Pragmatic Failure in Consecutive Interpreting/ de L'echec Pragmatique Dans L'interpretation Consecutive (Report‪)‬

1. WHY STUDY PRAGMATIC FAILURE IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING As Thomas (1983:97) puts it, " While grammatical error may reveal a speaker to be a less than proficient language user, pragmatic failure reflects badly on him/ her as a person.." In consecutive interpreting, interpreters' main task is to convey the possible meanings of the speakers. When the interpreter makes grammatical errors, native speakers seldom have difficulty understanding the meaning and the communication is likely to continue; however, pragmatic failures can lead to an unpleasant conversation because one speaker is apt to be irritated by pragmatically inappropriate meaning conveyed by the interpreter, which is assumed to be the other speaker's original meaning. Therefore, it is necessary to raise consecutive interpreters' awareness of pragmatic failures to avoid misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication.