Conference

Abstract for “Stress-coping Strategies in Public Services Interpreting: A Comparison between Natural and Professional Interpreters in Hospital Interpreting”

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Ibrahim Hassan, University of Graz

The present study compares the stress-coping strategies used by natural and professional interpreters in hospital interpreting. Based on Harris conceptualization of natural interpreters, that is, bilingual persons who possess the ability to interpret without ever having received any specific instructions for interpretation, it is hypothesized that both natural and professional interpreters apply stress-coping strategies, even though the former have no formal interpreting training on the issue. To test this hypothesis, a model for the evaluation of the success of coping strategies is devised based on the advances in the areas of psychology and interpreting studies. This model is applied to the analysis of qualitative interviews conducted with six natural and professional interpreters working with Spanish and Arabic in Spain. Bilingual participants were selected. Based on self-reported reactions and habits, results suggest that both natural and professional interpreters apply successful stress-coping strategies. Both achieve effective problem-solution matches as well as ineffective matches and mismatches. Further research is needed to take into account how language combinations or especially social environment may influence the ability to interpret naturally and to cope with the different possible stressors.

Keywords: interpreting; stress; coping; natural interpreters; professional interpreters; bilingualism

Conference

Abstract for “Unqualified Interpreters in the Courtroom: A Case Study”

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Mayela Zambrano, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA

In this paper, I analyze a case of legal discursive practice in a United States court where an unqualified interpreter was used to provide access to an LEP (Limited English Proficiency person) in the case Ponce v. State of Indiana. In 2014 the Indiana Supreme Court overturned a 40-year sentence due to mistranslations of the defendant’s rights. The need to provide adequate access to resources that aid comprehension becomes evident precisely when considering the defendant’s rights. By studying in depth the cultural and linguistic mediation in this particular case, we can gain a better understanding of the syntactic, pragmatic and lexical and semantic choices made by an unqualified interpreter in the courtroom. The analysis will point to common errors in this situation to advocate for the need to truly guarantee equal access to the legal system.

 

Keywords: discourse analysis; legal interpreting; mistranslation; LEP; United States; legal system; interpreters; certification

 

Conference

Abstract for “Consecutive Interpreting into Ukrainian: An oral corpus for researching interpreted Ukrainian”

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Olena M. Obraztsova and Anzhelika V. Kuznetsova, South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University and International Humanities University

The paper is dedicated to the phenomenon of syntactic interference revealed in consecutive interpreting for the English and Ukrainian language combination. The objective of this paper is twofold: to determine particular ways of identifying cases of negative vs positive syntactic interference guided by the overall definition of language (linguistic) interference and to establish ways of overcoming negative impact of negative syntactic interference and using positive interference in an attempt to improve overall quality of consecutive interpreting between English and Ukrainian. The examples illustrating both negative and positive syntactic interference instances are taken from a number of press conferences involving consecutive interpreting from/into Ukrainian / English. Violation of the logical sentence structure caused by negative syntactic interference can result in a drastic alteration of the source message, thus failing in message conveyance and communication in general; while positive syntactic interference can appreciably improve the quality of the interpretation product and increase the message delivery efficiency. When the respective visible similarity of syntactic form is characteristic of both source and target languages and message in the target language is perceived as natural the positive syntactic interference instances are revealed. The skill of simultaneously using positive interference and avoiding negative interference may improve the quality of the consecutive conference interpreting considerably, including one in the legal field. A set of drills to overcome the impact of negative syntactic interference and learn to use positive syntactic interference has been developed. The practical probation period is ongoing.

Keywords: Ukrainian; English; consecutive interpreting; language interference, syntactic interference, syntactic structure