基于面子理论的国际商务谈判口译分析

1、山东师范大学硕士学位论文 硕硕 士士 学学 位位 论论 文文 （学（学 术术 学学 位）位） 论文题目论文题目 Analysis of Interpreting in International Business Negotiation Based on Face Theory 基于面子理论的国际商务谈判口译分析基于面子理论的国际商务谈判口译分析 学科专业名称学科专业名称 英语语言文学英语语言文学 申申 请请 人姓名人姓名 刘彦慧刘彦慧 指指 导导 教教 师师 潘相阳潘相阳 副副教授教授 论文提交时间论文提交时间 2014 年年 6 月月 5 日日 单位代码 10445 学 号 2011020

2、529 分 类 号 H319 研究生类别 全日制 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 Analysis of Interpreting in International Business Negotiation Based on Face Theory By Liu Yanhui Under the Supervision of Professor Pan Xiangyang Submitted to School of Foreign Languages In Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Education Shandong Normal Univers

3、ity Jinan, Shandong China June, 2014 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 独独 创创 声声 明明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果。 据我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或撰写 过的研究成果，也不包含为获得 （注：如没有其他需要特别声明的，本 栏可空）或其他教育机构的学位或证书使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同志对本研究所做 的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。 学位论文作者签名： 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解 学校学校 有关保留、使用学位论文的

4、规定，有权保留并向国 家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和磁盘，允许论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权 学校学校 可 以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等 复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书） 学位论文作者签名： 导师签字： 签字日期： 年 月 日 签字日期： 年 月 日 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 Contents Abstract . I 摘要 . III Abbreviations . V Figures and Tables . VI Introduction . 1 Chapter One Literature Revie

5、w . 5 1.1 Studies on Face Theory . 5 1.1.1 Previous Study on Face and Politeness Abroad . 5 1.1.2 Previous Study on Face and Politeness in China . 7 1.2 Studies on Business Negotiation Interpreting at Home and Abroad . 9 1.2.1 Studies on Business Negotiation Interpreting abroad . 9 1.2.2 Studies on

6、International Business Negotiation Interpreting at Home . 11 Chapter Two Theoretical Framework . 13 2.1 Brown the second method means to show positive approval to save face when the atmosphere is damaged. 1.1.1.2 Face Theory Proposed by Brown He also divided these notions into five politeness maxims

7、: Self-denigration Maxim, Address Term Maxim, Refinement Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Virtues-words-deeds Maxim (Gu, 1992: 11-14). 1.2 Studies on Business Negotiation Interpreting at Home and Abroad 1.2.1 Studies on Business Negotiation Interpreting abroad Interpreting in international business negoti

8、ation (IIBN), defines the situation where two or more business people of different languages discuss business matters through an interpreter. Typical examples include import/export negotiations; discussions between local head of a subsidiary company and the foreign owner of a company; and discussion

9、s between local businessmen overseas traders, perhaps on taxation, investment, industrial relations, import tariffs, etc. (Gentile, 1996: 116). The following working model is used here to help better understand how the IIBN is conducted by showing the basic direction of the flow of the communication

10、 in which an international business negotiation is proceeded via the interpreter. Figure 1-1 (Adapted from models for communication flow by Adolfo Gentile, 1996:52) The diagram reveals a three-way(three-cornered) communicative mode. However, it does not certainly mean that there are always only thre

11、e persons participate. It just indicates that there are two different languages involved and the communication between two sides can only be carried out through the help of interpreters. Both involved parties can be composed of any number of persons and sometimes there may even be a team of interpre

12、ters participate. Besides 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 10 that, it can also be found from the above diagram that the communication (i.e.business negotiation in this case) become more complicated owing to the involvement of the interpreter. Consequently, Various problems may be inevitably raised. Therefore, a succes

13、sful interpreter in international business negotiation is supposed to be equipped with both excellent language skills and a considerable knowledge of different cultural backgrounds, which will significantly affect the smooth and success of negotiation. In the recent years, interpretersposition has b

14、een rapidly placed emphasis on than ever before due to the accelerating of international business exchanges and cooperation. Meanwhile, a large number of researches conducted into this newly emerging occupation have been produced. On the whole, papers and works dedicated to business interpreting fro

15、m various perspectives, among most of which the center role of “interpreter”, cultural factors and strategies in the process are given importance to. With regard to cultural factors, Dell Hymes, the Poland Sociolinguist, emphasized that qualified interpreters are required to be equipped with abundan

16、t professional knowledge. Besides that, ample attentions to the cultural differences between them are also necessarily required for the negotiation process itself is a certain kind of cross-cultural interaction. Even though researches into business negotiation interpreting have made great achievemen

17、t, diverse problems have also emerged: What specific principle should an interpreter abide by when unexpected situation crop up? As we all know, a negotiation sometimes means more than simple message deliver. Whats more, it calls for interpreters ability of disputes handling and flexible manipulatio

18、n of various strategies in response to various kinds of circumstances, such as situations where the negotiation get stuck in an impasse or one side mistakes the real meaning of the other side. Sparing no effect to find an appropriate solution to that problem, we are gratified to find that in recent

19、years, a large number of papers have tried to point out the importance of the interpreterseffect on negotiation. Berman, the French interpreting theorist , majoring in business field, remarked that it is completely incorrect to focus IIBN studies only on the source language, the target language or t

20、he language transmission. Instead, the role of interpreters should be paid sufficient attention, for business negotiation embodies complicated job and calls for multifarious handling on the interpreterssides. In that case, he put forward the slogan “towards the interpreters” (Xu Jun, 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 11

21、 1998). Douglas Robinson (1997:98) emphasized the vital role of business negotiation interpreters as initiative and innovative when they strive to fulfill the expectations of speakers communications. These researches place emphasis on defining the leading roles of interpreters in negotiations. At th

22、e meantime, there appeared many other papers which focus on studying concrete principles for interpreters to follow and practical strategies in specific circumstances to promote the progress of negotiation. For instance, some of them apply the“Skypos Theory” in Functional Translation Studies, “Coope

23、rative Principle” in pragmatics and “Relevance Theory” proposed by Sperber and Wilson which is meant to offer more suggestions for negotiation interpreters. All these splendid studies have layed firm foundation for the present thesis. Most of them have assisted and inspired the author to achieve the

24、 final goal with a profound background knowledge. 1.2.2 Studies on International Business Negotiation Interpreting at Home At home, Zhao Junfeng and Jiang Nan(1998:29) stressed in On the Cross-Cultural Awareness of the Interpreter that “the conscious cultivation of cross-cultural awareness by the in

25、terpreter can effectively reduce and eliminate pragmatic failures in intercultural communication” . Wang Zuoliang once claimed “Interpreters are seemingly dealing with words, but in fact they are facing two or more different cultures.”(Wang Zuoliang, 1989:25) A great quantity of researches delved in

26、to practical interpreting techniques and strategies required in IIBN. Some of them pay much attention to the significance of pre-performance preparation, as could be found in Preparation in Interpreting, Zhang Jiliang suggested that “successful interpreting to a large extent relies on the interprete

27、r s sufficient preparations for it. The interpreter shall expand his own negotiation-related terminological and thematic knowledge, and avail himself of every possibility to get to know the speakers and his target audiences as well”(Zhang Jiliang, 2003:13). Chen Mingyao comes up with four necessary

28、strategies in Basic Techniques of Business Interpretation, “ a comprehensive employment of fundamental techniques, an overall familiarity with business knowledge, a scientific utilization of note-taking and a flexible command of accuracy criteria” (Chen Mingyao , 2004:31). In the domestic, Zha Mingj

29、ian and Tian Yu define interpreters vital role or subjectivity as 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 12 follows: “negotiation interpreters take initiative to achieve interpreting goals under the premises of keeping honest to interlocutors. Throughout the process, the interpreters cultural consciousness, character and est

30、hetic sentiment overlap and make due contributions.”(2003:22) Xu Jun arranged the participants related to IIBN in appropriate order: “first, the interpreters; second, the speakers and interpreters; third, the interpreters and listeners; fourth, all the speakers, interpreters and listeners”(2003:1).

31、Generally speaking, many factors influence the process and final result of international business negotiations. Among these factors, important but subtle cultural factors cant be ignored. Although culture is invisible and abstract , it exist in our daily life and can be felt by people. The influence

32、 of culture on interpreting in business negotiations is not so obvious but its importance has never reduced. Since different countries differ greatly in standpoints, ideology and ways of communicating with others, it often brings various obstacles and misunderstandings between both involved parties.

33、 Owing to the communication barrier caused by language, the two sides involved mostly resort to the help of interpreters. Therefore, the interpreter, as a message-transmitter and mediator, should fully take advantage of his/her knowledge (both linguistically and culturally) in order to get over diff

34、iculties and commit himself to get a successful or at least satisfactory outcome. The interpreters are expected to comprehend the opposite sides culture and express their own side properly so as to minimize the communication obstacles and to promote the progress of negotiation in a correct direction

35、. In brief, it comes to a conclusion that culture has important and crucial influence on the success of business negotiations by influencing interpreters. 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 13 Chapter Two Theoretical Framework As regard to pragmatics applied in international business negotiation interpreting, there can b

36、e found a great number of related theories, such as face theory, politeness principle, cooperative principle and so on. Regard to the present thesis, it mainly employ face theory to analyze the collected data. For a long period of time, face has been regarded as a crucial factor to promote and smoot

37、h interpersonal communication. It is an inevitable issue in any cross-cultural communication situation (Gudykunst, 2003). Effectively managing face will successfully influence and promote the result of the communication process. For quite some time, face theory has been researched by many scholars a

38、t home and abroad , among which the face theory put forward by Brown and Levinson is the most influential theory and provide the main theoretical support for data analysis in following part. Meanwhile, since the interpreters should also consider cooperative and politeness principle while applying fa

39、ce theory to promote the process of business negotiation since the three theories are corelated with each other closely, the author also provides theoretical foundations of cooperative principle and politeness principle to help comprehend the present thesis better. 2.1 Brown other speech acts threat

40、en the hearers 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 14 positive face by indicating speakers lack of concern for the hearers self-image, feelings and wants, such as criticisms, despise, expressing opposing opinions or telling bad news. Moreover, some speech acts either threaten the speaker s positive face or the speaker s n

41、egative face rather than the hearers, such as making apologies or expressing thanks. Their idea can be summarized in the two tables as followings: Figure 2-1 Negative-face-threatening acts threats, warnings, dares; suggestions, advices compliments, envy, admiration; reminding; offers; promises; Posi

42、tive-face-threatening acts to H disapproval, criticism, contempt, ridicule, complaints, insults; contradictions, disagreements, challenges; expressions of violent emotions; irreverence, mention of taboo topics 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 15 Table2-1: Speaker-Oriented FTAs by Brown 2. Do the FTA on-record using pos

43、itive politeness; 3. Do the FTA on-record using negative politeness; 4. Do the FTA off-record; 5. Dont do the FTA. “On record” describes a speech act in which the speaker can choose the bald-on-record strategy. It means doing the FTA in the most direct, unambiguous and concise way possible when the

44、speaker has much greater power than the hearer and the addressee can take the motive of the 山东师范大学硕士学位论文 16 speaker. Brown and Levinson refer to three corresponding conditions: in emergency or for efficiency; where the danger to H s face is very small; and where S is vastly superior in power to H. Thomas adds one more situation to this: when S deliberately chooses to be maximally offensive. “Positive politeness” is concerned with participantspositive face. The speaker takes strategies to address the positive face of the hearer, including claimin