Larger or Smaller: An Empirical Study on the Impact of Translation Units on E-C Consecutive Interpreting Quality

The interpretive theory of translation (ITT) is a leading theory for interpreter training. It posits that the interpreter conveys meaning as if it were their own, highlighting the absence of formal correspondence. A core component of this process is deverbalization, where the source text’s form is secondary to its meaning. This study empirically investigates the impact of translation unit segmentation on the quality of English-Chinese consecutive interpreting. The methodology bridges the theoretical “sense units” of ITT and the analyzable “translation units” from linguistic studies, to examine how trainee interpreters deverbalize the source text. The results reveal that: (1) optimal units: sentence groups as translation units prove beneficial in enabling interpreters to deverbalize the original text and convey the sense, prioritizing contextual equivalence over formal correspondence, thereby elevating the interpreting quality; (2) unit impact on quality: sentence groups and phrases as translation units demonstrate the potential for enhancing the interpreting quality, words as translation units may lead to a decline in interpreting quality; (3) correlation findings: a positive correlation exists between the count of subordinate clauses and phrases, and a negative correlation exists between sentences and sentence groups. Furthermore, the findings suggest that an interpreter’s speech segmentation preferences affect interpreting performance. The study concludes that these preferences have implications for interpreting curriculum design and quality assessment within interpreter education programs.