Exploring the Linguistic Features of Learners' Interpretese : A Multidimensional Analysis

Interpreting is a complex bilingual cognitive processing activity and a special mode of communication. The interpreted language exhibits unique features that reflect the comprehensive, on-site, and transient nature of the interpreting process. The features of interpreted outputs are considered to be different from the source texts, non-translated oral texts in the same target language, and the written translations of the same texts. However, studies have rarely addressed interpretese in the language pair of Chinese and English. Besides, the potential of learner data in interpreting training is relatively unexploited. Interpreting is a multifaceted activity subject to many constraints. To uncover the underlying constraints of this translational activity, a multi-dimensional approach is employed. The researcher identified the co-occurrence patterns of linguistic features in learners’ interpretese with statistical analysis. Additionally, the researcher revealed the parameters underlying each dimension for functional analysis, which helped clarify the relationships among dimensions in learners’ interpretese. Comparisons were conducted among learners’ interpretese, professional interpreters’ interpretese and L2 learners’ spoken English. This study is expected to contribute to the understanding of the features of interpreting output and constrained spoken discourse.