An evidence-based exploration into the effect of language-pair specificity in English-Chinese simultaneous interpreting

Wang, Binhua; Gu, Yukui

doi:10.1080/23306343.2016.1182238

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Striking differences between English and Chinese at lexical, syntactical, and discourse levels (Chen, 2015) may cause extra difficulties in interpreting. Data collected from real-time measurement and/or product analysis have demonstrated that word order asymmetry is a major obstacle during English/Chinese interpreting: The processing of asymmetric structures causes more frequent errors and disfluencies (Wang & Gu, 2016), a considerable increase in cognitive effort (Ma et al, 2021), and specific strategies (Dawrant, 1996;Guo, 2011). This asymmetry impact may be exacerbated in interpreting from Chinese into English.…”

Section: Word Order Asymmetry In Chinese/english Interpretingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An eye-tracking based investigation into reading behavior during Chinese-English sight translation: The effect of word order asymmetry

Tsai

et al. 2022

Trans-Int

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The focus of this study is the reading behavior of student interpreters during the process of Chinese-English sight translation. Eye-tracking was adopted to examine whether and how student interpreters’ real-time reading is affected by the degree of word order asymmetry and modulated by the amount of contextual information available. A group of interpreter trainees sight translated asymmetric sentences (sentences that are structurally asymmetric to the target language) and symmetric sentences (sentences that are similar to the structure of the target language). These sentences were presented in isolation and embedded in discourse. Their eye movements were recorded for an analysis of their rereading rate and reading ahead frequency. The results show that the rereading rate for the asymmetric sentences was significantly higher than that for the symmetric ones. There were no notable differences in the reading ahead frequency between the two types of sentences. The role of context was limited in modulating the asymmetry-induced effect. This study addresses real-time reading behavior at the word level during sight translation and deepens our understanding of the cognitive processing involved in interpretation, as well as the potential influencing factors.

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Section: Word Order Asymmetry In Chinese/english Interpretingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An eye-tracking based investigation into reading behavior during Chinese-English sight translation: The effect of word order asymmetry

Tsai

et al. 2022

Trans-Int

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“…In terms of fluency error, we see that ED-type interpreters produce the least errors, followed by EIB and ID (p<.01), as shown in Figure 9. One possible explanation for this result would be the differences in the grammatical structure between English and Chinese (Wang & Gu, 2016). ED-type interpreters follow the flow of the source speech more closely, which usually involves a higher degree of deverbalization, and thus may contribute to their higher level of fluency.…”

Section: Relationship Between Attention Patterns and Simtxt Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Attention and Quality in English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting with Text

Zou¹,

Carl²,

Feng³

2022

IJCETI

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Simultaneous interpreting with text (SIMTXT) is generally seen as being cognitively more demanding than either simultaneous interpreting (SI) or sight translation (STT). However, little research has been done on how interpreters allocate their attention proportionally during SIMTXT between their auditory and visual attention. This study examines attention patterns during SIMTXT and investigates the relationship between the interpreters’ attention patterns and the quality of the interpreting output. Nine professional interpreters were recruited for SIMTXT, interpreting six English STs into Chinese. The interpreters listened to the audio input while the transcribed text of the audio input was displayed on the screen by Translog-II. The eye movements were recorded by an eye-tracker (Tobii TX300) while their interpretations were recorded by Audacity. The gaze and the spoken data (source and target) were synchronized on a word-level and aligned with the final STs and TTs. We explored and categorized the visual and auditory attention patterns based on their ear-voice span (EVS), eye-voice span (IVS), and ear-eye span (EIS) and found three types of attention patterns in our data, namely, ear-dominant (ED), eye-dominant (ID), and ear-eye-balanced (EIB). In addition, the interpreting output was annotated by three professional interpreters based on an error taxonomy adapted from Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM). We found that the EIB interpreters produced the lowest translation quality in terms of total error numbers and accuracy, followed by ED, and then ID interpreters. ED interpreters produced the highest translation quality in terms of fluency, followed by EIB, and then ID interpreters.

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“…The RC is a frequently discussed structure in the literature on structural asymmetry between Chinese and English (Setton 1999;Wang and Gu 2016;Wang and Zou 2018). The two languages differ in their use of RCs.…”

Section: Structures Analyzedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the impact of word order asymmetry on cognitive load during Chinese–English sight translation

Ma¹,

Hsu

2020

Target

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This paper explores the impact of word order asymmetry between source language and target language on cognitive load during Chinese – English sight translation. Twenty-five MA students of translation from a Hong Kong university were asked to sight translate sentences with different degrees of between-language structural asymmetry from Chinese into English, in both single-sentence and discourse context conditions. Their eye movements were recorded to examine cognitive load during sight translation. The results show: (1) There was a significant effect of word order asymmetry on overall cognitive load as indicated by the considerably longer dwell times and more frequent fixations for the asymmetric sentences, but it was only during the later-processing stage that structural asymmetry exerted a strong influence on local processing in terms of first fixation duration and regression path duration; (2) the role of context in offsetting the asymmetry effect was very limited; and (3) although reordering may place a greater burden on working memory, most participants preferred reordering over segmentation to cope with the asymmetric structures. The empirical data point to the need to consider word order asymmetry as a variable in theoretical accounts of the interpreting process, especially for interpreting between languages that are structurally very different.

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An evidence-based exploration into the effect of language-pair specificity in English-Chinese simultaneous interpreting

Cited by 12 publications

References 14 publications

An eye-tracking based investigation into reading behavior during Chinese-English sight translation: The effect of word order asymmetry

An eye-tracking based investigation into reading behavior during Chinese-English sight translation: The effect of word order asymmetry

Patterns of Attention and Quality in English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting with Text

Exploring the impact of word order asymmetry on cognitive load during Chinese–English sight translation

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