Interpreting - Volume 19, Issue 1, 2017

We report a study on prediction in shadowing and simultaneous interpreting (SI), both considered as forms of real-time, ‘online’ spoken language processing. The study comprised two experiments, focusing on: (i) shadowing of German head-final sentences by 20 advanced students of German, all native speakers of English; (ii) SI of the same sentences into English head-initial sentences by 22 advanced students of German, again native English speakers, and also by 11 trainee and practising interpreters. Latency times for input and production of the target verbs were measured. Drawing on studies of prediction in English-language reading production, we examined two cues to prediction in both experiments: contextual constraints (semantic cues in the context) and transitional probability (the statistical likelihood of words occurring together in the language concerned). While context affected prediction during both shadowing and SI, transitional probability appeared to favour prediction during shadowing but not during SI. This suggests that the two cues operate on different levels of language processing in SI.

This paper, part of a project on gender differences in simultaneous interpreting, analyzes possible gender-related trends in the use of hedges by professional interpreters and examines two hypotheses: (1) simultaneous interpretations, because of processing constraints, contain fewer hedges than the original speeches; (2) consistent with gender differences in spontaneous speech, women interpreters use more hedges than men. The research draws on Ghent University’s EPICG corpus of speeches at the European Parliament and their interpretations. Here, French speeches recorded in 2008 were compared with their English and Dutch interpretations in respect of hedging frequency. Statistical comparison was based on the chi-squared test. With regard to the first hypothesis, comparison of normalized frequencies (occurrences per 1000 words) shows that the interpreters in both language combinations used significantly more hedges than the speakers. The second hypothesis was tested by comparing data according to interpreters’ gender, factoring in the frequency of hedges in the source texts: women interpreters hedged more than men in both target languages, significantly so in Dutch. Regarding strategies that might account for the interpreters’ use of hedges (omission, translation, addition), the women interpreters made more additions than the men. Possible reasons for these patterns are discussed.

This experimental study of consecutive interpreting investigates whether: (1) there is any correlation between assessments of its fluency and accuracy; (2) judged fluency can be predicted from computer-based measurements like articulation rate. Ten raters judged six criteria of accuracy and fluency in two consecutive interpretations of the same recorded source speech, from Chinese A into English B, by 12 trainee interpreters (seven undergraduates, five MA students). The recorded interpretations were examined with the speech analysis tool PRAAT. From a computerized count of the pauses thus detected, together with disfluencies identified by raters, 12 acoustic measures of fluency were calculated. The advanced students were more fluent than the beginners; both groups were less fluent in the initial interpretation. Statistical analysis shows: (1) a strong positive correlation between judged accuracy and judged fluency; (2) strong correlations between judged fluency and objective fluency variables; (3) the usefulness of effective speech rate (number of syllables, excluding disfluencies, divided by total duration of speech production and pauses) as a predictor of judged fluency. Other important determinants of judged fluency were the number of filled pauses, articulation rate, and mean length of pause. Potential for developing automatic fluency assessment in consecutive interpreting is discussed, as are possible training implications.

Research into court interpreting has shown that interpreters can have an impact on the case in many different ways. However, the extent to which this occurs depends on several factors, including the interpreter’s competence, ethics and specialized training in court interpreting, as well as working conditions. One little explored aspect is whether use of consecutive vs. simultaneous interpreting can impact jurors’ perception of a witness or other interpreted party. This paper reports on the results of a large-scale experimental study, with a simulated trial run in different conditions, involving a total of 447 mock jurors. The aim was to identify any differences in the way jurors in Australian courts might assess the evidence of an accused called as a witness, in a monolingual hearing as well as when interpreted consecutively and simultaneously from Spanish to English. Overall, jurors’ recollection of case facts did not differ significantly for the three conditions, though it was lower for consecutive during the afternoon. Jurors also found consecutive more distracting; on the other hand, the consecutive mode was associated with significantly more favourable perception of the accused’s evidence than simultaneous interpreting or monolingual communication. Although jurors found the prosecution to be less convincing when the accused’s evidence was interpreted consecutively compared to the other proceedings, the interpretation mode made no difference to the verdict.

The interpreter’s visibility in dialogue interpreting is a topic that has drawn extensive interest from researchers. Based on observation and recordings of 29 interpreted medical consultations at a hospital in Guangzhou, and replicating work on Spanish/English interpreting by Angelelli, this article analyzes Chinese medical interpreters’ achievement of visibility through text ownership. The dialogues, with interpreting between Chinese and English provided by four staff interpreters at the hospital, were transcribed and examined. Qualitative analysis of the transcriptions shows that the interpreters in some cases established partial or total ownership of the text and, as a result, became visible in the communication. According to how this visibility manifested itself, the medical interpreter’s text ownership can be seen as variously fulfilling four main functions: trying to expedite the drawing of conclusions; redirecting turns; expressing solidarity; and educating the patient. The research also shows that, while the purpose of a medical interpreter’s text ownership in medical encounters is to facilitate communication between the two parties to the dialogue, the visibility s/he gains by laying claim to part or all of a turn may actually prove counterproductive in this respect.

Strategies have been far more widely researched in conference interpreting than in the interactional setting of public service interpreting (PSI), although studies of the latter by Wadensjö and other authors suggest a strategic rationale for certain types of rendition (especially non-renditions). The present article describes an exploratory, qualitative study, based on roleplay, to identify strategies in PSI: the roleplays were designed to incorporate a variety of ‘rich points’, coinciding with peak demands on the interpreter’s problem-solving capacities and therefore particularly relevant to empirical study of interpreting strategies. Five interpreter-mediators with the Chinese–Spanish/Catalan language combination were each asked to interpret three different dialogues, in which the primary participants’ input was a re-enactment of real situations. Analysis of the transcribed video recordings was complemented by a preliminary questionnaire and by retrospective interviews with the interpreters. Their strategies, classified according to whether the problems concerned were essentially linguistic or involved the dynamics of interaction, in some cases reflect priorities typically associated with intercultural mediation. The advantages and limitations of using ‘rich points’ and roleplays in the study of interpreting strategies are briefly discussed