The Discourse of Court Interpreting

This book explores the intricacies of court interpreting through a thorough analysis of the authentic discourse of the English-speaking participants, the Spanish-speaking witnesses and the interpreters. Written by a practitioner, educator and researcher, the book presents the reader with real issues that most court interpreters face during their work and shows through the results of careful research studies that interpreter’s choices can have varying degrees of influence on the triadic exchange. It aims to raise the practitioners’ awareness of the significance of their choices and attempts to provide a theoretical basis for interpreters to make informed decisions rather than intuitive ones. It also suggests solutions for common problems. The book highlights the complexities of court interpreting and argues for thorough training for practicing interpreters to improve their performance as well as for better understanding of their task from the legal profession. Although the data is drawn from Spanish-English cases, the main results can be extended to any language combination. The book is written in a clear, accessible language and is aimed at practicing interpreters, students and educators of interpreting, linguists and legal professionals.

Lelija Socanac, University of Zagreb, Croatia, on Linguist List 22.737 (2011):
The Discourse of Court Interpreting is an important contribution to a number of areas. It is primarily aimed at the field of court interpreting, adding to the limited knowledge about its practice and theory. It provides answers to practical problems based on emperical results, and its findings will be useful to court interpreters, interpreter educators and researchers. The book also makes a contribution to the field of discourse analysis regarding the discursive practices of different agents, the way in which discourse in negotiated in an institutional setting, and the way social roles are affected by discourse. Another contribution is made to the translatability of oral discourse between Spanish and English, from the lexical and grammatical to the pragmatic aspects of both languages. The book is also a contribution to achieving a higher standard of justice to speakers of non-dominant languages in the context of the courtroom. It provides linguists, interpreters and legal practitioners alike with invaluable insights into multiple ways in which pragmatics can have a crucial role in interpreted legal proceedings.