April 8 saw Li Yang, a PhD candidate, presenting his research on pragmatic failure in consecutive interpreting. Instead of following the stream of “cultural turn” and “sociological turn”, he approached interpreting process from the linguistic perspective.

He first reviewed previous theories and accomplishments of interpreting research done by Thomas, He Ziran and others. Then he clarified some of the concepts such as pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure, and he also illustrated the categories of pragmatic failure with specific examples. Li Yang stressed the importance of intercultural pragmatic ability in doing interpreting. He concluded that the interpreter should make sure that not only his or her rendering is grammatically correct, but also pragmatically equivalent to the source utterance. The interpreter’s focus must be given to the pragmatic meaning of the source so as to ensure a successful communication.

The linguistic return of his interpreting research intrigued lots of students. This forum served as an opportunity for them to share ideas and broaden their perspectives on future research.