections, attitudes or intentions of the speaker. The - 50 - interpreter should master the real purpose of the speaker, and interpret with the proper tone. An exceptionally large vocabulary is another essential prerequisite for business interpreter. For a Chinese interpreter working between English and Chinese, he/she needs to have a solid lexical foundation of the two languages. Of all the languages in the world, English is arguably the richest in vocabulary. A qualified interpreter should also have a good command of idioms, slangs and proverbs as well as the knowledge of register and appropriateness. 4.2.2 Extensive Professional Knowledge Professional knowledge, which is made up of specialized theory as well as international business knowledge, is closely related to and represented in general language knowledge. In addition to an excellent command of both the source language and the target language, international business interpreter is also required to be specialized in a certain business area they are to be engaged in, such as insurance, tourism, shipping, trade, finance or international laws. If he lacks relevant knowledge while doing interpreting, the interpreter will not have a full understanding of the issue being discussed and his work will be far from being satisfactory. For example, if one is to interpret for trade talks on the import and export of some technology relevant to the various functional units of a modern computer, it is highly necessary for him to be quite familiar with the knowledge in this area, though at a level not necessarily equal to that of the specialist in that particular field. 4.2.3 Favorable Interpreting Skills Mastery of favorable interpreting skills, including accurate understanding of the message, a good memory, note-taking and quick response, is another essential element to a qualified international business interpreter. To be more specific, accurate understanding of the message and good memory are essential to international business interpreter just as it is to other interpreters in - 51 - general. He/she should store up an exceptionally large vocabulary and accurately absorb and retain the idea just expressed by the speaker, especially when the two parties have a heated discussion and their emotion runs high, they tend to speak in a fast speed for a long time without stopping. In the context of international business interpreting, the interpreter usually encounters many figures and proper names, which are of critical importance because they, to some extent, decide whether the deal can be reached or not and thus cannot afford to be interpreted wrongly. An interpreter should also boast both a strong and quick mind to cope with all kinds of emergencies in international business interpreting with favorable strain capacity. 4.2.4 Cultural Awareness China and English-speaking countries are different greatly in their cultures, histories and ways of thinking and expression. Necessary cross-cultural awareness of the interpreter will help avoid some cultural clashes which may lead to misunderstandings and do harm to the mutual relationships in international business. A successful business interpreter should always be culture-conscious, familiarizing himself with the speaker?s cultural background, finding out the differences, incompatibilities, as well as similarities between the speaker?s culture and his own. The acquisition of cultural awareness requires the interpreter to be sensitive to the cultures at both surface level and deep level, be clear about those customs weird and even opposite to his own and be adapted to their continuous changes. The interpreter should never cease to learn and put what has been learned into actual practice in order to fill in the culture gap and thus maintain the mutual relationship of two parties involved in international business communication. 4.2.5 Professional Ethics Last but not least, an interpreter should strictly abide by the professional ethics, - 52 - with no exception to the international business interpreter. Code of professional ethics by AIIC, version 1994 states: Members of the Association shall be bound by the strictest secrecy, which must be observed towards all persons and with regard to all information disclosed in the course of the practice of the profession at any gathering not open to the public. Members shall refrain from deriving any personal gain whatsoever from confidential information they may have acquired in the exercise of their duties as conference interpreters. For international business interpreters, since most of their work is dealing with the business and involved with secrets which may bring large losses for the talking parties, so sticking to the professional ethics is also very important. - 53 - Chapter 5 Conclusion Unlike many established professions, business interpreting is a marginal profession trying to find its rightful place. With the fast development of world economy and the increasing business and economic communication and exchanges, international business interpreting studies from an interdisciplinary perspective becomes a necessary trend. Grice argues that certain aspects of conversational behavior cannot be accounted for unless we assume that people are cooperative. He believes that verbal communication is a process of cooperative efforts, in which, as a possible guarantee of the success, participants are expected to obey certain standards. Therefore, he proposes the Cooperative Principle, and also proposes that, under this general principle, a lot of distinct maxims are subsumed. As the key principle of Conversational Implicature Theory in pragmatics, the CP makes great contribution to guiding conversational communication. We all know that international business interpreting is a kind of communicative process as well. However, can the CP also be applied or even be regarded as criterion of quality assessment to it? In the complicated information process like international business interpreting, interpreters are responsible for the exact comprehension of the source utterance and faithfully transferring of messages from target to source languages. During the whole process, failures occur at any time due to the absence of interpreters? linguistic or pragmatic competence. As the carrier of such a complicated bilingual and bicultural communication, qualified interpreters are definitely in great need. 5.1 Summary and Findings In this thesis, an overall introduction and illustration of interpreting, especially international business interpreting under the guidance of the CP are given, such as the definition, the features, the requirements on its professional people, application of the CP in international business interpreting and the CP as criterion to it. Main findings of - 54 - this study are as follows. As the CP serves as the guiding rule for conversation, the interpreter-mediated international business activities, a special conversational process due to involvement of the interpreter, can also be guided with the CP. However, the combination of these two specific fields has been studied quite rarely. This thesis describes in detail how the CP and interpreting in international business operate respectively and the influence of the CP on the whole process of interpretation. Therefore, many examples from all kinds of sources are employed for its academic research. Through the analysis both theoretically and empirically, it reveals how the interpreter applies the CP to the international business interpreting and how the CP can be used as an effective criterion to evaluate the quality of interpreting and demonstrates the importance of an interpreter?s active involvement in the interpreting process. From the traditional point of view, the interpreter is only a conduit, a “language converter”, who is supposed to only faithfully convey messages from one language to another and is allowed no addition, omission or change in interpreting. However, the analysis in the thesis forcefully retorts upon this viewpoint. As the sole person who actually holds the manipulative power of speech over the talk, interpreters must realize their role as an active participant of the communication. And for international business interpreters, due to the difficult and highly demanding work, they are stringently required in linguistic and pragmatic competence, in terms of the knowledge of languages, knowledge of business, favorable interpreting skills, awareness of culture differences and professional ethics. 5.2 Limitations of the Research Due to the insufficient on-site experiences, most examples in this thesis are cited from others. Also short of first-hand data, no thorough and in-depth research can be carried out on the application of the CP in all kinds of international business interpreting on different occasions. What?s more, since Grice?s CP theory has its own weakness; for example, its four maxims are too general and it is not clear and concrete - 55 - enough when Grice formulates what is “cooperation”, and it is also not precise and sufficient enough when he generalizes what is “non-cooperation”, the CP cannot guide all international business interpreting events. Additionally, the study was carried out mainly with the application of the CP and its maxims in international business interpreting, which cannot fully reflect the whole application of pragmatic theories. 5.3 Future Research Directions In this thesis, I did not take other pragmatic theories into consideration, such as Politeness Principle of Leech?s, Principle of Relevance from Sperber and Wilson, which can be supplements of the CP in guiding the international business interpreting to some extent. Therefore, more researches should be carried out on such issues thereafter. 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