Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting
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Daniel Gile
Abstract
Recordings and transcripts of simultaneous interpretation outputs of President Obama’s inaugural speech as broadcast by TV stations in French, German and Japanese were scrutinized and analyzed for errors, omissions and infelicities in an investigation of cognitive saturation and language-pair specific difficulties. Inter alia, it was found that many misinterpreted or omitted source-speech micro-units were simple and non-technical and that there were more errors and omissions in the Japanese renderings than in either the German or French renderings. Findings also suggest that there may be different interpreting styles in terms of preference given to language correctness versus information completeness. All these are consistent with the tightrope hypothesis, according to which interpreters tend to work close to cognitive saturation, which also makes language-specific and language-pair specific idiosyncrasies relevant parameters in the interpreting process. Findings also suggest that simple methodology and naturalistic studies can make valuable contributions in Interpreting Studies.
Abstract
Recordings and transcripts of simultaneous interpretation outputs of President Obama’s inaugural speech as broadcast by TV stations in French, German and Japanese were scrutinized and analyzed for errors, omissions and infelicities in an investigation of cognitive saturation and language-pair specific difficulties. Inter alia, it was found that many misinterpreted or omitted source-speech micro-units were simple and non-technical and that there were more errors and omissions in the Japanese renderings than in either the German or French renderings. Findings also suggest that there may be different interpreting styles in terms of preference given to language correctness versus information completeness. All these are consistent with the tightrope hypothesis, according to which interpreters tend to work close to cognitive saturation, which also makes language-specific and language-pair specific idiosyncrasies relevant parameters in the interpreting process. Findings also suggest that simple methodology and naturalistic studies can make valuable contributions in Interpreting Studies.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Methods and strategies of process research 1
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Part I. Conceptual and methodological discussions
- Interpreting in theory and practice 13
- Reflections on the literal translation hypothesis 23
- Tracking translators’ keystrokes and eye movements with Translog 37
- Seeing translation from inside the translator’s mind 57
- Metonymic language use as a student translation problem 67
- Sight translation and speech disfluency 93
- Time lag in translation and interpreting 121
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Part II. Process research in interpreting and translation
- A new pair of glasses 149
- Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors? 169
- Innovative subtitling 187
- Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting 201
- On cognitive processes during wordplay translation 219
- “Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?” 231
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Part III. Studies of interpreting and translation expertise
- Effects of linguistic complexity on expert processing during simultaneous interpreting 249
- Process and product in simultaneous interpreting 269
- Developing professional thinking and acting within the field of interpreting 301
- Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model 317
- “This led me to start thinking about how this happened, and what the process behind it would be” 345
- Publications by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova 361
- Notes on contributors 367
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword xi
- Methods and strategies of process research 1
-
Part I. Conceptual and methodological discussions
- Interpreting in theory and practice 13
- Reflections on the literal translation hypothesis 23
- Tracking translators’ keystrokes and eye movements with Translog 37
- Seeing translation from inside the translator’s mind 57
- Metonymic language use as a student translation problem 67
- Sight translation and speech disfluency 93
- Time lag in translation and interpreting 121
-
Part II. Process research in interpreting and translation
- A new pair of glasses 149
- Are primary conceptual metaphors easier to understand than complex conceptual metaphors? 169
- Innovative subtitling 187
- Errors, omissions and infelicities in broadcast interpreting 201
- On cognitive processes during wordplay translation 219
- “Can you ask her about chronic illnesses, diabetes and all that?” 231
-
Part III. Studies of interpreting and translation expertise
- Effects of linguistic complexity on expert processing during simultaneous interpreting 249
- Process and product in simultaneous interpreting 269
- Developing professional thinking and acting within the field of interpreting 301
- Results of the validation of the PACTE translation competence model 317
- “This led me to start thinking about how this happened, and what the process behind it would be” 345
- Publications by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova 361
- Notes on contributors 367
- Index 373
