Positive language transfer of causative verbs in Chinese-Portuguese simultaneous interpretations

Abstract: This study addresses the question of whether there is positive language transfer through causative verbs in Chinese-Portuguese Simultaneous Interpreting, and in which aspects this transfer is more likely to occur. The paper begins by providing a brief discussion of language transfer and the causative construction in Chinese and Portuguese. Then, we present the methodology, in which 10 speeches delivered by Chinese leaders in intercultural contexts and their simultaneous interpretations are transcribed and analyzed. The results show that both Chinese source texts and Portuguese interpretations present a high percentage of causative verbs, and more than half of the data can be interpreted as positive transfer. We found that positive language transfer occurs and plays a very important role in Chinese-Portuguese Simultaneous Interpreting and may help interpreters facilitate information processing in order to achieve better performance.